How to Plan a Safari Photography Trip

As a wildlife photographer who has spent the better part of the past six years traveling across southern Africa documenting wildlife and conservation, I often get asked about the best places for a safari photography trip. And my answer is always: “It depends.” Africa is a wonderfully diverse landscape with countless habitats and ecosystems that are in constant flux. Therefore, choosing the right place to visit starts with asking the right series of questions.

To help you get started, I’ve outlined a few major points of consideration that are crucial to investigate when planning to visit Africa. This will at least give you a few good references and — more importantly — new questions that you never thought to ask. 

I’ll use several personal examples throughout, and highlight questions by calling them out separately by section and topic. Now, let’s get into how to plan a safari photography trip! 

What is the Goal of Your Safari Photography Trip?

For me, it always starts with purpose. What do you hope to accomplish? Is this your first time to Africa, or are you returning to portrait a specific subject or mood? Do you want green or yellow landscape? Herds or single animals? Clouds or golden light? Maybe you’re doing a series on green birds. Or you want to create awareness about cheetah conservation. Perhaps you simply want to witness for yourself the iconic creatures that you dreamed of since you were a young child. Whatever your intention might be, it will dictate the course of your planning.

If your goal is to photograph big cats, you may want to visit an entirely different region than if your primary objective is birds. There’s often crossover in many places but, if you choose a niche topic, you can tailor the experience more easily. 

For example, in early June 2022, I was in Zimbabwe researching for a new wildlife documentary on elephants. During a gap, I wanted to visit one of the parks – Hwange National Park – to get a personal account of what it’s like for wild populations in that specific region. So, for me, once I decided on Hwange, I then started to look for lodges and camps that met certain criteria. I’ll have more on that later in this article. 

Southern Africa in General

Speaking broadly though, most wildlife areas and protected reserves across the Southern African countries (Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique) host populations of the larger, more charismatic mammals. This includes the lion, cheetah, leopard, elephant, and rhino.

Although, what might vary between them are the quality and quantity of sightings. This can depend largely on population density of the species, the landscape, variety and density of vegetation, access to water, mentality of wildlife towards humans, and the time of year. As just mentioned, these are all suggested points of research, but I’ll expand more on each of these below.

Where Do I Begin?

Once you have a goal in mind, one brute force approach would be to search “Best place to photograph XYZ” and see what comes up. This can work sometimes but, honestly, I’ve found the results to be more of a collection of the lodges and camps. The alternative is to choose a country and then look into the following major areas of consideration. 

Location

Across the continent, there are more than 225 National Parks and Reserves (not counting private concessions and other protected land formats). Each has its own style of operation, management of wildlife, and rules for tour operators — both public and private, and for general visitors.

Because you’ll ultimately be staying at a lodge or camp within or nearby a specific National Park, it’s important to research these places based on exactly where you will be staying. Each could vary significantly in what is allowed for guides and operators within any given landscape. 

For example, “private concessions” usually describe land that is immediately next to a National Park that shares a fenceless boundary with the park. Lodges and camps that operate their own private concessions can offer special activities that might not be allowed within the National Parks while still having access to the wildlife that roam freely throughout. 

Public vs. Private

One of the biggest surprises that I hear from people who visit Africa for the first time to places is that they were not expecting to see so many other people out on safari at the same time. Back in 2018, I visited Tsavo East for a conservation project with elephants. While out on documenting elephants, we came across a female lioness. A few moments later, one other tourist safari truck came past, the guide speaking into the radio. Within 15 minutes, there were 30 vehicles surrounding the lion. Now — don’t get me wrong — this isn’t the case always. Although, it is something to consider if you visit a location with multiple operators and many lodges in a small region. 

By staying at a private reserve, or concession, you can avoid this sort of scenario because these establishments are generally interested more in quality over quantity of guests. For example, as I was saying before about looking for a place to visit within Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, during my search I found a camp called “The Hide.” The camp is situated in the heart of a small private concession that shares a border with Hwange. Wildlife enters and exits freely, and The Hide can easily access the larger National Park if they want to. Although as part of Hwange Park rules, guides must be back on their concession property before park closing times.

