lbj2

AAM - I remember you choosing your Bots/Zim safari, did you go with a private vehicle as well?

There are a number of support options available, and the better bean bags for Southern Africa do require you purchase one, rather than using a make-shift zip lock bag. There are excellent options like the Skimmer Sack sold through Naturescapes.

http://www.naturescapes.net/store/skimmersack.html

The other excellent option is the manfrotto superclamp. This can be attached to the roll bars with a tripod head attached, you need the correct stud too. It turns your vehicles into a mobile tripod.

In my experience, 300mm is the minimum you can get away with, and generally I would be shooting at 5-600mm in the Delta and Hwange National Park. Using longer lenses will also give you a more asthetically pleasing point of view.

With most guides in Botswana, they tend get you too close to the wildlife, having you shoot down at your subject. A 300mm may be all you need in this case, though in my experience, does not give me the style of image I prefer. Whether you can avoid this depends on your vehicle mates, the guides or if you have a private vehicle.


As you cannot off-road in Hwange, that longer zoom will really come in handy. I would also recommend becoming very comfortable with capturing silhouettes, as there will be plenty of opportunities - some of my images from Hwange are in the album below, shot at 500 or 700 mm.

http://russelljohnson.photoshelter.c...00Ow5w4gqbJpc/

lbj2

Hanuman

My recommendation would be take a second body and a longer lens. You will miss a lot of opportunities changing the teleconverter etc.

For the Mara, I also feel that 400mm is a little on the short side in terms of maximum focal length.

cary999

Agree with lbj2, although I have very little safari experience in Botswana.

Remember for lack of a longer lens you can crop images. Not much of a crop will make a 300mm image look like it was with a 400mm lens. How much crop you can get away with of course depends on how sharp the original is and what the use of the image will be. And while I'm at it, if you are not cropping, sharpening, color correcting, burning, dodging, etc. your images with Photoshop or something like it, you are missing have the advantages of digital images. And half the fun for me .

regards - tom

Hanuman

lbj2,

Thank you for your advice and posting the link to your gallery. Very beautiful photographs!

AlisaAAM

lbj2,

Thanks for the lens thoughts. I tend to like to really zoom in on my subjects, so I don't think we'll regret having the longer lens. And I have followed your blog and photos and have LOVED your elephant silhouettes in Hwange--hopeful to shoot something similar!

lbj2

Thanks for your comments and following the blog, Alisa....

For elephant silhouettes in Hwange, the best pan is Airstrip 2, more than happy to help if you would like any advice on getting similar images.

Bluering7

We spent 30 days in five African countries with 3 cameras.
We have over 3,573 digital photos and many hours of video.

Do the math for your RAW image size.

Ensure that you have the correct adapters (for charging those batteries), a long extension card with multiple outlets.

Find out if/when the generators shutdown for the night.

No one in my party of five believed my research about the needed electric outlet adapters, so I had to charge camera batteries for many people, in every blooming tent and lodge in which we stayed.

Do NOT take just one source's opinion on what electric adapter you need for what country. I researched 8 sites, and then checked for myself when we got to Africa.

Remember, it is an expensive trip - do you want to risk not getting all the pictures that you want?

Enjoy.

Bluering7

P.S., I backed up my pictures and videos nightly, to one of those USB hard drives made for backup up of pictures and video (mine is a Wolverine, but there are plenty of other brands).

Kavey

I always shoot RAW and assume I MIGHT shoot anywhere from 200 to 500 images a day. If something incredible happens, maybe more, or sometimes, I've just found myself whiling away time enjoying a bird sighting, such as sociable weavers at their huge nest, and shot 100 shots right there just trying to capture these fast moving little birds.

I always want enough cards to be able to shoot at least 2 days without emptying my cards.

My husband and I travel with TWO portable storage devices one 1 PSD and 1 laptop/netbook.

We download the contents of all CF cards to two devices and then reformat the cards for reuse. We figure it'd be really unlikely for two storage devices to both fail, so we don't need to keep anything on the cards.

Our PSDs are simple ones with large disk size and no image viewing facility, but quick copying speeds. This way their battery life is excellent.

Of course, they do contribute to overall weight, the PSDs, the appropriate chargers/ cables, likewise for camera battery chargers and so on.

We do carry a back up DSLR body between us. I switched to mine on a recent trip because something wasn't working right with battery life and a freshly charged battery would be drained within an hour or two, not normal.

Very glad had back up body.

Bluering7

Sounds like a very good operation