African Adventures - Exciting Safaris in Botswana and South Africa

Good Morning Everybody,

I'm not photographing many weddings these days, but we still have a  lot of things going on in our lives that keep us plenty busy. LaDawn and I have been traveling the world quite a bit pre-Covid but sadly, Covid kept us at home in 2020 and 2021. Finally, travels are ramping back up this year.

That said, I've got some cool adventures to share with you today.  We recently returned from another month-long trip to South Africa and Botswana. These were two safaris that were canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic but we finally were able to reschedule them this year. 

Both safaris were extremely exhilarating and I can not recommend them highly enough. My friend, Kevin Dooley, and I led the photo safaris, and LaDawn and I helped hosted these events too. Both safaris turned out to be spectacular. In Botswana, we saw more cheetahs than we’ve ever seen before on any of our other three previous safaris, and I captured some great photographs.  South Africa was equally exciting as we saw some very rare instances of a lion taking down an impala. There’s more to the story so please read on.

Botswana - the Cheetah Capital of the World.

First, the Botswana trip. The highlights of our Botswana safari were the amazing group of photographers joining us the awesome sightings we experienced and the fact that the geography is so much different from South Africa. There are more hills, mountains, and rock outcroppings than you ever see on the plains of South Africa. It almost looks a little like Arizona. Great weather, awesome sightings...we got some great photos. 

Just look at a few of the photos below – the first photos are  LaDawn‘s photographs. 

By the way, she does a great job with her  Sony RX 10 Mark 4. 

This year I was shooting a new Canon EOS R5 which is a very cool camera to shoot with.  Let’s take a look at the first photograph below. It’s a photograph of the cheetah brothers, yes they are indeed brothers. Kind of like teenagers as far as age goes. This is a rare thing to see because the mother raised five cheetahs and they all lived to adulthood. Because of the wildlife dynamics in Botswana, this is pretty much a rarity.

Very quickly, I upgraded my Canon 7D Mark II to the new Canon EOS R5 just about a year and a half ago. This is the first time I really had a chance to put it through its paces. And the results emphasize just how good this camera is. I prefer the much faster shutter speed (20fps), the lower light sensitivity, and the quickness of the focus. Here are a few more of my images with the EOS R5.

I know this is a little "gross" but we actually witnessed the leopard catching this warthog and then proceeded to watch him carry it up into the tree the night before - way cool!  The first photo above is of the leopard leaving the tree a few days after he finished his lunch.

And a photo of our entire Safari group including guides - we all had a great week!

On To South Africa...  Where the Action Was

Our trip to South Africa represented our fourth Safari to that part of the African continent. We have been three times to Thakadu and we love the wonderful adventure in the wild, the unbelievable wildlife we see,  and we love all the folks at the lodge – some of the friendliest on the planet earth!.

Once again our safari to South Africa did not disappoint. People ask if one safari location is better than the other? My answer is always "that each and every safari is different and special in its own way". That could be in the animals that you see, the activities that the animals are engaged in, or just the quantity of animals you may encounter.  Here is one of my favorite images which LaDawn took on her Sony RX10 Mk 4.  She caught the giraffes just right for this fun photo.

And a few more...

Pretty cool images, don't you think?

The highlight of our South Africa trip this year was the fact that we saw two male lions and four female lions hunting for prey. The prey turned out to be the poor lowly impala - the savanna smorgasbord for big cats everywhere in Africa. We found the lions on the prowl and followed them for several minutes monitoring their hunting behavior. It was only a few minutes later when all "heck" broke loose. 

We were the first ones on the scene to see that the female lion had taken down the impala her jaws were around the impala‘s neck and its demise was a foregone conclusion. 

Within a minute or two a male lion shows up and chases the female lion away saying he was going to take over {in lion talk}. The impala, which we thought was dead or near dying quickly springs to it's feet and took off. This is when all "heck" broke loose a second time. 

