Each day this week I will take you on a daily virtual photo safari to Kenya's Masai Mara. Each post will feature a travel tip and a photo tip - or two.

I took the images for the posts on a recent trek to the Masia Mara organized by &Beyond, a leader in African travel tours. Bateleur was our base camp for the eight-day photo safari.

Safari Tip: Plan your safari well in advance. Do a Google search on the weather, where and when most of the animals might be in a certain location, if off-road driving is allowed, medical precautions and so on. Do your search well in advance, as even taking several different meds may require specific timing.

Photo Tip: Use a zoom lens for maximum framing flexibility. All of these photographs were taken with my Canon 100-400mm IS lens on my Canon 7D. If you use a fixed focal length lens, you may run the risk of cutting off part of the animal's body in your photograph. Also, try to shoot around f/8 - where this, and most lenses, are the sharpest. Important: always sharpen selectively. In these examples, I only sharpened the animals. Here is a movie/lesson on selectively sharpening.

For more travel photography tips, see the travel section of my creativeLive class, or my ebook, Travel and Nature Photography.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. If you plan on going to Kenya, have been to Kenya, have dreams of going to Kenya, or simply want to read a wonderful adventure book, check out West with the Night.