Canon Photography Training Milnerton, Cape Town

Photography Training / Skills Development Milnerton, Cape Town and Cape Peninsula

Personalised Canon EOS / Canon EOS R Training for Different Learner Levels

Fast Shutter Speed / Action Photography Training Woodbridge Island, Cape Town

Vernon Chalmers Photography Approach

Vernon Canon Photography Training Cape Town / Cape Peninsula

"If you’re looking for Canon photography training in Milnerton, Cape Town, Vernon Chalmers Photography offers a variety of cost-effective courses tailored to different skill levels and interests. They provide one-on-one training sessions for Canon EOS DSLR and EOS R mirrorless cameras, covering topics such as:

• Introduction to Photography
• Bird and Flower Photography
• Macro and Close-Up Photography
• Landscape and Long Exposure Photography
• Canon Speedlite Flash Photography

Training sessions can be held at various locations, including Woodbridge Island and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, or even in the comfort of your own home or garden. (Microsoft Copilot)

Canon EOS / EOS R Camera and Photography

Cost-Effective Private Canon EOS / EOS R Camera and Photography tutoring / training courses in Milnerton, Cape Town - or in the comfort of your home / garden anywhere in the Cape Peninsula.

Tailor-made (individual) learning programmes are prepared for specific Canon EOS / EOS R camera and photography requirements with the following objectives:

• Individual Needs / Gear analysis
• Canon EOS camera menus / settings
• Exposure settings and options
• Specific genre applications and skills development
• Practical shooting sessions (where applicable)
• DPP / Lightroom Post-processing overview
• Ongoing support

Canon Camera / Lens Requirements
Any Canon EOS / EOS R body / lens combination is suitable for most of the training sessions. During initial contact I will determine the learner's current skills, Canon EOS system and other learning / photographic requirements. Many Canon PowerShot camera models are also suitable for creative photography skills development.

Camera and Photgraphy Training Documentation
All Vernon Chalmers Photography Training delegates are issued with a folder with all relevant printed documentation  in terms of camera and personal photography requirements. Documents may be added (if required) to every follow-up session (should the delegate decide to have two or more sessions).

Cabbage White Butterfly Woodbridge Island - Canon EF 100-400mm Lens

Learning Photography from the comfort of your Own Cape Town Home / Garden More Information

Bird / Flower Photography Training Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden More Information

Photography Private Training Classes Milnerton, Cape Town

• Introduction to Photography / Canon Cameras More
• Bird / Flower Photography Training Kirstenbosch More
• Birds in Flight / Bird Photography Training More
• Canon Speedlite Flash Photography Training More
• Macro / Close-Up Photography More
• Landscape / Long Exposure Photography More

Training / demonstrations are done on the client's own Canon EOS bodies attached to various Canon EF / other brand lenses covering wide-angle to zoom focal lengths.

Canon EOS System / Menu Setup and Training Cape Town

2025 Individual Photography Training Session Cost / Rates

From R850-00 per four hour session for Introductory Canon EOS / EOS R photography in Milnerton, Cape Town. Practical shooting sessions can be worked into the training. A typical training programme of three training sessions is R2 450-00.

From R900-00 per four hour session for developing . more advanced Canon EOS / EOS R photography in Milnerton, Cape Town. Practical shooting sessions can be worked into the training. A typical training programme of three training sessions is R2 600-00.

Three sessions of training to be up to 12 hours+ theory / settings training (inclusive: a three hours practical shoot around Woodbridge Island if required) and an Adobe Lightroom informal assessment / of images taken - irrespective of genre. 

Canon EOS Cameras / Lenses / Speedlite Flash Training
All Canon EOS cameras from the EOS 1100D to advanced AF training on the Canon EOS 80D to Canon EOS-1D X Mark III. All Canon EOS R Cameras. All Canon EF / EF-S / RF / RF-S and other Canon-compatible brand lenses. All Canon Speedlite flash units from Canon Speedlite 270EX to Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT (including Macro Ring Lite flash models).

Intaka Island Photography Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens

Advanced Canon EOS Autofocus Training (Canon EOS / EOS R)
For advanced Autofocus (AF) training have a look at the Birds in Flight Photography workshop options. Advanced AF training is available from the Canon EOS 7D Mark II / Canon EOS 5D Mark III / Canon EOS 5D Mark IV up to the Canon EOS 1-DX Mark II / III. Most Canon EOS R bodies (i.e. EOS R7, EOS R6, EOS R6 Mark II, EOS R5, EOS R5 Mark II, EOS R3, EOS R1) will have similar or more advanced Dual Pixel CMOS AF Systems. Contact me for more information about a specific Canon EOS / EOS R AF System.

