The #1 Tip For
Improved African Photo Safari Pictures
I
have been taking wildlife pictures
on African photo safari trips now for more than a quarter of a century
and
there has been one
factor above all others that improved my wildlife photography
attempts
remarkably.
It
has nothing to do with f stops, lenses,
composition, the camera or even photography technique itself.
Those are
the basics that every wildlife photographer grapples with to get
passable pictures anyway.
No,
the one major thing that has allowed me
to take wildlife pictures that often generate positive comments from
people who view them is this...
I
guide my own safaris.
The Self Drive African Photo Safari Difference
Ok,
here's a practical example from my
experience why independent self guided African photography
safaris will help
improve
your wildlife photos by leaps and bounds.
I
took the lion photograph below on
a self drive safari to the Kruger National Park in South Africa
recently.
The fact is
that if I had been
on a guided
safari it would have been impossible to take this
picture because I had
to
wait about two hours before this sequence occurred.
A
guided safari operator doesn't have the
luxury of being able to spend so much time with an animal because they
have to keep all their guests happy and move on quickly to try and find
something else.
In
fact I saw a few of these safari vehicles,
packed to the brim with wildlife photographers, stop for five to ten
minutes to allow everyone to get a lion portrait and then charge
off again. Needless to say they didn't get to photograph what
I did.
Patience in wildlife photography is often
the only difference between a mediocre portrait picture and one that
will wow the folks back home. And self driving gives you the luxury to
decide when to wait and when to go. You call the shots, literally.
More Self Guided Safari Advantages for Wildlife Photography
Cost effective
- Go on safari for longer periods of time for the same price as a
guided safari (often twice as long) and increase the
likelihood of getting some fantastic pictures.Use this self
drive safari budget calculator to work out how much it will
cost. You will be amazed at how much you will save compared to a guided
safari.
Positioning
- Move your vehicle at any time to capture the exact angle that you
want. On a guided safari you have to take others in the
vehicle into consideration
and asking the guide to move regularly for a better angle could lead to
irritation. Also, the animal could be on the
other side of
the guided safari
vehicle and then you can't push in front of your fellow photographers
to get the picture whereas on a self drive you can simply climb onto
the back
seat or turn the car around. Space
- Spread all your
photography equipment out on the back seat of the vehicle without
getting in anyone else's way. Stability
- The long zoom and prime lenses necessary for wildlife photography
need stable platforms to keep results sharp and a beanbag or clamp on
your vehicles
window is ideal for this purpose. Jostling as
photographers
jockey for position in a guided safari vehicle can lead to blurred
images. Wildlife
Sightings
- You can see just as much wildlife on a self drive as a guided safari
and the quality is often better because you can spend more time to
observe
and photograph. You can also
get pictures of the smaller
creatures because unfortunately many (but not all)
of the guided safaris give
priority to the "big five" animals.
Privacy
- Choose who you want to take with you on your African photo safari
with a self drive
rather then being lumped together with a group of strangers on a guided
safari. Independence
- Go where and when you want without being tied down to someone else's
schedule.
So as you can
see, going on a
self drive African photo safari gives you an almost unfair advantage
over the guided
safari brigade when it comes to wildlife photography.
How To Get the Unfair Wildlife Photography Advantage Yourself
It
may sound like a difficult thing to guide your own African wildlife
photography safari, but let me assure you it's not. Like I said, I've
been doing it for over 25 years now and have got it down to a fine art. In fact, I've
been doing it for so long now that I thought I may as well write a
guide to help anyone to successfully go on self drive photo safaris in
Southern
Africa. I've covered the top game reserves and national
parks which I have self driven numerous times myself.
Everything you need to know about guiding your own safari is detailed
in this 248 page guidebook. Learn how
to Guide
Your Own African Photo Safari here...
I'm confident that going on your own
independent African photo safari
will
help improve your wildlife photography as much as it did mine.
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