One disadvantage of staying within some National Parks is the time you must be back at the lodge or the camp if you stay within boundaries of the park. In Hwange during June, you’re supposed to be back by 6 p.m., leaving little time during golden hour. If you stay in a private concession, like The Hide, you can still be out on safari with wildlife past the cutoff time, so long as you are within the borders of the concession.

Species

One major point to consider is that not all reserves have all species. The populations can also vary significantly. For example, in Zimbabwe, there are very few wild rhino left in the National Parks due to poaching. Although, there is the possibility to see them out in the wild in private reserves that host more highly protected strongholds. So, if you were to visit Zimbabwe and wanted to see rhino, you’d have to travel to specific locations outside of the more popular National Parks.

Quality of Sightings

Some parks have large, healthy populations of predators like lions or leopard — while others lack. one of the major factors that determines the quality of sightings is the mentality of the wildlife towards human observers. “Habituation” is one term you may come across in your research. It is in reference to how comfortable animals are around vehicles. 

For example, in Londolozi, South Africa, leopard sightings are frequent and they are highly relaxed. They walk right by vehicles, hunt, and go about their day without a care. That’s because the population of leopards in the reserve have become quite accustomed to vehicles with human observers. In other areas, leopard sightings might be rarer because they might not be habituated to vehicles. Or simply, the vegetation might be too thick to have any meaningful sightings. 

Seasons

Perhaps the most important factor in deciding when to visit a location is the season. Generally, South African countries experience two major seasons — with some exceptions. There is the dry season and rainy season.

Dry Season

As a basic rule of thumb, wildlife is usually much easier to locate during dry season because animals congregate around watering holes and rivers. For many people, this is the ideal time to visit specific areas because you’re more likely to see wildlife if you hang around water sources. Animals come like clockwork. 

The cons are that the landscape is usually not as lush and full as in the rainy season. Although, this can be an advantage if you want a color pallet with distinct swashes of yellow, auburn, and brown. Open areas are sometimes much less cluttered by the tangle of dense vegetation. In some places, tall grass and green leaves on trees can persist through the dry season. Meanwhile, in others the grass is cut quite quickly by the mouths of large herds of grazers.  

In Zimbabwe at Hwange National Park, the dry season is from April to October. From about May/June onward elephant sightings become much more regular in and around the area of The Hide, for example. Because Hwange is so large, other times of the year (when there is more food availability and water access in other locations within the park) elephants are more dispersed and the large numbers of them collecting around watering holes is not as frequent.

When I visited Hwange in early June — well into the dry season — elephant sightings around watering holes were just becoming more frequent. Over just few days, we saw several hundred elephants easily. The week before we arrived, they saw maybe a few dozen. In other regions of Hwange, it might be different. This is why it’s important to look into specifics like this per location.

Rainy Season

Historically, people have shied away from recommending the rainy season for safari as the viewing of wildlife is a bit more difficult. And, in some instances, it’s just not possible due to land access (flooding) or roadways becoming too muddy. Because some reserves and National Parks are so large, when the rain comes, there is water everywhere and food is available in more places. As a result, wildlife tends to spread out and disperse, leading to more sporadic and infrequent sightings. Likewise, the predictability of animals is much more difficult during the rainy season. This is because animals do not depend on large watering holes, so they often just don’t show up to them.

But this isn’t the entire story. There are innumerous pros for the rainy season. The lush dense landscape provides a significantly more aesthetic backdrop for wildlife portraits that you do find. There are dynamic skies, dense color pallets, epic contrasts of flowers, mud, and rain that present countless photographic opportunities. For me, it’s my favorite time of the year in general to photograph wildlife. I highly recommend it, since you’ll most likely find availability in lodging and might even be able to get a deal. 