Cape Town Photography Training Schedules / Availability
From Tuesdays - during the day / evening and / or over weekends.

Canon EOS / Close-Up Lens Accessories Training Cape Town

Core Canon Camera / Photography Learning Areas

• Overview & Specific Canon Camera / Lens Settings
• Exposure Settings for M / Av / Tv Modes
• Autofocus / Manual Focus Options
• General Photography / Lens Selection / Settings
• Transition from JPG to RAW (Reasons why)
• Landscape Photography / Settings / Filters
• Close-Up / Macro Photography / Settings
• Speedlite Flash / Flash Modes / Flash Settings
• Digital Image Management

Practical Photography / Application

• Inter-relationship of ISO / Aperture / Shutter Speed
• Aperture and Depth of Field demonstration
• Low light / Long Exposure demonstration
• Landscape sessions / Manual focusing
• Speedlite Flash application / technique
• Introduction to Post-Processing

Tailor-made Canon Camera / Photography training to be facilitated on specific requirements after a thorough needs-analysis with individual photographer / or small group.

• Typical Learning Areas Agenda
• General Photography Challenges / Fundamentals
• Exposure Overview (ISO / Aperture / Shutter Speed)
• Canon EOS 70D Menus / Settings (in relation to exposure)
• Camera / Lens Settings (in relation to application / genres)
• Lens Selection / Technique (in relation to application / genres)
• Introduction to Canon Flash / Low Light Photography
• Still Photography Only

Above Learning Areas are facilitated over two  three sessions of four hours+ each. Any additional practical photography sessions (if required) will be at an additional pro-rata cost.

Fireworks Display Photography with Canon EOS 6D : Cape Town

From Woodbridge Island : Canon EOS 6D / 16-35mm Lens

Existential Photo-Creativity : Slow Shutter Speed Abstract Application

Perched Pied Kingfisher : Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens

Long Exposure Photography: Canon EOS 700D / Wide-Angle Lens

Birds in Flight (Swift Tern) : Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm lens

Persian Cat Portrait : Canon EOS 6D / 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM Lens

Fashion Photography Canon Speedlite flash : Canon EOS 6D @ 70mm

Long Exposure Photography Canon EOS 6D : Milnerton

Close-Up & Macro Photography Cape Town : Canon EOS 6D

Panning / Slow Shutter Speed: Canon EOS 70D EF 70-300mm Lens

Long Exposure Photography Cape Town Canon EOS 6D @ f/16

Canon Photography Training Session at Spier Wine Farm

Canon Photography Training Courses Milnerton Woodbridge Island | Kirstenbosch Garden

Peregrine Falcon with Catch

My neighbour, the Fast Peregrine Falcon 

Peregrine Falcon with Catch : Across Arnhem, Milnerton, Cape Town

I heard his morning call. Even before opening the curtains I rushed to grab a camera - and then, there he was. Staring at me, proudly showing off his catch. 

I took a few frames whereafter he tucked into his brunch. My lens left him to enjoy a morning's endeavour.

Location: Across from Arnhem, Milnerton, Cape Town

Peregrine Falcon High-Up From Arnhem, Milnerton

Canon Camera / Lens for Bird Photography

• Canon EOS 7D Mark II (APS-C)
• Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens
• SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB 200 MB/s

Exposure / Focus Settings for Bird Photography

• Autofocus On
• Manual Mode
• Aperture f/5.6
• Auto ISO 125
• Shutter Speeds 1/1250s
• No Image Stabilisation
• Handheld

Image Post-Processing: Lightroom Classic (Ver 14.5)

• Minor Adjustments (Crop / Exposure / Contrast)
• Noise and Spot Removal
• RAW to JPEG Conversion
  
  

Birds and Butterfly with Canon EOS 7D Mark II

 Birds and Butterfly with Canon EOS 6D Mark II

 Image: Copyright Vernon Chalmers Photography

Vernon Chalmers: Phenomenology in Flight

A Philosophical Inquiry into Birds in Flight Photography, Perception, and Presence

Grey Heron in Flight : Above the Diep River, Woodbridge Island

“...the real is coherent and probable because it is real, not real because it is coherent...” ― Maurice Merleau-Ponty 

