How to prepare for a safari or wildlife photography trip

Are you ready for your once-in-a-lifetime safari? From photographing the Big Five – that's lion, leopard, rhinoceros elephant, and Cape buffalo – to the equally fabulous cheetah, zebra and hippopotamus, venturing into rural Africa brings some environmental challenges that you’d do well to prepare for. 

Plenty of spare batteries and high-capacity SD cards aside, when you’re after that killer photo of Africa’s apex predators, you'd better be on your game. Here's what you need to know.

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Jamie Carter
Astrophotography expert

Jamie has been writing about all aspects of technology for over 14 years, producing content for sites like TechRadar, T3, Forbes, Mashable, MSN, South China Morning Post, and BBC Wildlife, BBC Focus and BBC Sky At Night magazines. 

As the editor for www.WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, he has a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise for all things astrophotography, from capturing the Perseid Meteor Shower, lunar eclipses and ring of fire eclipses, photographing the moon and blood moon and more.

He also brings a great deal of knowledge on action cameras, 360 cameras, AI cameras, camera backpacks, telescopes, gimbals, tripods and all manner of photography equipment.