It’s been 18 months of planning, organising and waiting, and in 10 days time, I’ll be on my way to Kenya for the photographic trip of a lifetime - a six day shoot in the Masai Mara game reserve.

Final preparations are underway and luggage anxieties are already kicking in!

My first challenge is to stay under a 14kg soft luggage allowance and work within carry-on sizes. It’s going to be tight, the EF500 and MkIII will eat a big chunk of that up, so I’ll have to make good use of a photovest and board the plane cautiously.

Having never been to Cader Idris, we decided to drive up on Thursday, stay a couple of nights (under canvas) and climb the mountain on Friday.

The weather was with us with clear blue skies for most of the day and to our surprise there was no low cloud on the peaks, which gave way to some breath taking views.

I managed to grab a few images  on the way up together with the opportunity to capture some multi-frame panoramas on the first peak. I took along the Canon 5D, an EF24-70, a Feisol CT-3341SB and set of hi-tech grad filters. It was great to travel light, especially when climbing and the tiny Feisol CT-3441SB coped admirably.

Unfortunately, the weather turned on Saturday and so we decided to pack up early and drive home.

A few fellow photographers and I spent last Sunday on the top of the grandstands at Farnborough Airshow 2008.

It was a mixed bag of new and nostalgic aircraft along with the obligatory changeable British weather.

The most notable exhibits were the A380 turning on a sixpence, the refurbished Vulcan Bomber setting off car alarms with its thunderous jet engines and the Eurofighter Typhoon kicking in its afterburners.

An expanding selection of images can be found in the new Farnborough 08 gallery.