Abstract

"This monograph explores Phenomenology in Flight as both a conceptual and practical framework in the photography of South African photographer Vernon Chalmers. Known primarily for his birds-in-flight imagery, Chalmers has articulated through his practice and reflections a profound engagement with perception, temporality, embodiment, and relational being. This work positions Chalmers within the broader philosophical lineage of phenomenology - from Husserl’s intentionality to Merleau-Ponty’s embodiment and Heidegger’s disclosure - while examining how his photographic approach renders these ideas visible. Through an analysis of his texts (Existential Birds in Flight Photography, Colour, Presence, and the Photographic Breath, and The Returning Flights of a Peregrine Falcon), the treatise argues that Chalmers’s photography enacts a living phenomenology: one that unites seeing, being, and technology into a reflective field of existential presence.

1. Introduction and Motivation

Phenomenology, at its core, is the philosophical study of how things appear to consciousness. Photography, by contrast, is the technological act of capturing how things appear. Between these poles - of consciousness and capture - lies the possibility of a phenomenology of photography. Vernon Chalmers’s photographic practice occupies precisely this intersection. His sustained attention to birds in flight, his reflective writings, and his devotion to the lived experience of photographing have cultivated a body of work that invites philosophical engagement.

Chalmers’s recurring subjects - seabirds, falcons, and gulls moving through coastal air - become vehicles for exploring temporality, presence, and freedom. His project Phenomenology in Flight (a conceptual term synthesizing his approach) captures the ambiguity of perception: the interplay between fleeting motion and fixed frame, subject and perceiver, finitude and transcendence. This study seeks to unfold how Chalmers’s photography not only illustrates but performs phenomenological thinking in visual form.

2. Phenomenology: Philosophical Foundations

Edmund Husserl (1931/2012) inaugurated phenomenology as the rigorous description of experience “as it gives itself” (zu den Sachen selbst). Through the epoché, one suspends habitual assumptions to attend to the structures of consciousness and the intentional correlation between subject (noesis) and object (noema) (Smith, 2003). Husserl’s idea of the lifeworld (Lebenswelt) - the pre-reflective ground of meaning—frames all perception as lived rather than theoretical.

Martin Heidegger (1927/1962) reoriented phenomenology toward ontology. For Heidegger, the question was not merely how phenomena appear but what it means to be. His concept of being-in-the-world emphasizes that Dasein (human existence) is always situated, temporal, and relational. Perception is never detached observation but engagement within a meaningful horizon.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945/2012) further radicalized this turn by asserting the primacy of embodiment. The perceiving subject is not a disembodied intellect but a sensing body - the body as a “vehicle of being in the world.” Vision, for Merleau-Ponty, is not a neutral act but an intertwining of the seer and the seen, an exchange of what he calls “the flesh of the world” (1968).

Phenomenology thus provides three central insights relevant to Chalmers’s work: (1) perception is intentional and directed; (2) the subject is embodied and situated; and (3) being is disclosed through relational experience. Photography, when practiced reflectively, can become a site where these insights are made visible.

Yellow-Billed Duck in Flight : Above the Diep River, Woodbridge Island

3. Photography and Phenomenology

The relationship between phenomenology and photography has long been a topic of aesthetic theory. Roland Barthes (1981) viewed photography as a paradoxical medium that joins presence and absence: each image declares “this has been.” His notion of the punctum - the detail that “pricks” the viewer - evokes the phenomenological moment where perception pierces intentionality, awakening the consciousness of temporality.

Susan Sontag (1977) argued that photography simultaneously participates in and distances us from experience. The act of photographing may anesthetize presence even as it preserves it. Vilém Flusser (2000) conceptualized the camera as an apparatus - a mediating device with its own program that structures how the world is seen.

Phenomenological approaches to photography (Walden, 2019; Batchen, 2004) emphasize how the photograph can disclose rather than merely represent. It does not replicate vision but transforms it, revealing the structure of experience itself. Chalmers’s work exemplifies this disclosure: his camera functions as both perceptual extension and existential mirror.

Birds in Flight with Canon EOS 7D Mark II

4. Vernon Chalmers’s Photographic Oeuvre

Born in South Africa, Vernon Chalmers is an educator, writer, and photographer known for his expertise in Canon camera systems and his passion for coastal wildlife. Yet his writings go far beyond technique. In essays such as Existential Birds in Flight Photography (Chalmers, 2025a), Colour, Presence, and the Photographic Breath (Chalmers, 2025b), and The Returning Flights of a Peregrine Falcon (Chalmers, 2025c), he articulates a reflective, philosophical dimension of photography.

