Wildlife Photography Tips

Wildlife photography can be extremely challenging for visitors to game reserves. When we first started visiting African national parks this was the scenario that I think many of you can relate to...

"Hi Mom, look at the picture I took with my new camera at Etosha..."

"Well Mom, if you look over to the right of the picture you can see the rhino...". Need we say more!

If you are visiting an African national park it will most probably be an expensive event with travel and accommodation costs, plus you have just bought yourself a new digital camera or lens or the latest accessory and you want to return home confident that you have obtained value for money.

Wildlife photography can be extremely rewarding if you follow a few basics, which we will share with you from our fifteen years of experience of photographing African wildlife.

The next few pages will provide you with wildlife photography tips and tricks that have enabled us to capture these kinds of photographs...

... Hippo at Ngotso Weir, Kruger National Park

...Rhino in Pilanesberg game reserve

...Lion near Mata Mata camp in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

In 2008 we started entering the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition that is owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Eight of our images made it to the semi-final stage of the 2008 contest and five images made it to the semi-final stage of the 2009 competition. We selected the above three images from among those thirteen semi-final pictures to give you an idea of what type of photographs appeal to the judges.

In addition, this monitor lizard photograph, taken in the Kruger National Park, was our winning image in the SANParks Best Public Sightings Award for November 2008…

And this fish eagle photograph, taken at Sunset Dam in the Kruger National Park, was Jennifer's winning image in the SANParks Public Sighting of the month for August 2009...

• First we’ll look at the photographic equipment that Jenny and I use. This will include what camera bodies and lenses and why we chose these.

• Then we’ll look at protecting your gear from dust, heat, vibration and knocks.

• We will show you how to best clean your digital camera sensor as dust spots do not look good on a photograph.

• Then we’ll look at our photographic accessories.

• We’ll also discuss our general accessories.

• Bean Bags are simple yet effective supports for cameras and lenses. They can be used in hides, vehicles and many places where tripods are too cumbersome.

• Tripods are crucial if you want to get sharp images. We will look at the tripods and heads that we use.

• All the game reserves that we recommend are self-drive reserves so we will show you exactly how photographing from vehicles is done.

• We highly recommend photographing from within the camps so will be discussing which camps are most suitable for game viewing and wildlife photography from the comfort and privacy of your own bungalow or from public viewing areas.

• Macro Photography (also known as close-up photography) is a way to get really unusual photographs.

• Panoramas used to seem out of reach of many visitors to the game parks but with the right technique and software, panoramic photographs are a breeze to do.

• Star Trails used to be difficult to shoot with the early digital cameras but now are a breeze to shoot. Here we discuss three methods for shooting star trails.

• Teleconverters or extenders as they are also sometimes referred to, can provide much needed magnification, which is what nearly every wildlife photographer needs on most days!

• Stacking Teleconverters enables you to get even more magnification, but at what price? We are talking here not of the monetary price but the resulting image quality.

• Photographing from hides can be challenging so we will discuss which hides are our favorites and why.

• Photographing from Picnic sites can be rewarding, especially in the Kruger National Park. We will discuss which picnic sites are our favorites.

• Night photography can be daunting for many people but we’ll show you how you can also get amazing photographs of nocturnal animals within the camps.

• Spotlights are important for watching game and also for walking around camps at night. Here we’ll discuss which game viewing spotlight we have found to be the brightest of the bunch and what other torches we use.

• Memory Cards are critical to your photographic safari as they store all your precious images.

• Getting Published should be one of your first steps if you want to start selling your photographs or if you want to make wildlife photography a career.

• Nature photo contests are another way of getting exposure for your creativity. Here we list the 'big-five' in wildlife photo contests plus a few other appealing SANParks photo contests that you can enter.

• Turning your wildlife photography hobby into a Wildlife Photography Career is possible. This is how we got started on this road...

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