If you’ve been following this page for a while you will have noticed that in writing terms, I’ve been absent for some time. I think we all struggled with lockdown, I certainly found inspiration difficult to come by and, rather than force out content that I didn’t feel worthy of sharing, I decided to take a break from things until I was ready to come back with new and hopefully exciting images. I was also aware that my camera gear was ready for an update after nearly 10 years of ownership, use and occasionally abuse (accidents happen to the best of us and I’ve been lucky more than once!)

Despite a couple of local trips in 2021, I got back into guiding tours in earnest in the spring of 2022 and was beginning to feel like I had something to write about and maybe some images to share. I just had to find the time to sit down and do it. I thought that perhaps it would be good to give the home page of the website a refresh too… I had a lot of work to do. I set out to get things lined up and then while juggling all this, the unimaginable happened.

In October 2022, at the age of 36, I suffered multiple strokes. It took ten days before the issue was diagnosed, at first being thought to be a severe migraine. When I was eventually admitted to hospital, I spent 2 and a half weeks being thoroughly tested to find out the cause & rehabilitated to a point where I could return home. It turned out that I had a dissected (damaged) artery in my neck by coughing too hard owing to Bronchitis, and that when my body had tried to heal itself, clots had been sent around my brain. These had mostly affected my vision and balance but with a lot of hard work and physio, thankfully they would ultimately prove largely fixable. It would turn out though that these things would take longer than I hoped and that while I can be patient, this is where my limits lay. The whole recovery process was not only physically tough but felt frustratingly slow to me despite everyone around me saying otherwise and on top of it all I was struggling with PTSD at the idea that it could happen again at the slightest cough.

One of the lasting repercussions and the reason for this article is that I was told I must never lift more than 10kg again. This came as a real blow – I had initially been terrified that I may not be able to return to the job that I love. When I say that my vision was affected, I had severe double vision – not only were there two of everything but they were crossed at right angles to each other. I suffered intense vertigo so that sitting upright was difficult unless my head was supported on a cushion, let alone standing or walking and even watching movement made me nauseous. Reading was not possible to begin with because my brain couldn’t separate the lines of text in a paragraph. There was a lot to overcome before the weight limit was considered.

But here we were: my kit, when all combined (which was often if I was travelling with multiple lenses) was definitely more than 10kg before you even take into consideration a bottle of water or any of the other accoutrements that one takes along. While I had been considering the possibilities available to me for some time, this new situation unexpectedly helped to narrow my options; probably a silver lining as I was being decidedly indecisive!

One decision that I made was that I would have to part with at least some of my equipment, and so, I opted to go to a shop with a reasonably local branch to me: Wex. You might have heard of them before as they’ve a network of shops around the country and I’d purchased the odd piece of kit from them in the past but nothing like what I was intending to do now.

By the time I went into the shop I was well on my way to recovery but I was still nervous. Strangely, my camera had been by my side for so long that it felt like part of me and so making such a monumental change felt decidedly huge. I was greeted by the staff and explained why I was there, but they took it all in their stride and couldn’t have been kinder, offering several options and allowing me to try each for weight and feel as well as patiently going through all the pro’s and con’s of each system with me. 

I had taken along two lenses to part-exchange and while we chatted through the choices I was up against, they assessed and valued them so that the total could be taken off what I would owe at the end of the day. I knew I would need a mirrorless system as this would be a much lighter option and I was fairly confident (although not completely sold on the idea) that I would like to stay with Canon equipment. I weighed up, both literally and figuratively, the better option for me between an Olympus OM System, Canon R5 and Canon R10. 

There were of course many things to consider alongside the weight. I was keen to have something where I didn’t feel like I had an entirely new system to learn. I was still getting to grips with re-learning other things and going mirrorless meant using a digital viewfinder which was new to me. I wanted the majority of other buttons, dials and functions to be intuitive to my already Canon-adjusted mind. Coupled with the desire to use my original Canon macro lens if possible, this ruled out the Olympus (although I had read and seen through friends the amazing capabilities of this camera, it was not for me).

After much deliberation between other two, I am the proud owner of a Canon R10, along with Canon RF 100-400mm lens, Canon RF 18-150mm lens and an RF adapter for my precious EF 100mm macro lens which I couldn’t bear to part with. (Yes, my macro kit is identical to what I shared in my previous blog on the subject!) I kept my previous camera body as a back up although I have only used it once in the intervening years. I could not be happier with the results and what’s more, my bag weighs under 10kg even with everything I need in it (even though that limit has now been relaxed a little after more time healing and lots of tests).

One of the reasons that I opted for the Canon R10 over the R5 was the cropped sensor. This may not be the choice for many professional photographers but in my situation, I decided that it would actually work in my favour since it would allow me to carry less. There might be a slight trade off in quality terms but it would be just that, slight. In real terms though, the 1.6x magnification that a cropped sensor affords allows me to achieve a better ‘reach’ with my lenses. I would be less likely to need a teleconverter or more telephoto lenses to take the photos I was after, and coupled with the focus tracking, I was confident that my images would still be sharp. These have proven to be truant I am delighted with the results. What’s more, the 100-400mm lens I chose has a minimum focal distance of around 90cm which is significantly less than my previous telephoto lens and I’ve found myself using it much more as a result and for a wider variety of subjects. When guiding, this has now become the main lens on my camera and it is so light I barely notice it.

For examples of some images taken on this new kit, check out my Image of the Month gallery. There will be more detailed posts in the near future but for now, this is a good starting point and will also give you a sneak peek at what I’ve been up to recently.

As for Wex, if you’re considering selling, exchanging or purchasing equipment, or you just want some advice before making a decision, I can’t recommend them highly enough. Their team are friendly, knowledgeable and professional at all levels.

Thankfully, I can now report that other than needing lifelong medication to prevent further strokes and to stop migraines which have become almost constant since without it, I am in good health. I have had several adventures since, am planning more, and have shared some images on social media already but will be writing about them soon!