Trip Reports - Mike Needham Photography

TRIP & LOCATION REPORTS

These trip reports have all been written retrospectively, sometimes over a decade later, and so may not fully represent the conditions or opportunities prevailing today or indeed in the future. What I have tried to do however is to give you a general feel for the locations visited and, in combination with the images in the relevant gallery(ies), the species that were encountered and photographed at that time. I have also tried to describe in general terms the types of trip that I have found to work well, and conversely those which have not. That said most trips have been very productive and where this has not been the case I have tried to explain why so that you may avoid similar issues. If you have specific questions or need a little clarification then feel free to contact me.

The equipment lists will also give a feel for the types of photographic equipment (as opposed to computer and general safari kit) that I used on each occasion. I may or may not have taken more, but that listed is what I actually used. With the advent of digital, determining what kit was used is straight forward, however before this transition I kept meticulous notes and so all of these lists are accurate. That said I would suggest that you do not spend too much time worrying about precise kit when planning such a trip. Being there is far more important. As a general guide for say an African safari I would suggest a core of 1-2 DSLR bodies, 70-200mm, something in the 300-400mm range and a good 1.4x teleconverter. This will cover 95% of your needs and adding a standard zoom will take that coverage to about 99%. This applies regardless of whether you have FX (full frame) or DX (crop) sensor bodies. Sure, certain trips will drop these percentages a little and something more specialised will be of greater utility. Borneo for example, IMHO you would have to be mad to go to Borneo on a photography trip without a macro lens (unless you are scared of bugs, my advice then would be to choose another destination. On a typical African safari however, a macro lens in unlikely to see much use. Equally, if photographing birds is your thing, then something a little longer than 400mm may well be called for over and above using a teleconverter.

Planning for a trip is critically important however as once you are on the plane it is too late to dwell on whether you have enough camera batteries, media cards or a storage back-up strategy. My advice is plan, review and re-plan well in advance and to then create a detailed packing list. When the time comes to pack go through the list and tick off items as they go in to your luggage. When you return home think about what you actually used or did not have but would have been really useful and update the list for next time. This list then serves as a valuable reference for each trip, at home or abroad. Every item on the list should have a strong justification for being there, if not remove it. This is not an exercise in listing every conceivable piece of kit that you might need, too much gear can be worst than not enough. You must get this right to maximise the potential of any trip. When I have time I will write a separate article on trip preparation and equipment, in many ways it is THE most important aspect of a trip. In the mean time enjoy the trip reports and hopefully you may find them useful, or at least interesting.

The location reports will give a brief overview of various places that I have visited, primarily in the UK, to photograph either wild or captive animals. I will start to populate these once the overseas trip reports are up to date as they are more fun to write :-)

I will be continually adding more reports as I catch up with the backlog and travel to new destinations (or return to old favourites)

AFRICA

Namibia & Botswana 2001

Kenya & Tanzania 1999

Kenya 1998