The male lion goes after the impala, thinks he has captured it, and then the impala makes a break for it again. During the ensuing chaos, the female lion returns to take over and show the male what needs to be done. The male lion bats her away again and while that is going on the impala is making a break for it again. This continues to go on for several minutes. 

I captured a great series of photographs showing the chase and capture of the impala along with the battle between the male and the female lion. Above are just a few of the images. 

The action was going on for so long, thankfully something in my "brain" said to start the video rolling on my camera - which I did. 

This YouTube video below shows the height of the action and really captures the excitement of the moment. Our tour guide shared that it was a very rare sighting and only about 1% of visitors on safaris ever see anything like what we witnessed. 

When we got back to camp at the end of the day we all felt mixed feelings about this special event that we had witnessed. Oh, the rest of the story... the impala eventually got away! Yep, it’s true the impala got away, all the other lions were very ticked off with the male lion who let their "lunch" slip through his claws. The whole thing was really exciting to see.

We had a terrific group of folks on this safari which made it totally enjoyable for everyone that was part of our Safari adventure.

On to Capetown and Wine Tasting

After our trip to South Africa, we headed to Cape Town and spent a week there sampling the wonderful South African wines. That week was an easy, relaxing week after our too exciting and fairly strenuous safaris. The image below is of LaDawn and I with the winemaker at Anura Wineries - one of our favorite places.

Anyway, we returned home safe and sound having created over 45,000 images and endless memories from our month-long visit. LaDawn had taken about 16,000 images on her Sony and I took the remaining 30,000 mostly on the EOS R5. Yes, I’m still sorting through all of the images but it's fun to look back and relive the exciting moments we experienced.

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Hey gang, that’s about it for me today but stay tuned I’ll see if I can get a few more of the Safari photographs up for you to enjoy. Oh, and don't forget to check out my post below for three very exciting adventures we have planned for next year - Bengal tigers in India, Jaguars in Brazil, and Antarctica in 2024. Hope you can join us!

Adios, David

Is Antarctica in Your Future? Or Tigers and Taj Mahal, They Can Be!

Good Morning Everybody,

Hey everybody I wanted to invite you to three very exciting life-changing adventures coming up in 2023 and 2024.  Please read about them below. As you know I’ve been leading these photo safaris with my friend Kevin Dooley, owner of Idube Photo Safaris [link] since 2018. It has been a great segue from wedding photography and even a better segue into a brand new teaching experience! We call it "Life Changing" adventures. 

But I wanted to get this news out to you right away so if there’s a chance you can make any of our upcoming adventures you can call Kevin or his wife Trisha for more information and start making your plans right away.

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Exotic Bengal Tigers and the Beautiful Taj Mahal - May  1-15, 2023

Our first safari is scheduled for May 1 - 15, 2023 of next year. We are going to venture off to India for two reasons. 

First to photograph the Bengal tigers. Kevin tells me that the 2022 trip to India was an unbelievable adventure because of so many Bengal tiger sightings.  He has some fabulous images from his trip. 

Another great reason you've got to go to India is to do a couple of tourist things. We have a few of those scheduled the most important is a visit to the majestic Taj Mahal.

This has been one of my bucket list places to visit for all of my life and I am truly looking forward to getting there next year. Here is the [link] for our adventures in India and Taj Mahal trip right here.

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Jaguars and Wildlife of the Pantanal - August 5-15, 2023 [link]

Our next adventure is scheduled for August 5-15, 2023. This trip will be to the Pantanal in Brazil.  In 2000, the Pantanal wetland was designated a World Natural Heritage and World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.  It’s almost a two-week trip and we will actually be staying in one of two floating hotels if you can believe that!

The things to see in the Pantanal are the leopards along with many other varied species of fun animal faces. Kevin has some great images from this year‘s trip as well. Here are a couple of my faves in this post. As I said earlier, both of these trips will be adventures of a lifetime and certainly a first for LaDawn and me and we can’t wait for next year! Here’s the [link] to the Jaguars and Wildlife of Pantanal trip right here.

