Wildlife & Safari Photography Secrets with Expert Amish Chhagan

Amish Chhagan, a Barcelona-based wildlife and safari photographer with a deep passion for Africa’s diverse ecosystems, joins me on this episode of the Big Photo Hunt Podcast. We explore Amish’s journey into wildlife photography, the allure of the “new big five,” and why the Masai Mara in Kenya holds a special place in his heart.

Beyond capturing breathtaking shots, Amish combines his love of photography with conservation efforts, channeling his creativity to protect Africa’s remarkable wildlife. Tune in for practical tips on elevating your wildlife photography, from nailing candid moments to embracing the patience required for success. Whether you’re an aspiring photographer or a dedicated wildlife enthusiast, Amish’s insights are sure to inspire and inform.

Transcript

00:00:00:12 - 00:00:01:23

How close are we talking? 

00:00:02:05 - 00:00:13:02

With my camera case, they were centimeters away. The horn actually touched my camera case. The horn of the rhino. And one occasion, it touched it and it fell. 

00:00:13:14 - 00:00:18:17

And what about when you're holding it? How close are you on these smaller lenses? On the wider lenses? 

00:00:19:04 - 00:00:20:08

A couple of meters. 

00:00:20:18 - 00:00:21:23

That's pretty cool. 

00:00:22:09 - 00:00:24:02

Yeah, it is. 

00:00:24:04 - 00:00:26:09

It is in the vehicle or out of the vehicle? 

00:00:26:20 - 00:00:27:08

Both. 

00:00:30:16 - 00:00:51:29

Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Deckinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit Big Photo hunt.com for more information. 

00:01:04:19 - 00:01:41:19

Today we're going on safari. Figuratively speaking, because I'm in the studio right now. But my guest is big photo hunt member. Amish Chhagan. Amish is a wildlife photographer who grew up in Zambia. After a stint in the UK and a soft landing in Spain, he discovered his passion for photography only to find it converge with his love for the wildlife in Africa. That's what we're going to talk about today wildlife and safari photography with a specific focus on the Masai Mara in Kenya. 

00:01:42:14 - 00:01:46:22

Amish. You can introduce yourself better than I ever could, so take it away. 

00:01:47:22 - 00:02:17:23

So yeah, my name is Amish. I grew up in Zambia. I moved from Zambia to the UK back in um 2002 or so. The university and the like. I then started my career in London. I then moved to Barcelona for a number of reasons. The major reason was I met a girl. Now my partner, my wife and the and the mother of my child. Growing up in Zambia was pretty cool. 

00:02:17:25 - 00:02:54:07

I didn't realize it at the time till I lived in the UK. We had no internet. We had one TV channel that started at 5 p.m. every day, and was finished by 8 p.m. every other weekend. You know, my dad would hop into the car and we would drive two hours away from Lusaka, which is a capital city, which is where I grew up. And we were in the middle of a national park with elephants and zebras and and the like. So I was exposed to a lot of the flora and fauna of that part of the world from a very young age. And I guess the the serenity of these lands and spotting wildlife, it was exciting for me. 

00:02:54:14 - 00:02:56:25

And then more so when I found photography. 

00:02:57:18 - 00:03:25:29

Today you focus a lot of your work on wildlife photography, specifically in Africa. I know you love the Maasai Mara, and a lot of your photos have the big five in them. There's other animals I've seen giraffes and stuff, obviously, but can you explain to everyone what the big five are and also what the draw of the Masai Mara is to you, and also what the Maasai Mara is. 

00:03:26:27 - 00:03:45:09

I don't like to describe the animals in the Big Five way, because the origins of the Big five were the five biggest and most difficult animals to hunt. So the buffalo, the lion, the elephant, the leopard. And. 

00:03:47:13 - 00:03:49:24

The the rhino. 

00:03:49:26 - 00:04:22:19

The rhino? Yes. Are the are the big five and the the biggest, the toughest animals to hunt. Actually, there's a very well established photographer. I think his name is Graham Greene. Who set up the new big five? This was a couple of years ago, and the new big five was based on a voting consensus from mostly creatives and photographers and artists and conservationists that what are the top big five animals that we would like to shoot with our cameras? I can't remember what they are, but I know Polar Bear is in there. 

00:04:23:03 - 00:04:32:21

I think Tiger is in there as well, so it's a whole new big list. So I don't like to refer to it as a big five because of, of of the origins and how you get it. 

