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PHOTOGRAPHY ADVICE AND TIPS - By: Dr Landi Lombard FOR BIRDLIFE IN THE KGALAGADI
K
galagadi Transfrontier park is a magical place, in the most northern tip of the Northern Cape, with about two thirds in Botswana. It is one of my favourite places to unwind and focus on my photography. It’s an arid land with great wildlife and bird life photography opportunities, especially for birds of prey. It is massive (38000 square km), bigger than the size of Belgium. It’s possible to get close to the animals and get great photo’s, with a great dune or desert background, including birds in flight. A lot of summer bird visitors make this time of the year even more spectacular for bird photography, if you can bare
Rock Kestrel (Kransvalk) in Kgalagadi: Canon 7D Mark II, ISO 400, 400mm, shutter 1/2000, f6,3
Martial Eagle (Breëkoparend) in Kgalagadi: Canon 7D Mark II, ISO 320, 400mm, shutter 1/2000, f6,3
the heat. In summer, daytime temperatures often reach 45-48 degrees. The nights are fairly warm and comfortable. Only early morning drives are viable as the rest of the day is too hot. This park changes several times in the year and although it is dry and desert-like most of the year it actually often gets fairly good summer rainfall, transforming the park into a stunning green place, but makes animal spotting a lot more difficult because of the extra vegetation. The park is unpredictable with animals moving large distances for food and water,
changing all the time. You often have to work hard for sightings, which makes it even more rewarding when you get that perfect wildlife photo. For good bird photography you would need a good quality camera like a Canon or Nikon DSLR, with fast frames per second rate (preferably 8+/second) and a fast memory card. A good zoom lens is essential, preferably 300mm or more, f-stop as low as possible, preferably f4 or less. Make sure you have more than one battery and a memory card. A good bean bag to rest and stabilize your camera also helps a lot. Recently mirror-less camera entered the market and are selling well now, but I’m still committed to my DSLR camera. SETTING UP YOUR CAMERA Setting up your camera is critical and you can
Gabar goshawk (Witkruissperwer/Klein Singvalk) in Kgalagadi: Canon 7D Mark II, ISO 640, 371mm, shutter 1/2000, f6,3