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Antarctica - Get on Your Happy Feet! January 12-22, 2024 [link]

That’s right, we’re heading to Antarctica in January 2024 [link]. This is certainly been one of the most momentous buckets on my bucket list. We’ve been to six continents already and I really want to get that last one crossed off. Many cruise companies have what I call "Sail-bys" to Antarctica but, it doesn’t really count unless you can put your foot on the ground of the continent. This is your opportunity to do just that!

And that's what we’ve arranged for January 12-22, 2024. Kevin has been negotiating with the cruise ship company to really obtain the best price possible for this Antarctica trip. I think he’s got a reasonable price negotiated and far less than other cruise companies offer. 

Just for reference, LaDawn and I looked at National Geographic‘s cruises to Antarctica and we were shocked to hear that their quote was $75,000 for both of us - YIKES!!! We even looked into the Viking cruises and that was going to be $40,000 for both of us. So I think at this cruise price of about $12,500 at least makes it much more affordable than the other two options, that's for sure. 

It’s a small ship but the accommodations still look fabulous. We had some friends do an Antarctica cruise a few years ago and they raved about it. And, everybody I’ve ever talked with that has been saying they would not hesitate to go back because of the thrilling adventure it was. So, check out the link below to probably one of the best adventures of a lifetime, our trip to Antarctica in January 2024.

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Hey Gang, first of all, thanks for taking the time to review the information on these three adventures of a lifetime. These are three new places LaDawn and I have not been to so we are really looking forward to sharing with you our travels next year and beyond. I suggest you contact Kevin and Tricia directly at their contact information below.

To register for any of these adventures please

Call Tricia or Kevin at 505-345-6302 or 505-401-2988

or email them at idubephotosafris@yahoo.com

If you’d like to contact me about any of Kevin‘s upcoming safaris to Africa please reach out to me at david@ziser.com and I’ll be happy to share the experiences we had over our five safaris to that part of the world.

And speaking of exotic travels, please continue to read my Blog post below about our recent travels to Botswana and South Africa - pretty darn exciting!

That’s it for me today. Hopefully, everybody has a great Fall, and hope I’ll see you again soon.

Cheers for now, David

What! A Five Day FREE Lightroom Conference - Yes, It's True

Good Morning Everybody,

I've got some news "Hot Off the Presses" for you today. Earlier yesterday I had a fun conversation with Dave Cross of Photoshop fame.  

We had an exciting discussion about he and Matt Kloskowski's brand new 5 Day Virtual Lightroom Summit 2021 [link] which begins Monday, May 3, next week. Check out my interview with them and all the conference details below.

Also, our Safari to deepest, darkest Africa only has three spaces left. See update below.

And, finally, I'm putting out my For Sale Sign. Those details are also shown below.

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My Video Interview With Dave Cross about his and Matt Kloskowski's FREE Lightroom Virtual Summit Begining Monday!

Hey Everybody, this is about the hottest news I have to report today and I wanted to get it out to you right away! This morning I had a video meeting with Dave Cross. He and Matt Kloskowski have put together an exciting, brand new Lightroom Virtual Summit 2021 [link] which begins Monday, May 3, 2021!



20 Instructors, 40 Classes, 30 hours of classes, and FREE!!!

That's right I said FREE! That is for 48 hours after each lesson becomes available. If you want to have unlimited access to all 30 hours of programming till the end of time, it will only set you back $99 for the VIP Access Pass [link].

Please Note - The VIP Access Pass increases to $149 noon on Monday.

And wait, there's more ;~) Each attendee receives a "Swag Bag" of added goodies supplied by many of the Instructors and Sponsors. Plus, if you opt-in for the VIP Access Pass, you become eligible for some great prizes, like the complete Creative Cloud Suite for a year - an over $600 value! Or a $100 Gift Card from B&H and many more prizes too.

