Earlier this year, I had the incredible experience of going on my first safari (and first visit to Africa). Although I am primarily a portrait and event photographer, I do enjoy wildlife and landscape photography as a hobby. I thought it would be interesting and hopefully helpful to take you along with my full approach – where I went, what I brought, how I backed up my photos, and the experience of being there. Finally, if I were to do it over again, what would I have done differently?
This is part one of a two-part series documenting the trip. Below, I’ll cover my choice of locations, camera equipment, and backing up my images. Part two will be coming within the next few days.
Table of Contents
Deciding Where to Go
When you start researching where to go on safari, you will quickly realize two things:
- There are tons of options and safari tour operators
- The prices of these options vary dramatically
It becomes clear that where you go will have a significant impact on your experience, along with what you see. Some animals are more common in certain places than others (and some are only seen in small areas). Also, the type of vehicles, and where those vehicles can go, will depend on where you are. My wife and I knew we had no interest in self driving for this trip.
We went in April/May because this was the only time of year that worked for our schedules. This is (slightly) off season, so we looked for places to go that would still have abundant wildlife. Just like in much of the world, seasonal differences can have a huge impact on different locations. Places that may be too dry to support much wildlife part of the year may be the ideal place during the rainy season. But places with tons of water can be tricky to find wildlife because they can spread out more.
We ultimately settled on Zimbabwe and Botswana for a combination of three reasons:
- We wanted to see lots of elephants. Elephants are my wife’s favorite animal, and we wanted to make sure we didn’t struggle to find them. Botswana has the largest elephant population in the world.
- We wanted to go somewhere that had open-air vehicles, not the bus style. This was largely for photography reasons, but also a motion sickness/fresh air consideration
- We wanted to experience a variety of animals and types of places (in particular, both a national park and a private reserve where you can off-road).
Picking a tour operator was a more difficult decision. Typically, my wife and I book our own things, but in this case we wanted to have someone else do it. Between all the vehicles, bush planes, border crossings, park entrances, etc., we felt it was worth enlisting the help of a pro. We requested quotes from several operators, and ultimately booked the one who we felt gave us what we wanted for the right price, and was also very responsive, as we had MANY questions.
The result:
Both Zimbabwe and Botswana were incredible countries, with amazing wildlife and warm people. We first went to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, visited an elephant sanctuary, and then went into Botswana to go into the bush. We stayed at two camps in Botswana, one outside of Chobe National Park, and one on a private reserve in the Okavango Delta. Both were fantastic. They took great care of us, put us in position to see amazing wildlife, and fed us very well.
The first day, we arrived in the afternoon, so they took us out for our first drive that evening. We went down to the water in Chobe, and it was truly a full-on Lion King experience. We saw elephants, zebra, lions, monkeys, giraffes, kudu, and more all down at the water. It was like “wow,” ok, we are really here!
We were also really happy with the variety of experiences from visiting both the National Park and also a private reserve. They were very different from one another, and I’m glad we did them both. Our personal experience was that Chobe had more abundant wildlife, but that we got to see more unique moments at the reserve.
What to Bring
1. Cameras and Lenses
- Nikon Z9
- Nikon Z8
- Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4
- Nikon Z 40mm f/2
- Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8
- Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7
- Nikon Z 400 f/2.8 TC
Of all the decisions I needed to make before the trip, the lens combination was by far the one I spent the most time on (and agonizing over). I own the Nikon Z 180-600 and the Nikon Z 70-200, and they are both fantastic lenses. In fact, when this trip first came up, I thought I would bring those two plus my 24-70mm and call it a day. However, I was fortunate and had the opportunity to bring a 400mm f/2.8 for testing via Photography Life, and that was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit the 400mm f/2.8 plus the 180-600mm and 70-200mm f/2.8 in my bag. So I decided to go with some smaller lenses to pair with the 400mm. The Tamron 35-150mm and 150-500mm seemed to fit the bill! The 150-500mm is somewhat lighter than the Nikon 180-600, but significantly smaller. In an ideal world, I would have brought the Nikon 180-600 instead of the Tamron 150-500 because I like it better (for the reasons I described in this article), but only the Tamron fit in my bag.
The Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 was my “just in case” lens, and I figured there was a good chance I wouldn’t use it. But in case the situation warranted an ultra-wide, I didn’t want to go on a trip like this and not have anything wider than 35mm.
