Photograph Africa: The Blog of Africa Wild Safaris
Follow our adventures on safari in South Africa with host Gregory Sweeney
Successful photography on a safari requires knowing your subjects and your equipment. We present some articles to help in addition to what you will learn while with us.
The Kudu, Nyala, and Waterbuck are antelope both found in South Africa. They have similarities, especially in the females, but once you know the differentiating features, you can quickly tell them apart. Here are some images to help you learn each species.
When I prepare to lead a safari group, I pack my safari photography kit with the minimal amount of equipment. With so much time spent on safari, I am able to assemble a refined collection of equipment that provides the coverage range for my most likely subjects.
Elephants are frequently our photo subjects while on safari. Their size, shape, intelligence, and trunk are just a few things that make them great subjects and very interesting. There are many opportunities for unique, beautiful, and descriptive images of elephants.
Adobe has released a new version of Lightroom CC which contains a new adjustment tool: The DeHaze slider. It is found in the FX menu of the Development module (way down toward the bottom of the list). I see how it works on a safari photo
A South Africa photo safari will be full of opportunities to photograph animals at close distances. These images have all the details and interesting poses found in modern (human) portraits. You can apply current portrait processing techniques to your wildlife portraits.
Adding contrast to an image is a great way to boost the impact of the image, especially African images shot in full sun and those where the animal is camouflaged.
Digital photography and its post processing tools offer so many creative possibilities for making a final presentation of our RAW files. Here I demonstrate the same photo presented 3 different ways mostly using Adobe Lightroom / Camera Raw and a little bit of Photoshop.
South Africa has two species of rhino: the White Rhino which is the largest population and most commonly seen and the Black Rhino which is not as numerous and harder to spot. The two species are distinct and here are a few of the differences most important to photographers.
While on safari I like to keep my equipment streamlined and light. Over many years photographing in South Africa, my Canon 70 – 200mm f2.8 has taken the bulk of my wildlife images.
The lions, cheetahs and leopards – the big cats – get a great deal of attention during safaris. Quietly hunting and living in the bush are smaller species of cats. These less celebrated cats are very interesting to see and watch and have loads of charisma.