Introduction to Tourism Photography in East Africa: Equipment Preparation and Precautions

Lead: In recent years, more and more people travel to special scenic spots to take photos, but few people write about how to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, so although the technology is not good, I still write and share some of my experiences in East Africa.

Introduction to Tourism Photography in East Africa: Ask questions before preparing equipment and precautions.

The first thing is to photograph what, where and when. In fact, East Africa (in this case, Kenya and Tanzania) is nothing more than taking pictures of animals and scenery, and many people's first choice is June-September, because that is the time of animal migration, and thousands of wildebeests can often be seen, among which killing cats and culling crocodiles are the most famous. Humanely speaking, it is mainly the local market and Marseille village.

The way to travel is to use various means of transportation to go to national parks with different landforms, and then play GAME DRIVE twice a day, that is, the driver drives you to the national parks to find different animals to shoot. You can't get off at the national park.

Because the theme is too different, every photographer's preferences and quality requirements are different. It is difficult to write a choice of photographic equipment that everyone will recognize. I can only share some of my accessories and methods for your reference.

Double fuselage

You never know which fuselage will break, so I always bring two fuselage. Personally, I chose Canon 5D III+7D, mainly because they used the same lens, memory card and battery, which was very convenient to carry. This combination not only has a safe backup, but also can be equipped with lenses with different focal lengths, which avoids the dilemma of temporarily changing lenses but not taking pictures, and greatly reduces the chance of dust.

▲ Canon 100-400mm I mostly use this for close-ups.

The lens you need

I give priority to light, so I brought APS-C a 24- 105mm, 100-400mm, 50mm fixed-focus lens, 18-200mm travel lens, two fuselage, and this combination can cover the focal length of 24-400mm (APS-

Because most hotels in African national parks save electricity, they still need large aperture lenses. I chose 50mm/F 1.4 mainly because it is small. As for 18-200mm, it is mainly used in situations where different focal lengths are needed, but the lens cannot be replaced in harsh environment, so it is not suitable for two sets of fuselage. Hot air balloon is a good example. I used the connection diagram, not the super wide-angle part. Because you want to keep the background when you travel, and most of you travel during the day, you hardly need a large aperture lens.

▲50mm/f 1.4 is very suitable for shooting in hotels with insufficient light.

tripod

The chances of using a tripod in Africa are not high, because you can't get off in national parks, and it doesn't make much sense to put a tripod in the car, because there are many photographers walking around the car, which is not stable at all. The only possibility is to shoot night scenes and stellar orbits in hotels. The problem is that I am not interested in either topic. Africa is one of the malaria epidemic areas, and there are many mosquitoes at night, so I don't want to take risks. I recommend simple sandbags in the car, so that people can put cameras near the windows and so on to reduce the chance of shaking hands.

? ▲ I prefer to use a picture to a wide angle for big scenes.

▲ Everyone spends time composing music and telling stories.

Four batteries

Although the battery life is good at present, the battery condition will be checked at the same time, unlike the previous sudden death, but more prepared. First of all, because photos are often taken outside. Although it is unlikely, there is still a chance to use up a whole battery in one day.

The second is that the time to go back to the hotel to rest is sometimes short, and there is not enough time to charge, so at this time, one battery is directly left to charge in the hotel, and there are only three in the two fuselage, which is not too much.

▲ The compression effect of the far end of the travel mirror is also very suitable for long-distance objects.

Bring as many memory cards (or large memory cards) as possible.

Basically, people who come to Africa for the first time can't help but keep pressing the shutter. After all, everything is fresh. Everyone either uses the largest drawing file or RAW, six hours a day, and the memory card is used up in a few days. Personally, I hate carrying a lot of memory cards, and it is easy to get confused, lost and duplicated when inputting files, so I always buy 64G high-speed cards. Similarly, this will cause the risk of memory card damage, so I only buy SanDisk that I like to use. After a trip, I brought a 64GB SD card, a 64GB CF card and a 32GB CF card. Actually, I only used less than half of it in the end.

▲ Your focal length is never enough in Africa.

A computer capable of retouching pictures

Although there is not much time, I basically have time to use the computer, except for the network connected with civilized society, which is to view and back up my photos. No matter how good photographers I have met, they also have the habit of checking their photos to make sure that they feel the same as they think. These small aperture, shutter, focus and noise ratios and differences are very important to some photographers, but the small screen on the camera is not easy to see. So, bring a laptop.

Move your feet more and try different compositions and techniques.

This is really self-exertion. If we can say a set of principles, it is meaningless for everyone to shoot exactly the same. Try different compositions, shoot combinations, check the results and then correct them, which is also one of the joys of photography: "I look forward to preparing and checking the results."

▲ Take the football field behind the giraffe.

▲ Birds led by cattle

Other preventive measures

It's fucking to take a camera to the polar regions. The so-called "drip prevention and dust prevention" is insurance, not guarantee. Personally, it is strongly recommended that the battery charger be wired, and then the multi-country plug card can be used, because the plug and USB can be connected at the same time, and the precautions for cleaning the LENSPEN lens should also be brought.

Many people say that traveling should be seen with eyes. Africa is different, because people often look through binoculars, so it is not bad to use a camera. At the same time, East Africa is also the most suitable scenic spot for two people to travel, because most of the time they wait for animals in the car, which will not cause physical load.

I never leave my body, because I am afraid of losing my photographic equipment, so I always check it by hand, especially in Africa. It should be noted that the weight of hand-held consignment is limited to about seven kilograms, and tripods cannot be placed because of Fei 'an regulations.

▲ The valley is decorated with baboons.

▲ Do you really need to take a hot air balloon from a wide angle to a distant view?

My friends and I use Quan Huafu, APS-C, mobile phones, DC, and negative film machines. There are big ternary lenses, small ternary lenses, tourist lenses and fixed-focus lenses. It can only be said that it is a matter of personal preference. I have been to Africa twice, about two months. It is strongly recommended that people who have advanced requirements for photographic quality use certain quality equipment. After all, the cost of going is not low, and there is no need to save money in this place (photographic equipment can be preserved and good lenses can be easily resold).

I don't recommend using "biplane flow" or monocular in every polar region. The south and north poles are very suitable for one camera and one mirror, and the island is very suitable for waterproof cameras. After that, I will introduce them one by one.

Don't try to shoot a masterpiece, just relax. Anyway, that photo will keep your happy feelings and memories. After all, 80% of these photos are not used to win prizes or make money, so why care?

▲ Composition can better explain the beauty of photographers than technology.