Safari Photography

[highgrove]

In September I am going on an eleven day safari to Kenya.My camera is a Cannon 450D and my lenses are an EFS 18-55 and a EF 75-300.
I would appreciate any tips especially filming on night game drives.

[raddox]

Hi Higrove (Uncle Jim),
My wife and I have taken a couple safari trips to Africa. Your choice of lenses seems appropriate to me. Since many animal photo opportunities are short-lived and may require you to change the lens, if possible I'd recommend two cameras. (I'm planning to return in October 2012 and will use that excuse to convince my wife I need a second camera.) Also that eliminates the necessity to change lenses in a dusty environment. In the national parks the vehicles have to stay on the roads and can only be active between dawn and dusk. The private reserves however allow off-road viewing and night safaris. They use very powerful lamps to light the game. Because of that we were able to take some good night pictures without flash. Hope that helps.

[Jim Bryant]

Those lenses won't help ya too much at night, you need to get the 16-35mm f2.8 and the 70-200 f2.8 lenses as that tiny pop up flash thingie won't work too good. Or you might want to invest in a 580 EX, as it'll put out more light. DOn't know about how quick the 450D's focusing system is, but trying to focus under those nighttime conditions might be tough as well.

[MrJones]

you won't be able to take photos at night unless you have a strong external lightning source and the camera flash (pop up or external) isn't powerful enough.
like Jim said, you'll need a fast lens with at least f/2.8 as it's going to be really dark there.

[Jim Bryant]

Sometimes the drivers will have high powered spot lights to shine on the animals. But, what the hell, if you can't take the pictures, drink the beer and have fun!