He frames his birds-in-flight practice as a “search for presence within motion,” emphasizing patience, attention, and existential humility. His images are minimalistic - often featuring a solitary bird suspended in vast sky - suggesting both solitude and communion. The camera becomes an instrument of meditation rather than conquest.

Chalmers’s style also resists the sensationalism typical of wildlife imagery. Instead of dramatizing power or predation, he seeks quiet phenomenological intensity: the perceptual resonance of a wing’s arc, the luminous threshold of dawn, or the horizon dissolving into reflection.

Common Starling in Flight : Above Woodbridge Island

5. Temporality, Motion, and the Photographic Fragment

At the heart of Phenomenology in Flight lies the paradox of time. To photograph flight is to arrest movement, to convert dynamic continuity into a frozen instant. Yet Chalmers’s photographs - precisely through their stillness - gesture toward movement’s persistence beyond the frame.

This temporal depth mirrors Husserl’s structure of internal time-consciousness, where each moment is constituted by retention (the just-past), primal impression (the now), and protention (the anticipated) (Husserl, 1931/2012). The captured moment thus contains traces of before and after, embodying what Barthes (1981) called “the return of the dead.”

Chalmers himself writes that each frame “holds a breath of time - neither entirely past nor present” (Chalmers, 2025b). His choice of high shutter speeds paradoxically enhances temporality rather than erasing it: the crispness of feathers mid-beat invites reflection on what movement is - the tension between continuity and stillness.

Phenomenologically, the photograph becomes a temporal index, disclosing how being manifests through time. The bird in flight embodies being-toward-future (Heidegger, 1927/1962), yet the image grounds it in the stillness of being-as-past. The viewer stands in the paradoxical convergence of these modes.

6. Attention, Presence, and the Ethics of Seeing

Chalmers’s approach to wildlife photography is defined by attention rather than pursuit. He describes hours of observation before pressing the shutter - watching light shift, wind rise, and avian behavior unfold (Chalmers, 2025a). This patient attention corresponds to Husserl’s epoché: a bracketing of distractions to let phenomena show themselves.

Merleau-Ponty (1945/2012) argued that perception is an act of faith in the world’s visibility, a letting-be of appearances. Chalmers’s attention is likewise an ethical stance: the bird is not an object but a fellow presence. The photograph is not possession but participation.

In his writings, Chalmers speaks of a “reciprocity of perception,” suggesting that the act of photographing becomes a dialogue between human and non-human being. This relational seeing aligns with eco-phenomenological thought (Abram, 1996; Ingold, 2011), which regards perception as a mutual openness between organism and environment.

By cultivating stillness and empathy, Chalmers enacts what Emmanuel Levinas (1969) might call an ethics of the face - a recognition of otherness that precedes cognition. The bird, even when distant, addresses the photographer through its mere existence.

Birds in Flight with Canon EOS 6D Mark II

7. The Camera as Instrument of Phenomenological Mediation

Chalmers’s technical mastery of autofocus systems and exposure dynamics is well documented, yet his reflections reinterpret these not as control mechanisms but as instruments of attunement. The camera mediates between body and world, extending perception.

Flusser (2000) viewed the apparatus as potentially alienating, reducing the photographer to a functionary within a programmed system. Chalmers resists this determinism: he treats the camera as co-being, part of a lived circuit of perception. The camera’s sensor becomes akin to the eye’s retina, the shutter to a heartbeat - a rhythmic interface between worlds.

Heidegger’s (1954/1977) warning against technology’s enframing (Gestell)—its tendency to reduce beings to resources - is addressed in Chalmers’s practice. Rather than objectifying, he uses the camera to let beings show themselves. He writes that photography should “serve being, not consume it” (Chalmers, 2025a).

The act of aligning focus points with a moving bird requires bodily synchronization - breath, grip, anticipation. This fusion of body and apparatus recalls Merleau-Ponty’s description of the blind man’s cane: it becomes part of his perceptual system. Likewise, Chalmers’s camera becomes an extension of bodily intentionality, not an external tool but a phenomenological organ.

African Oystercatcher in Flight : Diep River, Woodbridge Island

8. Flight as Existential Motif

The motif of flight carries existential and phenomenological weight. It symbolizes freedom, transcendence, and temporality - yet also fragility and finitude. Chalmers’s birds are not allegorical abstractions but concrete beings in motion.

