My safari to South Africa was a disaster...

My aim was very simple and that was to take a lot of pictures but making sure they're varied. So after I taken a few snap shots, I would think about re composing the image with the same camera lens or use a different camera set up. Afterward, I would have enough images and possibly create three photo books overtime. Later in the year I would be looking at creating a black and white book consisting some of my favourite images from Botswana, Kenya and South Africa.

This what I used

• GH5 + 100-400
• GH4 + 35-100 
• GX80 +  12-35
• 45mm 2.8 which I didn't have much time to use
• Neo 2 (LED light) but I did one night drive

My safari to South Africa was meant to be my last safari for many years. There are multiple reasons for this including wanting to see other parts of the world. So with that out of the way lets gets on why it went horribly wrong.

Prologue

In the run up to my trip, I did very little practicing with my camera gear. The main reason why because the weeks before my departure to South Africa it was very cold and too cold at the zoo. In my opinion I believed the animals would be staying indoors, shelter from the cold not outside.

The other problem I was taking Doxycycline where before in my previous trips to Africa I took Malarone. I never tried them before and I had to start taking them days before my trip to build up resistance to malaria. Sadly, this was giving me side effects and to begin with I thought I might have the touch of the flu again. It made me unwell and I didn't focus much on exposure. Instead, since I was shooting in RAW, I will correct white balance etc in Lightroom.

I booked a mammal safari

I had heard some scary stories of people on safaris known as birders, people who has an extreme passion for birds spoiling the holiday of others. One of the best example is in the book called Don't Run Whatever You Do. In the book there was an extreme birder who was spoiling the safari for other people. People who spent thousands to experience an African safari.

In my group was mostly made up of naturalist with a few more bias towards birds than mammals. The problem was there were two couples and they were birders. One of the men was a hardcore birder and the four influence the trip enough to turn it into a birding holiday instead of a mammal safari. Oh duck sake.

I did travel in their vehicle a few times and we stopped more times to identify birds rather than seeing mammals. The other other problems is since there were a lack of photographers in the group, we were stopping for things that couldn't be photograph. We stopped more times to identify birds than to watch mammals. So what I did was to make sure I didn't travel with them and influence the others in the other vehicle to make it more a mammal trip than a birders safari.

The other problem was a lack of sightings of big cats epically lions. The encounters with lions were rare and the encounters with the other big cats were by luck. So overall I didn't get enough good images of big cats. The question was due to bias of the birders, did they limit the sightings of the cats? I will say we never stop as much for birds in my previous safari and a lot of my photos from this holiday consist of birds. Probably half of my photographs are birds. Which isn't a bad thing but for a mammal holiday is bad especially the birds are harder to photograph compared to the larger mammal counterparts.

Jared Polin

Where before I shoot both RAW and JPEG in my previous safaris, this safari I planned to shoot only Raw and save on hard drive space. By shooting RAW, it meant I didn't have to get the white balance correct. Since I was ill from the tablets, I didn't use as much brain power and I treated my gear more of a point and shoot than how I would shoot if I was only shooting JPEG.

All my custom settings on the GH5 was set to JPEG by mistake and not RAW. So yeah that sucks pretty bad. However, the GX80 and all the custom settings on the GH4 were set to RAW. I don't know how I made that mistake with the GH5 unless I was changing the settings when my head was banging. Since I was ill on the trip, I didn't pay much to my settings and I should have spotted it within a few hours.

Conclusion

While I did see some cool stuff like Hyenas steal a wild dog kill on the night drive or a pack of cheetahs on a hunt. Overall, the safari was a bigger disaster than the Botswana one. In Botswana my 100-300 was playing up and there were two elderly couples who weren't playing ball with the rest of us. I did view Botswana to be a great experience  but for safaris to work well, it need team work.

The good news the GH5 and the 100-400 worked well together. I was able to shoot in worst conditions which I wasn't able to shoot with the GH4. Also some people in our group was amaze with my 100-400 and asked to send the cheetah's chase images to the travel company. Too bad they're JPEG...:-(

Thousands of amazing photo opportunities there. I believe you have chosen your travel destination unwisely.

Oh, and forget those pills next time. Use long sleeve clothes instead.

Sorry to read about the disaster. My experience in those countries was quite different, with plenty of sightings of big cats and everything else.

Earl

C Sean wrote:

My aim was very simple and that was to take a lot of pictures but making sure they're varied. So after I taken a few snap shots, I would think about re composing the image with the same camera lens or use a different camera set up. Afterward, I would have enough images and possibly create three photo books overtime. Later in the year I would be looking at creating a black and white book consisting some of my favourite images from Botswana, Kenya and South Africa.

This what I used

• GH5 + 100-400
• GH4 + 35-100
• GX80 + 12-35
• 45mm 2.8 which I didn't have much time to use
• Neo 2 (LED light) but I did one night drive

My safari to South Africa was meant to be my last safari for many years. There are multiple reasons for this including wanting to see other parts of the world. So with that out of the way lets gets on why it went horribly wrong.

Prologue

In the run up to my trip, I did very little practicing with my camera gear. The main reason why because the weeks before my departure to South Africa it was very cold and too cold at the zoo. In my opinion I believed the animals would be staying indoors, shelter from the cold not outside.

The other problem I was taking Doxycycline where before in my previous trips to Africa I took Malarone. I never tried them before and I had to start taking them days before my trip to build up resistance to malaria. Sadly, this was giving me side effects and to begin with I thought I might have the touch of the flu again. It made me unwell and I didn't focus much on exposure. Instead, since I was shooting in RAW, I will correct white balance etc in Lightroom.

