Wildlife Photography On Safari In Masai Mara, Kenya
Wildlife Photography On Safari In Masai Mara, Kenya
For most of us, going on a safari and shooting wildlife photography in Africa is a once-in-a-lifetime dream trip. Yes, we watch our favorite YouTuber video exploits of taking trip after trip to Africa on photo safaris, usually on assignment or running a photography workshop. The rest of us, maybe, just maybe, get to do it once in our lifetime. Well, this was my turn to make some wildlife photography on a safari in the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya. Here are 3 tips for having a great wildlife photo safari in Kenya.
Tip 1: Planning For A Safari
My photography trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya was in the planning for over a year, and as the time came closer, so did the intensity of my anticipation. Where was my passport? How do I get a Visa? And oh yeah, where's my shot record? Thankfully I only needed a few of the shots, since I had received so many while serving in the military that didn't need updating. Make sure you plan your shot extravaganza with weeks to spare, as some of these shots have to be given well before you trip. Also, Yellow Fever is a required shot for entry into Kenya. So if you're planning a trip, don't forget about your shots!
Another major planning concern before leaving was whether I had enough camera gear, and whether it would be adequate for a safari. Adding a Fujinon XF 100-400mm lens, priced at around $1,700, was beyond my budget. However, adding another Fujifilm X-T2 body to the arsenal was within grasp, on sale for only $900. This would allow me to use my Fujinon XF 55-200mm on one body for the longer shots, and the Fujinon XF 18-55mm on the other for the close-up shots. This way, I wouldn’t miss out on anything while trying to change my lenses and getting mass amounts of dust on the sensor. Win-Win!
Interested in learning more about my camera lens choice for a safari? Check out this article at GenXploreMore.com.
Lucky for us, we had a friend living in Nairobi who was able to set us up with a safari deal with Sunland Safaris, staying at Mara Bush Camp in the Masai Mara. Such a beautiful place with fantastic staff! The food there was great, and the service was exceptional. I strongly advise checking this place out if you’re planning to take a photo safari in Kenya. There is even a photographer’s den with a bar where you can get your wifi on, as well as review your day’s images.
We were picked up by our driver and safari guide, John, in the early morning hours in Nairobi, which started our journey west towards Masai Mara. Along the route we passed alongside the Great Rift Valley, but it was too foggy to see beyond 50 meters.
Some shorter Acacia trees on a foggy morning in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya.
As we continued down the hill, we were greeted by many of what I believe to be some of the most beautiful trees on earth. They were the Acacia trees, and they have the perfect shape for photographing. Although these trees are completely covered with very large thorns, giraffes love to eat the leaves from the branches.
There were several small villages that we passed through that were bustling with locals buying, selling and trading food and other goods.
When we finally arrived at the gates to the Masai Mara Reserve, we could already see some animals roaming around. First up was a pair of warthogs with two Thompson’s Gazelles. Using the Fujinon 55-200mm lens, this first image was taken at 148mm. Plenty of room to capture the scene.
Warthogs grazing in the Masai Mara, Kenya, with two Thompson’s Gazelles in the background.
Next up were several zebras grazing, and this image was made at 95mm. Obviously, I could have moved in quite a lot more for a tighter image of the zebras, but I was looking to add some of the surrounding environment as well. Although this was only the drive into our camp, I was very hopeful that my chosen lens would work quite well for my game drives.
Zebras Grazing While on Safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya
When we saw our first lioness, she was a bit off in the distance. With this image I pushed the lens out to 200mm. She looks pretty small in this image, and I was hoping this wasn't going to be like the entire safari. Since this was my first safari, I had know idea what to expect with regards to how close the animals would be.
A Lioness Spotted While on Safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya. 200mm focal length on the lens.
After we checked into our tents at the Mara Bush Camp, we had a quick lunch and then headed out for our first game drive. The excitement was palpable, and we were all ready to see what the Mara had in store for us.