Sartre (1943/1992) defined consciousness as being-for-itself - a dynamic of transcendence beyond facticity. The bird in flight, projecting its own path through open air, embodies such transcendence. But Chalmers balances this with visibility of constraint: the weight of the body, the pull of gravity, the resistance of wind.

In The Returning Flights of a Peregrine Falcon, Chalmers (2025c) recounts a falcon repeatedly visiting his window, “as if returning to a moment that belonged to both of us.” This circularity of motion evokes Heidegger’s idea of dwelling: being at home in movement. The bird’s return is not repetition but re-disclosure - a rhythm of presence.

The phenomenology of flight, then, is not escapism but being-in-movement - the continuous negotiation between freedom and limit. Chalmers’s photographs dwell in this tension: the bird as both transcendent and terrestrial, eternal and ephemeral.

9. Colour, Light, and Aesthetic Atmosphere

Colour and light in Chalmers’s photography are not incidental; they are phenomenological vehicles. His palette - soft silvers, subdued blues, dawn golds - evokes transitional hours of liminality. He calls this the photographic breath (Chalmers, 2025b): a visual interval between darkness and illumination.

For Heidegger (1927/1962), truth (aletheia) is disclosure - letting beings appear in their own light. Chalmers’s use of natural illumination embodies this notion literally. Light is not a means to clarity but the condition of revelation. His compositions often situate the bird against vast, muted horizons, allowing light to articulate space rather than dominate it.

Merleau-Ponty (1968) wrote of colour as “the visibility of visibility itself” - an index of how the world offers itself to sight. Chalmers’s restrained chromatic spectrum enacts this subtlety: colour becomes a mode of presence, not spectacle.

Moreover, his handling of focus and depth creates a phenomenological field: what is sharp draws attention, while what blurs remains as horizon. The image thus mirrors lived perception - never fully transparent, always surrounded by indeterminacy.

10. Critique and Alternatives

A phenomenological reading of Chalmers’s work reveals much, yet also faces limitations.

Photography’s technological mediation complicates phenomenology’s emphasis on direct experience. The digital camera inserts layers of algorithmic processing between world and image. Yet this mediation can itself be phenomenologically significant: it reveals the conditions of appearance in modern perception (Rubinstein & Sluis, 2013).

Alternative frameworks - ecological aesthetics, affect theory, or environmental humanities - could supplement phenomenology. Chalmers’s sensitivity to non-human presence resonates with eco-phenomenology (Abram, 1996) but also with contemporary new materialisms that emphasize agency of nature and matter (Bennett, 2010).

Nevertheless, phenomenology remains apt because it honours what Chalmers’s images do best: they slow perception, invite contemplation, and foreground presence. The photographs become phenomenal events rather than visual data.

Speckled Pigeon in Flight : Above The Diep River, Woodbridge Island

11. Conclusion: Toward a Phenomenology of Ecological Presence

Phenomenology in Flight captures more than birds - it discloses a way of being in the world. Through attentiveness, patience, and existential humility, Vernon Chalmers practices photography as phenomenology: an embodied, relational, temporal art of seeing.

His work reminds us that to photograph is to witness presence, not to conquer it. Each image becomes a trace of mutual encounter between photographer, bird, and light - a triadic relation that mirrors phenomenology’s structure of subject, object, and horizon.

In a time of accelerated imagery and ecological disconnection, Chalmers’s approach re-grounds vision in being. He photographs not to accumulate images but to dwell with the world. His birds - caught between sky and sea, movement and stillness - invite viewers into a similar attentiveness.

Thus, Phenomenology in Flight is not merely a theme but a method: a call to perceive ethically, to let beings appear, and to recognize photography as a practice of existential openness." (Source: ChatGPT 2025)

References

Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. Pantheon Books.

Barthes, R. (1981). Camera lucida: Reflections on photography. Hill and Wang.

Batchen, G. (2004). Photography’s objects. University of New Mexico Press.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Duke University Press.

Chalmers, V. (2025a, October). Existential birds in flight photography. Vernon Chalmers Photography. https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/2025/10/existential-birds-in-flight-photography.html

Chalmers, V. (2025b, October). Colour, presence, and the photographic breath. Vernon Chalmers Photography. https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/2025/10/colour-presence-and-photographic-breath.html

Chalmers, V. (2025c, October). The returning flights of a peregrine falcon. Vernon Chalmers Photography. https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/2025/10/the-returning-flights-of-peregrine.html

Flusser, V. (2000). Towards a philosophy of photography. Reaktion Books.

