Yes that's right. I'm outta here...
But only for a month and who knows I'll probably still be on-line anyway. After all I'm only going to Brisbane, Australia. Not the ruddy Outback.

The whole family (~wenglish and my two daughters Michelle and Laura-Ashley) are off to visit the rest of the family in Brisbane for a month long holiday. We are all getting really excited now I can promise you. The plane is about to taxi...
We're not looking forward to the 20 hour journey with a 3 year old and a 4 year old but I'm sure we will be fine. Not sure if the other passengers will be? *snicker* *snicker*

I'm sure we're going to behave like tourists and visit the Zoo and the beach and touch a few Koala's and Kangaroos (ok, Michelle won't even touch a bunny rabbit but that's her problem!) but most of it it will be about spending some quality time with family and letting Granny and Grandad dote over their two gorgeous grand-daughters while Mommy and Daddy relax just a little (yeah right like that's gonna happen!).
At least towards the end of the holiday Wendy and I are going to take three days off to Tasmania on our own. Hold thumbs that the weather at Cradle Mountain holds out for us.

The super-duper-cali-fragi-listic news of the day is of course:
I got myself a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III today to take along for the ride!!!!
YEEEEHAW!
Yes I'm spolied rotten - thank you Wendy
Who knows what a 22 mega-pixel landscape of Cradle Mountain will look like but my lips are smacking at the prospect already.

En-e-weigh....
Glad you've all been enjoying the wildlife pics from Nkorho Lodge, Sabi (I had lots of fun taking them and posting them and responding to all the bazillion comments! ) but now it's time for some family and what-not.

Thanks for listening. Take care and see you in May!!

Bye
Ian

P.S. Before I go, I gotta tell you about this PicLens plug-in for IE or FireFox which displays your images in THE most amazing way.
Check out http://www.piclens.com and install the plug-in.
Then browse to your gallery (or mine ) and hover the mouse over an image, and then click the little play icon. Voila! It truly rocks!

All photographs in my gallery are © Ian Weatherburn Photography. All rights reserved. No photographs in part or in whole may be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way without my express written permission. My work does not belong in the public domain.

Nkorho Lodge - Sabi Sands - EOS Roadshow



Last week Thursday (6th March 2008) I was VERY fortunate to be able to get an opportunity to get away to the Sabi Sands which is a private game reserve which borders the Kruger National Park with no fence between Sabi and Kruger so the animals are free to roam.

This was a 5 day photographic excursion to Nkorho Lodge (one of several private lodges in the Sabi Sands) and was hosted by Manus van Dyk of the Canon EOS Roadshow. Manus had received a late cancellation and offered up a slot on the course at a discount and I was lucky enough to be the first to respond to him. He is fully booked up on this course which he runs once a month, for the next year!

So early Thursday morning I was off on a 6½ hour journey from Johannesburg leaving all the worries of work and family behind. My wife Wendy was extremely gracious in allowing me the time off as having to stay behind and look after a 3 year old and a 4 year old on your own can be quite a challenge. So thanks so much Wendy.



Nkorho Lodge is a beautiful 4-Star lodge in the Sabi Sands. It is not over-the-top in terms of function but is extremely comfortable, with lovely rooms and beautiful surrounds. The staff are very friendly and you are made to feel extremely welcome. The food is also fantastic and I ate much too much while I was there. We were so busy most of the time with the course that we didn't get much time to experience more of the lodge - for instance I never even made it into their swimming pool.

Manus proved to be a very adept teacher and photographer and soon I was learning all sorts of things for him. He went to great lengths to have a good setup in the lecture room with properly calibrated monitors, a good presentation and lots of tips and techniques for both camera and Photoshop CS3. One of the great aspects was that he provided special brackets on the game vehicles which allowed us to use our Wimberley Gimbal tripod heads on the vehicle with our long lenses (400-600mm). As you know these lenses are extremely heavy and can be unwieldy but this combination worked really well and we were able to get some great shots.

