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Garry Black Photography |
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SOUTHERN
AFRICA PHOTO SAFARI |
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If
you have any questions about the equipment that you have, or are considering
buying for this trip, please contact me for my advice. |
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EQUIPMENT
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Since we’ll be photographing a wide variety of subjects, you’ll need almost every bit of equipment that you own. Now just to make sure that you already own that really needed piece of equipment for the trip, I’ll go over all the possible photographic scenarios. |
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The most important piece of equipment that you should bring is a Hurricane Blower . I added the link just so you can see what one looks like, you don’t have to buy it from B&H Photo, all camera stores should carry them. Why is this the most important piece of equipment? In a word – DUST! We won’t encounter any dust until we get into Namibia, but the dust there is just unbelievable. It is similar to talcum powder, very fine, and it gets everywhere. Also in the Namib desert there’s the problem of sand, so although the hurricane blower will probably be the least expensive investment you make, it’ll be the most important. In addition to the blower you should also bring along some Zip Loc bags for your equipment and film. |
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The second most important piece of equipment that you should bring is batteries. Especially if your camera takes Lithium batteries. Although “AA” are quite commonly found almost everywhere, I can guarantee you that they are not available in the middle of the desert. |
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Cameras – Consider bringing along a second camera body, what happens if one body suddenly fails on the trip? There is an added advantage to having second body (this has nothing to do with cloning), when photographing wildlife. I recommend that you carry a 28-70 lens on one body and a 70-300 lens on the other; this will be very handy as it will be much faster than changing lenses. |
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Which lenses will you be using? When photographing the wildflowers
in Namaqualand you will be shooting everything from close-ups (Macro lens,
Extension tubes, Close-up filters), wide angles (24, 28, 35mm) and telephotos
(200mm). Now if you’ve never done close-ups before and it doesn’t interest
you, don’t rush out and buy a macro lens just for this trip. For the sand dunes in Namibia, you
must have a polarizing filter! Never before or since photographing in the
dunes have I ever seen such a remarkable difference between not using and
using a polarizing filter. You may also want to use a Cokin Blue/Yellow
Polarizer, I didn’t use one the last time I was there, because I hadn’t
bought one yet, but I’ll be bringing mine along on this trip. Lenses required
are wide angle to 300mm. For most wildlife (shots of a
single animal) something in the range of 300 or 400 mm is ideal. For some
shots a 300 perfect and a 400 is sometimes just a bit too long. If you want
to get a portrait shots of lions then you should have a 400, 500 or 600mm. But
then again I’ve gotten portrait shots with an 80-200mm. This depends very
much on where you are and how lucky you get. In Botswana I’ve had a lion walk
right past the jeep I was in. I would have needed a wide-angle lens to get
the picture, I didn’t have one on the 2nd camera body, so by the
time I changed lenses the lion was gone. I was using a 150-500mm zoom on one
body and an 80-200mm on the other; generally this is what I have found to be
the perfect setup for photographing wildlife. For birds a 400 is usually the
minimum, longer is better. For large animals or groups a zoom in the range of
80~200 will be ideal. Using two bodies saves you valuable time by not having
to change lenses. Also remember the dust problem, every time you change a
lens this must be done carefully since that African dust gets in everywhere. My 150-500mm zoom lens is an old
Tokina manual focusing lens; it has a constant aperture of F5.6 throughout
the zoom range. If I were to buy a lens today in that range, I would consider
either the Canon EF 100-400L IS or the Nikon 80-400VR. Their focal range and
the stabilizer make it the dream lens for any safari. No matter which lens you opt for or have, you may also want to consider using a tele-converter. A 1.4x tele-converter won’t decrease the quality or sharpness of your pictures too much (it’s not really that noticeable), but I wouldn’t recommend a 2x tele-converter the decrease in quality is noticeable. Although I have never used a flash for wildlife there are many photographers that have. They use it to either create highlights in the eyes of cats and other wildlife, and/or to reduce the shadows and high contrast in the scenes. That is when you are close enough for the flash to work effectively. Proximity is not so much an issue for the eye highlights as it is for illuminating the entire scene. If you want to bring a flash, I would recommend that you take a very high-powered flash with a