00:04:38:17 - 00:05:17:03

And now a word from our sponsor. Who are we kidding? We don't have a sponsor, but what we do have is the Big Photo Hunt, a quickly growing online community for amateur and aspiring photographers to grow their photography together. And just to brag a little bit. It's pretty cool. And quite frankly, could be the world's friendliest photography club. Our members are just nice. So if you're a photographer and you're nice but you're not yet a member, log in at Big Photo hunt.com to see what in the world I'm talking about. 

00:05:17:22 - 00:05:19:09

Now back to the show. 

00:05:24:26 - 00:05:56:26

I really do like the Masai Mara. You're right. And I'll give you a little bit of a background story. Quite special for me. So the first time I went to Maasai Mara was actually after a good friend's wedding. The wife was from Nairobi, which is the capital city of Kenya, and she organized a trip. She's like people that want to come after the wedding. Let's go. We're going to to see the lions in Masai Mara. And at that point, I was playing with photography already. I had a basic Nikon DSLR. My wife got me a small telephoto lens. 

00:05:57:08 - 00:06:41:27

It happened to be around my birthday time. So, you know, just in time for this trip. And I took it with me. And the professional photographer that did the wedding was also very passionate about wildlife and wildlife photography. So I was like, I was trying to speak to him and, you know, get some tips and, and likes. And he's like, why don't you just come with me in the car every game, drive we go and, you know, show you some basic things. And that's what I did. I think the first thing that that really blew my mind was the sheer density of wildlife in Masai Mara, because I'm used to going with the guides in Zambia or in Zimbabwe or wherever it is, and trying to find line tracks, and then maybe we'll see 1 or 2 lines in three days or whatever. 

00:06:43:01 - 00:07:15:01

Here. Leopards were walking in the middle of the day. I had never experienced that before. Leopards are generally quite nocturnal. They don't come out in the day, but here they are. And lions were literally walking past the front of the car on the side of the car. You could put your hand out and touch the main if you wanted to. I don't advise doing that, but it was fascinating. I was blown away and then came back to my tent, went through the hundreds of photos and I was like, wow, okay, this is cool. 

00:07:15:24 - 00:07:50:19

And then I came back home and I started to post-process some of the photos. I had taken a couple of decent shots, actually. Even the professional photographer was. I was impressed, but he was like, oh, a good photo. It was a moment that I was hooked. It was a convergence point for me that connected wildlife, something very nostalgic and something I grew up with, and photography, which quickly became a creative passion. And then with time, purpose and the underrated importance of conservation. So these things kind of came together, the pieces of my creative puzzle. 

00:07:51:01 - 00:08:13:21

That's why Masai Mara is special for me. And so when I take guess it's relative, I never guarantee, but I can say I can almost guarantee that you're going to see some great game and probably the same lines over and over again. You get to know these characters and it takes you down a different route, as opposed to just spotting a line. And that's it. 

00:08:14:10 - 00:08:47:12

I have been to Kruger in South Africa and didn't see a leopard. Actually, I saw the four others. I saw plenty of elephants, rhinos, buffaloes. It was awesome. I saw a lion. We were on a game drive, and we were sitting in the back of the truck and saw a lion that was maybe six feet from the vehicle, and we just stopped. And I had never seen, you know, for you, I'm sure you've seen this stuff all the time. Probably better. I had never seen anything like this before, and this lion just sat there, wasn't doing anything. It was just looking at us. We were looking at it and our guide said, just don't stand up and do anything crazy. 

00:08:47:14 - 00:08:48:05

Yeah, don't. 

00:08:48:07 - 00:08:48:22

Move too. 

00:08:48:24 - 00:09:20:11

Much. Exactly. We just sat there and I was we were popping some photos off, and I have a video of that experience changed my life because seeing that animal in the wild, I recognized how different they are from animals that we grew up with in the zoo and, and in a lot of ways brought this conflict into my life. Because on one hand, you want the zoos so that people can be educated and connected to these animals. But on the other hand, it's like, whoa, that's not life for these animals. It's not even close. And it sounds cliche, I think, especially in the name of conservation. 

00:09:20:13 - 00:09:50:10

And but I learned how much of a disconnect there is between like, reality and what an animal is in its environment versus what it is in a zoo. And I think you have to kind of experience this to understand that, but absolutely. Let's talk about how you actually photograph these animals. I've seen photos that you appear very close to some of these. I've actually seen photos of you that you are very close to them. It looks like you're six feet from this rhino. How are you photographing these animals and where are you situated when you're doing this? 