It was great to catch up with Dave again and hear about this exciting Lightroom Summit. Why not drop in on our conversation below - it was fun to visit. Just drop in on our conversation below.

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Update: Our Africa Safari May 3-12, 2022

I mentioned our May 2022 Safari a few times here on my blog and in my recent newsletters. I need to let you know that we are now nearly SOLD OUT for our second Safari.

As you can see in this photo, this is a small group safari maxing out at 11 couples only with three guides in three safari vehicles and everybody has a "window seat" (Singles are welcome too.)  We just a few seats left, so if you want to join us, and I hope you will, just follow the info and contact links below.

Here are the Safari dates and trip info [links]:

May 3 -12, 2022: The Best of South Africa With Kevin and David Photographing the Big Five!

To register

Call Tricia or Kevin at 505-345-6302 or 505-401-2988

or email them at idubephotosafris@yahoo.com 

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For Sale: Mavic Mini Fly More Combo - hardly used!

Hey everybody, I can't tell you how much fun this little quadcopter is to fly! It's the perfect way to try out a brand new hobby without breaking the bank.

I purchased my Mavic Mini Fly More Combo [link] in November 2019 for $499 which I thought was a "steal". It's still selling for that price at B&H and Best Buy right now.

My quad combo is in perfect, almost brand new condition, and includes everything you see above. Heck, some of the extra parts are still in the original plastic bags. It has only been flown about a dozen times and no crash landings ;~)

I'm looking to get the newer Mavic Mini 2 - it costs $100 more and LaDawn says "No Way!" till I sell this one. So if you want a super bargain, the first $349 plus shipping takes it. Just drop me a note at david@ziser.com if interested. Thanks.

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Hey Gang, 

That's going to be it for me today. I wanted to get this post up before it got too late so you have time to check out Dave and Matt's Lightroom FREE Virtual Summit coming up Monday. I'm planning to be there - maybe I'll see you there too ;~) 

Stay safe and...

Cheers for now, David

A New Powerful Social Media Platform That Is the Best, My New Favorite YouTube Channel, and an App That Will Blow Your Mind!

Good Morning Everybody,

I have to say, it feels good to back visiting with everyone - even if we can't do it in person in these challenging times, at least we can do it here at DigitalProTalk. I'm posting because I've got a few cool things to share with you today. 

The first is a very interesting conversation I recently had with my good buddy, Jeff Medford, about a brand new and super powerful social media platform that he is about to launch - you don't want to miss this.

The second is a great YouTube channel I discovered while doing the channel surf over my morning cup of coffee. 

And the third is about an unbelievable app that makes out-of-focus photos perfectly clear and sharp. 

My Conversation With Jeff Medford - Intro To Gides: The Future of Social Media

Jeff and I have been friends for many years - in fact, Jeff organized my three international workshops with Clay Blackmore [link] several years ago and we have stayed in touch over the years.  Anyway, Jeff reached out to me a few months ago to get my take on a brand new social media platform he was creating called Gides [sounds similar to likes].

I have to tell you, I was really impressed with this all-encompassing project of his. He gave me a quick demo and I was blown away.  

After his demo to me, I invited him to join me in a Zoom conversation where he could share it with all the DigitalProTalk readers - he gladly obliged. What follows is that 30-minute conversation - please check it out.  I personally can't wait for the upcoming launch.

What did you think - way cool, I think.  I'll keep you posted. And thanks for watching.

My New Favorite YouTube Channel for Photoshop Tutorials

You know, one thing I like to do every day is learn something new.  That is so easy to do these days with so many internet resources like blogs, podcasts, YouTube, etc. available to us all. My latest favorite way is to tune in to one of my favorite YouTube channels and watch over my cup of morning coffee. 

My go-to YouTube channel for all things Lightroom is Matt Kloskowski [link].  Matt and I have been buddies for many years and I love the way he dissects each new Lightroom feature with knowledge, depth, and a little humor thrown in.  You can find Matt's YouTube channel right here [link].

