Photography # 1 and other Tanzania Things to Do Tips

One of the things you will obviously want to do on safari in Tanzania is photography. It goes without saying really. It is a photographer’s delight, but also a photographer’s nightmare. The animals will be falling over themselves (not literally of course) to be captured on your memory card, but before you start clicking away to your heart’s content, give a few thoughts to the conditions:

Dust plays having with cameras. Try to keep your equipment as free from dust as possible to avoid breakdown. It is worth packing a sealable plastic bag to slip over the camera when you are driving between animal-spotting-stops. A blower brush is invaluable for cleaning up your camera every evening. Make sure you remove as much dust as you can, and keep the lens clean. The other problem with the dust is that it creates a kind of haze in the air. This can greatly affect long-distance shots with your zoom lens, as they may turn out slightly hazy or appear blurred. There isn’t a great deal you can do about this of course, although you may be able to remove some of the haze in Photoshop when you return home. I found the dust haze to be particularly noticeable in the Ngorongoro Crater – I suppose with all the vans stirring up the dust and the fact that you are in a natural bowl, the dust has nowhere to go, so it just hangs in the air.

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A zoom lens is invaluable for animal photography. You need at least a 300mm zoom for the bigger animals and a 500mm for birds. Even with a 504mm zoom on my camera, I found I was cropping the photos when I got back home. Unlike other safaris I have been on, Dickson would not drive off the tracks. That is quite right of course, as driving off-road causes erosion and if everyone did it, it would badly damage the fragile eco-system. It would also cause extra stress and harassment for the animals.

Don’t forget that when using a zoom lens, you need to increase the shutter speed to allow for the extra length. As a general rule, your shutter speed should equal the length of the lens – what they mean by that is – if you are using a 500mm lens, you should take the picture at 1/500 sec, at 200mm; the shutter speed should be at least 1/200 sec. Having said that, with the modern anti-shake image stabilisation available on digital cameras, you may get away with a slower shutter speed. It’s a bit of trial and error, and a question of knowing how steady your hand is. I can usually take photos at 500mm at a shutter speed of /250. There are several ways you can ensure that your photos don’t come out blurred at long focal lengths.

Increase the ISO. Yes, the pictures will be grainier, but surely it is better to have a grainy picture than a blurred one?

Use a tripod. I have recently come across the gorilla-pod (thank you VT-member alucas) – it is absolutely amazing: very lightweight, clings to anything and holds your camera steady! I won’t travel anywhere without it now! If a tripod is out of the question; how about a mono-pod? I have previously used one on safari with great success. I have the camera permanently on the mount and just rest the mono-pod on the floor of the vehicle.

The obvious things to ensure are to ask the driver to switch the engine off when you are stopped to look at animals (better for the environment anyway), and steadying yourself with your elbows on the car roof or against the side of the window.

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Many game drives will be early morning and late afternoon, which is when the animals are most active. (like us humans, they tend to spend the hottest time of the day sleeping in the shade), which again will impact on your shutter speed. All the hints above will apply the same.

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Composition is important in a photograph. There are a few pointers to remember:

You ‘read’ a photo from left to right, just as you would the written word. (Unless you live somewhere where you read from right to left of course) In reality, what this means is that a photo will look better if the animal is moving from left to right. Of course, you can’t usually influence which way the animal moves, but if there is a choice, go for the left-to-right image.

Give the animal space to ‘move into’. In other words, ensure your picture has more space in front of the animal than behind it.

Give a thought to the background. This may not always be possible with animals, as you may not be able to move around to get the best shot, but try and ensure that the lion doesn’t have a tree sticking out of its head for instance.

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One of the main reasons your may find your photos disappointing when you return home, is the lighting. As I said before, the sky is often shrouded in dust, so the day appears to be dull. On a dull day, the brightest area will be the sky. Most cameras work on an average metering for light, so the foreground often comes out too dark. This is especially so if you are photographing birds in trees – they often come out as silhouettes against the bright sky. There are a couple of ways of overcoming this, the first one being to set the camera to spot metering. The theory behind this being that the camera uses a very small area for its metering, in other words the branch of the tree. The other way is to use back-light compensation. Most cameras have this facility, and you can bracket with various settings of overexposure. The beauty of digital cameras of course, is that you can actually see the photo immediately, so that you can take another one (or ten, as in my case) to ensure you get a good one.

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I always set my camera to ‘continuous shooting’, when on safari, as it means I can take up to nine shots is quick succession if an animals is moving. By taking more shots, the chances are I can get at least one good one out of it. To me, that’s the secret – take as many shots as you can, especially is the animals are in motion – the more shots, the more likelihood of at least one of them being good. With digital cameras this is possible without incurring lots of extra cost. Just make sure you have more memory cards than you think you will need, as you are bound to take many more photos than you thought you would.

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All cameras use batteries. Make sure you have enough with you. Take a battery charger, and if you have the opportunity, you can charge your batteries in the car, like I did. That is especially useful if you are on a camping safari. Just remember to take your adaptor for charging in the car.

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Taking photos of people is a bit of a touchy subject. The Masai in Tanzania seem to have become wise to their appeal to the western photographer, and will insist on being paid in return for having their photo taken. That is their prerogative. Always ask before taking someone’s photo, and if they ask for payment and you do not wish to part with your money, do not take the photo. Equally, if they do not wish to have their photo taken, please respect their wishes. The Masai are very colourful, and go about their daily life dressed in their ethnic attire. They do make for very good photographic subjects.

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