You don’t need professional kit to come home with beautiful safari photos. You do need the right lens, a few good habits, and an idea of what to expect. Uganda is a special challenge, because you’ll shoot bright savanna one day and dark rainforest the next. Here’s what works.
Gear that earns its place
- A telephoto zoom. Something in the 100–400mm range (or equivalent) covers most wildlife from a vehicle. A 70–300mm is a good budget option.
- A wider lens for landscapes, people and animals close to the vehicle. A second camera body, or even your phone, saves swapping lenses in the dust.
- A bridge camera with a big zoom is a light, affordable alternative if you don’t want to carry lenses.
- Plenty of batteries and memory cards. Some vehicles and lodges have limited charging, so bring spares.
- A bean bag. Rested on the vehicle’s window frame or roof, it steadies a long lens better than a tripod. Bring it empty and fill it with rice or beans on arrival.
- Protection. A rain cover or dry bag for forest treks and boat trips, and a blower and cloth for dust.
Settings for the savanna
- Freeze the action. Use a fast shutter speed: around 1/1000s for running animals and birds in flight, and at least 1/500s for most wildlife.
- Let ISO float. Auto-ISO with a fixed shutter speed and a wide aperture is a great starting point.
- Focus on the eyes. Use continuous autofocus and a single focus point, or eye detection if your camera has it.
- Use burst mode for action, and pick the best frame later.
- Chase the light. The first and last two hours of the day give warm light and more active animals. That’s why game drives start early.
- Turn off the engine. Ask your guide to switch it off for a sharp shot. Vibration spoils long exposures.
Gorillas and chimps in dark forest
Under the canopy of Bwindi or Kibale, light is low and contrast is high. And flash is not allowed. The Uganda Wildlife Authority’s rules for gorilla and chimp tracking both ban flash photography.
- Raise the ISO. Don’t be afraid of ISO 3200, 6400 or more. A slightly noisy sharp photo beats a clean blurry one.
- Open up. Use your widest aperture. A fast lens, such as f/2.8 or f/4, helps a lot.
- Slow down with care. Gorillas often sit still, so 1/250s or even slower can work with stabilisation. Chimps move fast, so you’ll need more speed.
- Expose for the face. Black fur fools light meters. Dial in some negative exposure compensation, and check that faces aren’t lost in shadow or highlights aren’t burnt out.
- Use the silent shutter if your camera has one.
- Put the camera down. You only get one hour. Make sure you spend some of it just watching.
Read more about the trek itself in our chimpanzee tracking guide and our gorilla trekking guide.
Boats: some of the best photo platforms
Boat trips put you at water level with hippos, elephants, crocodiles and waterbirds. The Kazinga Channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park and the launch trip to the foot of Murchison Falls are two of our favourites.
What about drones?
Our advice: leave the drone at home. In Uganda, drones must be registered and cleared through the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, and flying in a national park also needs the wildlife authority’s permission. Filming with a drone in a park is charged as a commercial filming activity. In Rwanda, a permit is needed for any drone flight, and foreign visitors can’t register a drone themselves. Kenya and Tanzania also regulate drones through their civil aviation authorities. For a holiday, the paperwork usually isn’t realistic, and drones disturb wildlife.
Practical tips
- Practise with your camera before you travel. Safari isn’t the place to read the manual.
- Back up your photos every evening.
- Always ask before photographing people. See our safari etiquette guide.
- Tell us you’re a keen photographer. We can arrange a vehicle with a pop-up roof, fewer guests, and extra time at sightings.
Whether you shoot with a phone or a long lens, we’ll plan your safari around the best light and the best places to use it. Get in touch and tell us what you’d love to photograph.
