Photographing mountain gorillas in Rwanda

Most first-time visitors bring a long telephoto and end up unable to use it. Gorillas frequently sit within a few metres of you, and a 400mm lens simply cannot frame them. A 24–70mm on a full-frame body handles the great majority of usable shots, and a wide 16–35mm captures the far better photograph: a gorilla in its forest, with the tangle of bamboo and Hagenia around it.

If you carry a second body, put a 70–200mm on it for portraits and juveniles higher in the trees. Changing lenses in wet forest with an eight-person group moving around you is not realistic — two bodies or one versatile zoom.

Work in aperture priority at f/2.8 to f/4, auto-ISO with a ceiling of 6400 or higher on a modern body, and a minimum shutter speed of 1/125s — gorillas move suddenly and infants never stop. Accept the noise; a slightly grainy sharp frame beats a clean blurred one every time.

Spot or centre-weighted metering stops the dark fur from being underexposed against bright leaf gaps. Dial in a little positive exposure compensation and check the histogram once, early, rather than chimping through the hour.

Assume rain in any month. A proper rain cover for the camera, a dry bag inside your daypack, several microfibre cloths and two spare batteries — cold at altitude drains them — are the whole kit list. Silica gel in the bag helps on green-season trips.

Book a porter. They carry the bag up, hand you the camera when you arrive, steady you on descents and know exactly where to stand. It costs very little and the money goes straight into households on the park boundary.

Spend the first two minutes without the camera at your eye. Watch where the silverback is, where the infants are playing, and where the light is falling. Then shoot deliberately: a wide environmental frame, a portrait, hands and feet, an interaction between two animals, and one frame that includes the forest floor to give a sense of place.

Flash is prohibited, and no one should have to ask you twice. If photography is central to your trip, take two permits on consecutive days — the first hour teaches you the light, the second is when you actually make the photograph. Guests who want no other group present can arrange an exclusive private family visit at USD $15,000.