Tip 2: Use An Experienced Safari Guide
Our guide, John, was a very experienced safari guide and knew exactly how to position the jeep for the best shots. Trust me, this is a very important element to having a successful safari. A driver who knows his job and does it well, will make you a happy photographer. Another tip for getting great shots is to ensure your driver shuts the vehicle down at every stop to ensure sharp images. Although each game guide will have different ways of getting you from one animal to the next, and different ways of finding these animals, they all use radios to network with each other when someone makes the big find.
The images in the grid below were all taken within the first two hours of our first game drive. Of course, we were visiting toward the end of the great Wildebeest migration, so there was an abundance of wildlife everywhere.
Being the first to arrive at an animal sighting is what you want as a photographer or as an animal lover. As soon as the other drivers see your jeep stopped for longer than a few minutes, the jeep swarm is on. Hopefully before the swarm happens, you will have enough images and your driver can move on to find other wildlife.
A younger lion resting in some shade in Masai Mara.
It didn’t take long before our guide spotted a pride of numerous lions. This young lion above was working on growing in his mane, and still had quite a pride with him. There were also several lionesses and two lion cubs. We were close enough to the pride that we didn’t need any super-zoom lenses to photograph these beautiful beasts. Although the image above was shot at the long end of my 200mm lens, no cropping was done to the final image. At 24 megapixels for this image, there’s quite a bit of room to crop and get a much tighter image of this lion.
A young lion portrait photographed in the Masai Mara, Kenya.
The photograph above is of another, even younger lion in the pride. From the numerous photographs at various angles of this lion, it appeared he had either an infection in his left eye, or a serious injury to it. He quickly grew tired of us and got up to move to another location. The expression on his face in the image below gives me a chuckle every time I look at it. His bigger brother in the image below shows a serious lion, keeping hi eyes on me.
A young lion stares me down as I photograph him.
A lion keeping his eye on me as I photograph him on safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya.
It seemed that we were being very lucky with the wildlife we were able to photograph so early into the first half of the first day. Only a couple hours in and we had seen four of the Big 5 of Africa. We had been able to photograph elephants, buffalo, lions, and we had just spotted our first leopard.
A lone leopard was making his way through the bush in the Masai Mara. He stopped for a second for a photo-op before disappearing back into the bush.
To round off the tip to hire an experienced safari guide, make sure you let him do his job! If you do your due diligence in hiring a good guide, he more than likely will have years and years of experience, especially with Photographers!
Most of all, don't forget to enjoy the safari!
Tip 3: Editing Your Images
If you're looking to sell your images and win awards from your safari images, be prepared for some extra heavy editing in post production. The images above from my safari were given basic editing in lightroom, and nothing more. Many of these could be great images, but as they are, they're simply very expensive snapshots. Just look at “Lion” images on Google or Pinterest to get an idea of exactly how much post processing goes into the final images. See what I'm saying?
I'll start right out the gate and tell you flat out, I'm no Photoshopping master, not even close. As a photographer this is my biggest problem, and I need to spend some time learning how to really edit my images. Photoshop is no slouch, however, and the learning curve is a bit high.
Elephant image edited in “Low-Key” style.
The image above is of a beautiful elephant with an unremarkable background. I tried many edits to really make the image special, and the “low-key” style was my favorite result. More of a “fine-art” image in black and white with the background completely removed, this makes a striking image that moves the viewer. The image was edited in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. It only took about 20 minutes for me to get the final result.
Another edit of the elephant above with a sky replacement.
This is the same image as the low-key elephant above, but with a dramatic black and white finish. The sky in the scene was a dull clear blue and had virtually no interest. I used Luminar 4 to replace the sky with one with a few clouds. This added a little more visual interest and more drama to the image.
The image above of this stunning lion was shot at 82mm, was edited in Adobe Lightroom, and then finished in Luminar 4. Basic color corrections and sharpening in Lightroom didn’t quite do it for the image, so more contrast, clarity and colors were adjusted in Luminar 4 to give more punch to the image.
Conclusion
I hope you have found these three tips for photo safaris to be helpful, and welcome any comments and suggestions!