Tips for Going to Africa

Pack and be prepared for the trip before you go to Africa. Get all of your stuff together before going to Africa and test it out make sure that everything is working properly and that you have packed light enough for the trip. Also make sure that all of the stuff that you are going to be bringing is essential and that you will use because carrying around items that you will not be using is a pain and does take up potential space.

Invest in a good DSLR camera and a good lens so that you can document this once in a lifetime trip. Think how often people get to go to Africa and experience it. Most of the time unless your job is constantly sending you there it is a once in a lifetime trip. That is why it is important to capture your experience and get the most out of your trip. I recommend getting a versatile (100-400mm) telephoto lens that will be mainly focused on animal shoots but will be very useful when photographing most of the animals in Africa (may have some trouble with the smaller birds) and most DSLR cameras will give you more quality over a point and shoot.

Take into account the amount of dust in Africa with getting into your equipment (Camera sensors and lens). It is good to have a blower to blow dust off the lens so that you will not have to be constantly wiping it with a cleaning cloth. I would also recommend investing in a cleaning kit in case lens does get on your actual camera sensor. Another precaution that you can take is not to remove the lens from the camera to completely minimize the chance of dust getting on the cameras sensor since DSLR(Nikon and Canon) are made very well sealed.

Investigate what kind of animals you will be seeing and the environment that you will be going to in Africa to give you a good briefing on the area so that you can figure out patterns that animals are set into and what there behavior is like a=in different situations. If you already the behavior of the animal and what its pattern is it will be easier to get a good shot of them in their natural habitat and lifestyle with out disturbing them. 

Prepare everything that you need to get early and don’t do it just in one sitting plan ahead and prepare a set game plan of what you want to get out of this trip to Africa. Whether it is to see a certain kind of animal and doing major investigation of it or taking the best photographs that you can. Have a plan with set goals that you can follow because when you arrive in Africa the change is going to be huge and you will be exposed to a completely new culture so on top of that find what you truly want out of this trip and take in everything that they give you.