fresnel lens in order to get good fill flash at a considerable distance. Tripods, Monopods and Beanbags. You’ll need a tripod in Namaqualand, the Namib Desert and Victoria Falls. They are useless for the wildlife safaris, well not completely useless; you can’t use them as a conventional tripod, there just isn’t the room. But if you keep the tripod legs together you can use it sort of like a monopod. Or you can bring a monopod, I’ve always used my tripod as a monopod or have handheld the cameras. The vehicles that we will be traveling in don’t really lend themselves to using a beanbag. But there might be some instances in which you could use one. There are companies that market photographer’s beanbags, some for quite a lot of money. The easiest and cheapest way is make your own. Just sew together some pieces of strong cloth. You don’t have to use camouflage cloth but on the other hand don’t use very brightly colored material either. You can fill the bag directly with dry beans, peas or rice. But you can also take it with you empty to save space/weight and fill it up at your destination. Some people fill their beanbag at their destination with sand. This makes the beanbag very heavy of course, but also very stable. I would suggest putting the sand in a plastic Zip Loc bag first before putting it into the beanbag. In fact all you really need is a Zip Loc bag, fill it with sand and wrap it up using a tee shirt, I prefer simple solutions. A real simple solution is to use socks in your beanbag (Zip Loc bag) instead of sand or beans or whatever else is messy and heavy. Filters, apart from the polarizing
filters that I have already mentioned the only other filters that I can think
of that you might use are; a red enhancing filter, to use for the flowers in
Namaqualand as well as the sand dunes in Namibia. Whether you use this filter
or not really depends upon the colours that you like, I happen to like bold
saturated colours so I use this filter. A warming filter 81A to use with the
wildlife, this helps to reduce the blue tinge from the sky. The last 2
filters that you might use are neutral graduated filters for use at sunrise
and sunset in the desert. I’d recommend the 1 and 2 stop type, they’re not
really necessary, but if you use them in your photography on a regular basis
already then I’d bring them along. Film, how much and what type? Print or slide film that’s up to you, just make sure that you buy 36 exposure rolls. One thing that I can guarantee you, is that you’ll use a lot of film. How much is a lot? The old saying that you should take twice as much film and half as much clothing makes good sense. To calculate how much film you’ll be using, think about how much film you’d normally shoot on any trip. Some people shoot more film because of bracketing for exposure, if this is you, then you’ll really need lots of film. Probably on average most people will shoot 3 rolls a day (60 – 70 rolls for the trip). One thing to remember is that you can always bring back unexposed rolls of film home with you, you can’t magically transport rolls of film from home to Africa. The last place on our itinerary that you will be able to pick up any film (with any certainty) is in Springbok, Namaqualand, it will be expensive. There may be film available at some of the lodges; it will be very, very, very expensive. Which film speed(s) should you bring? For the flowers and the sand dunes either 50 or 100 ISO. For the wildlife at least 100 ISO, you might also want to consider a higher speed, like 200 or 400 ISO. Another possibility is to shoot 100 ISO film and rate it at 200 ISO. A film that performs well when pushing, is Fuji Sensia 100, at least from all reports that I’ve read, it is better than Provia 100. I have to honestly say that I have never pushed film (at least on purpose – I’ve done it accidentally by putting in a different film in the camera without changing the film speed setting dial). |
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So after reading all of this,
which I hope you have. You may be wondering what equipment will I be bringing
on this trip. So here’s my list: |
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2 Camera Bodies |
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17 – 35mm F2.8 Lens |
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28 – 70mm F3.5 Lens |
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80 – 200mm F2.8 Lens |
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150 – 500mm F5.6 Lens |
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Set of 3 Extension Tubes |
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Polarizing Filter, Cokin Yellow/Blue
Polarizing Filter, 81A Warming Filter, Red Enhancing Filter, 81A Filter, 1
and 2 stop ND graduated filters |
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Manfrotto # 190 Tripod |
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Hurricane Blower, Spare Batteries
and Zip Loc Bags |
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Probably somewhere around 100
rolls of film, most of it will be 100 ISO. |
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Finally if you have any
questions about equipment or film for the trip, please get in touch with me. |
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