The Safari Photographer: A Practical Guide For The Amateur Photographer On An African Safari Vacation

By Gary Koop

The Safari Photographer is the book tourists who are planning an African photo safari vacation should read prior to their departure. It is written specifically for the amateur photographer whose goal is to take high quality photographs using a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera on what will probably be the trip of a lifetime. Here, the term "quality photographs" is defined as shots you would be proud to share with your family and friends, or have printed in enlarged format and mounted on the wall of your home or office. The Safari Photographer offers practical solutions to many of the problems which will be encountered in achieving this goal.
Shooting quality photos on a typical tourist African safari is extremely challenging. It is much more difficult than (say) taking photos of buildings or monuments on a trip to a major European city. The problems begin with the Land Rover type vehicles that will be the primary mode of transportation over very rough terrain while on game drives. For most safari tour groups, these vehicles will typically be shared with five or so other people. Thus, not only will people constantly be getting in each other's way, but movement and jostling inside the vehicle will lead to blurring and other image degradation. This problem will be exacerbated by the fact that almost all the shots of interest will be taken using a long telephoto lens which acts to amplify the effects of camera motion. Also, for reasons of safety, tourists are almost never allowed to get out of the vehicle while on a game drive. Thus, use of tripods and other similar camera stabilization techniques become impractical, and virtually all shots will be taken using a hand-held camera. Added to this are the difficulties associated with trying to shoot quality photos in a hot, dusty, and sometimes rainy environment under varying lighting conditions. With all of this going on, one can readily appreciate the challenges an amateur photographer faces.
The Safari Photographer addresses all of these issues, and provides practical solutions in clear, concise, and often humorous language. The book begins with an in-depth description of the photographic environment the typical tourist will experience, followed by a discussion of what SLR camera functions are most suitable for taking quality photos under these conditions. Detailed descriptions of key camera and autofocus settings are provided that will yield the best photographic results. This leads into a section discussing what SLR camera operations should be practiced ahead of time, prior to departing on the trip. Being able to make camera adjustments quickly is very important in the dynamic environment of a game drive where the scene and lighting conditions can change rapidly. Discussion is also presented on how to assess the quality of photos that have already taken. In this manner problems can be corrected immediately before the scene changes, as opposed to simply discovering a series of bad photos later when you get home. Finally, guidance is provided on what photographic equipment is most essential on an African safari and (perhaps more importantly) what things should be left at home.
This Safari Photographer documents many of the practical lessons learned by the author as well as a number of other experienced safari travelers. It will prove to be one of the most valuable resources the amateur photographer will have in achieving the goal of taking high quality photographs while on an African safari tourist vacation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gary Koop
• Release date: Jun 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989533805

Book preview

The Safari Photographer

A Practical Guide For The Amateur Photographer On An African Safari Vacation

Gary Koop

Published by Gary Koop at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 by Gary Koop

ISBN 978-0-9895338-0-5

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All photographs are the work of the author, Gary Koop for which he holds the copyright and reserves all rights.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - What Is This Book About And Why Did I Write It?

Chapter 2 - Who Is This Book For And Not For?

Chapter 3 - So What Is So Different About Shooting Photos On An African Safari, As Opposed To (Say) A Trip to Rome?

Chapter 4 - Setting Expectations

Chapter 5 - Learn To Use Your SLR Camera Before You Go

Chapter 6 - Autofocus Systems: How Do They Work? Which Menu Options Should I Choose?

Chapter 7 - So, How Do You Take Great Photos In The Bush?

Chapter 8 - How Do You Know If You Got a Great Shot?

Chapter 9 - What To Bring (And Not Bring) With You

Chapter 10 - Summary

Chapter 1

What Is This Book About And Why Did I write It?

Simply stated this is the book I would have wanted to have had before I took a two week safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. By way of introduction, my name is Gary Koop and I consider myself to be a serious but amateur photographer.

Over the course of many years my wife and I have traveled extensively throughout the world, including the U.S., Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, the Middle East, Caribbean, Canada, and Hawaii. In all of our trips, in addition to taking the obligatory snapshots of various people standing in front of various important things, I have also endeavored to take what I refer to as Quality Photographs. These are photos that you would be proud to share with your family and friends, or have printed in large format and mounted on the wall of your home or office. Naturally, you the photographer has to define what Quality means to you, but the key elements should include having a well-composed and interesting image that is crisply focused, has good color balance, and is properly exposed. The photo I took of this male lion in Tanzania’s Serengeti Plain (Fig. 1) represents an example of what I consider to be a Quality Photo. I believe it meets all of the aforementioned criteria. However, in describing my photographic skills, the emphasis should be on the words serious but amateur. I strive to take quality photographs, but for my African safari vacation I recognized that no one from National Geographic Magazine was going to hire me to shoot their photos.

The trip we’d planned was with a commercial tour company, and they did an absolutely incredible job. The point here is that I felt I was part of a typical (albeit a high end) tourist trip to Africa. I did not feel I had any special advantages for viewing the African wildlife. As a consequence, I thought that my trip, from a photographic perspective, was probably representative of what 90% of the visitors to Africa might experience. However, I will point out here that there are other safari tours that cater more to the semi-professional / professional photographer. These tours would serve people who have probably been on one or more Africa safaris in the past, have extensive camera knowledge, may have arranged a specialized Photo Workshop group, or are more focused on location as opposed to vacation. I don’t consider these to be in the typical tourist category for which this guide is intended, and many of the characterizations I make in the following sections would probably not apply to these specialized tours.

While I was on the trip, I also found that I ended up being a resource for people who were trying to take quality photos in, what turned out to be, rather challenging circumstances. Thus, with my love of photography, coupled with my apparent ability help other photographers shooting in a tough environment, I decided to write this book.

Before I left on our African safari trip I had a lot of questions. Fundamentally I wanted to understand how taking photos on a safari was going to be different from other trips we’d taken in the past. As it turned out, there were a lot of differences, and shooting in Africa was much harder than anything I had ever previously encountered. In preparation for our trip, I wanted to have some insight into a number of photographic issues such as:

* What’s different about shooting photos of animals in Africa as opposed to (say) taking shots of important monuments in London?

* What was the photo shooting environment going to be like? Can I use a tripod, how close to the

Reviews for The Safari Photographer

[Richard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book cover to cover several times before my trip. While I'm still in Africa and it's really too early to tell what my pictures look like on a larger screen, I feel the hints he gives are excellent for a guy who always set his camera to "auto" and hopes for the best.