Gadamer, H.-G. (1975/2013). Truth and method (Rev. ed., J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans.). Bloomsbury.

Heidegger, M. (1927/1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row.

Heidegger, M. (1954/1977). The question concerning technology and other essays (W. Lovitt, Trans.). Harper & Row.

Husserl, E. (1931/2012). Ideas: General introduction to pure phenomenology (W. R. Boyce Gibson, Trans.). Routledge.

Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and description. Routledge.

Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity (A. Lingis, Trans.). Duquesne University Press.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945/2012). Phenomenology of perception (D. A. Landes, Trans.). Routledge.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). The visible and the invisible (C. Lefort, Ed.; A. Lingis, Trans.). Northwestern University Press.

Rubinstein, D., & Sluis, K. (2013). The digital image in photographic culture: Algorithmic photography and the crisis of representation. The Photographic Image in Digital Culture (2nd ed., pp. 22–40). Routledge.

Sartre, J.-P. (1943/1992). Being and nothingness (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). Washington Square Press.

Smith, D. W. (2003). Phenomenology. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2025 ed.). Stanford University.

Sontag, S. (1977). On photography. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Walden, S. (2019). Photography and phenomenology: The thick description of the visual. Routledge.

Images: Copyright Vernon Chalmers Photography

Existential Philosophy in Vernon Chalmers’ Photography

Vernon Chalmers’ photography exemplifies the deep interplay between existential philosophy and artistic practice.

Grey Heron in Flight : Over The Diep River, Woodbridge Island

Abstract

"Vernon Chalmers’ photographic philosophy and practice are deeply rooted in existential and phenomenological traditions that focus on human perception, being, and the lived experience of presence within the world. This essay explores how existential philosophy - particularly through thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty - has influenced Chalmers’ approach to photography. Through an interpretive framework, this discussion examines how Chalmers integrates phenomenological awareness, authenticity, and the notion of becoming into his visual representations of nature and birds in flight. His work serves as a visual meditation on existential themes, rendering the act of photography not merely as documentation but as a mode of being and understanding.

Existential Philosophy and the Concept of Presence

Existential philosophy, as developed by Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre, emphasizes the individual’s direct engagement with existence. Chalmers’ photography echoes this through his commitment to capturing fleeting moments that reveal a deep presence in the natural world. His practice aligns with Heidegger’s concept of Dasein - being-in-the-world - where existence is not an abstraction but an immersion in the everyday reality of life (Heidegger, 1962). For Chalmers, photographing birds in flight becomes an existential act that embodies awareness, temporality, and attunement to the world’s unfolding.

In this context, Chalmers’ imagery is not about aesthetic perfection but about the encounter itself. His subjects - birds gliding through the air, coastal light reflecting on water - become metaphors for transience and freedom. These photographs evoke Sartre’s (1943) assertion that existence precedes essence: meaning is not given but created through the individual’s active participation in the world. Chalmers’ lens, therefore, is not a tool of observation but of engagement, making his art both existential and phenomenological in nature.

Phenomenology and the Act of Seeing

Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception (1962) offers a profound resonance with Chalmers’ photographic vision. Merleau-Ponty argued that perception is not a detached cognitive act but an embodied experience, one that situates the perceiver within the visible world. Chalmers’ work mirrors this by emphasizing the sensory and embodied nature of seeing. His photographic process often involves extended immersion in the environment - waiting, observing, and responding to subtle shifts in light and motion. This approach transforms photography into a form of eidetic reduction, where Chalmers seeks the essence of phenomena through mindful observation.

Moreover, Chalmers’ reflective writings on photography often invoke the idea of being present with one’s subject. This aligns with Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the “flesh of the world,” where the photographer and the environment are intertwined in a reciprocal relationship. The camera becomes an extension of perception - a bridge between self and world - allowing the photographer to participate in, rather than dominate, the unfolding scene.

Authenticity, Freedom, and the Self

Chalmers’ existential photography also explores the concept of authenticity, a central concern in existential philosophy. Kierkegaard (1849) described authenticity as living in accordance with one’s true self, while Heidegger (1962) expanded this idea through the notion of “authentic being-toward-death,” where awareness of mortality deepens one’s engagement with life. In photographing transient natural moments - such as the brief arc of a bird’s flight - Chalmers embraces the impermanence and fragility of existence.

