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Garry Black Photography |
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SOUTHERN
AFRICA PHOTO SAFARI |
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Instructional Tips – Wildlife, Etosha and Botswana |
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On our trip we’ll be visiting and
photographing in several different national parks Etosha, Savuti and
Chobe. These parks differ not only in
physical appearance, such as the dry Etosha pan and the Okavango wetlands,
but also in the wildlife that we will be seeing. Each park is unique and will
offer us with countless photo opportunities. In Botswana we will see
large herds of elephants (the largest number of elephants in Africa are in
this area largely due to their zero tolerance approach to poachers), hippos,
crocodiles, giraffes, antelope, baboons, birds, etc. Throughout the parks we
will see zebra, wildebeest, impala,
waterbuck, eland, warthog, and water buffalo, as well as the predators
such as lion, leopard and cheetah. Our days will consist of early morning and late afternoon game drives,
these times of day are the most prolific for viewing wildlife and fortunately
also provide the best light for photography. We will also have the opportunity to take night drives, nature
walks, using blinds for wildlife viewing, watching wildlife from our camp and
a boat trip at Duma Tau. Photographing animals requires an abundance of
patience, time and luck. The driver/guides that’ll be with us are very
used to photographers; they will try to position our vehicles in prime
viewing/photographic locations. They will also switch off the vehicle's
engine when we’re taking photographs in order to eliminating vibrations. They
will get us close to the wildlife, but there is no predicting what the
wildlife will do (come closer, walk away from us or continue doing whatever
they were doing). Some animals are quite used to human presence and will
allow you to get close enough From
personal experience I know that your heartbeat does increase
"slightly" when a dangerous animal approaches he vehicle. Seeing animals in the wild is
pretty special, but it's no excuse for forgetting everything that you've
learned about good photography. If you photograph an elephant that’s far off
in the distance your eye will zoom in on it (or any distant animals) and
exaggerate their size, but they will be insignificant on film. Then, when you’re back home and you have to
tell the people who’re looking at the picture that the little dark speck is
an elephant, you know you’re in trouble. This is a pretty drastic explanation
of what not to do, but the point that I wanted to make is don’t forget the
basics of photography. For wildlife photography a focal
length of 300mm is generally considered the basic lens. It’s strong
enough to photograph the majority of animals and will allow frame-filling
portraits of those that you can get close to. But when talking about lenses
and photographing wildlife, the old saying “bigger is better” happens to be
true. If your longest lens (fixed or zoom) is 300mm or less, then consider
either purchasing a longer focal length lens or a tele-converter. A
tele-converter will give you many more opportunities without the expense and
weight of another lens, but you do loose a little in quality as well as a
stop or 2 of light. If you have a 300mm already, a tele-converter will open
up a whole new range of opportunities. I will be using a Nikon 80mm – 400mm
VR lens and a 1.4X tele-converter. This lens has an F-stop of 5.6, using the
1.4X tele-converter will make the effective aperture F8, this is pretty slow.
The ideal lens for wildlife photography is in the range of 400mm – 600mm with
an F-Stop of F4. These lenses are
expensive, large and heavy. You don’t need one of these lenses in order to
get good wildlife images. For wildlife photography, fast shutter speeds are required to prevent
camera shake, and they also stop blurring if the animal moves. In order to
accomplish this you will be using a wide-open aperture and a film speed of at
least 100 ISO. If you have a “Vibration Reduction” or a “Image Stabilization”
lens you will be able to use slower shutter speeds without getting camera
shake, but you have to keep in mind that the animals are moving. The minimum
shutter speed that I would suggest is
1/125 second, although I have taken some successful shots using a shutter
speed as low as 1/30 second. But I wouldn’t want to risk shooting all of my
shots at that shutter speed. One thing to keep in mind is that the animals
are at their most active early in the morning and late in the day, that’s
also when we’ll be doing our photography. The film speed that I’d recommend
that you bring for the wildlife is 100, 200 or 400 ISO depending upon how
fast your lens is and how steady you can hold your lens. I’ll be using
a 100 ISO film, which in some low light situations I’ll be pushing to 200 ISO.
You'll find yourself holding the
camera to your eye for much longer periods than normal as you observe the
animals waiting for the perfect moment to take the picture. This can be very
tiring, so you might want to use a monopod or use your tripod (with the legs
together, rather than spread apart) as a support for your camera. Apart from the technical aspects, it’s important to remember the artistic aspects as well. As with any subject, consider the direction of the light and the background. An advantage of shooting with the aperture at it’s widest opening is that it will give you an out of focus background. As for the animals, always focus on the eyes, everything else can be out of focus but if the eyes are not sharp the photograph will fail. Try to avoid central, static placement of the subject in your pictures. Something that I recommend that you do before we head off to Africa, is to spend a day at a zoo or wildlife park with your camera equipment taking pictures. You'll quickly discover any limitations with your equipment. You’ll see how close you need to get to animals both large and small to make strong pictures. If you can’t get a head and shoulder’s portrait at the zoo, things in Africa won’t be any different. By practicing at the zoo it will also help you to determine which film speed you will need. |
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