Rain: A Blessing on Safari

Trying to get people to be enthusiastic about rain on their safari is tough. Having booked a holiday to Kenya they can be forgiven for expecting wall to wall sunshine all day long. Imagine their disappointment therefore, when not only does it pour with rain before they go out on an afternoon safari, but I appear in a pair of safari shorts that straddle the boundary of too short, with a big grin on my face announcing “thank God it’s raining”. Never has this statement or smile been returned, and I fear perhaps it never will. But here’s why I think my enthusiasm for rain should be reciprocated - and not just for the money saved on sun cream

Rain on your wedding day in the U.K is supposedly bad luck, not sure why. Rain on your wedding day in Africa is a blessing for it brings with it fresh life in the bush. Rain on a safari? Well, that depends on who you ask. Yes, driving becomes difficult for the guides. Yes, animals that had perhaps been drawn to water sources disperse, making them tougher to find. Yes, the dark clouds that bring such torrents with them can at times create a flat, unhelpful light. However, I firmly believe they can make an image so much more dramatic than a blue sky ever could.

Wet seasons in Africa are usually fairly predictable. Here in the Mara, where I am as I write this, March to May are our ‘long rains’. This does not mean it drizzles with rain all day every day, instead you get dark clouds rolling over the horizon that hurl rain at you from above. It’s brilliant.

Most photographers, if not all, love these moments; the build up before the storm as dark clouds gather and provide a euphoric image backdrop. This alone can be worth the safari and the wet clothes even if you then dart back to camp before the heavens truly open.

As The First Droplets Fall

It is important when setting up for images like this to retain the detail in the sky. This can, at times, be a challenge as the clouds snuff out the majority of the light. However, a moderate increase to your aperture (this was taken at f/5), while ensuring your shutter speed does not dip too low, will enable you to capture the contrast in the clouds while not creating a dark foreground. Too often I have had moments where in a desperate attempt to display the cloud formation I have increased my aperture too high and lost any chance of detail in the foreground. The ever increasing domination of mirrorless camera bodies will soon make this a completely avoidable mistake as their live-view viewfinder will allow you to see what you are capturing in real time. This is a total game changer for anyone shooting manual.

As the rain starts though, you will have to change your approach. Firstly, it goes without saying, a waterproof cover would never go amiss. They are relatively inexpensive and depending on your camera’s weather sealing ability could save you a lot of problems down the line with wet camera equipment. Over the last few weeks I have found myself poking my camera out of a gap in the canvas flaps of the car, unable to see anything other than through my viewfinder as the rain pelted the barrel of my lens. On days I my cover was M.I.A I have, to try and prevent drowning half of my life savings, tried anything from using my shirt (apologies to anyone who drove past and saw me half naked with a shirt wrapped around my camera), to balancing my camera bag on my head and the window ledge as a mini umbrella. This looks a little less than professional with nowhere near the same level of efficiency. You also get quite cold.

The first drops of rain will only be marginally noticeable, especially on an image where the subject does not dominate the frame. For the image to be effective it generally has to be pouring. However the same technical elements are required no matter the weight of rain. Having raised your aperture for photographing the clouds, now I would recommend dropping it as low as it will go. The more light you can allow in the better as it will allow you to increase your shutter speed, something that will make a great deal of difference to your images. The faster your shutter speed the more the rain will appear as droplets rather than streaks. Anything above 1/1000th of a second should produce isolated drops over streaks, but the harder the rain the higher you need to push your shutter speed.

This is by no means an issue, streaks of rain can make for equally emotive images but my personal preference is to attempt to clearly isolate the individual droplets. Another way to make this easier is by shooting in to the light source - usually on safari this is the sun. Whether it be visible or ensconced in clouds, having your subject and the rain between you and it will make your life much easier. The light provided by the sun will illuminate the rain as you photograph it increasing its clarity in your images, as well as allowing for a faster shutter speed.

Your third option, and one I usually use last, is to increase your ISO. The higher you push it the greater your shutter speed flexibility, but it comes with the trade off of increasing the grain in your images. Depending on your camera system you are fairly safe around ISO 1000, and as cameras constantly improve this is always changing. However, be wary of going too high as the increased grain can cause the rain to lose its visual impact.

The two images above highlight the difference in the images produced when you alter your camera settings. In the image of the two lions I kept my ISO and shutter speed lower, the result being that at 1/250th the rain drops, while still clear, appear as streaks. The second image, of the elephants, I increased the ISO and the shutter speed and the difference is stark. 1/2000th of a second ensures each drop of rain is clear.

It is worth trying to avoid a bright backdrop. This might sound odd, but often I have found images taken in the rain that I thought would come out well do not work because you cannot pick out the rain against the background. You can go some way towards correcting this in post, but always better to get it right in camera. These images below were taken only a handful of seconds apart, but show the difference a darker background made - the settings remained the same for both, the only difference is the context.

Finally, and I feel perhaps most importantly, focus on different subjects to the usual safari suspects. Lions, most people’s favourites, will often hide in thick bush or long grass from the rain and as such your photo opportunities can be slim. Although if you gamble and it comes off the results are exceptional (Google “Amy Shutt Lion in the rain” later and you’ll see just how exceptional).

I have found over the last three months in the Mara that I have had more luck with grazers; impala, buffalo, waterbuck or even birds are much more amenable to posing in the rain. This was made more apparent the other day when, as I was trying to photograph a giant bull elephant in driving rain, I could feel it was not working. The background was too bright and the rain was not translating in to a good image. Leaving the elephant, a few hundred yards away across the marsh, we found a group of 60 impala. Grouped together against the rain they all had their focus on something in the distance, all their eyes fixed in one direction. The opportunity was perfect and so, crouching on the floor of the car so I could photograph from where my door used to be (it was stripped off for moments like this months ago), took perhaps my favourite image of this three month stint in the Mara.

Hopefully it goes to show that it is not sunshine and the big cats or prehistorically (and now irrelevantly) named “Big 5”, that can provide the best photo opportunities. Rain is not just a blessing on wedding days here, it is a true gift on safari.

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