Why Award-Winning Wildlife Photographer Amish Chhagan Trusts Novachips Memory Cards

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A split image showing a hand holding a Novachips 2.0 TB storage card against a blurred savanna background with a giraffe, and a cheetah cub climbing a tree trunk.

When thinking about what gear they need for their next big photography adventure, photographers often think first about their camera and lenses. However, there’s an unsung hero: the memory card. Picking the right one is essential. For wildlife photographer Amish Chhagan, Novachips’ CFexpress 4.0 Type B memory cards were the clear correct choice.

Full disclosureThis story is brought to you by Novachips.

Chhagan has traveled worldwide, capturing beautiful, inspiring, award-winning wildlife photos. Chhagan uses Nikon Z7, Z8, and Z9 mirrorless cameras along with 17-28mm, 70-200mm f/2.8, and 180-600mm zoom lenses to make his photos, but he trusts Novachips to capture them.

A male and female lion stand close together in tall grass, with the female leaning her head against the male's face.

Like Most Photographers, Amish Chhagan Is Very Particular About His Gear

“I’m particular about gear — camera, bag, storage, editing setup, all of it — because losing files simply isn’t a risk I can absorb,” Chhagan says. “I apply the same standard to my fine art prints, down to the fine art paper, the museum glass, the wood. It’s not only brand loyalty; it’s wanting equipment to be something I never have to think about mid-shoot.”

On his most recent expedition across Kenya, during which Chhagan photographed some of Africa’s most iconic wildlife, including lions, rhinos, and elephants, he trusted the reliability of Novachips.

Two young male lions with developing manes sit in tall grass, with one looking directly at the camera.

A rhinoceros walks through a grassy field under a cloudy sky as a bird flies overhead.

A black and white image of an elephant standing in tall grass with its trunk curled, surrounded by many small flying insects.

“I ask a lot of my gear when I’m photographing wildlife, often in remote locations where there’s no room for failure,” Chhagan says. “The Novachips CFexpress Type B cards have performed exactly as I need them to throughout the expedition — fast, dependable, and with more than enough capacity for long days of shooting. They’ve become a dependable part of my workflow, simply doing their job without ever getting in the way.”

As other photographers know, there’s no greater compliment for gear than that it doesn’t get in the way. Photographers like Chhagan are at their best when they can focus solely on bringing their creative vision to life and fully trust their equipment to make it possible.

A serval leaps through tall grass, its body suspended in mid-air with its front paws tucked forward.

Five red-billed oxpeckers perch on the back of a large African buffalo.

Capturing the Beauty of Kenya’s Incredible Wildlife

In Chhagan’s case, that creative vision is wildlife photography that respects its subject, captures its beauty, and inspires viewers to want to protect the planet’s most vulnerable species.

Two leopards rest in tall grass, with one standing and grooming the back of the other, which is lying down.

Two young cheetahs play-fight on a dirt mound, with one standing over the other as they swat at each other.

In Kenya, Chhagan visited the famous Masai Mara, Amboseli, and Ol Pejeta, where he says the sheer diversity and amount of wildlife is truly “extraordinary.”

“The trip landed around the wildebeest migration, so the shooting style shifted constantly: fast bursts to freeze the chaos of a river crossing one moment, then long exposures with the shutter held open to capture the movement and scale of the herd the next,” Chhagan explains.

Why Amish Chhagan Became a Photographer

For a photographer like Chhagan, who cares deeply about wildlife, nature, and the environment, photography is his tool of choice to inspire meaningful change in the world.

Five spotted hyena cubs sit in tall grass, while an adult hyena rests in the foreground.

A giraffe stands in a grassy field, reaching up to eat leaves from a large, spreading acacia tree.

“Photography is a powerful tool in conservation — it gives a visual voice to the subjects, creating an emotional connection that a technical report or a donation request sometimes cannot,” the photographer explains. “Reports and appeals have their place, but I don’t think real change comes from this alone. It comes from something closer to empathy — a felt understanding of what we’re doing to this planet, and what that ultimately costs us as well as the wildlife.”

Growing up in Zambia, Chhagan interacted with animals every day. They weren’t a spectacle; they were something to have a meaningful relationship with. As he grew up, a camera gave Chhagan a way to put that love and respect for animals into a form others could experience, too.

“The moment photography became serious for me was an early trip to the Masai Mara — I remember sitting outside my tent that first evening, going back through what I’d shot, and the adrenaline hadn’t worn off. I was reliving moments I’d captured only hours before,” Chhagan says.

“That’s when wildlife, a growing creative passion in photography and naturally the importance of conservation stopped being separate interests and became one thing,” Chhagan continues.

A leopard peers from behind a tree trunk, showing its teeth and a drop of saliva hanging from its mouth.

Photography has no finish line, Chhagan says. Every trip is a different experience, and there is always more to learn and, of course, more photos to capture.

“Every trip, every sighting, forces you to relearn how to see — the light is different, the animal does something you’ve never watched it do before and the sunrise still wows you,” Chhagan says. “You can spend hours reading a scene and still be caught off guard in half a second. That constant unpredictability keeps you humble and keeps you sharp; it never lets you settle into a formula, and that, more than anything, is what keeps me chasing it.”

A cheetah cub descends a weathered, vertical tree trunk, its claws gripping the bark as it looks downward.

Photographers Have to Trust Their Equipment

Over many trips over many years, Chhagan has relied on “most of the major memory card brands” to record that next great photo. They have generally done the job, but Chhagan says Novachips separates itself by delivering the same top-end performance as its competitors, but at a much more value-conscious price.

A hand holds a Novachips Express 2.0 TB memory card in the foreground, with a blurred giraffe standing in a grassy field in the background.

“For photographers like me who need three or four high-capacity cards on a trip like this, that price difference adds up,” Chhagan, who uses 2TB CFexpress 4.0 Type B cards, says.

As Novachips says, it works diligently to develop and manufacture dependable and fast memory cards at a fair price. The company uses custom-developed firmware to maintain stable write performance during high-speed bursts like Chhagan needs to capture all the most exciting moments in the field.

Two Novachips 2.0 TB CFexpress memory cards sit on a textured surface next to a Nikon camera and Nikon Aculon binoculars.

Novachips uses a sticker-free, relatively simple metal enclosure to maximize heat dissipation and keep performance from ever dipping during long, hard days in the field.

Novachips is committed to delivering not only a memory card that photographers like Amish Chhagan want to use, but, more importantly, one they can trust no matter what they’re photographing or where they are.

Full disclosureThis story is brought to you by Novachips.

Image creditsAmish Chhagan

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