10 Safari Photography Tips For Your Wildlife Spotting Safaris in Africa

My top 10 safari photography tips are based on my experience photographing The Big Five on safari in Kenya in the Masai Mara National Reserve and Tsavo West National Park recently. But also my many years photographing wildlife everywhere from Australia to Arabia as a pro photographer shooting travel guidebooks and magazine stories. Photographing wildlife in Africa has its own set of challenges. These are my tips based on overcoming those to capture some incredible images in recent weeks.

When you’re on safari in Africa, whether it’s the Masai Mara National Reserve or Tsavo West National Park in Kenya, our recent destinations, or anywhere in Africa for that matter, how do you ensure you get the shot of the wildlife that you’ve been patiently waiting for instead of missing out on what can often be a rare opportunity?

Some of The Big Five – the African lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros – are in such abundance it doesn’t take long before they turn up, the African elephants for instance. Other animals, such as the leopard, are much more elusive. And over the course of two safaris during two weeks in Kenya, we only got a quick glimpse of the rhinoceros.

As a follow-up to my last post on ten seconds with a leopard at the Masai Mara, these are my top 10 safari photography tips for the modern-day ‘Great White Hunter’ carrying the big ‘guns’, as we photographers call our long lenses, so you can capture The Big Five – with a camera of course! Forgive the analogy, but if you’ve been on safari, you’ll get it.

10 Safari Photography Tips For Your Wildlife Spotting Safaris in Africa

Here are my top 10 safari photography tips for your wildlife spotting safaris in Africa, so you don’t miss those rare opportunities to capture that shot you’ve been patiently waiting for…

1. Carry a Big Gun – a Long Lens, as Pro Photographers Call Telephoto Lenses

You’re going to need what pro photographers call ‘a big gun’, a telephoto lens of at least 300mm reach. While safari drivers such as our excellent safari guide Edward will do their best to get you as close as possible to the animals and action, it generally won’t be close enough to use a 200mm lens.

Pro wildlife photographers use even bigger ‘guns’. Many ‘close-up’ photos are actually taken with pro 400–600mm lenses – which will cost the same amount as your week on safari in Kenya!

2. Better Still, Carry 2 Long Lenses

On our two safaris in Kenya, I used an old Nikon body with an 80-200mm lens, plus a newer Nikon body with a 300mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter (which magnifies the reach of the lens), making it an effective 420mm lens.

This way I can grab either camera as the opportunity arises and have an effective reach of 80mm to 420mm at any given time. Both lenses are ‘professional’ glass. While there are some single lenses that may cover that focal length, unfortunately most deliver soft images.

3. Know Your Lenses – Before You Get to Africa

You need to be familiar with your longer lenses to know which lens is the right lens to be using when your subject comes into view. Before you head to Africa, visit a wildlife park a zoo to practice photographing wildlife and birdlife so you get a feel for how the animals and birds that you want to photograph move.

Remember that the longer the lens the faster the shutter speed you need. The rule of thumb is that you need to double the focal length to determine the shutter speed you need so that you don’t get blur from a too slow shutter speed.

For example, in order to capture a sharp image, if you’re using a 300mm lens, your shutter speed should theoretically be above 1/600th of a second. The reason is that the longer the lens is, the more easily that any movement is magnified by the lens.

4. Always Keep Your Guns in the Same Holsters

I always carry the same cameras slung over the same shoulders with the same lenses, no matter what. This means it’s a reflex action to select the correct camera and lens to use when I spot wildlife I want to shoot.

If the animal is moving fast, you need to keep your eye on the animal as you bring your camera up to your eye. You don’t want to be looking down to figure out where the camera you need is at any given time and lose track of that beautiful animal you want to capture in an image.

5. Know How Your Lenses Focus

With DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras), there are lot of different settings for focussing. For moving animals you need to be able to ‘track’ focus, where the camera constantly refocuses, often called ‘servo’ or continuous focus.

For animals that are static, such as this pride of lions lying under the tree that I captured when we were on safari at Salt Lick in Tsavo West National Park, I like to use single-servo focus. This means that the camera focuses just once when you half-press the shutter release button.

6. Keep Your Lenses Clean and Batteries Charged

Keep your lenses clean and camera sensors clean, plus keep your batteries charged (I always have a couple of spare batteries), and have plenty of fresh memory cards formatted and ready to pop straight in the camera. In dusty safari conditions, I’m in the tent every night cleaning, charging, downloading, and formatting (over gin and tonics), before and/or after dinner. Whatever it takes.

7. Have Your Lenses Ready at all Times

Once out on safari drives, I am constantly checking the light to ensure my cameras’ ISO, F-stop and shutter speed are tailored to the conditions. For example, first thing in the morning I’m generally shooting 1600 ISO, then 800 ISO as the sun gets higher, and 400 ISO after around 9am. The afternoon’s settings are a mirror-image of the morning’s settings as the light begins to fade, and by dusk I’m shooting 1600 ISO again.

8. Make Sure You Have Plenty of ‘Ammo’

When there are lulls in between the wildlife action, check how many frames you have left on your memory cards. If you have less than 20 shots left, change your cards out for fresh ones – you never know when you’ll need a big burst of frames. If you run out of shots later in the day you can always swap the card back into the camera – using the system in the next tip.

9. Have a Foolproof System for Storing your ‘Ammo’

One of my top safari photography tips isn’t related to lenses or cameras at all, but to your clothes: pockets! Make sure you have lots of pockets. Because I always wear the much-maligned but unbeatably practical ‘travel pants’ when I’m on safari or photographing any kind of outdoorsy activities, I have plenty of pockets in which to store my memory cards.

Fresh cards go in the right lower pocket, ‘spent’ cards in the left zip pocket. Not fully-used cards go in the left lower pocket. When I get back to our holiday rental or hotel, all cards in the left pockets get downloaded. Anal retentive? Yes. Ever made a mistake with full/empty cards? Never.

10. It’s Not Just About the Lenses – Listen to Your Safari Guide

Finances permitting, make sure you have your own private guide when you go on safari. If you’re serious about taking photos, and photographing wildlife when you’re on safari, don’t go with a group – unless it’s a group of photographers. A professional safari guide will be used to working with photographers – both amateur and professional photographers.

If not, tell the guide that you need the sun behind you when you need the sun behind you, and try to organise your safaris or game drives as early as you can in the morning and as late as you can in the afternoon, so that you take advantage of the early morning light and late afternoon light.

Talk to your guide and tell him or her exactly what kind of wildlife that you want to see. Good guides want you to have the best experience, so take advantage of that.

One of my top safari photography tips? Don’t forget to enjoy yourself – an African wildlife safari is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many travellers. You don’t want to spend the entire time staring down a lens!