Wildlife Photography

Taking photos of wildlife is always a challenge as many nice wildlife moments happen very unexpected and pass in seconds. So you need to be well prepared and you need to make sure you know your camera well. It is also important your camera is ready at all times, including having enough battery power.

For the best results, it's important to have a good camera, with excellent long lenses. A 300mm lens is a good starting point, but longer lenses are even better, certainly for bird portraits.

All the photos on this website are made with a digital SLR camera from Canon, with lenses from 24 to 400mm. You will get the best results by using long lenses with image stabilizer, but they are also very expensive. When you have a tripod, or use a beanbag, I think also lenses without image stabilizer can do the job as well. Standard zoom lenses (75-300mm) from various manufactures are very affordable, and can do a good job too.

In many destinations Kazinga Tours visits, the wild animals are relatively used to vehicles and people, so exceptional chances of photography will arise. And of course our well trained guides will do their very best to show the wildlife and give you the best photo opportunities.

The animals you will get to see are wild animals, so composition is a big challenge as you cannot move your subject around or change the lightning conditions. So try different focal lengths and experiment with different apertures and shutter speeds. In general you need fast shutter speeds when you are using long lenses.

Be sure to bring enough memory cards or film, as it is very hard (if not impossible in most places) to buy these in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Apart from knowing your equipment and knowing how to compose a good photo, it's also important to know something about your subject. What is it's behavior, how does it move and when will it run off. And maybe above all, be patient when photographing wildlife. You never know what will happen the next moment……

This information helped me to make some of my best Wildlife shots, as you can see on this website.

If you have any questions about Wildlife Photography, please do not hesitate to contact me: vincent@kazingatours.com, I am always willing to help you!

Photo tips for good wildlife photography:

• Bring 2 bodies with you to be sure one of them is always working
• Bring at least 2 batteries for each camera because the possibilities of charging might be limited
• Take enough memory cards with you, especially when you are taking photos of wildlife. We always tell our clients to estimate how much they need and multiply it by 2
• Bring a hard disk or laptop with you to back up your photos
• Think about the lenses to bring. You will need a tele lens for most wildlife photos, 200mm to 400mm or more
• For landscapes you need lenses between 24mm and 50mm
• For gorilla tracking and especially chimp tracking you need a bright lens (a lens which can work well in low light conditions) preferable F2.8. Most good photos are taken with a 70-200 mm F2.8 lens.
• From the car it is difficult to use a tripod or monopod. Use a beanbag instead

Photography from the Safari Vehicle

When you are in a car, it's very impractical to use a tripod. A good alternative is a bean bag, a small cloth bag filled with rice. This will give your camera the stability it needs to make superb shots.

Kazinga Tours´ custom made vehicles are ideal for using beanbags. Just open the roof and put your beanbag on it. Apart from 4 wheel drive, a roof that opens is one of the most important things on a good safari vehicle.