Kgalagadi - A Great Place for Wildlife Photography

Lioness on the road to Nossob
As I have mentioned previously, I am a keen wildlife photographer and the Kgalagadi is a great destination for wildlife Photography. Most photographers go there for the lions. You will be pretty unlucky to spend any time in the Kgalagadi and not see a lion. But there is so much more then just lions. There are amazing birds, landscapes and lots of dead trees, which always make for a nice photo. There are also lots of smaller animals, like African wild cats, mice and snakes, to mention but a few. Then of course there are the ground squirrels and meercats!

Look for interesting things to photograph
There are lions there!
In this post, I will share some of my photography experience and some of the tips I have picked up from other members of the Bloemfontein Camera club, which has some of the best wildlife photographers in South Africa, if not the world! I guess that there will be other photographic clubs that will argue this, but we will all agree that there are really good wildlife photographers in South Africa!
Spend time at a waterhole.

The most important part of wildlife photography is the camera. No, to be more specific, the lens. You need a decent lens, or you will not get that award winning photos you are looking for. The camera body is important, but today, most of the camera bodies are more than good enough. I am a Canon fan and I have been using a Canon 70D for some time now (since my camera was stolen in Ecuador  - https://passionatetraverler.blogspot.com/2018/01/return-to-ecuador-part-1.html). On my wildlife trips, I make use of a Sigma 50 mm to 500 mm lens. This is not the best lens on the market, but it costs substantially less then the Canon EF 600 f/4 mm lens or the EF 800mm f/5.6 lens - which cost US$ 13000.00 (www.bhphotovideo.com) - a bit out of my price range!  I have been very happy with my Sigma 50 - 500 f4.5-6.3 lens - which you can get for around US$ 1500-00 - a lot more in my price range!

Hornbill
The next important point is your camera setting. Prof Gert Lambracht has given various very good presentations at the Bloemfontein camera club on wildlife photography. The most important "take home message" from these talks is to set you camera before you set out on your early morning drive. Whatever you do and how you set your camera should be completely done before you get into you car to look for animals. The camera must be fully ready so that when you find something, you can just pick up your camera and shoot. I like making use of the "Av" setting on the camera. This allows you to adjust the depth of field (lens opening) and the shutter speed is then set automatically. This setting works well for me.
Skys are clear. No light contamination

Always make sure your batteries are fully charged. The difference between a good photographer and a bad photographer is a spare battery! Now in the age of digital photography, also make sure you have a spare memory card. In the "good old days" of film camera, you would set of to the Kgalagadi with a great stash of 15 or 20 spools of 36 slides (which cost a small fortune). When this was finished, so was your photography! It was very unlikely that you would be able to get more slide film in the bush. Print film, maybe, but slide film, not so much.  You could also not see what you photo looked like until you had the slide film processed, obviously after your trip. You also had to make sure you composition was perfectly correct (as you could not crop) and that you exposure was perfect. What you got was what you got. No ability for digital manipulation or adjusting anything once the shutter had been pressed. How I don't miss those "good old days"! Must say though, the old slide photographers had to know what we were doing and there were still some amazing photos. Now in the digital age, you find something interesting and you take hundreds of photos. Just throw out those that are not perfect! Much easier and much less costly! 
Beautiful landscapes

I have spoken about staying in the same area for longer and also spending time at the waterholes in a previous post ( https://passionatetraverler.blogspot.com/2018/08/kgalagadi-basic-overview-of-this-great.html ) so I am not going to talk about this again.
Look for the little animals

The next most important aspect is the "Golden hours". This is the time after sunrise and before sunset when the light is just perfect. Make sure you are looking for photos (animals, birds or just about anything else) during the Golden hours. This is when you get the really great photos.
Just love the springboks

Be ready to the the photo
Your camera must also be set ready to grab and shoot!
Then the most important part of any wildlife photography is to be in the right place at the right time. There is no other aspect to this then pure luck! Of course you need to be out there and looking, but if you do not see anything during the golden hours - no photos. Of course the more you try - the luckier you get. Spend time looking for the perfect photo. When you get it, it is a great feeling and very satisfying. After a great day of collecting photos, there is nothing better than sitting back, light a fire, have a drink and look at you photos. Watch out for hyenas and lions if you are in one of the wilderness camps! See my stories at  https://passionatetraverler.blogspot.com/2018/07/lions-and-boss-tales-from-kgalagadi.html
https://passionatetraverler.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-hyena-in-dark-tales-from-kgalagadi.html
Look at the plants - could be insects as well

Final word - always make sure you can recharge you batteries before you use up all of your camera battery power looking at your photos! If you cannot recharge your batteries, you are up a creek without a paddle! No more photography when the battery die!
Tented camp with flowers

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