How to Capture the Perfect Photos During Your Green Season Safari

From December to March, most safari destinations in southern Africa are bound to experience rainfall, which usually comes in the form of short but rowdy afternoon thunderstorms. This time of year is known as the green season and is especially great for photography, the air is clear and bright, and the bush is full of bright colours and new life.

If you do your research and consult our travel experts, we’ll make sure you capture all the magic of the green season with one of our experience guides. The green season is quite unique and offers some spectacular game viewing opportunities.

We’ve curated the perfect guide to help you capture your green season safari in all of its splendor.

Select the Right Equipment

This will, of course, depend on how experienced you are with photography, how willing you are to spend money on new equipment, and how you plan to get around.

DSLRs (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) are still the cheapest way to get a camera with a built-in viewfinder, even though the best beginner mirrorless cameras are better for people who want a more modern shooting experience.

Select the Right Accesories

A longer lens or a monopod may come in handy, especially when you are spending long hours in the bush. Tripods are hard to carry and set up in a safari vehicle because they are so big. So, we suggest bringing a beanbag or monopod, which is much easier to use.

Don’t forget to bring along your standard lens for those landscape photos. Lastly, ask our travel experts which sockets are available at our camps for when you need to charge your devices.

Shoot in RAW Format

When you move pictures from the SD card in your camera to a hard drive so you can edit them, you’ll appreciate the quality of the pictures you get from RAW data. JPEG files are processed by the camera, which causes colour data to be lost. RAW files, on the other hand, are not processed and have more colour data for you to work with when editing.

Make Use of Your Zoom Function

You can get creative with how you frame (or crop) your photos, which will make them stand out.

You can choose a very close-up shot and focus on the elephant’s eye, its skin, or the veins in its ear, for example. Or you can take a big picture and include the elephant’s surroundings.

Try out different ways to frame each scene. The results will surprise you.

Choose the Right Time of the Day

Our proffesional guides are experts when it comes to tracking wildlife and they know their surroundings pretty well. Chances are your game drives will be scheduled at the prime time for optimal game viewing. You want to be out when the lighting is the best which is usually before sunrise and before sunset. When the lighting isn’t great, use your imagination. Perhaps a black and white photo will do.

Take Advantage of the Greenery

The green season is lush and beautiful. It is also known for new life, in the form of vegetation and wildlife. It is the ideal time for game viewing and capturing those perfect shots. Rain in Africa changes the barren, dreary bush into a lush splendour and generally only last a for short bouts. Photographers love the clean-washed air’s brighter colours, powerful cloud formations, and sunsets.

Keep an Eye Out for Baby Animals

Southern Africa’s green season is the most “productive.” Especially since there is no shortage of food. It is also no coincidence, that most predators and prey give birth to their young in the green season. Thus, you may see several baby animals wandering through the lush African plains.

Baby animals provide many, great photo opportunities, especially with their quirky behaviours.

Clouds Make Great Landscape Photos

African vistas are vast and picturesque. Especially, during the rainy season. You can capture some really cool photos with Africa’s cloudy skies as your canvas. Timing is everything with these types of shots, but it is important to remember that you do not only have to take photos of wildlife to make your safari interesting.