00:09:50:29 - 00:10:24:00

Mostly in a car. In an open car. I have a guide with me, and I tend to use very specific guides, those that I know that they understand things about positioning of a car. They understand lighting. That's an important aspect to photography and wildlife photography. When I started, it was all about using my telephoto lens. The big 600 mil or 400 mil lens and positioning ourselves and trying to get the best photo, whether it's action, whether it's portrait, whatever it may be. 

00:10:24:16 - 00:11:11:10

But I guess what happens with time and as you progress, you just want to continue to challenge yourself creatively. So there's a few things that I do. For example, I have a monopod and I kind of drop it down to the ground, so I get a low angle shot of the subject or something that's walking by. You got to be careful with this. And your guide also needs to say say if it's okay. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't because you don't actually get to see. I have a remote and I kind of take the photos. There's been 1 or 2 shots that I've worked the other way, which I've started to do more is I have a waterproof protective case with my camera in and there's a tripod and it's kind of hidden away, and hopefully animals will pass by or someone will get curious like rhinos. 

00:11:11:20 - 00:11:46:04

And they would come, they would see it, they'd smell it, they would see it's nothing. And they walk away. And in that time I'm I'm like, you cannot do that everywhere. A lot of parks won't allow these things. So you got to know the rules, you got to know the guidelines, etc., etc. I think more and more what I've started doing is use smaller lenses to get the full picture and get a, get a different composition, get a different angle. So, you know, have that sunset in the background, position it so that the lion's head is is in front of the sun. 

00:11:46:19 - 00:12:16:06

A lot of it is reactive. While you're in the field, you'll see something and you're like, I need a shot of that. Or the other thing I'm trying to do more of is be proactive. So I see a scene in the field, a nice tree or something that is composed very well for an image. I'm like, okay, let's see. Let's see what passes by here. Maybe it is an elephant, or maybe there's some zebras or whatever, and you kind of frame it in a different way. Again, with the smaller lens. 

00:12:16:19 - 00:12:22:21

With these smaller lenses, are you getting closer to the animals also, or are you just creating a wider shot? 

00:12:23:05 - 00:12:58:19

Both. I would get closer either through a monopod or physically, but physically it's a bit hit and miss because a lot of the public parks, national parks won't allow you to come out of the car and interact. And obviously these animals are dangerous. It doesn't need to be a lion or an elephant or a hippo or even a zebra. Uh, can be can be quite dangerous. But there are times where I've been out of the car, like private conservancies and relatively close to a subject. 

00:12:59:01 - 00:13:16:00

I have not been scared. Um, because I completely trust the people I'm with. That's why they're so important. And the other aspect is just to get that wider shot. It tells more of a story. And that's also what photography is about. Especially wildlife photography. 

00:13:16:12 - 00:13:17:21

How close are we talking. 

00:13:18:04 - 00:13:28:29

With my camera case? They were centimeters away. The horn actually touched my camera case. The horn of the rhino. And one occasion, it touched it and it fell. 

00:13:29:13 - 00:13:34:16

And what about when you're holding it? How close are you on these smaller lenses? On the wider lenses? 

00:13:35:03 - 00:13:36:06

A couple of meters. 

00:13:36:18 - 00:13:37:22

That's pretty cool. 

00:13:38:09 - 00:13:40:00

Yeah, it is. 

00:13:40:02 - 00:13:42:07

It is in the vehicle or out of the vehicle? 

00:13:42:18 - 00:14:18:00

Both. If I'm in the vehicle and the animal is that close, it's unlikely that I'm going to get anything good. Just because you're looking down at the animal. It's one of the first things I tell the students on my photo safaris is look for eye level or below. That's the difference between an amateur shot and a good shot. That's not to say that you cannot get good photos from a higher level, but generally speaking, that kind of eye level or below and you adjust, you see what works and what doesn't and what speaks to you. 

00:14:18:14 - 00:14:23:08

Your photo will be very different from my photo, will be very different from the next person. Right? 

00:14:24:02 - 00:14:28:12

How many of these are keepers at the end of a game drive or at the end of the day? 

00:14:30:06 - 00:14:45:16

Let me rephrase your question. Money shots. I'd say I'd be lucky if I get five, seven, maybe ten at the most in a single trip. That would be a really good number, actually. If I get ten money shots. 

00:14:45:26 - 00:14:50:10

That's rare over the course of like a seven day trip or a nine day trip kind of thing. 

