Some tips for those would-be game fotoggers...

For reasonably good game photography, lenses up to 300mm and as bright as you can get them are the best. For birds, up to 600mm. Some zooms these days are nice, and longer lenses are more easily had with image stabilization - the game shooter's friend! (Very few "point and shoot" cameras have sufficient focal length for halfway decent game photography; do not ever count the "digital zoom" as part of usable focal length - "digital" merely narrows down on a portion of the photo, so you have fewer pixels, and a crap photograph. That being said, I have seen folks get some very good shots with 200mm... and wide angle gets you those dramatic scenes (35mm equivalent would be 28mm or better.)

Don't forget the macro - "small stuff" like the ants emerging from a host acacia thorn, insects, flowers, interesting patterns in a tree trunk, etc. add a dimensionality to your photo journal.

The usual rule of thumb for handheld shooting is to have your shutter speed at least match the lens focal length, e.g a 200mm lens is handholdable when your shutter speed is 1/250 second or above, a 300mm 1/250th if you are very good, or 1/500th. An IS lens allows you to drop a couple of shutter speeds from this rule, e.g. 200mm lens 1/60th if you are careful, a 300mm at 1/125th or so. IS (Image Stabilisation) will allow better usually - one or two stops better.

Handholding your camera with long lens (even with stabilized systems) means taking a very stable stance - prone or seated is better than standing - bracing your body, and the camera with locked arms tucked into your body. Use any immovable object you can as a brace - beanbag, tabletop or mini-tripod a tree, fence, rock... and be sure to have the driver shut the engine off! Practice breath control - if you have ever shot a firearm in the military or competition, those are the skills you use - get your stable stance, try to keep arms close to your body centre if you are standing, get relaxed, inhale, begin exhaling, hold your breath and squ-e-e-eze the shutter button slowwwwly.

Arms apart, feet together, breathing fast because this lion is the ultimate, jam down on the shutter button - you will have a shaky, blurry unsharp photograph for your efforts.

Tripods - it's hard to use a large tripod from a vehicle rooftop hatch! I take my "shooter's buddy" when I go game viewing / photographing. This is basically a trouser leg end, preferably of soft material like corduroy. I sew one end shut, use a zipper or "Velcro" at the other end, and sew it to allow use of a ZipLoc or similar bag. Travelling, it weighs next to nothing and takes no room at all, but when I arrive, I can use rice, millet or whatever seed is available and make myself a "bean bag" I can rest the camera on when the bean bag is in turn lying on the vehicle roof / coaming. At the end of the trip, you can "recycle" the seed to your driver or feed the birds...

A lens shade will help - protect the lens from damage, and your photos from the light, since you are less able to control light angles from a vehicle. And filters are very useful - every lens needs a filter to protect it, usually a UV... but for some scenics you might like a polarizing filter to minimize reflections / darken skies and waters. Don't get the cheapest filters - a fine lens filtered through crap glass gives you guess what kind of imagery? And of course, keep them clean - I have seen expensive lenses take lousy images because the filter was allowed to gather grunge.

If you use film, select a variety of ISO speeds - to estimate what you will lneed, think of the "rule of sunny sixteen." In bright sun, your film ISO can be your guide for selecting yrou shutter speed (assuming no meter and a front-lit subject.) ISO 25 film with a 300mm lens... let's see, f16 and 1/30 is OK, f4 at 1/500th will give you handholdability and put the focus emphasis on the critter / target, in full sunny bright conditions. Dawn, dusk, you will need to add at least three more stops of light, so select film accordingly, as some animals are crepuscular and you definitely want to take advantage of the dramatic "golden hour" lighting before dawn and dusk.

For relative ease at airports, some of which do NOT like to hand inspect your film and may have poorly adjusted x-ray machines, I load all my film into clear (Fuji) containers and carry them in a plastic sack. Most of the time, a smile and handing over the sack(s) will do it - but I have had one or two pills at places like London Heathrow and iirc Jo'burg smile back and run it through the x-ray; at least with the plastic see through, they didn't stop it to zap it all lengthily to see what was in the lead-protected bag. And NEVER put film in your checked luggage - the CTX machines they use in many airports have a high possibility of fogging your film. (What is this "fillum" stuff, anyway? Anyone still using it? Yes!)

Redundancy: Take more film or memory chips than you think you will need; twice as much is not too much, as you will learn. You may find local prices exorbitant, dodgy brands or film that is past-dated or poorly stored. Handle it all carefully - no fingerprints on the memory chip conductors, a small cloth insulated cooler for film, take care of your image media and it will take care of yor imagery. Take extra lenses that can fill in, and if you are serious you will of course have a spare camera body. Take plenty of fresh batteries - rechargables are the best, of course, but be sure to take a multi-voltage charger and adapter plugs - even a 12v auto lighter plug is handy.

Protection: DUST is a big enemy of camera gear in Africa and other safari destinations. You will likely travel on unsurfaced roads, and the dust can infiltrate and jam up your gear, land on the sensor, etc. Take ZipLoc bags for everything (dust and moisture protection,) an ear syringe and fine brushes, lens tissue and fluid. You will find yourself using these from time to time, even if you don't at home. Be sure to protect from water - rain , high humidity, etc.

Also be sure to provide cushioning, as jouncing around in the Serengeti for ten hours can be harsh on cameras. A good camera bag is padded, convenient to use and seals enough to keep most dust out. And provide protection from theft - your gear can be stolen and fenced for what a local might make in three years, but I have seen tourists steal and scam as well. I could do an entire post on securing your gear...