I booked a mammal safari

I had heard some scary stories of people on safaris known as birders, people who has an extreme passion for birds spoiling the holiday of others. One of the best example is in the book called Don't Run Whatever You Do. In the book there was an extreme birder who was spoiling the safari for other people. People who spent thousands to experience an African safari.

In my group was mostly made up of naturalist with a few more bias towards birds than mammals. The problem was there were two couples and they were birders. One of the men was a hardcore birder and the four influence the trip enough to turn it into a birding holiday instead of a mammal safari. Oh duck sake.

I did travel in their vehicle a few times and we stopped more times to identify birds rather than seeing mammals. The other other problems is since there were a lack of photographers in the group, we were stopping for things that couldn't be photograph. We stopped more times to identify birds than to watch mammals. So what I did was to make sure I didn't travel with them and influence the others in the other vehicle to make it more a mammal trip than a birders safari.

The other problem was a lack of sightings of big cats epically lions. The encounters with lions were rare and the encounters with the other big cats were by luck. So overall I didn't get enough good images of big cats. The question was due to bias of the birders, did they limit the sightings of the cats? I will say we never stop as much for birds in my previous safari and a lot of my photos from this holiday consist of birds. Probably half of my photographs are birds. Which isn't a bad thing but for a mammal holiday is bad especially the birds are harder to photograph compared to the larger mammal counterparts.

Jared Polin

Where before I shoot both RAW and JPEG in my previous safaris, this safari I planned to shoot only Raw and save on hard drive space. By shooting RAW, it meant I didn't have to get the white balance correct. Since I was ill from the tablets, I didn't use as much brain power and I treated my gear more of a point and shoot than how I would shoot if I was only shooting JPEG.

All my custom settings on the GH5 was set to JPEG by mistake and not RAW. So yeah that sucks pretty bad. However, the GX80 and all the custom settings on the GH4 were set to RAW. I don't know how I made that mistake with the GH5 unless I was changing the settings when my head was banging. Since I was ill on the trip, I didn't pay much to my settings and I should have spotted it within a few hours.

Conclusion

While I did see some cool stuff like Hyenas steal a wild dog kill on the night drive or a pack of cheetahs on a hunt. Overall, the safari was a bigger disaster than the Botswana one. In Botswana my 100-300 was playing up and there were two elderly couples who weren't playing ball with the rest of us. I did view Botswana to be a great experience but for safaris to work well, it need team work.

The good news the GH5 and the 100-400 worked well together. I was able to shoot in worst conditions which I wasn't able to shoot with the GH4. Also some people in our group was amaze with my 100-400 and asked to send the cheetah's chase images to the travel company. Too bad they're JPEG...:-(

Disaster for me would be if I only got a few photos or my camera stopped working but at least you did get some good photos from your trip.

Brian

Rent a 4WD and do the trip you want. Hire a guide, if you need one, otherwise look for the animals on your own.

There is so much more fun in doing things by yourself, even if you don't find everything you wanted.

Sorry for your health problems, though.

Peter

You should have dangled the birders over the side as Lion bait; win-win situation.

I would ditch the group and self drive - very doable in most of South Africa. Sure you lose the expertise of a guide but you gain total freedom. You can sit and watch lions stalking for hours if you want with  nobody to answer to. Anyway, too late for that, sorry you had a disaster.

Some malaria in the Kruger area up past Durban, I haven't been that far along the coast (East London the furthest from Cape Town I managed).

Not only Western Cape running out of water, I checked with friends in Port Elizabeth and  Eastern Cape is as well (although checking the weather forecast shows rain). It doesn't get in the news as much as tourists don't go there as often.

Steveus wrote:

I'm considering a South African trip in a year or two. Sorry about your experience. I have two questions that might help me plan my won trip. Both questions are probably related to a third: which park(s) did you go to?

(1) Isn't South Africa mostly malaria-free? And those parts that aren't are considered low-risk? I've had friends go without taking meds and were fine. What made you decide to take anti-malaria meds?

I am South African and most parts of the country are safe. Eastern coast has some malaria-infected areas, but as you go to the central and western parts of the country, you should be safe. Mosquitoes are still a nuisance even in non-malaria areas and long sleeves or a spray-on insect repellent helps if you wish to sit outdoors at a camp fire at night.

(2) I'd read that much of South Africa was under serious drought conditions a year or two ago, resulting in the park rangers going so far as to cull certain animal populations. More recently, it looks like Capetown is about to run out of water entirely. Do you know what the current conditions are, and if they affected your trip?

Cape is still dry, but further North we had some good rain showers.  When you are ready to take the trip, check the parks you wish to visit.  I do not think any of our parks at this stage suffered to the extent that sightings are affected, but it's best to check with the specific park close to the trip.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

To the OP:

I am sorry to hear of your misfortune. It is a great country to tour, and it is sad to hear your experience was spoiled.

I wouldn't discard them without actually seeing if they are any good.

...next time.

This was done with a meager Sony A35 (ouch) and mostly with a macro(!) prime lens:

Tanzania wildlife

Oh, and an awesome beanbag, which I borrowed from the hotel in Arusha.

I'm sorry for your experience.  We visited late July '17 and thought our viewing was mediocre staying in the Klaserie.  (Fortunately we had a blast at the lodge with the people we met.)  We are planning a trip for '19 and one of the requirements is def.  only 6 people in a jeep ( we were up to 8 at one point)!  Would love to hear what lodge you went to and to see pics anyway.