00:14:50:26 - 00:15:23:04

Yeah, I'll take a thousand photos, but when I go through them and I assess and I look, maybe I take five money shots from my initial assessment, but then six months later I'll go through those photos and I find another couple of hidden gems. That happens a lot. It just happened two days ago. I was looking through some old footage and I found some really cool shots that I haven't touched, but when I looked at them then I was like, nah, I don't see anything. But I look at it now and I'm like, I see something that's creativity for you. 

00:15:23:16 - 00:15:45:13

Is that what it is? I wonder why that happens because I go through the same thing. I happen to really enjoy street photography and, you know, I'll go out for a day and come back and maybe 1 or 2 of them are good and that's it. And I'm like, okay. And then I look like a year later and I was like, wow, that's a cool shot. And I start playing around with it in Lightroom and and it comes out to be something. Why is that? I don't understand that. 

00:15:46:01 - 00:16:19:02

There's nothing rational about your creative juices and flow. There's nothing rational about it. And that's why you have some of the best neurologists in the world that don't understand. Creativity. I mean, they don't understand the brain, first of all. Like, we are just scratching the surface. But creativity is something. It doesn't make sense to anyone. It's very difficult to explain what creativity is or the creative process. The language is insufficient to describe our own creative process, and it's very individualistic. 

00:16:19:04 - 00:17:02:01

It's very human and it's very unique. Like our fingerprint is this. It's this kind of known unknown. And talking about what? We were just talking about, that moment that I saw those photos for the first time. I didn't see anything, probably because I was rushing through. I was like, on a target. I need to get through all these photos. I'm just really excited to go through all the things I need to go through. All of them. It's just emotion. It's just exciting to see what you've captured. But then, you know, six months later or a year later, your comma, your mind is more at ease, more peaceful, more calm and you look through it and your inner creative self. 

00:17:02:06 - 00:17:05:03

However you want to describe it. See something else? 

00:17:06:02 - 00:17:27:25

I wonder if the lapse of finding photos in that initial batch when you go out and shoot is also maybe blocked by what you think you're looking for. So yeah, I'll go out and I'll take. Absolutely I think so. Right. Like I'll go out and I'll take photos. And in my head my subconscious is looking for something and I'm not finding it. And then when you go back a year later you're not looking for that. And then you see something like, oh, that's a cool photo. 

00:17:28:21 - 00:17:39:03

I think it's also partly to do with your experiences in life in general, what feeds your intuition, and that has an impact on your creative flow. 

00:17:39:17 - 00:17:42:20

We could go on forever about this topic. We'll have to do another episode. 

00:17:42:22 - 00:17:45:00

We can do this can be part one. 

00:17:45:02 - 00:18:00:11

Okay. Well, let's let's get back to wildlife photography. In your mind, what are, say, three elements that make for the perfect wildlife photo three attributes that you've got to have or above all, that you'd want. 

00:18:01:10 - 00:18:37:03

That's another podcast session in itself. And this is, of course, very personal. I think the first and most obvious thing is composition. Understand the composition guidelines that are out there. There's the rule of thirds, which is the most famous. It should be the guide of thirds in my opinion. I'm sure you know it. It just splits the image out into nine rectangles or squares or whatever at the same size. And so using that composition technique, get the face of the line on one of the four intersections. 

00:18:37:05 - 00:19:09:09

For example, depending on what the background is depending on what the foreground is. Things like if you're capturing a leopard walking from left to right, for example. Leave some space on the right for the image to breathe. Silence is important. In. Sorry. Silence. Space is important. I was thinking about a quote from I think Mozart music is in the silence between the notes. It's the same same aspect or same philosophy. 

00:19:09:15 - 00:19:40:17

You need space. So if you have the leopard really close to the edge of the right, the photo with its face, it looks off. It could work, but generally it looks off. So basic things like that. Um, light playing with lights and playing with shadows. The contrast. The blacks and the whites, the golden lights. Sunrise and sunset are some of the best moments to get some crazy photos. You can play with silhouette. 

00:19:41:03 - 00:20:11:28

You know, the sun facing you back. Light side like when the sun is on the side, typically in the middle of the day. If the sun is up in the sky, you kind of get the shadows coming down. So if you take a portrait of an animal, they'll be shadows on their face. Notice that I'm very careful on how I speak about this, because in the middle of the day, you can still get an amazing shot. There's no right and and wrong here. The third thing have fun. When you are more peaceful, more calm. 