Unpredictable Seasons

These points are not absolutes and seasonal variations depend highly on the specific location and sometimes on multi-year trends. More and more frequently, it’s been even more difficult to predict seasonal changes. What used to be consistent — for example, the arrival of the rains — is now changing in many locations across Africa. Years of drought and excessive rains have replaced the rhythm of the natural seasons. This is just something to keep in mind when you do look into visiting a specific lodge. Be sure to ask about the previous two years and incorporate that into your decision whether or not to visit.

The Vehicle

Lodges and camps don’t always cater to just photographers. When you’re booking in at a place, or inquiring, it’s best to be clear and up-front about why you’re visiting. If you’re a photographer, you are unlikely to be happy on the back of a 10-seater safari vehicle with nine other tourists who only have camera phones. You don’t want to spend five minutes with the leopard, then drive frantically around looking for an elephant. This is called a Ferrari Safari and it’s a photographer’s worst nightmare. Some tourists just want to tick animals off a list. Most tourists are not like this, however. And photographers — above all — just want to spend quality time with animals, observing and learning, and waiting for the light and composition to align. 

Note that this usually means paying a higher fee because you’re taking up all the seats on a vehicle of other paying guests. That’s why workshops and trips with fellow photographers can be much more economical. Sharing the costs and ensuring you’re with like-minded people who share similar goals. 

Likewise, some lodges and camps do cater to photographers — and even filmmakers — by offering custom vehicles that are set up with camera mounts and/or might have seats that are intentionally lower to the ground. These vehicles sometimes must be rented on top of the normal safari rate but could also be included in package deals.  

If these kinds of options are not available, or simply out of your budget, there are ways to make the most of whatever you can afford or what is available. If the only option is to join a vehicle with other guests, ask ahead of time to sit in the front seat next to the driver/guide. Usually this position is much lower, and you’ll have direct contact with the guide to influence where you go and how often you stop. Don’t be afraid to suddenly yell “stop” if you see a photographic opportunity. Be clear about when you don’t want to leave. The other guests will eventually thank you when they also see something amazing and you’ve captured the moment to share with them. 

Likewise, you can also look into joining photographic workshops or dedicated photo safaris, which usually end up working out to the same cost as if you’d join the normal group tours.

Special Features

Beyond specialized vehicles and private guides, some places take it even further by offering custom setups for viewing wildlife that also happen to be enormously attractive to photographers. 

For me, being closer to the ground is very important. Capturing wildlife from lower angles helps to create a stronger connection between the viewer and the subject. I strive at every instance to try to get lower. I even went so far as to build custom box made of steel where I put my camera inside to photograph elephants from the ground. You can watch a video about this below:

Whereas these kinds of shots might not be possible without special access or a custom camera box, they are possible with wildlife hides. These kinds of features at camps are a huge bonus because they can allow you as a photographer the ability to capture unique and uncommon angles. It also allows you to experience wildlife of all types in a more intimate manner.

How to Utilize Social Media

Nowadays, the majority of locations are starting to have regular visitors again. Therefore, it’s more reliable to use social media as a source for research. most lodges, camps, National Parks, and Reserves have Instagram — or at least Facebook. Even if they’re not active on their socials themselves, they likely have guests that are. Check the obvious hashtags. 

For example, I searched #HwangeNationalPark, #TheHideSafariCamp, and #Hwange before my trip. Be sure to read the captions closely to determine if someone is posting in real-time. You can usually get a better impression of what a place is actually like from non-photographers.

More Questions to Ask

Final Thoughts

This sums up the major points to consider when planning a safari photography trip. I can’t wait to hear about your next visit to Africa to photograph African wildlife. If you need help packing, check out What’s in My Camera Bag for a Safari Trip.

Be sure to tag Adorama on IG and FB (#CreateNoMatterWhat @Adorama) when you share your photographs and don’t forget to tag me as well (@donalboyd #donalboyd).

Donal Boyd

Donal Boyd is a wildlife conservationist and fine art portrait photographer and filmmaker with the mission to promote "Conservation of Nature Through Visual Advocacy”. He is also the co-founder of Atlas 1 Studio, a production studio that produces social documentaries, engaging media, and impact campaigns that advocate for the future benefit of both people and planet.