Photosafari in Kenia - Report

[roto]

A few weeks ago I asked some suggestions about what film speed is most suitable to a safari in Kenia. All the answers were useful and I want to thank everyone for their help.

 

I would also like to summarize my experience, hoping it can be useful to other people.

 

First of all, I shoot dias, mainly Fuji material, but in this case I tried also some Kodak film (more details in the following).

 

The film I used most (80%) was Fuji Provia 100F. I had been using a 80-200/2.8 + 2x teleconverter, almost all the time at the longest end. If one wants or can shoot all the time wide open (f/5.6), then one can use 100 ISO film from about 6:45AM to 5:00PM, with exposure times in the range 1/125-1/500 (depending on the amount of cloud cover). The sky was never completely clear (and, anyway, when it was the animals were trying to stay in the shade), and the subjects were not always frontlit, thus these times are one stop or more slower than what the sunny f/16 rules may suggest.

 

In overcast days or at dawn/sunset, I used faster film. Although I managed to take sharp pictures at 1/60 of a second with the lens (400 mm) on a beanbag, I didn't want to push my luck all the time. Depending on the light level, I used either Kodak EliteChrome 200 or Fuji Provia 400F (about 10% of each). I am fairly satisfied with the Kodak film: the color saturation is not a match with that of Provia 100F (or even 400F), but the film has a very fine grain (especially compared to the Fuji Sensia 200) and lots (really LOTS) of latitude. This came very useful when taking pictures of animals with the Kilimanjaro in the background: there was some haze, and even with polarizer and UV filter I had trouble to keep all the scene within the latitude of dia film. With Provia 100F the foreground was exposed correctly (or slightly underexposed on purpose) but the background was almost completely washed out. On the contrary, the EliteChrome 200 managed to retain an impressive amount of detail both in the foreground and background. In the end it saved my day.The only thing that I really don't like about EliteChrome 200 is a slight magenta cast. All the rolls of EliteChrome (and only they) have the same slight color cast, so I guess it's a characteristic of the film and not due to bad processing or incorrect handling. If you compare the blue of the sky as rendered by the Provia 100F with the EliteChrome version, you see that the latter is slightly purplish. The problem is not apparent if you do not see the slides side by side, though.

 

Provia 400F and its consumer version Sensia 400 are not a surprise. They have fine grain (that you won't notice unless you have large areas of uniform colour) and a nice colour palette. I took a beatiful portrait of a young male lion and, at first, I could not tell if the film was Provia 100F or 400F. The detail of the lion's hide and the grass around it completely mask the grain, which is only detectable in the darkest areas of the eyes.

 

Last but not least, the problems. They can be summarized in one word: contrast. Actually, too much contrast. From about 10:00AM to 3:00PM, the light is terribly harsh and (basically) from above. The pictures taken with this light are awful: if you properly expose, say, the back of an elephant, the bottom half will be almost completely dark (at least with Provia 100F). Otherwise, if you spot meter the elephant's side, the back will be badly overexposed. In addition, during the hottest part of the day, the animals tend to stay in the shade, thus if you can't fill the frame with the subject, the brightly lit areas around it will be washed out. Whatever you do, you can't get a decent picture. The only keepers I have among the pictures taken at these times are those shot in overcast days (as long as you don't include the sky in the frame, that is). Although I knew many of the pictures were going to be bad, it is still frustrating to look at them and throw them away. Then there are the plain mistakes. Sometimes I simply spot metered the wrong part of the subject (usually leading to overexposed pictures) or decided to trust the matrix metering even if I suspected it might be wrong. Next time I will know better.

[peza]

Maybe stupid question, never been on safari, but - is flash allowed ? I would think twice to use it on elephant though.. :)

[roto]

I did not use the flash because otherwise I should have shot always at 1/125 or slower, which I did not want. However, even if I had a camera with a faster sync speed, I doubt I would have used it. Maybe with birds, but I wouldn't pop a flash in the eyes of a lion or elephant. The animals may seem quite tame, quite and used to the cars, but you never know what they might do.

 

Incidentally, the battery of our jeep went flat three meters from a big (really BIG) male lion. We had to wait for one hour for someone to come and rescue us. A girl had to go to the toilet badly, and did not find the situation quite enjoyable. I took advantage of it and shot I don't know how many pictures of that lion. Too many.

[peza]

One hour more and girl peing down on the ground from Jeep - that can be written only by life:))) Doesn't your camere have some sort of HSS ? Even -3/f opens shadows a bit and in full sunlight not so noticable for the animal.. I wouldn't be afraid of Li-Ion, in worst case you may scare the poor animal but elephant, well..

[roto]

One hour? It was more like ten minutes more... We had already told her we would look the other way (and turn off the cameras!) :-)

 

BTW, I would not think a 200+ Kg lion would be scared so easily by a flash. Disturbed, maybe, scared I doubt. And you don't want to disturb it more than necessary. Not when you are stuck three meters from it in an open-roofed jeep.

 

Finally, my camera (F80/N80) has no hss mode. With an F100 or F5 (1/250 and 1/300 sync, respectively), using fill flash would have been a definitely more interesting idea. It was the first time I shot from a beanbag and I did not know how slow a shutter I could use before I started getting unsharp pictures. Now I know I can go down to 1/60 with excellent results (at 400mm).

[alex_lofquist]

You can use fill-flash on African safaris. You will see tourists snapping away with their P&S cameras with no bother to the lions, elephants, et al.

 

Alex

[Two23]

I routinely use my Nikon N80 and N90s with SB-25 for fill flash outdoors. To be really effective though you need a Better Beamer with lenses of 300mm +. Kodak Elite 200 is a surprisingly good film that many turn their nose up towards since it's sold at Walmart.

 

 

Kent in SD

[peza]

Li-Ions are shopping in Wlmart also Kent ? Such a clever animals :) But with their nose up you might get interesting pics!

[vandit]

Cats dont appear to be bothered by flashes... and the story about the van breaking down reminds me of my close encounter with a lion.

 

Mike Scott, of Khangela Safaris had set up a blind by a riverside, to try to photograph rhinos under a full-moon, when they came to drink water. The hide was set against the riverbank and was basically a semi-circle of stones set against a cutting that led up the bank (our backdoor escape route). The rhinos were supposed to come later in the night, so we took a nap. At one point, I woke up - to see a lioness peering in, about petting distance from me. I sat up with a yell, she bolted... her friend, a male, tried to stalk the hide a couple of times. Soon, the cats realized that there were humans in there, and settled down nearby - proceeding to drink at the waterhole, which was 10m away. The lions then sat on the other side of the river bed for 3 hours, serenading us with their roars.

 

After 30 min, I really had to go take a leak (the adrenalin rush earlier was taking its toll). No choice - had to step out of the hide and go against the riverbank... in full view of 3 lions about 20m away. Talk about performance anxiety :)

 

I took a bunch of shots of the lions with a flash - didnt seem to bother them one bit (they didnt even look our way at that). A solitary bull elephant that came by to drink later was a little surprised by the light, but didnt appear too unduly bothered either (I would NOT try that with cow elephants, though). He gave us a brief look of "what the hell is THAT about" and went back to drinking water.

 

My most memorable night in Africa :)

 

Vandit