00:20:12:10 - 00:20:37:08

When you are in that state, you are naturally more creative. And so relax. Have fun. Don't put pressure on yourself. Don't think about external validation and you'll be surprised to see what you can create. I am still surprised today when I go into the field and I'm like, oh wow, okay, I didn't see that coming. 

00:20:38:04 - 00:20:52:25

I like the third one. That's pretty important. I have three questions that I wrap up every interview with. The first question is what is your favorite genre to shoot and why? 

00:20:54:04 - 00:21:01:29

If we're talking about thematic areas or spaces. It's definitely wildlife and it incorporates nature as well. 

00:21:03:07 - 00:21:07:09

The second question what camera system do you use? 

00:21:08:11 - 00:21:46:17

I use Nikon or Nikon. I have two bodies that I usually use. One is a Nikon Z9, which is their flagship camera. It's a freaking powerhouse. And the other one is its Z7. They're both quite high resolution in terms of megapixels. And so one I use for telephoto and want to use for my my smaller lens. I need to change as I need to. It makes sense for me to have two bodies in the field, because I don't want to be having one camera and changing every, you know? It's tough to do that. 

00:21:46:27 - 00:21:56:13

So I usually have the big lens on that, and then I have a 70 to 200 on the other camera. And then if I need to, I'll just put a wider one. 

00:21:57:16 - 00:22:11:00

And number three on a scale of 1 to 10. How often do you get that burning itch to just go out and make photos? Ten being the highest, one being the least. 

00:22:13:03 - 00:22:45:12

I would do it every day if I could. I put it at it 8 or 9. And the reason I'm not saying ten is because it's nice to have a break from that world as well. It makes you miss it more. I don't, I don't I'm not in the field all the time and I'll go at least 2 or 3 times a year. But in between those months it's building up. The disadvantage is that it takes me a day or two to really get into it. Because I'm not, I'm not I'm not with my camera all the time. 

00:22:45:15 - 00:23:09:07

I find that when I travel and go to a new city and do street photography, I'm always off on that first day. It just gets junk. And then the second day I start getting into my groove and I think it has something to do with getting that camera connected to you again. But also, for me, at least, when you're in a city understanding the culture and the nature of the flow of the city and the tolerances people have with you, because every city is a little different. 

00:23:09:17 - 00:23:41:12

That's an interesting point here, because there's either information overload, meaning that you've studied the city, you know, the hotspots is where I'm going to go. That's where I'm going to go. You understand the culture. And then there's the complete other extreme where you're just like, I'm just going to go and see what happens. Wildlife photography. I think it's a bit different. I think understanding animal mythology and behavior is really important because sometimes things happen and it takes three seconds. 

00:23:41:25 - 00:23:44:09

And if you're not ready, you're missing the shot. 

00:23:45:12 - 00:23:47:23

I want people to go see your photos. 

00:23:48:05 - 00:23:49:05

Thank you so much. 

00:23:49:18 - 00:24:05:05

And I know that you are also organizing safari photo tours. And so I want people to have more information about that. Where can people find you? Social media. Your website. Online. In the world. 

00:24:05:23 - 00:24:14:18

I use Instagram mostly. It's at chags.photography and my website which is chagsphotography is spelled. 

00:24:16:04 - 00:24:47:16

chagsphotography.com all one word. There's basically two types of safaris that I've posted. The first one is a photo safari. They'll be very small groups, 3 or 4 people to ensure lots of FaceTime with me. And then the second type is a private safari. So where I would take families, honeymoon couples, friends, not massive groups. I mean, if the family is like ten people, that's the size of the family. But I try and keep us in one car. 

00:24:47:18 - 00:24:50:03

If we need to extend to two cars, we'll do that. 

00:24:50:18 - 00:25:10:00

For our listeners, if you are interested in any of Amish's safari photo trips. DM him on Instagram or on his website. You could find contact information there, and I'm trying to coordinate a time to go out with him to the Maasai Mara. And as soon as. 

00:25:10:02 - 00:25:14:15

That was my next question, where are we going? Yeah. I'm so excited to take you. 

00:25:14:20 - 00:25:25:25

I'm so trying to, like, find the window to get it into Amish. Thank you so much for being here with me. I've really enjoyed it. Loved learning about all of this. 

00:25:26:06 - 00:25:27:28

Thanks a lot, Ken, I appreciate it. 

00:25:29:06 - 00:25:43:25

Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit big Hunter for more information. Thanks again for listening today.