dr._hans_h._siegrist___

Try KEH Camera Brokers at www.keh.com. They have an online catalogue of second hand equipment and send via FedEx all over the world.

 

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Cheers, Hans

Hi Bruce,

 

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So many different answers and not a single one from Switzerland! Let me be the first Swiss national to give you some hints.

 

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The suggestions about the Bernese Oberland (Interlaken, Grindelwald etc.) are good but there are other interesting locations. Further to the East is a mountain area called "Santis" with cable car facilities and and excellent view over Lake Constance (Bodensee), the Alps and the lower parts of our country, called "Mittelland". To the West, in the French speaking part, you will find the Jura mountains, abundant with wildlife such as European lynx (too shy to be photographed) and European ibex (quite cheeky sometimes and excellent photographic subjects). Other lovely areas are to be found around the lakes of Neuchatel, Bienne and Morat as well as Lake Geneva with beautiful shorelines and wildlife refuges of international importance.

 

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I hope the Swiss Tourist Authority reads this and sends me a cheque.

 

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Feel free to contact me by e-mail for more specific discussions.

 

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Cheers, Hans

Dick,

 

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Go for the Arca-Swiss. I use mine a lot with a 500 mm f/4.5 L which is about the same weight as your 300 mm f/2.8 and it works perfectly. I have been through the process of evaluating (and buying) several ballheads. We all wind up with the Arca-Swiss.

 

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Enjoy your new ballhead.

 

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Cheers, Hans

Hantavirus is a worldwide problem and its occurrence is still fairly rare. Another disease persisting in the southwestern USA is plague but I think that to contract either of the diseases you will have to spend a long time (day and night for several weeks) in the area to expose yourself sufficiently. I have never heard of a nature photographer to fall victim to those diseases by exercising his favourite activity. As it has been said before, you are more likely to be bitten be a rattlesnake or stung by a scorpion than to succumb to one of those diseases. For more detailed information, the CDC has an excellent website at http://www.cdc.gov . It is very scientific, though.

 

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Hope this helps a bit, Hans H. Siegrist (MD)

You are right, most of our fellow nature photographers are male. I am sure that one of the main reasons is the 30+ lbs of weight that often have to be lugged around for wildlife photography. There are some excellent female nature photographers, though. I like the work of Irene Labunski-Roberts and particularly Heather Angel's pictures (remember, she was the 1995 BBC wildlife photographer of the year!).

 

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Are we males sexually inadequate? I have four children and a happy marriage. What it takes is a wife who is either herself a nature lover or who puts up with a husband who is sometimes away for hours or days.

 

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Happy "hunting"!

If you have a body with interchangeable focusing screens try to get a plain matte (if possible laser) screen without focusing aids. With a 300 mm lens the depth of field is shallow enough to enable you to focus precisely without them. If you do not have such a camera try to focus on the area surrounding the focusing aids and then recompose your picture.

This year I managed to travel with my wife to Australia for a scientific congress. After the conference we travelled to tropical Queensland and, in particular, the Daintree National Park.

One of my principal goals was to take pictures of the local crocodiles which are supposed to be the largest reptiles in this world. We also took a couple of binoculars to do some birdwatching. Australia is the home of an amazing number of bird species.

We came home recently with some rather good pictures of wild Saltwater or Estuarine Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) and some less spectacular frames of wild Australian birds. The crocodile pictures had been made possible by the help of a local guide and his small boat. The better bird shots had to be taken in walk-through aviary close to Port Douglas. A lot of information abou the Daintree National Park is available on the Net and there are some good books to buy when you arrive in Australia. For the birdwatching we used Simpson and Days "Field Guide to the Birds of Australia".

The cameras in my equipment were my old and trusted Canon F-1 New and T90 bodies (yes I still have a manual focus system) with an 80-200 mm zoom and a 300 mm telephoto lens and, of course, a sturdy Manfrotto 055 tripod with a German FLM ballhead. The film I used throughout was Fujichrome Sensia 100 (about the same quality as Provia but half the price) although taking pictures in the rainforest would certainly benefit from a faster film speed.

Australia is a fascinating place offering a wide variety of different landscapes from arid deserts to wet tropical rainforests and marvellous sandy beaches (beware of the sharks!). I am sure that this was not my last holiday in this gorgeous country!

L.L. Rue and other suppliers offer lightweight folding chairs in their catalogues, some even in camouflage livery. Sitting on these and adjusting the height of your tripod should be able to solve your problem. Since you seem to live in Germany, try Isarfoto in Munich.