The Nikon Z 40mm f/2 is such a small lens that I travel with it on the body as a lens cap. In addition to the Africa portion of our trip, we spent a few days in London on the way, and the 40mm is my favorite street photography lens.
The camera decision was an easy one. No way I would have brought only one body, and I had the Z9 and Z8. The only dilemma was if I should bring a third body (which would have been a Nikon Z6 II). In the end, the decision was made for me, as I didn’t have the room or weight allowance anyway! If you are doing a private safari with more relaxed space considerations, you could consider bringing three cameras and three lenses, each paired together. But after being there, I think this would have been more of a hassle than it would be worth. Having the two bodies with two mounted lenses (usually the 150-500mm and the 400mm f/2.8) was perfect.
2. Other Photo Gear
- Lots of memory cards
- 2x batteries for the Z9
- 2x batteries for the Z8
- CFExpress Type B Card Reader
- 3x Samsung SSD 2TB Hard Drives
- iPad Air
- Apple Pencil
- Mini USB C Hub
- Cleaning swabs, rocket blowers, etc.
- GorillaPod mini-tripod
From a photography standpoint, the Z9 and Z8 were a good compliment, and great redundancy since they can do essentially all the same things (for my type of work anyway). Unfortunately, they don’t use the same battery or same memory card configuration. Because of this, I needed to bring a variety of memory cards that added some complexity to my workflow. The difference in battery, while annoying, ultimately didn’t have an impact on what I brought, since I would have packed two batteries for each camera regardless. I actually saved some weight with the two Z8 batteries and never ran out of power, although I was careful to recharge each night.
3. Non-Photo Gear
Besides the photography gear, I packed very light for this trip. A few extra t-shirts, an extra pair of pants, some socks and underwear, toiletries, and my kindle is about all I brought. I knew that at least one of the camps we were at had laundry service, and I figured that years from now, I would look back on and appreciate the photos with the photo gear I brought, and not care that I wore the same shirt 3 times!
This turned out to be a great approach. Although outside the focus of this article, the only problem I had with my clothes was that I packed knowing it would be hot in Africa. While this was true, we were in London for a few days beforehand and it was freezing cold! But still, I’m happy I packed minimally.
4. Luggage
- Peak Design 45L Travel Bag with the “Large” photo cube
- Peak Design 10L Sling
Many of the flights we were on had very strict size and weight limits. And with all the different places and terrain we were going through, I didn’t want to bring a roller bag. All the flights we had allowed one “carry-on” and one “personal item.” My 45L backpack was my carry-on, and the sling was my personal item. I kept my clothes and toiletries in the sling bag so that I could gate-check it if asked, but fortunately, this was never an issue. I didn’t check a bag at all.
My thought process was this: the 45L bag with the large insert could hold all of my cameras and lenses during travel. Then, once I got to camp, I would transfer the camera gear to the sling bag and bring that on the safari drive/boat. The one exception was the 400mm f/2.8, which is much bigger than the sling. That lens I simply carried, mounted to the Z9 at all times.
I was pushing the weight limit on some of the flights for the 45L backpack, so in a few instances, I added a camera and lens to the sling and put some clothes in the 45L. This helped distribute the weight more evenly (I’ve never seen a personal item be weighed). In this end, none of my bags were weighed, but I’m still glad I had a plan.
Backing up in the Field
Assuming that we would have little or no internet connectivity during the trip, I needed to find a way to back up all the photos without resorting to cloud storage. My solution was the same thing that I often use when traveling for weddings or other events where I try to pack as light as possible.
It goes like this: A mini USB-C hub plugs into my iPad. Both a CFExpress reader and an external SSD plug into the hub. Then I copy all the files from the CFExpress card into a new folder on the hard drive. Disconnect the hard drive, plug in a second hard drive, and repeat.
I always write my photos to both memory card slots as backup, so after transferring the images, I would only format one of the two memory cards. The other went into my bag for safe keeping (and the hard drive in my wife’s bag in case one of ours got lost or stolen).
Some may say this is overly cautious, but I would rather be too cautious than lose the photos, especially if it’s client work.
And that’s a wrap for part one! Part two will cover the experience of actually being there, along with my lessons learned in the field. Here’s a sneak peek:
