Kym Illman

I bought a Canon 10D many years ago and just kept adding to my arsenal. I’m a businessman that turns to photography on the weekends, spending 4 or 5 hours every weekend shooting around Lancelin, a small coastal town in Western Australia.

When my wife convinced me to go on an African safari 3 years ago, I bought some longer lenses and a few more camera bodies. We did our first safari and loved it, so much so, we booked a second safari the moment we landed back in Australia for 8 weeks time.

Over the ensuing 2 years, we went on 12 safaris, spending 24 weeks in 6 countries and staying at 34 lodges.

I had a remote controlled camera buggy made by Carl Hansen which completely change our photography. We were getting low and wide-angled shots of animals just a metre from the lens and peering straight into it.

We lost a couple of Canon 5D Mark IIIs to lions but that was a small price to pay for the unique images we were coming away with. These low angle shots caught the attention of National Geographic who ended up buying the German language rights to our book, Africa on Safari which was released last month in the UK, Germany and Australia.

My favourite lens is the Canon 300mm f/2.8. I also have a soft spot for the Canon 11-24mm f/4 too and have recently purchased a Canon 800mm f/5.6 lens that is not in this shot.

On safari I mainly use my Canon 1DX, but having several Canon 5D Mark IIIs and a Canon 7D ready to go with lenses on, allows both of us to react quickly, which is vital when shooting wildlife.

My next purchase is the new Zenmuse X5 camera for my Inspire 1 quadcopter which I’ve used on a couple of safaris to get unique overhead shots.

Camera Equipment:
Sand Bags
Jusno Monopod
Metal spikes (for mounting cameras just above ground)
Polarising filters
DJI 450 quadcopter with GoPro camera
Fat Shark Goggles
Remote-controlled camera buggy with Futaba remote
Battery chargers
Better Beamer flash X-tender
Cleaning accessories
Power board
Canon 500mm f/4
Canon 300mm f/2.8
Canon 200-400mm f/4-5.6
LaCie Rugged hard drive
Gaffer and electrical tape
Business cards
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
Canon 600EX RT flash
Canon 50mm f/1.4
Canon 24mm f/1.4
Canon 8-15mm f/4
Canon 14mm f/2.8
Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8
Canon 85mm f/1.2
Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 x2
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8
Canon 135mm f/2
Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
Chocolate (essential)
Macbook Pro laptop
Canon 7D
Canon 5D Mark III x4
Canon 1DX
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 6D (used to take photo)
Canon 2x teleconverter
Sennheiser radio mics
Pocketwizard transmitter/receiver
Giga T Pro Wireless timer remote
Speedlite transmitter
Waterproof wireless remote receivers
Memory cards
Flash extension cable
Timer remote controller
Manfrotto clamp
Lee filter system
Torches
Gitzo tripod and ball head