Ille de St Margarite Cannes, France - 2006

Camera's:
Our camera equipment is exclusively Canon. Even though we started on Pentax and moved on to Nikon equipment, the speed of autofocus and quality of the lens system is what finally swayed us to Canon.

When the digital era came along, Canon is where we went (starting with a 2mp camera that cost us an arm and a leg!) We soon switched to the 10D (6mp) and 300D (6mp) cameras, upgraded to 20D (8mp) and then moved up to 5D's (13mp)

Our kit includes:

2 x Canon 5D bodies (one with a vertical grip, one without)
2 x Canon 580EX Flash units
1 x Canon 50mm f/2.8
1 x Canon 17-40mm f/4 L
1 x 24-70mm f/2.8 L
1 x 24-105mm f/4 L IS
1 x 70-200mm f/4 L
1 x 400mm f/5.6 L

This gets carried in Lowepro Compu Trekker Plus AW Backpacks for big trips. All the kit sits in one bag that is airline acceptable hand luggage.

When we get to our destination, we usually shoot away with two non descript Crumpler slingbags (Ben's Pizza bags) Very strong carry sling (not going to cut through that puppy with a razorblade in one go...) and doesn't really look like camera bags, although well padded, strong and weather resistant.

Computers and Software:
We use a Apple Ibook and an LG LW70 Express when shooting on location and when moving arround. In the Studio we use two PIV Desktops with Dual 19" displays for editing and uploading to the various websites that sell our work.

Both Luba and Sean also carry small 80gb PD70X portable storage harddrives (dumpers) with us. These run on AA size batteries and has a built in card reader to dump our CF cards to disk. On extended trips we also bring two portable harddrives for backups (a 160gb WD and a 250gb Seagate) On extended trips we also write backup DVD's and mail them home just as an extra precaution (however, the last DVD's we sent from Germany to South Africa only arrived about 4 months after we did!

Stability:
We have two tripods. a Velbon 540 La Charmaine Carbon Fibre with three way tilt and shift head (travel head, no plates to lose!!!) which is very sturdy and super strong... appart from being the lightest tripod we have ever owned... Very nice to carry for long periods, as it just clips into the back of most Lowepro bags.

We also have a slightly larger Manfroto with a standard ball head (not a pistol grip, they tend to slip under load)

Lighting:
We use various lightsources when shooting. One of my favourite quotes is "I shoot only with available light... that is, any light that is available!" to that extent, we have various strobes (250watt to 500watt) with various light difusers (umbrella's and softboxes) as well as a selection of professional and a bunch of homemade reflectors.

We also have a selection of desklamps (that we use as striplamps for lighting still lives) and some tungsten lamps and halogen floodlights. I even use my maglite and small LED torches to light up scenes and "paint" with light when needed.

We have also recently started playing with the "Gary Fong" On Camera Flash Diffusers... neat stuff, Check it out

Transport:
All our equipment goes into the back of a brand new aquisition, a 2.6l Turbo Diesel Mahindra Scorpio... excellent value for money with LOTSA space, aircon and great fuel consumption (consistently under 10L/100km) The higher road clearance and bigger wheels also means we can get to places that others don't and a bit more comfortable than in our old Astra. The Mahindra is also so much cheaper than other vehicles in it's range so that if it gets banged up a bit on the road to a great image, it's not the end of the world.