PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT:

1998-2001

Camera: Nikon N70

Lenses: Tokina 100-400mm zoom and Sigma 400mm APO telephoto, Nikkor 35-70 mm lens.

Flash: Nikon SB26, SB28

2002-2003:

Camera: Nikon D1H

Lenses: Sigma 28-200mm zoom, Nikkor 80-400 VR zoom

Flash: Nikon SB28DX

Storage: Sandisk 512MB flash card and IBM 1GB microdrive. ImageTank with 20 GB harddrive.

2003-2004

Camera: Canon 10D

Lenses: Canon 20mm 2.8, Canon 100mm 2.8macro, Canon 100-400 zoom, Canon teleconverters 1.4x and 2x.

Flash: Canon 550EX and Morris SlaveFlash. Better Beamer Flash Extender.

2005- current

SLR Camera: Canon 20D

Lenses: Canon 20-35mm 2.8, Canon 100mm 2.8 macro, Canon 70-200mm 2.8 zoom, Canon 300mm f4, Canon 500mm f4, Canon teleconverters 1.4x and 2x.

Flash: Canon 580EX

Tripod & Head: Gitzo carbon fibre tripod and Wimberley Sidekick and Acra Swiss B1 ballhead.

Point & Shoot Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1

Software used: a variety of software has been used at different times. I recommend checking out the websites on the links page for information on workflow and software that can be used to process your digital photos.

Photographic Equipment:

I started out on the bird photography path in 1998 using a Nikon N70 with a Tokina 100-400mm zoom. These happy carefree days came to an end in 1999 while sitting in a home-made hide out on the tussock grassland plains behind Pormpuraaw on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. A party of paper-wasps decided that my hide was more suitable for them and in a frantic struggle my Tokina lens proved the loser! My next lens was a Sigma 400mm f5.6 APO lens. For the first year I used print film before graduating to slide film. In fact some of my best photographs have been taken with the modest N70 and Tokina zoom lens setup showing to me that you don't need the most expensive equipment to get good photos. Negatives and slides were scanned using the Polaroid Sprintscan 4000 Plus.

Digital Photography:

Since early 2002 I've been exclusively digital using first of all the Nikon professional digital SLR camera, and then changing over to the canon digital SLRs.

My happy days with the Canon 10D (late 2003 until late 2004) came to an end after I fell into a saltwater creek while kayaking with the camera around my neck. A word of warning. Be very careful with a digital camera around saltwater!

Digital photography has its pros and cons. Nevertheless there is an amazing amount of disinformation out there both supporting digital and rejecting it.

There are many excellent websites that discuss the pros and cons of digital photography (see the links page) so I won't go into detail here. Needless to say, digital photography was an expensive but worthwhile step for me to take a couple of years ago and I haven't regretted it for a moment. Check out the links page if you are after more information on digital photography.

AUDIO EQUIPMENT:

Sony TCD10 DAT Walkman

Sennheiser MK67 microphone

Audio Equipment:

Most audio recordings have been taken using the Sony TCD10 DAT Walkman with a Sennheiser MK67 microphone and recorded onto Digital Audio Tapes (DAT).

Recordings are then transferred to a computer using the POC DA12SP Optical Fire Cable (made by Sony) and saved to WAV files. They are then analysed and cleaned up in the audio software Soundforge or Audacity (freeware).

All audio files on this website have been converted to MP3 files at 24kbp in order to save space.

STOP PRESS- I'am currently trialling a portable minidisc recorder (Sony MZ-RH1) with an audio booster microphone cable. First impressions are very good.