The Global Photographer

Well, after 3 solid weeks of photography, I am back home. I took a tremendous amount of images, and I know I have some images that will put a smile on my face. It will take a while to sort through all of the images, mostly because I am still figuring out how to come up with an efficient workflow on my new MacBook. The new Adobe Lightroom beta 4 looks promising, but I will tackle that on another day.

I learned a few things from this past trip. I learned that I feel most comfortable using 1 series Canon cameras for wildlife, and just about any camera will do for landscapes. In the past 2 safaris I have taken very different approaches from an equipment standpoint, and I learned quite a bit from those experiences. Here are some bullet points:

• It is quite difficult moving back and forth between a 20D/5D and a 1DMkII/1DsMkII from an interface standpoint. I strive for simplicity, and prefer to have all of my cameras setup in a similar manner. Moving between a 1DsMkII and a 5D is challenging in a fast-paced environment.


• The buffer on a 1DsMkII is not adequate for wildlife photography (duh).


• The 1DMkII or 1DMkIIN is still an awesome camera for fast autofocus and high frames per second shooting.


• I love full frame 24x36mm viewfinders.


• The 400mm f/4 DO IS and 500mm f/4 L IS lenses are difficult to choose between. I would take either in a heartbeat.


• Canon needs to incorporate their new anti-dust technology in all EOS cameras. Period.


• I wish I could locate Safari Lager here in the USA.


• Epson P2000 devices are atrociously too slow for 12mp and higher cameras, especially when shooting with 8GB CF cards.

I hope to have my first round of images posted in the next few days. Time to sort through them all, deleting/ranking/processing along the way.

On my second safari, we saw 58 lions, 3 rhino, 1 leopard and 3 cheetah. We had some amazingly close elephant opportunities, as well as hordes of wildebeest and zebra. Giraffe were in abundance, including a number of drinking giraffe.
I am glad to be back home, but I look forward to returning in January.