Dear Photo Safari Adventurer,

I’m looking forward to guiding your on our photo safari. Often time guests ask how to prepare and what lenses and filters to bring.

Your choices are going to be led by what you like to shoot. I will endeavor to provide a variety from macro to pano. From the plane you usually don’t want wider than 35mm because you’ll get the airframe in the shot plus all the mountain vistas will look so tiny.

I usually wear the 70-200 inflight.

Also inflight I often set up high shutter speed and HDR multiple exposures. That way I can pick the one I want when I get back to the computer. Flying past a peak at 100 mph there often isn’t time to check exposure and with the high contrast from snow to black rock it can be tricky to expose each correctly. So shoot lots and delete.

Whereas on the ground I favor the opposite approach. Spend time moving around and reframing composition to get what you want. A common mistake is for folks not to look outside of the viewfinder. When they get home they realize if they had just moved a bit they would have had a better shot.

If we have the plane for the day and are landing at a variety of places be sure to have a tripod.

If we’re able to get right up to some ice, or plants in the forest a dedicated macro lens and the practice of shooting focus stacking or HDR, come in handy. A polarizing lens helps the colors pop whether it’s blue ice ice or forest green. An 8x or other ND filter can slow down effectively waterfalls or creeks we might get near.

And of course a nice wide angle lens. Do you know how to stitch together a pano and whether to shoot with your camera in vertical or horizontal mode?

Do you know what the nodal point refers to? (Homework)

The biggest mistake I see is people buying new gear for the big trip but not spending enough time learning how to use it.

A good place to start is the ability to understand shooting in Manual mode. Every camera and model has it’s own menu so I usually am unable to help people find stuff in their menu options.

Extra batteries of course

A lens cloth

If shooting in a dark forest know where the shutter uplock and trigger delayed release are because of the longer exposure times.

Having said all that, it’s important to remember to soak it in and not stress about the shots. Many folks have done this trip with nothing but a phone camera (or even gasp, no camera) and left with memories of a lifetime. It is my goal to make the flight as safe and as memorable as possible.

If you have specific questions, please email us a info@flyrusts.com. Be sure to put Photo Safari Question in the subject line.

And thanks for signing up for the adventure!

Mark Stadsklev