Join us to learn how to take really spectacular safari photos!
You’re going on a safari? Hurray for you! You will have a truly fantastic experience! In this post, I am going to show you some easy safari photo tips that will help you take stunning and beautiful photos.
I’ve been a travel photographer for 30+ years, and my preferred camera is the Canon SX70. It takes amazing pictures as a point-and-shoot camera in Auto mode. You do not need a fancy camera with huge lenses! You just need a really good zoom.
Before the Safari Photo Tips – the Equipment
- #1 – Choose the right camera equipment – I wrote a post about the best camera to take on a safari and why I chose my camera = great zoom, high quality images and ease of use.
- #2 – Become super familiar with the functionality of your camera before you go. Take it to your local zoo at home and practice shooting different animals. Make sure you know how to zoom and how to focus.
The Northern Tanzania safari we did was 9 days of guided game drives in a Toyota Land Cruiser. We visited 5 national parks (Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater)
On the Safari Photo Tips – the Experience
- #3 – BE PATIENT! Sometimes, the animal will just be lying there sleeping. But if you wait, they will eventually lift their head, get up and move around, yawn to show you their big teeth, start eating, start honeymooning, etc.
- #4 – Once they start moving, switch your camera into it’s rapid-fire mode. I use this a lot when shooting animals in motion or birds in flight so I don’t miss anything. This is super important when you have animals interacting with each other
- #5 – Take a mix of zoomed in shots and wide angle. You want to show the animal in its natural environment, as well as the details of the animal. With the camera I use, it’s super fast to switch back and forth (without swapping lenses).
- #6 – Show size by giving some comparative perspective to make more interesting photos
- #7 – Place your subject somewhere other than the very center of your photo for a more interesting composition. It also shows some of the environment around them.
- #8 – Elephants shoot best when their ears are flapped out instead of tucked back.
- And shoot their trunks in different positions, besides just hanging straight down
To see more photos and video of the animals
we saw in Tanzania, visit our Photo Album.
- #9 – Focus on the activities of daily living – Once you’ve taken all the “standard shots” of any animal, try to focus on the more unique shots of them doing things like mating, pooping, eating, bathing, caring for their young.
- #10 – And then get detailed close-ups of their faces, feet, skin patterns, hair, ears, whiskers, and tails
To see more photos and video of the animals
we saw in Tanzania, visit our Photo Album.
- #11 – Don’t forget to capture their battle scars – because life in the wild can be rough!
- #12 – Always respect the wildlife and let them go about their activities without interrupting them. No whistling or calling out to them. No slamming the car door to get their attention.
I like to send them silent mental messages, thinking things like – “C’mon buddy, look over this way.” 😊 Surprisingly, that works for me more often than not! - #13 – Every so often, stop shooting and just enjoy the animals and the experience of being in Africa, without trying to capture it. Burn it into your memory instead of your SD card!
- #14 – Use Video instead of Stills – I tend to shoot still pictures and I shoot fast. But sometimes I stop and think “Wait – I should be shooting video instead of all of these stills!”
Here’s the Great Wildebeest Migration video, shot with my Canon SX70:
- #15 – Use a bean-bag to rest your camera on while shooting out the roof of the Safari Land Cruiser. This helps to steady the camera. Some people bring an empty pouch, then buy beans or rice when they get to Africa to fill it up.
- #16 – Back up your safari photos every night when you get back to your camp/lodging. I back mine up to my laptop so that if something happens to my camera (like it falls down a ravine), I haven’t lost them all.
After the Safari Photo Tips – the Evaluation
When you get home from safari with thousands of photos, what do you do with them?
- #17 – Delete all the bad ones – the ones that are blurry, way off center that cropping can’t fix, the head is down in the grass and not visible, it’s the butt of the elephant rather than the face, the subject is half behind a tree – Delete ALL of these!
If I’ve been shooting in rapid mode, I can quickly get hundreds of photos of the same animal. I choose the best 4-5 and quickly delete the rest.
My main two criteria for keeping or deleting images are:
1) Will it make me feel happy when it pops up on my screen saver?
2) Does it help me tell my story to someone who wasn’t there with me?
- #18 – Crop the images – Use a cropping tool in whatever software you use to remove all the “unnecessary” or “distracting” elements – things like excess amounts of sky, dirt on the ground between you and the subject, the window of the safari vehicle that doesn’t add value to the shot.
Even portions of nearby animals that aren’t fully in the frame – I take those out too.
I also crop out any man-made elements that I can – electric wires, other vehicles, signs, fences. Don’t forget to save the edited images!
- #19 – Share your images – Pick out your very best images to share with friends and family on social media or in a slide show on your phone. Please don’t be that person who uploads 450 shots – just pick the best 15-20 shots for sharing.
Before I share to social media or post on the blog, I make a smaller, compressed version of the ones I want to share. This helps them load a lot faster on the web. - #20 – Enjoy your photos! I have all my travel photos rotating on my laptop screen saver and on a digital frame in my office. I really enjoy when an image pops up and I can fondly recall where I was when I took the picture. It brings me great joy, especially when I’m not traveling.
Conclusion: Safari Photo Tips
I hope you found these easy safari photo to be helpful as you prepare to go on your African safari. Were the examples helpful to see?
The main things to remember are:
- Get comfortable with your camera before you go, especially the zoom and focus, and where the rapid-fire setting is
- Always be alert and ready to shoot
- Shoot a mix of close up and wide angle shots
- Shoot a wide variety of different things – animals, angles, details, activities.
More Information About Tanzania & Safaris:
Here are some more posts about Tanzania and Safaris, including some that I’m still working on. If you’d like to receive emails when I’ve posted new content to the site, please complete the short form above.
- Best Camera for Safari? Simple to Use & Stunning Results
- Amazing Animals In Tanzania: A Safari Photo Adventure
- How to Take Amazing Wildlife Safari Photos – 20 Easy Tips
- What’s an African Safari really like? All the Good & Not-so-Good Parts
- What to Pack for an African Safari (+ What to Leave at Home)
- What To Expect On A Safari – 12 Helpful Things to Know
- Tanzania Travel Facts & Important Tips
Posts Coming Soon:
- Birds in Tanzania – Our Photo Album
- How to choose the right safari for you and why we chose the one we did
- What animals can you see in Tanzania?
- Safari FAQs
More on Bird and Wildlife Watching Around the World
- Colorful Birds of Costa Rica – A Photo Album
- British Columbia Birds: Birdwatching Adventures in Vancouver & Beyond
- Where are the Best Places to Find Birds in Monteverde, Costa Rica?
- Colorful Birds in Panama – A Bird-watcher’s Dream Come True!
- Best Camera for Safari? Simple to Use & Stunning Results
- How to Take Amazing Wildlife Safari Photos – 20 Easy Tips
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