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This article was written in 2000 and updated in mid-2001. I have since gone on the second trip to Africa discussed at the end of the article. I will try to update this article soon with what I learned from this trip. My primary interest for going on safari to eastern Africa was for wildlife photography (my wife was more interested in watching the animal behavior) and I was not disappointed - the opportunities for photographing animals and birds in the wild are amazing. Equipment My son (Scott) and I decided to share a single system to reduce the amount of redundant equipment we had to take. In hind site, I'm not sure if he was happy with this decision because I ended up using the "big" lens most of the time. Since we didn't want to check any of the camera equipment or film, we had to get everything into two carry on bags (one for each of us). I decided on the Lowepro Photo Trekker bags because they are reasonably comfortable to carry, will hold a lot, and meet airline carry on regulations (at least for size - weight is another matter). Our equipment consisted of the following:
All this equipment, along with most of our film, fit into the two Lowepro bags. My wife, Diana, carried the remainder of the film, along with a small lap top computer to copy digital files, in her day pack. Of this equipment, the combination I used the most (by a significant margin) was the F5 and 400mm f2.8. I like to get up close to the wildlife, and shoot smaller birds. To do this, you need a long fast lens. I often used the 400mm with the 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter. If you have to leave all the other lenses behind, take a big lens. Yes, these lenses are very expensive, but if you can't afford to buy one, consider renting one. My son used the 300mm f4 with the F100 body the most. We both shared the D1 until it stopped working about a third of the way through the trip. It was nice to have some of our photos from the digital camera just in case something happened to the film. It also allowed us to check to make sure the lenses were working properly while in the field. I was also very impressed with the quality of the images from the D1, once I had a chance to print them at home. If I was traveling by myself and needed to fit everything into a single pack, I'd take the 400mm f2.8 and the 80-200mm f2.8, along with two bodies. Having a body always mounted on the 80-200mm lens would have been helpful since I was often switching to this lens to grab a few wider angle shots. I also took a Domke 600mm lens bag which was stuffed with clothing and carried in one of the duffels for the airline trips. My 400mm f2.8 with F5 would fit into this bag, even with the 2X teleconvertor. When on game drives, this bag was strapped to the back of the front seats and allowed my to quickly pull out the camera for shooting, yet protect it from dust and impacts when driving on the rough dirt roads in the parks. Airlines I had no problem carrying my camera equipment on the plane. I flew Northwest/KLM for all flights. Although the Lowepro bags meet the size requirements, I'm pretty sure that the bags weighed considerably more than the 22 pounds allowed. But the bags were never weighed. The fact I was flying business class may have had something to do with this. I kept a camera body mounted on the largest lens in each bag so that I could pull it out and carry this separately if I had to since the airlines allow a camera to be carried separately from your carry on bag, but fortunately, it never came to this. Equipment I Wished I'd Had About the only equipment I'd add to the list of things I'd bring is an additional body to keep on the 80-200mm lens. I might also add another couple beanbags, depending on the number of photographers. Having two strapped in place on each side of the vehicle was useful, but occasionally, we'd need one on the back or front so we'd have to unstrap one of the others. If there is only one photographer, 3-4 is probably enough. Equipment I Didn't Use I never used the window mount. This is a small tripod head that clamps to the top of a car window. The beanbags were much easier to use and worked great. I was able to shoot sharp images with my 400mm lens even with the 2X teleconverter down to about 1/125th of a second. Even 1/60th second exposures were pretty sharp. I used the flash only once, when I was shooting a bird at dusk. I hand- held the flash on an extender cord instead of pulling out the flash bracket. I think some of my photos could have benefited from fill flash, though, so I will bring it again on the next trip and try to be more diligent about using it. The monopod was very useful in Mahale where we were on foot. It made a great walking stick on the rough trails and definitely helped reduce camera shake when shooting the chimps and scenics. If you're not going to a park where you'll be on foot, I'd leave it at home. Protecting Your Equipment This is a very rough environment for photographic equipment. Dust and cameras don't mix very well. And then there's the constant vibration from the dirt roads. We kept all equipment in zip lock bags, inside the camera case, when not in use and whenever the vehicle was moving. I kept the 400mm lens with lens shade and mounted F5 in the Domke large lens bag and would slip a zip lock bag over the top of the F5 whenever we were driving a long distance. The only equipment problem I had was with my Nikon D1. This might have been attributable to the vibration, but the problem doesn't seem dust related. The camera started locking up and displaying an error code after a couple photos. It would usually reset itself by turning it off and on, but would lock up again shortly thereafter. I sent it back to Nikon for warranty repair when I got back from Africa. I sent all my Nikon equipment back to Nikon for "clean, lube, and adjust" upon my return. Film We used Fuji's relatively new Provia 100F RDP III film for almost all our shooting. This is exceptionally fine grained slide film with great color (a nice compromise between the super-saturated colors of Velvia and the more natural although somewhat bland colors of Sensia). This film can be pushed one or two stops with great results. Over the two week trip, my son shot 64 rolls (36 exp) and I shot 95 rolls (also 36 exp). About half the rolls were pushed one or two stops. We also took with us about a dozen rolls of Fuji Professional NHG-II Color Print film. I think this is the best 800 speed film available, and nine of the rolls we shot late in the afternoon were of this type. In addition to film, we took four 128MB compact flash cards for use with the Nikon D1. Using the raw .NEF format, each of these cards held 32 shots. This was usually enough to get us through a morning or afternoon game drive. Between the two of us, we shot around 300 shots on the D1 before it stopped working. While you can find consumer color print film, such as Kodak Gold 100, it is virtually impossible to find professional slide film while on safari. Bring enough with you so you don't run out. We took all our film out of the boxes and plastic canisters and put them in zip lock bags. This significantly reduced the bulk and weight and made it easy to grab a roll when needed. Exposure Tips Keep in mind that your camera meter will expose for neutral gray. For many scenes, the matrix metering system in pro SLRs will work just fine, but if you're shooting a black rhino, cape buffalo or chimp that fills most of the frame, the meter will not give you a correct exposure. You'll probably be over exposing the scene and the animals will not look as dark as they should. Likewise, if you're shooting a leopard in a tree against a bright sky, you'll probably end up with a silhouette of the leopard. For problem scenes, I usually try to use the built in spot meter to measure something in the scene in similar light as my main subject that has approximately the same shade as neutral gray. A tree branch often works well. For many of the animals, spot metering directly on the animal works well. If the animal is particularly dark, like a chimp, or light, you can spot meter off the animal and use exposure compensation to adjust the exposure. If you're not sure of the exposure, bracket by 2/3rd stop around the exposure you think is correct. Wasting a little film is a lot better than missing the shot. Safari Vehicles |