But now on to my new favorite YouTube channel for Photoshop. That would be PiXimperfect [link] hosted by Unmesh Dinda. I have to tell you, this guy knows his stuff!!!

Watching his videos are always amazing and entertaining - you will definitely learn something new and awesome and really enhance your Photoshop skills. He has taught at Photoshop World and Adobe MAX, has over 650 tutorials posted, and 2.7 million subscribers on YouTube.

Just do a quick scan through any of his many videos featured on his home page [link] and prepare to be amazed - enjoy!

The Most Amazing App of All Time!

I have to admit, I'm not an APP junkie - I have a few favs that I use every day just like everybody else. But every-now-and-then, one will pop up that will blow me away. The name of the App - Remini [link]. It's available on iOS or Android platforms.

It literally makes blurry photos sharp. This is completely different than using the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop and the results are dramatically better, trust me.

From their website... Using movie-grade AI technology, Remini turns low-resolution, blurred, pixelated, old, and damaged photo and video into HD, with sharp and clear facial focus.

I first saw a tutorial of it over at PiXimperfect whom I've featured above.  You can watch that tutorial right here [link] - the "before" and "after" images are truly unbelievable!  Please give the video a peek and be prepared for magic!

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Hey Gang,

That's going to be it for me today. I've got some things lined up for down the road - hint, hint - the brand new Canon R5.  LaDawn surprised me with the camera at Christmas and I have been having a great time with it.  But, more on that later.

Until the next time, be safe and ... curious.

Cheers, David

WOW! Eye Opening Numbers For Wildlife Photography!

Good Morning Everybody,

Last evening we had a fun Zoom meeting with our first Safari group.  Don Dickson, who runs the "Internationally" famous Texas School [link] put the whole thing together for us.  It was a "hoot" reminiscing about the great times we all had on that trip.

Yep, we do get kind of close to the animals, lion included.  That's probably the biggest surprise for first-time safari adventurers. Thanks to Kevin Dooley of Idube Photo Safaris [link] for sending this photo over to me this morning. That's me next to the driver with LaDawn behind him. We are really only a few feet away from the lions - safaris are definitely an adventure!

We joined the Dicksons on their Safari and then were to follow up with two more of our own when the bottom dropped out of our travels. No problem though, we already have them rescheduled for about the same time next year.  I put the links at the end of this post.

Anyway, I hope you all got a chance to view the YouTube video I put up just a few days ago.  It really shows what an exciting trip it was. If you missed it, here is the [link] to the video one more time - Enjoy!  Now on with the show....
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WOW!  Eye Opening Numbers For Wildlife Photography!

Last Thursday I did a post entitled "Camera Settings for Wildlife Photography - Mostly Manual Mode and Why" [link] which really got down to the "nitty-gritty" of my wildlife shooting strategy.  Today I want to ramp up that post with some surprising statistics about the Shutter Speeds, Apertures, and ISOs I used most often.  These numbers are based on the EXIF data of 20,179 wildlife images I made two years ago during our safaris back then.

Shutter Speed

Take a look at the table to the right.  I think you will be surprised by the numbers here. As you can see, my exposures ranged from 1/50 second and lower up to 1/8000 second.  OK, how did I come up with this data?  It was easy once I really got the "hang" of some of Lightroom's EXIF data reporting features. I asked Lightroom to just report all exposure data from my Canon 5D Mk3 and my Canon 7D Mk2 and presto, the Shutter Speed info appeared!

OK, back to the numbers. Take a closer look at the chart to the right. Notice that 67% - that's 67% - of my shutter speeds were 1/1600, 1/2000, or 1/2500 second! A quick point of clarification... NOT all those exposures were made on Manual mode. A large number of them were made on Shutter Priority mode as well.  I'll cover that shooting strategy in an upcoming post next week. Needless to say, two-thirds of my photos were made at very high speeds for all the reasons stated in my post referenced above.