Tools: Basics would include a rubber jar unscrewing pad for filters screwed on too tight, an eqar syringe and lens tissue, plus a reliable lens cleaning fluid, and a camel's hair brush to keep it all clean and dust-free. A dark bag for film cameras to remove a torn film can be improvised with a couple of heavy jackets nested inside each other at night. A small screwdriver to screw the rare occasional screw becoming dislodged by use and vibration.

Subjects: Animals generally do not hassle you, but they do not cooperate either, so be patient, if you have the chance sit and observe a while to get interesting action like "flehmen" behaviours, etc. ANY critter can be interesting - baboon spiders, reptiles, birds, the bats hanging over the bar at Ndutu Lodge, night critters in the tree next to your tent, that vervet monkey stealing someone's hardcooked egg by the waterhole... Night photos are great, but be aware there are proper, and improper, times to use a high-powered strobe (and a point-and-shoot flash will NOT illuminate that elephant thirty yards away at the waterhole.)

Scenery doesn't move around too much either... but some scenery is often a "NO! NO!" in many countries, especially those where we go to see game animals. Usually, any "military structure" is not wise to photograph: this would obviously include a military barracks tanks, vehicles... but could include bridges, airports, aircraft at airports (yes, even airliners,) the nation's flag. And even in countries populated by FTers, immigration and customs halls are generally verboten for photos. Read up, ask your guide, check travel sites before you shoot - or suffer the possible fate of a group of British air enthusiasts who photographed airliners in Greece - and had an "enforced holiday" of nineteen days in jail. Imagine if they had been shooting military aircraft in a country with armed hostilities going on or imminently possible with the neighbours...

People - some may not like being photographed, or in some very touristy areas may demand to be paid. Be careful of adults / kids asking to be photographed - it might be they just want to be in your memories, it may be they will demand money after the fact, when you have little control over the asking "fee." Ask your guide, or ask your would-be subject; some guides will arrange your permission and / or pay a reasonable tip on your behalf. If they say "no" leave it at that; it is better to miss a photo than trying to deal with a hostile crowd, stones, or even a spear chucked at your lens. And in most safari countries, do NOT photograph people in uniform (military, police, etc.) A medium tele/zoom can get you some very nice intimate candid photo shots.

Addendum: I spent some of summer 2007 in the Baltic, and took some seminars from National Geographic, etc. freelance photographer Tomasz Tomaszewski or visit www.nationalgeographic.com, who passed on some very good information, and later Southeast Asia with Tom O'Neill (NG Senior Writer) - which I will now pass on to you.

For digital photographers: NEVER attempt to edit or delete your images whilst in the camera; the viewfinder / viewing area will not give you a substantial enough image to do so, much less to determine sharpness, and messing with the directory can end up costing you all of your hard-won images. To repeat: deleting some photos on a chip to make room for more is to court disaster.

If you use memory chips, take the highest capacity you can, and fast enough to keep up with your camera's video and photo write speeds - there are several good manufacturers out there. Keep them protected - moisture and dust are the enemy. If you get a chance somewhere, you can have them backed up to one of the new very small portable hard drive devices you can download to without a computer on hand, or (less desirable but better than nothing,) DVDs before you go home.

Choose reliable memory you have formatted individually before beginning to shoot and keep scrupulously clean – e.g. avoid fingerprints on the chip contacts. When you are done with shooting and get home, re-format the chip before using again. (Hint: I format, then add a photo from my computer - basically a photo of my screen with name and contact information - as "photo #1.") If at all possible back your images up - there are small portable hard rives out there that do not need a computer, and DVDs / CDs are another option.

Shoot the highest quality image possible - it will take more memory to do that, but quality is important - RAW format or the highest you can, TIFF preferable to lossy JPG, thank you. You and your viewers will appreciate that care later.

If you shot film, you were taught to underexpose; with digital, what you do not record you can not add to / enhance later; some overexposure is better than some underexposure. You can adjust the brightness later. Or, as many cameras allow for autobracketing, why not?

With digital cameras, your histogram is your light meter and your friend. You want to see the photo information as a mountain in the middle of your histogram display, or at least not see “clipping” at the origin and end of the histogram.

Be aware – JPG is a “lossy” compression process, and every time you open that JPG shot, when you close it, it will re-compress inexactly, and you will degrade the image a little more every time. Better: as soon as possible download the images - using as little "intermediary" software as possible (the computer's operating system is best,) and make archival backups you will never open and close. If at all possible, use software like Adobe Lightroom (extremely safe and you can batch process, add information, etc.) and convert your images to PNG format. (The other formats may not remain standards for long - National Geographic, Adobe, etc. got together and agreed to establish the new PNG format as THE archival solution.) (Adobe Lightroom is good for many things, including cataloging your images; get Scott Kirby's book for best use.)

Archive your images on the absolutely best media you can - DVDs should not be generic ones, but rather the best quality - some are gold-washed - for enduring image preservation. Use only the best and you should use the lowest speed available to write the disc. Speed kills... images when they are improperly written, even if you use the Verify function. And if at all possible, use an external CD / DCD burner - burning generates heat, so pros avoid using the computer's drive. (Remember, these hints are from people who make their living and reputation from images they shoot.)

I'll read this over later and maybe add - but if you see anything that needs to be corrected or added for the amateur photographer's comfort, please fill in...