What is your background in photography? Where did it all begin?
My photographic adventure started in 2012, I worked as a receptionist for a vet at that time and my intention was to capture the beautiful bond between pets and their owners. This didn’t last very long as a trip to the racetrack opened up a whole new world of adrenaline and action, a world I fell in love with and worked hard to become Motorsport South Africa photographer of the year in 2013 and pursued it as my full-time career from 2014 to 2017. Now as a full-time photographer I teach how to capture motorsport but prefer to spend most of my time capturing the unpredictable world of wildlife.
You choose to shoot with Olympus. When did your love for the brand begin?
In 2016 I got the chance to test out the Olympus OMD EM-1 Mark I and while I was impressed with how light and compact the camera was, the in-viewfinder image review and the wifi capability, the focusing system was lacking for my fast-paced world. As technology develops a year later, I got the opportunity to test out the Olympus OMD EM-1 Mark II and that’s where my passion for the brand flourished. The weight difference in the gear I was carrying around, the focusing speed, the frame rate, the in-body stabilizers meaning I don’t have to carry a tripod around were rather big ones for me.
Basically, the change of gear made my creativity flourish, made me want to always have my camera with me and pushed me to new boundaries in capturing, well everything. The gear was and still is absolutely perfect for my photographic life.
What’s in your gear bag right now?
Right now in my Thule I have:
Olympus OMD EM-1 Mark II
Olympus OMD EM-1 X
7-14mm Pro
12-40mm Pro
40-150mm Pro
You’ve recently begun working with The Bike Show as a videographer. What made you transition from photography to videography?
Opportunity is the most truthful answer, the Olympus’s video capability makes it really easy to create amazing footage and while I had been dabbling a little in it, I never imagined I would be shooting for a tv show.
Before we went into Lockdown, Donovan from the Bike show asked me to do some filming instead of my usual job of capturing stills, nervously I said sure. We set off for Red Star raceway and after a full days shooting and 60gb worth of footage, which I expected most not to be useable due to my inexperience, I did not expect a call during lock down enquiring if I would be keen to do all the filming for the show, due to the fact that the Olympus’s quality was outstanding.
Very excitedly I said Yes and have been on some incredible adventures so far. It is a massive learning curve for me and continue to learn from every single shoot.
How would you describe a current day in the life of Meghan McCabe?
This is rather a tough one to answer as my days are so diverse, some days it involves hours of pc time, lots of tea and often a movie or two to get through the editing and other days it can include waking up before sunrise to capture its first few rays over the Waterberg mountains, then spending the rest of the morning capturing images and video footage of lions and tigers, moving on to a Triumph tiger and capturing high action footage of that and ending the day off with some awesome images of the milky way.
How have you managed to stay productive during the global pandemic? What advice would you give to your fans and fellow photographers?
I am afraid to admit this but lockdown was rather wonderful, other than the financial strain and unpredictability of the virus, just having some shut off time with no deadlines, no need to go out and well… no people. It was a chance to rest, re align goals and do some pure photography. Fortunately, during the initial weeks of lock down the Olympus lock down challenge kept me rather busy with creating images for each day’s theme. I spent a fair amount of time in my garden looking really closely and noticing the smaller things we so often miss with our busy lives. When you are really looking, and I mean really looking there are so many things to capture or ways to create cool images, it was just about using the free time wisely.
Advice: Just carry on, that’s pretty much all I can suggest, a fair amount of time, circumstances around what ever image you are trying to create don’t align, like not having a long enough lens for a specific shot or having the wrong lighting conditions etc. Push past that, some times it may create a bland image and other times you will be rewarded for that extra push.
This year has been unreal with trials and complications, and it’s so easy to be sucked in to that hole where the entire world looks underexposed and simply to dark to showcase any beauty, but you are in control, so push that ISO up and never stop looking for beauty, never stop creating.
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