What also really helped was the knowledge of the bush by our tracker, Freeman; and the willingness to try his level best to get us the best possible shooting position from the vehicle by our ranger Andre. Manus and Andre have a very good working relationship and Andre understands the need to get good light (usually from behind) and stop in the right places while the animals approach the vehicle. This was really appreciated and allowed us to come away with some great shots (well I think so anyway! )

I keep referring to us, and the us were Dries, Grizan and her husband Wouter; so yes there were only 4 other photographers which gave us plenty of room on the vehicle to maneuver into position and have some of our equipment on the seat next to us (other lenses, converters etc). There was a lot of Afrikaans spoken that week so for this Soutie by the end my afrikaans had improved substantially - at least I can understand the language pretty well after having being in the South African Defence Force for 2 years (for my sins!).

I thoroughlly enjoyed the course and the opportunity to photograph the Big 5 (Leopard, Lion, Rhino, Buffalo and Elephant) in their natural surroundings was just the cherry on the top. I came to understand Spot metering and exposure lock (something that I have struggled with in the past), and learned quite a bit about composition and even a bit about Photoshop too.

I was disappointed that Wendy wasn't able to join me as I know she really loves the bush as well but I will definitely be making a trip back there when the children are older. It's quite an experience and I've been wanting to go to Sabi for a long time. I only had to wait until I was 40 to get my chance.



While out in the bush we had many fantastic sightings and saw many leopard as well. This is the first time I have seen leopard in the bush so clearly and just being there was a fantastic experience on it's own. We even came across a leopard Karula with her two cubs. She was off to hunt and so left her two cubs to their own devices. The cubs aren't that small anymore but definitely still full of fun as they tried to track down two doves to no avail!
One of the most fantastic sightings however was the 4 Lion brothers that we came across. There is a 5th brother but he was off doing what comes naturally with a lioness somewhere else in the bush. Anyway, these male lions were stalking a full grown male Buffalo. If anyone knows the African bush then you will know that a lone bull buffalo is THE most dangerous animal in the bush and although you could see he was anxious with the lions surrounding him he was certainly going to put a fight. And put up a fight he did. The lions hardly managed to get close before he charged them at full speed. Needless to say the lions scampered away at incredible speed (look out for an upcoming photo!). Eventually the lions got bored and rolled over on their backs in the shade all next to one another and allowed the buffalo to go his own way. Perhaps another day! This was just one of the many highlights in the bush and we also saw: Black-Backed Jackal; Hyena, Walhberg Eagles, Saddle-Billed Storks, Warthogs, Giraffes, Zebra, Wildebeest, More Buffalo, Hare, Squirrels, Lilac-Breasted and European Rollers and many many other animals. What an experience!

I'm not sure how many pictures I am going to be able to process before the whole family leave at the end of March for a month long holiday with my family in Australia, but I hope you enjoy the few that you do get to see. We are going to stay with them in Brisbane and then have a trip up and down the coast, to the Zoo and all the good touristy stuff. Then Wendy and I are also managing to get away on our own for a couple of nights in Cradle Mountain, Tasmania. Pray for good weather - otherwise I guess we can enjoy a log fire and some red wine together. Mmmmm.

Here are a few snap-shots of Nkorho lodge in case you're interested (not the best time of day to shoot them, so as I say snap-shots). Other 'roper' photographs will be posted in the normal gallery.





















Thanks for reading and take care.
Ian

All photographs in my gallery are © Ian Weatherburn Photography. All rights reserved. No photographs in part or in whole may be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way without my express written permission. My work does not belong in the public domain.

Zoom-Zoom

I love Canon lenses and although Prime (fixed-focal length) lenses are usually best for image-quality I've had my eye on two zoom lenses for some time now.

The Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 II L USM and the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM.

I wanted these lenses for two reasons:

First and foremost I am starting to get into Wedding Photography and some of you may know already that I'm booked to do a wedding on the 28th June this year thanks to a free offer I put on my web site.

The second reason is that the whole family are off for a month long holiday in Australia in April this year! I have limited space in my camera bag to lug with me so I thought it would be great to take along the Canon 1Ds Mark II, the 16-35 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8 with perhaps the 1.4x extender. This should suffice for that trip to be sure of getting all the family shots my heart desires and have suitable landscape lenses when my wife Wendy and I go to Tasmania for a couple of days.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 II L USM

The EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM is a high performance, water-resistant, and ultra wide angle Canon L-series lens. It has been specifically designed for improved edge-to-edge image quality that will meet the strict requirements of professional and high-end amateur photographers.
It features 3 high-precision different types of aspherical lens elements such as ground, replica and GMo. The circular aperture produces a beautiful and natural background blur when shooting at wider apertures. Other features include internal focusing, a ring type USM (Ultra Sonic Monitor), and new AF algorithms for fast and quiet auto-focusing.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM is a high-performance lens. It has been developed as a successor to the EF 28-70mm f/2.8L USM, but with a wider zoom range to meet the needs of photographers using certain digital cameras. Features High-speed AF Optimized lens coatings Highly resistant to dust and water droplets Min. focusing distance of 0.38m at all focal lengths Front of lens does not rotate during focusing Manual focus is possible in AF mode.

