As restrictions on travel to Africa ease, here are five tips to improve your wildlife photography on safari…

We’re fans of the ‘less is more’ approach in wildlife photography. If you’re looking to set your wildlife photography apart, here’s a technique that will take your images to a whole new level.

We’re often asked about wide angle lenses by guests when they’re booking a safari trip with us. They are an invaluable tool for capturing dramatic imges, but how wide do you really need? Here’s what we’d generally recommend.

Expanding your horizons to frame a subject within the wider landscape can make a powerful statement about nature, summarise a specific eco-system or describe a distinctive wildlife habitat in detail – whilst being extremely easy on the eye.

Photographing African wildlife at night is exciting, unpredictable and can produce some outstanding images. It’s possible to capture striking nocturnal shots from a safari vehicle, with nothing more sophisticated than a decent spotlight.

Who doesn’t love elephants? With their intelligence and complex social nature they make charismatic subjects for photography.

Few things beat wildlife-watching from the water on safari – apart from photographing that very same wildlife. There’s something serenely special about being on a river or large dam with your camera for company.

Photographing lions demands patience and persistence, but experience has taught us to focus our efforts on the most productive times of day and the most promising situations.

The golden hour has lots of column inches in ‘how-to’ photo manuals for good reason, but the blue hour barely gets a mention.  It’s a shame because that secret space between sundown and total darkness is, quite literally, a cool spot for some intensely moody wildlife pictures.

If you want to get the best shots from a photo safari you need to get your game drive head on.  Wildlife-rich destinations and switched on, photo-savvy guides will get you a long way, but to maximise each, often fleeting, opportunity you need to be switched on, like your camera, at all times.

A simple, but extremely effective way to hold interest in a picture is to frame your subject twice. Creating a second frame within the existing framework of your image is a neat compositional trick that has the instant effect of adding both emphasis and additional interest.

If you’re not already using back button focus, then separating the focus and shutter release functions on your camera could be one of the easiest ways you’ll find to quickly improve your photography. The vast majority of professional wildlife photographers use back button focus, but it doesn’t suit everyone. Read our tips and give it a try to see if it’s for you.

Lowering your ISO and closing down the camera aperture might seem strange advice when the wildlife action’s kicking off all around you, but photographing with slow shutter speeds and panning with your camera can be very effective at conveying the sheer beauty and exhilaration of speed in a still image.

Working out what camera kit to take on safari is all part of the excitement and anticipation of an upcoming trip. Figuring out how to store the shots you capture isn’t quite so much fun. But protecting your precious shots from loss or corruption should be an essential part of your safari planning. Your camera gear is insurable and replaceable, but once-in-a-lifetime images are not.

Water and wildlife – it’s a winning combination. A life-force and magnet for subjects, water reliably provides both inspiration and magical images for photographers on safari whether on rivers, at pans, or at watering points. And that’s especially true on a still day when there’s the bonus of reflection shots to be had into the bargain. We can’t resist taking reflection pictures and are always on the look-out for them on our safaris. They’re like those buy-one-get-one-free offers; get two beautiful wildlife subjects for the price of one.

Africa’s abundance and variety of birds of prey never ceases to amaze us and photographing them is very rewarding. Modern camera technology has vastly improved the hit rate for wildlife action photography and even for a novice bird photographer large raptors are among the easier subjects for flight shots, for obvious reasons – you don’t need to get so close to fill the frame, they fly relatively slowly with less frequent wingbeats, and they are often creatures of habit, allowing for repeat opportunities. But to capture great images you need to be familiar with your camera, alert to opportunities, and have fast reactions. As with so much of wildlife photography, anticipation is key.

If you’re looking for instant impact with your wildlife images, then animal silhouettes are hard to beat. Strong silhouette shots are all about distinctive shapes and vibrant, saturated colours. Subtlety can work, but it’s harder to pull off. Likewise, opportunistic silhouette images do come along occasionally, but the vast majority of our successful shots are the result of planning and previsualisation.

With a vast range of different photographic safaris in Africa to choose from, how do you find the best one for you? Here are some tips based on more than 20 years of visiting the continent to photograph its wildlife:

‘How should I set up the autofocus on my camera?’ It’s one of the most common questions asked by our safari guests, a question we addressed in an article in Amateur Photographer magazine. If you missed that article, here’s a reprint of our ten tips.

Wildlife hides designed specifically for photography are all the rage at the moment. Inspired by the competitive and commercial success of Hungary’s ‘invisible photographer’, Bence Máté, whose cutting edge designs are still the gold standard for wildlife photo hides, numerous professional wildlife photographers have seized the opportunity, and specialist hides have sprung up all over the place.