How To Shoot: The Safari Ride

[JR6ooo4]

Canon rebel XT and Canon 70-300IS.
I got a few from our last trip. One thing that I think everyone should do to learn how to get better pictures on the KS ride...

... more Disney trips to practice! Hehehehehee

Mikeeee

 

[dmccarty]

Getting on the back seat helps if you can sit there. The problem with the back seat is that you get tossed around quite a bit The front seat is a bit smoother. And not bad if you can get the "window" seat.

A zoom helps. Trying to get a big animal close to the vehicle one second and then a small critter far away can be frustrating.

Also trying to not fill the frame so you can crop later can help.

We took the Safari ride early one morning. I either did not have the right lens or I did not take the camera I can't remember. But the lion was roaring up on the hill and you see his breath. It would have made a great photo. Then we went by the big male elephant. We were pretty close. he turned his back to us. Then pooed and peed. Rather impressed. I guess he was letting us know what he thought of us....

The elephant would require a pretty wide lens 24-35mm and the lion was needed at least a 180mm.

Maybe next time.

Funny thing is that we have been on the Safari ride three or four times in the last 12 months. At least twice we have had the same driver, they called him Bwanna Bob. He sounded just like Bawb. Kinda looks like Bawb too.

Later,
Dan

 

[loopner67]

Wow.... some of you have gotten some seriously amazing pictures. I'm in awe.

I have to add a downside to sitting in the back. We had a driver who'd start to speed up after she saw an animal, so since we were at the back of the "car", by the time we got up to the animal, we were whizzing by. I missed a few animals and/or just couldn't get them in my sights before she accelerated. oy!

I also found it ten times harder to take pictures with my larger zoom lens on, but that is because I'm still learning.

 

[AbbyPan]

Subscribing ...these pics are amazing, please more, more!!!

 

[saturndb]

These are from my first try. Taken with a Nikon d80 and 18-200mm lens

I will say photographing the safari takes practice and some luck..

 

[clairemolly]

wow.. great photos.

sometimes the animals aren't the only interesting shots.

Sometimes you get lucky have have the herd of giraffes block your path. Even the baby said hello to us.

3 times on the ride and this was my only sighting of the lion.

Love the ride, but getting good ones is a combination of luck, luck, skill and more luck.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

When this ride first opened I thought I would get some AMAZING pictures and have faced the same challenges as everyone else.
If nothing else this is a great "I'm not as awful as I thought" support thread

 

[brack]

Mark thanks for the insights which are great as usual. The safari ride is one of my favorite places to shoot.

I know that you did not intend this as a "share your pics" thread but .... others did so here am I:

I did not use my zoom on these two

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Trying to participate more in the photography section of these boards and just stumbled upon all these tutorials! Great words of wisdom I jotted down a few notes for fireworks next month when I go!

Here are some of my favorite shots from the Safari when we went in '07. I was using my fathers Olympus E-300 that I borrowed for the trip. It was right before I bought my Rebel Xti.

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 400

f/4.3, 128 mm, ISO 100

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 800

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 400

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 800

 

[tlhbdm]

Do you remember what shutter speed you had it at?

Trying to participate more in the photography section of these boards and just stumbled upon all these tutorials! Great words of wisdom I jotted down a few notes for fireworks next month when I go!

Here are some of my favorite shots from the Safari when we went in '07. I was using my fathers Olympus E-300 that I borrowed for the trip. It was right before I bought my Rebel Xti.

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 400

f/4.3, 128 mm, ISO 100

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 800

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 400

f/4.5, 150 mm, ISO 800

 

[zackiedawg]

Cool to see this thread back up...I had forgotten about it. Since I haven't posted since October, and have been back 3 or 4 times since, I'll throw in my safari photos taken since my last post. All with Sony A300 & SAL18-250mm F3.5-6.3 lens. ISO was as low as 100 when possible, but in many cases require ISO400-800 to get enough shutter speed (the Bongos are particularly challenging as they are in extreme shade under heavy tree cover). My goal is to try to keep shutter speeds at 1/250 or faster if at all possible.