Keep in mind that safari shooting conditions vary widely.  Birds are flying, animals are moving, and the safari vehicle is bouncing, sometimes like crazy.  All these factors require faster shutter speeds to freeze the action.

Aperture

Now let's move on to Apertures. I used the same Lightroom reporting technique to determine my most used range of shooting apertures. Once again, check the table to the right.

In most cases, I was shooting wide open with my telephoto lenses. When shooting the Canon 5D Mk3 I mounted my Sigma 150-600mm lens with its maximum aperture of F6.3.

When shooting my Canon 7D Mk2 fitted with its 100-400mm lens (my all-time favorite wildlife shooting combo), again maximum aperture F6.3. You can see from the data that nearly 1/2 of all my exposers were at the maximum apertures of both the lenses.

If the light was bright, like at mid-day, I would stop down 1/2 to one full stop just to pick up a little more depth of field.  I found that mostly helped with my bird photography.

Still, you may be questioning my use of both lenses maximum apertures for so many of my photos.  The answer is quite simple - both of these lenses are super sharp lenses.  I never felt I was compromising the image in any way when shooting wide open.

ISO

Now on to ISOs ...  As I mentioned in my early post (referenced above), I do like to "float the ISO in these kinds of shooting conditions. I don't want the ISO to go to high, but I do want it fast enough to allow me to use the necessary shutter speeds I need for my wildlife photography. Now take a look at the ISO chart to the right. OK, OK, I did let the ISO float a little on some occasions - I'll get to that in a minute. But DO notice that 56% on my images were in the ISO 1600 - 6400 range.

The reason for the higher ISOs is accounted for by our early morning and our late afternoon/early evening shooting.  But, let's re-analyze the data differently. If you total the ISOs from ISO 400 to ISO 2000, the total number of exposures accounts for over 44% of my images.  That means that most of my images were made at very manageable ISOs.

With the use of software like Lightroom, I can easily manage the slightly higher ISOs.  Heck, back in my "wedding days"  I would routinely shoot all my reception images at ISO 3200.

Still, I think the analysis of this data is really fascinating to see.  It really shows what the Apertures, ISOs, and Shutter Speeds need to be to get the optimum photograph with the gear I was using. Had I been using a 300mm/F2.8 lens, my data would have been different, obviously.  But I was using gear that worked great for these wildlife shooting situations.  The gear is reasonably priced and gave me a great result for our Safari experiences.

Take a look at the photo having "lunch" to the right. Notice the camera specs: Canon 7D Mk2 fitted with 100-400mm Sigma lens: 1/2000 second @ F5.6 zoomed to 123mm at ISO 2500. Anything less than the higher shutter speed and high ISO and I would have missed the photo.

I hope everyone enjoyed the discussion today and I certainly hope it will at least give you some starting points in any upcoming African adventures you may have in your future.

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Hey Gang,

That's it for me today.  I can't believe it's Friday already. Have a great weekend and I'll hope to see you next week for a few more ideas and discussions.

Cheers for now, David


Oh, BTW, Here are the links to our rescheduled Safaris for next year.

South Africa at Thakadu: March 30 - April 9, 2021 [link]

Botswana, Africa at Mashatu: April 9 - 19, 2021 [link]

We are sorry we couldn't continue on Safari this year but both LaDawn and I are really looking forward to next year - hope to see you there!  David and LaDawn

Our African Safari in 1000 photos or Less

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend.  It was quite a bit different than in years past but connecting with family and friends still made it a special day.  I hope yours was special too.

I thought one of the most creative ideas to "church services" in these days of "sheltering at home" was the approach taken by the paster at Bellarmine Chapel at Xavier University here in Cincinnati, Ohio. He gathered photos of all the parishioners which he then proceeded to print out and tape to all the church pews.  It was quite an uplifting Easter story - here is the link to the short video [link]. Enjoy!

