Wildlife photography travel guide

This is where the magic comes in. Trips are led by accomplished photographers, but they are accompanied by professional, local guides that know the best places – and times – to get a great shot. In Finland, hides are used, whereas in Antarctica small RIB boats are launched from the main cruise vessel for shore excursions. Expert tuition + local knowledge = a winning combination. Depending on the destination, these tours might also be accompanied by behavioural experts, zoologists, naturalists or dedicated park rangers, all focused on helping you get the shot of a lifetime.

Some trips, such as in Madagascar, Uganda and Borneo, involve trekking which can be fairly laborious especially in hot or wet weather. You don’t need to be super fit but a decent level of physical fitness will be to your advantage, and some trips will also feature early starts and late finishes, especially where game drives are involved.

Depending on the animal you’re tracking you will probably want different lenses; a wider angle is good for the gorillas of Uganda as you’ll be at close range, while you will probably want a zoom for seeing the Big Five in Botswana and South Africa, or orangutans high up in the trees. Our photography vacations guide has a useful list of equipment to pack. Another useful tip is, before you book, to research who will be leading the trip so that you can see some of their work and decide if they’re the photographer for you.

As many of these trips take place in quite extreme environments it’s vital to protect your equipment from the elements: heat, humidity, snow, dust – and of course you’ll want to make sure it is fully insured. Ensure you carry as much as you can in your hand luggage to reduce the risk of it being damaged or going missing – charge your batteries as you may need to prove at security that equipment is working. Suppliers can provide priceless advice on secure packing if this is something you’re not used to.

Ian Wood from our supplier, A Good Place, on what lenses to bring:
“The best lens for mountain gorilla photography is without doubt a 70-200mm F2.8 which gives the perfect focal range and is also great in lower light in the forest. Having said that a wider angle lens can also be suitable as some encounters will be very close. There's no problem with humidity for mountain gorillas as these forests are high. In Borneo for orangutans the humidity is nearly 100 percent and I recommend people leave their cameras in their bag each night with some silica gel.”

June is a great time for viewing brown bears and their cubs in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park. As summer begins, the days lengthen, the weather warms up and the scenery is alive with vibrant colours making for highly picturesque backdrops. Spawning salmon in the rivers should lead to some dramatic action shots.

Viewing the mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a year-round activity, but we recommend January, the start of one of Uganda’s two dry seasons. The ground is firmer in these months, allowing for much easier trekking.

See tigers in India between October and June. From late May onwards the monsoon season begins to sweep across the country and heavy rains mean the following four summer months are not especially suitable for wildlife viewing in Madhya Pradesh.