Last fall Mark Alberhasky took part in a three-week photo trek to Kenya. Which is a bit unusual. As a professional photographer and photo instructor, you'd think it more likely that Mark would be leading a photo trek rather than joining one as a student.

But in Mark's career, "likely" isn't a word that turns up very often.

Seven years ago, Dr. Mark Alberhasky, chief pathologist and director of the pathology lab at a Kentucky hospital, decided it was time to pursue his long-time passion for photography. He made the change, and today he's a successful pro shooter and a skilled photography teacher.

So why the photo trek?

"I've always wanted to photograph wildlife in Africa, and this seemed like the best way," Mark says. "The thing is, my professional photography career is a very short one. I started late in life, and the experience I have to draw on is mainly from my medical career—and, if you're smart, one of the things you learn as a young physician is that you don't know it all. And you learn, also, to take advantage of the expertise that's around you."

Believing that "the quickest way to learn is from somebody who's really good at it," Mark did some research. "I got on the Internet, went through all the different photo safaris and found Joe and Mary Ann McDonald's website."

Mark liked their philosophy. "They basically say, don't come with us if your idea of shooting safari wildlife is, oh, there's a lion...we got the picture...now where's the zebra? If they find a pride of lions, they're going to get great shots by sitting there for three hours and observing their behavior and seeing how they interact.

"It was perfect for me. I figured, here are these guys, good photographers, who have made a career learning about the behavior of these animals—they can get me into situations where I'll be able to get great shots that I'd probably never get by myself.

"And there's an expression in medicine: see one, do one, teach one. That's how I've approached lots of things in my photography career."

So what did he learn?

First, total immersion is a good thing. "I'd never gone and shot all day long, every day for three weeks and looked at my work twice a day as I downloaded what I was shooting."

Second, real life is different from theory. "I started finding out that if you're shooting wildlife that's moving at all, and you want clear shots, 1/500 second doesn't cut it. You have to be shooting 1/1000 second—and 1/2000 if you want sharp birds in flight. And even in Africa, mid-day, with bright sun, when you're talking about those kinds of shutter speeds and an f/8 aperture, you're going to be shooting 1000 or 1200 ISO."

Third, you don't need a lot of equipment, just the right equipment. Mark carried a D3 and a D300 and got almost all of his shots with an AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED. "I had the 1.4 teleconverter [AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E II] and kept an 18-200mm [AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED] on the D300. That was pretty much it."

Fourth, you can't always expect the best light. "I made the shot of the Masai warrior at midday, but I used something I'd learned at a Joe McNally workshop: if you've got to shoot in harsh light, crank the shutter speed way up. That decreases the light and makes the sky dark and dramatic. Then use an SB-800, or whatever Speedlight you've got, to illuminate the subject. I made the shot that way."

Fifth, seize the moment. "My intention was to pose him at sunset, but at midday I had the time to make some shots and I thought, who knows what's going to happen at sunset. So I shot using the flash technique. People always tell you, take the shot when you've got the chance, you can always do it again later. They're right. That night the sunset was lousy, and we left the next day."

And finally, "I've got room to learn, and I'll never stop learning."

Mark Alberhasky has been an NPS member since 2006.