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Our African Safari in 1000 photos or Less

Now back to what we do here at DigitalProTalk.com, I want to share our 2020 African Safari with you this morning. As many of you know, LaDawn and I have been traveling with our good friends, Kevin and Tricia Dooley of Idube Photo Safaris [link] these past few years. 

Kevin has been leading safaris around the world, but mostly to Africa, for nearly 20 years.  About 4 years ago he asked if I would be interested in joining him - I leaped at the opportunity!  And now we have been on four photo safaris with the Dooley's - all pretty cool!

Our other two sold-out safaris for this year had to be postponed till next year because of all the current travel restrictions.  If you are interested in more info, please let me (david@ziser.com) or Kevin (idubephotosafaris@yahoo.com) know.  We will be happy to get you more info.

Anyway, after a big trip like this, LaDawn and I (mostly LaDawn, really just LaDawn), will edit the thousands of images, tweak the favs, and design a Blurb book telling the entire story from start to finish of our adventures.

LaDawn just wrapped the album design and exported the double-page spreads for upload to Blurb. But I had another idea for the 350 or so spreads.  I thought I would load them in ProShow Producer [link], a great video/slideshow program that I've been using for years with my wedding photography. Unfortunately, they just shut their doors, but the program still works very well for these types of projects.

Anyway, I loaded up all the high-resolution double-page spread, added my royalty-free music,  tweaked the show a bit, and let it rip.  About an hour later I had a very cool video of the entire album of images.  I have to tell you, it looks GREAT on our 82-inch Samsung 4K TV ;~)

I then uploaded the video to my YouTube channel for all to enjoy.  Just click the PLAY button below and enjoy the show.  Most of us have a smart TV so I would recommend loading it up from your YouTube app on your TV for the best viewing experience.

These videos have been a great way for us to re-live our travel experiences. LaDawn and I both agree that after spending hours, days, and even possibly weeks designing these albums and then"arm-wrestling" with Blurb to get them uploaded and published to the tune of about $250/book, the best way to enjoy the whole travel experience is much better accommodated with the videos. BTW...LaDawn LOVES the elephants so be prepared to see LOTS of elephants in the video.

I'm currently in the process of updating our other travel books to videos as well. LaDawn is currently working on a new travel book of our experiences in Iceland and Ireland, one of our favorite trips from 2018.  I'll plan on sharing those images with you as well.

But, in the meantime enjoy this video, including several images of LaDawn and I (lol) and if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments section below and I'll do me best to answer them for you in a timely fashion.

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Hey Gang,

That's if for me today.  I really hope you enjoy the post and the photographs.  I'll plan on putting up a few more Tips and Tricks in the coming days.  Remember, leave your comments below.

Adios for now, David

Camera Settings for Wildlife Photography - Mostly Manual Mode and Why

Good Morning Everybody,

I hope today finds everyone well and "Sheltered in Place" along with 90% of the US. It's certainly a different feeling than usual but the sun is shining in our "neck of the woods" and the weather is just beautiful.  So, I'm going to make the best of it and that means sharing another blog post with all of you.

This post really came about as a result of our safari experiences over these last few years.  I have to say, as a wedding/event photographer, I was ill-prepared with how the shooting circumstances change when out in the field photographing animals.  In this post, I'll share a few of the insights I gained and new shooting technique changes I made to my shooting style for shooting Big game.

Here we go...
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Camera Settings for Wildlife Photography - Mostly Manual Mode and Why

In my wedding photography world, I generally used two modes when shooting.  First and foremost was M-Manual mode. I did a blog post right here about 10 years ago which fully explains why I make that choice - you can find it right here [link].

Most of my exposures were made with flash and I always wanted to be in charge of my exposures as I balanced flash with various lighting situations. Whether "dragging-the-shutter" indoors to pick up a lot of the ambient  - see image to the right, or shooting outdoors and shooting in "High-Speed Sync" to accentuate skies and other details outdoor, I wanted to be in charge of the lighting on the scene.

