Photography during nigh drives

Recently, I was asked by The Personal Touch to write some tips for photography during night drives; game drives in an African national park after sunset. Only a few parks in Africa allow this, and South Luangwa National Park in Zambia is one of them. Night time photography is a little different from photography at daylight. Because the vehicles use spot lights, the automatic exposure metering in the camera can easily be fooled. If possible, switch your camera to centre-weighted metering or spot metering. Use a high ISO setting (3200 or 6400 ISO) or Auto-ISO. Use a low F-stop number and let the camera choose the appropriate shutter speed (Aperture priority program). When still in doubt, you can also use ‘auto bracketing’. In that setting the camera will take three pictures in rapid succession. One exposed as the meter sees it, one under-exposed and one over-exposed. That almost guarantees that the correct exposure will be among them.