 

[tlhbdm]

Cool to see this thread back up...I had forgotten about it. Since I haven't posted since October, and have been back 3 or 4 times since, I'll throw in my safari photos taken since my last post. All with Sony A300 & SAL18-250mm F3.5-6.3 lens. ISO was as low as 100 when possible, but in many cases require ISO400-800 to get enough shutter speed (the Bongos are particularly challenging as they are in extreme shade under heavy tree cover). My goal is to try to keep shutter speeds at 1/250 or faster if at all possible.

You took some awesome pictures! I have a cheat sheet that I am taking with me with what ISO, Apature, shutter speed, and zoom so I know how to take my pics since I am new to the DSLR world. Thanks for posting your pics.

 

[zackiedawg]

Thank you, and you're welcome. I'd definitely recommend aiming to keep shutter speed at 1/250 or better. If your camera allows you to set a shutter speed range, that would be a great way to go in Shutter priority mode. Otherwise, your camera may also have a 'sports' mode which can be quite useful if it allows user adjustments. I normally wouldn't recommend a scene mode on a DSLR, but with user adjustments, they can be as good or better than S or A priority. On my camera, I set to Sports mode - which sets the camera to continuous tracking focus, auto ISO between 100-800, minimum shutter 1/250 or higher, and auto aperture as needed. I adjust focus mode to spot, metering to center-weight, add -1/2 EV, and I'm ready to go. As I shoot, I can turn the jog wheel at front to override an aperture choice to control depth of field, and can manually override the ISO with the top control button without pulling my eye from the viewfinder, if I want to force a lower or higher ISO than the camera chooses.

BTW - I always recommend shooting with your eye to the viewfinder whenever possible - it's a much more stable way to shoot and keep the lens pointed at the subject from a moving vehicle. Just be aware of your surroundings, so you don't bump the lens into a roof pillar and give yourself a black eye! I've occasionally used Live View on my DSLR to shoot from the LCD, on the rare occasion when action was on the other side of the truck and there were too many heads in the way...but it is so much harder to hold a long telephoto lens steady on a subject from a moving platform with the camera held out at arm's length and viewing an LCD screen!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Do you remember what shutter speed you had it at?

Oops...didn't realize I left that part out... I believe I had the camera set to aperture priority so the shutter was automatically set by the camera.

birds: 0.002 sec (1/640)
elephant: 0.001 sec (1/800)
rhinos: 0.003 sec (1/400)
lion: 0.001 sec (1/2000)

 

[tlhbdm]

Thank you, and you're welcome. I'd definitely recommend aiming to keep shutter speed at 1/250 or better. If your camera allows you to set a shutter speed range, that would be a great way to go in Shutter priority mode. Otherwise, your camera may also have a 'sports' mode which can be quite useful if it allows user adjustments. I normally wouldn't recommend a scene mode on a DSLR, but with user adjustments, they can be as good or better than S or A priority. On my camera, I set to Sports mode - which sets the camera to continuous tracking focus, auto ISO between 100-800, minimum shutter 1/250 or higher, and auto aperture as needed. I adjust focus mode to spot, metering to center-weight, add -1/2 EV, and I'm ready to go. As I shoot, I can turn the jog wheel at front to override an aperture choice to control depth of field, and can manually override the ISO with the top control button without pulling my eye from the viewfinder, if I want to force a lower or higher ISO than the camera chooses.

BTW - I always recommend shooting with your eye to the viewfinder whenever possible - it's a much more stable way to shoot and keep the lens pointed at the subject from a moving vehicle. Just be aware of your surroundings, so you don't bump the lens into a roof pillar and give yourself a black eye! I've occasionally used Live View on my DSLR to shoot from the LCD, on the rare occasion when action was on the other side of the truck and there were too many heads in the way...but it is so much harder to hold a long telephoto lens steady on a subject from a moving platform with the camera held out at arm's length and viewing an LCD screen!

Thanks for the info! I will try it in sports mode and see what happens. Fortunately I don't even have the option for live view mode(I have a Nikon D60). Thanks again!

Oops...didn't realize I left that part out... I believe I had the camera set to aperture priority so the shutter was automatically set by the camera.

birds: 0.002 sec (1/640)
elephant: 0.001 sec (1/800)
rhinos: 0.003 sec (1/400)
lion: 0.001 sec (1/2000)

Thanks!