Sartre’s (1943) concept of radical freedom also finds expression in Chalmers’ work. Photography, for Chalmers, becomes an act of choice - an existential assertion of meaning-making through each composition. Every photograph represents a moment where the photographer assumes responsibility for interpretation and expression, thus transforming the ordinary into a site of existential reflection.

Nature, Temporality, and Existential Awareness

Chalmers’ recurring engagement with nature - especially coastal landscapes and avian subjects - illustrates an existential meditation on time and impermanence. Drawing on Heidegger’s (1971) reflections on art and dwelling, Chalmers’ work evokes a sense of “being at home in the world,” a reconciliation between human consciousness and natural temporality. The birds in flight, often suspended against vast horizons, symbolize the intersection between freedom and finitude. Each image becomes a momentary suspension of time, a visual articulation of what Kierkegaard called “the instant,” the point where eternity touches temporality.

In this light, Chalmers’ photography resonates with the existential imperative to live authentically in the face of transience. His images function as existential artefacts - reminders of the beauty and fragility of being. By integrating patience, attentiveness, and empathy into his practice, Chalmers redefines photographic mastery as an ethical and existential discipline.

Photography as a Mode of Being

For Chalmers, photography transcends representation. It is a way of being-in-the-world that synthesizes perception, emotion, and thought. The process of capturing an image becomes a philosophical act - a dialogue between consciousness and the world. This idea parallels Merleau-Ponty’s (1964) vision of art as a “revelation of being,” where the artist discloses the invisible dimensions of experience through visible forms.

Chalmers’ methodology integrates technical precision with meditative awareness. He emphasizes understanding camera mechanics and optical systems not merely as technical exercises but as pathways to deeper perceptual insight. In doing so, his work bridges the gap between phenomenological reflection and empirical observation, demonstrating that existential awareness can coexist with technological mastery.

After Sunset : Milnerton From Woodbridge Island, Cape Town

The Existential Photographer as Thinker and Observer

In his writings and teaching, Chalmers often encourages photographers to engage reflectively with their craft - to move beyond superficial aesthetics and explore photography as a means of self-understanding. This pedagogical stance echoes existential philosophers’ insistence on self-examination and authenticity. Chalmers’ photographic philosophy invites individuals to confront their own perceptual and emotional responses to the world, thereby turning photography into an existential practice of reflection and growth.

Moreover, his approach can be interpreted as an extension of phenomenological reduction: stripping away preconceptions to encounter phenomena directly. By fostering this disciplined attentiveness, Chalmers aligns with Husserl’s (1931) call to return “to the things themselves.” Each photograph becomes an invitation to rediscover the world’s immediacy - to perceive without judgment, to see without imposing, and to be present without possession.

Existential Aesthetics and the Search for Meaning

At the heart of Chalmers’ existential aesthetic lies the question of meaning. For existential philosophers, meaning is not discovered but created through engagement and interpretation. Chalmers’ visual narratives mirror this process, inviting the viewer into a dialogue with uncertainty and wonder. His photographs often resist closure, leaving space for contemplation and ambiguity. This open-endedness reflects the existential condition itself - an ongoing process of becoming rather than a final state of being.

Through his photography, Chalmers illustrates how art can serve as a bridge between individual consciousness and universal existence. By transforming perception into presence, and observation into insight, his images challenge viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world and with themselves. In this way, Chalmers’ art becomes both a personal meditation and a philosophical offering - a testament to the transformative potential of existential awareness.

Vernon Chalmers Existential Motivation

Conclusion

Vernon Chalmers’ photography exemplifies the deep interplay between existential philosophy and artistic practice. Grounded in the phenomenological tradition, his work embodies principles of authenticity, awareness, and freedom. Through his sustained engagement with nature and the act of perception, Chalmers transforms photography into a form of existential reflection - a means of exploring what it means to be, to see, and to dwell within the world.

Ultimately, Chalmers’ photographic vision affirms that art, like philosophy, is a quest for meaning. By aligning his creative process with the existential imperative to live deliberately and perceive authentically, Chalmers invites both photographer and viewer into a shared journey of awareness. His images become portals into the existential landscape of being - illuminating not only what is seen but what it means to see." (Source: ChatGPT 2025)

References

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row.