A few test shots reveal that these are lovely lenses and are well suited to their task. When comparing the 16-35 to the 17-40 that I currently have I was very pleased to see the 16-35 not vignetting when wide open, which my 17-40 does.

The above three lenses should also prove sufficient to cover any Wedding and I also look forward to trying out the wide angle for some quirky wedding photo's as well.

All photographs in my gallery are © Ian Weatherburn Photography. All rights reserved. No photographs in part or in whole may be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way without my express written permission. My work does not belong in the public domain.

Started off the New Year in a very nice way today!

I managed to get myself a 2nd hand Canon 600mm f/4 L IS USM lens at a real bargain!


Yep, it even came with the Neoprene Camo cover featured in this shot. And it came with a Manfrotto 058B Geared Tripod and Wimberly Gimbal Head II all packaged up in a great tripod bag for good measure.

It all looks in very good condition and although I already have a Wimberly Gimbal Head I think this is going to be a boon because when using my Wimberly on my vehicle mount in the Game Reserves it's a real pain to have to disconnect it each time I go into a bird hyde so now I have the best of both worlds.

Most importantly is the 600mm f/4 however. I'm dying to try out this extra reach and see what kind of shots I can get. I still love my 400mm f/2.8 - I think I always will - it is a very special lens! But it will be great to have a native 600 with the options of course of 840mm with the 1.4x and at a stretch (as I'm not a fan) 1200mm with the 2x.

Fun, fun, fun...

Thanks for sticking with me lately. It has been very very slow and not much action here I know but hey, let's see where this takes us all now?

Take care and a Happy New Year and all the best for 2008 to all my friends.

Best Wishes
Ian

All photographs in my gallery are © Ian Weatherburn Photography. All rights reserved. No photographs in part or in whole may be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way without my express written permission. My work does not belong in the public domain.

I'm about to acquire an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 inkjet printer for home use. I'm really excited at the prospect of being able to print my own images with such clarity and quality that this printer can provide. I have seen some output from this printer and I have been blown away by the quality. Add to this the versatility of being able to do this from my own workstation and not having to fight with the local labs to get them to produce the output that I want is going to be terrific.



The Epson Stylus Pro 3800 is a 17-inch format printer that uses 9 seperate UltraChrome K3 inks (with 2 primary black ink cartidges for superb black-and-white rendition). It is capable of printing up to A2 size (16" x 20") in photo-lab quality at 2,880 x 720 dpi. It is suprisingly sleek in size and should fit nicely in my study with the output trays neatly folding away to conserve space when not in use.

There's a lot to learn: from what settings to best apply in Photoshop; what the different rendering intents are; how to properly resize images to conform to the various paper sizes at the printers 360 pixels per inch; what the different paper-types are and when to use what; how to produce top-quality black and white output; etc etc etc.

I like a challenge though and have aready devoured some of the Epson User Guide and I don't even have my hands on the hardware yet! Thank goodness for the web as there has already been loads of useful information published about the 3800 as it is a very popular printer choice amongst the advanced amateur photographic community.

Hopefully now we will finally get some images out of the dark recesses of the computer's hard drive and onto paper. Even if it's just into a portfolio folder for now and ultimately some selected prints up on the wall. I'm looking out for some frames that are easily interchangeable then we can rotate the images around the house on a monthly basis. It also pushes this little hobby of mine up a notch with being able to offer a full solution from camera to print.

I'm also interested to see how well my images translate from screen to paper. Wish me luck. There's an exciting little journey ahead.



Ian Weatherburn

All photographs in my gallery are © Ian Weatherburn Photography. All rights reserved. No photographs in part or in whole may be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way without my express written permission. My work does not belong in the public domain.