When shooting wedding images with no flash attached, I'll shoot many times on P for Professional  - haha, I mean Program Mode and that served me just fine.

But what about Wildlife photography? Thankfully I learned early on in my wildlife safari experience that P - Program mode was many times an "Image Killer" - many photos would just come out "motion blurred".  Think about it,  if you are bouncing along in a safari vehicle, trying to stop the action of moving animals or birds in flight, Program mode just doesn't work many times - you will get blurry images.

Remember, the camera is trying to set the optimum exposure for a nicely lit scene.  It generally sets a fairly low ISO, a reasonably decent aperture, and what looks to be a sufficiently fast shutter speed.  This is all well and good for most day-to-day shooting situations but not out in the middle of a Big 5 wild game reserve.

Time shooting on a game drive takes place between the hours of 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. A lot of that shooting time is mid-day. It's from about 10:00 a.m. till about 3:00 p.m. that I definitely set my camera to Manual mode.  I want to call both my Shutter Speed and My Aperture letting the ISO just float.

I have discovered that my preferred shutter speed is 1/2500 second and my preferred aperture is usually about F7.1- F8.0 - just off full aperture in order to use a "sweeter" part of the lens and to enhance my "depth of field" ever so slightly.

Now in the image above, I really don't need a shutter speed of 1/2500 second but who knows what might happen in the next half a second - heck, the lion may charge the jeep and I'd miss the shot - not to mention being totally uncomfortable in my underwear - if that ever really happened...haha.  The fact is, I didn't want to take the time to change my settings even for this image. You, many times, lose or miss your best photos because of changing settings and/or lenses. So, just shoot away even at the much faster shutter speed.

In the above image, I'm still using that fast shutter speed.  Did I need it to be that fast - of course not.  But if I was relying on P-Program mode, the camera may have given me a shutter speed that was maybe too slow for the swaying of the elephant's trunks - why take a chance.

Why You Have To Be Ready - All the Time
Here is a perfect example of why you want to be ready for the shot.  Check out the image below.  Just an easy photo of the Zebras enjoying a refreshing drink at the watering hole. Right?

But, just 10 seconds later - I know, I checked the EXIF data - something spooked everyone and all the animals took off in all directions.  Check out this next image of the Zebras.  They are high-tailing it out of there and not wasting any time clearing out from the watering hole.

What spooked them, we weren't quite sure. It might have been the rhino that wandered by and just wanted a drink too.  Anyway, all the animals headed for the hills. But once the danger subsided, they all returned just as though nothing had happened. Just check out the image below.  It was taken 70 seconds after the previous image but this time everybody is happy as can be enjoying a sip of water in the hot sunny afternoon savannah sun.  Pretty cool to see - and why you need to be ready and prepared to capture the shot at the proper shutter speed to capture the action.

Let's talk about one more time when a fast shutter speed is of the utmost necessity. It's bird photos.  You can sit there for 5 minutes with the bird is sitting up on its branch just enjoying the view. But then, it too eventually gets spooked or just tired and will take off.

In either case, I have found that you need at least 1/2500 second to stop the motion of the bird's wings flapping.  You must also use a fairly fast frame rate - I prefer 9-10 frames per second to ensure my action sequence does get a decent wing position of the flying bird.

All the above images were made with my Canon 7D Mk 2 firing at 9.5 FPS fitted with my super-fast focusing 100-400 Sigma IS lens - a great camera/lens combo for safari photography

So there you have it - my favorite shooting mode when photographing animals mid-day along with my preferred apertures and shutter speed. I hope this little insight helps you in your wildlife photography.  I've got lots more tips and tricks - so please stay tuned.
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Hey Gang,

Thanks, that's it for me today. I have to tell you, that just looking over this post gives me so much JOY - I just loved the fact I have a wedding image in the same post with my wildlife photos - who would have guessed. Hey, I'll take my simple little pleasures wherever I can find them amidst our quarantined  times;~)

Audios for now everybody,

David