Ambassadors Programme

African elephants photographed after a thunderstorm in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya, Africa. Thorsten Milse chose to use the EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x telephoto zoom lens for this trip. © Thorsten Milse

Here I am at IFA 2013 in Berlin (6-11 September) held at the Messe Berlin. The IFA or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (International radio exhibition Berlin, or 'Berlin Radio Show') is one of the longest-running exhibitions in Germany. For the last few days I have been working with Canon Germany, presenting some of my work on the Canon stand and talking about the lenses I used – especially the new EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x. One of the winners from the EISA Awards 2013, it is a fantastic flexible lens and on the Canon stand I showed how I used it on different trips around the world.

The first opportunity I had to use the 200-400mm was in the French Alps near Mont Blanc last year. Chamonix was my base for the trips and my models were the Alpine ibex. On this particular assignment it was important to travel with minimal baggage in order to react flexibly with the telephoto zoom and quickly to follow the ibex in the complex terrain.

The other trip was to the Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The goal was African elephants. Because of their size it was important to keep a distance and to work with a highly variable lens. Elephants have a social life, and the smaller elephants are still very nervous and shy so a lens with greater power was important to give them space so I wouldn't disturb them. As a result the EF200-400mm was perfect; with a built-in 1.4x Extender it gave me a focal length between 200 and 560mm – ideal for me.

IFA in Berlin, Germany, is well worth a visit to become acquainted with the potential of the EOS system. See you there!

IFA 2013 at the Messe Berlin, Germany - Thorsten Milse on stage at the Canon stand. © Thorsten Milse