Heidegger, M. (1971). Poetry, Language, Thought (A. Hofstadter, Trans.). Harper & Row.

Husserl, E. (1931). Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (W. R. Boyce Gibson, Trans.). George Allen & Unwin.

Kierkegaard, S. (1849). The Sickness Unto Death. C.A. Reitzel.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). The Primacy of Perception. Northwestern University Press.

Sartre, J.-P. (1943). Being and Nothingness (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). Philosophical Library

Image Copyright: Vernon Chalmers Photography

Birds and Butterfly with Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Mainly birding with the ever-green Canon EOS 7D Mark II / EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens

Yellow-Billed Duck in Flight : Above Woodbridge Island

"Yellow-billed-duck: against the mystiblue of Table Mountain - between wingbeat and wind, a reassurance towards a focussed path of presence." - Vernon Chalmers

Shooting at 400mm with the Canon EOS 7D Mark II (APS-C) body

Some blue sky and a moderate south-easterly wind with rain forecasted for later - that was my conditional challenge, but I knew from experience that this pairing would deliver even with full cloud cover. Again, I went for my regular photography hike, down the Diep River, Woodbridge Island, right up to the edge of the Table Bay Nature Reserve.

I just feel so confident with this body and lens in my hands - this is what I wrote on my profile on Birdlife South Africa's Facebook Group about using the Canon EF 400mm f/5/6L USM lens:

“Fifteen years of birding, flowers and butterflies with the same lens - yet its presence and functionality is never the same. The Canon EF 400 f/5.6L USM doesn’t just render 'birds in flight', frame after frame; it renders my own becoming." - Vernon Chalmers

 Along the way I had the usual birds and was very exiting to see the terns back - that could potentially mean they are here after spotting some fish - or perhaps they just came around investigating. Seeing that we went through an extensive period of declining birdlife due to the polluted river.  I also noticed, on the other side of the Diep River, the most Egyptian geese I have ever seen in one morning. A bonus was the many grey herons perched and in-flight along the Diep River and the Table Bay reserve.

“Each frame was less a capture than a recognition - a phenomenological pause where the heron’s stillness and the Cape waver’s resilience mirrored my own existential inquiry.” - Vernon Chalmers

Birds in Flight / Perched Birds (Butterfly List

• Yellow-Billed Duck in Flight (Top)
• Common Starling in Flight
• Grey Heron in Flight
• African oystercatcher in Flight
• Water Thick-Knee in Flight
• Cape Weaver Perched
• Southern Mask Weaver Perched
• Grey Heron Perched
• Grey Heron Juvenile
• Cabbage White butterfly Perched

Common Starling in Flight : Above the Diep River, Woodbridge Island

Grey Heron in Flight : Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island

African Oystercatcher in Flight : Table Bay Nature Reserve, Woodbridge Island

Water Thick-Knee in Flight : Diep River Woodbridge Island

Cape Weaver : Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island

Southern Masked Weaver : Table Bay Nature Reserve, Woodbridge Island

Grey Heron Just Being : Diep River, Woodbridge Island

Grey Heron Juvenile : Diep River, Woodbridge Island

Cabbage White Butterfly in Flight : Diep River Woodbridge Island

Location: Diep River, Woodbridge Island, Table Bay Nature Reserve

Canon Camera / Lens for Bird Photography

• Canon EOS 7D Mark II (APS-C)
• Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens
• SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB 200 MB/s

Exposure / Focus Settings for Bird Photography

• Autofocus On
• Manual Mode
• Aperture f/5.6
• Auto ISO 250 - 1250
• Shutter Speeds 1/2500s
• No Image Stabilisation
• Handheld

Image Post-Processing: Lightroom Classic (Ver 14.5)

• Minor Adjustments (Crop / Exposure / Contrast)
• Noise and Spot Removal
• RAW to JPEG Conversion
  
  

Birds and Butterfly with Canon EOS 6D Mark II

All Images: Copyright Vernon Chalmers Photography

What’s Next After the Canon EOS R1?

 'Ongoing Canon EOS R System Evolution ito Canon EOS R1 Maturity.'

Canon EOS R1 : Image Credit, Canon

As of now, Canon has not officially announced a successor to the EOS R1, which was launched as their flagship mirrorless camera in July 2024 [2][3]. The R1 is designed to rival the Nikon Z9 and Sony A1, with cutting-edge autofocus, high-speed performance, and robust video capabilities.

What’s Next After the EOS R1?

While there’s no confirmed “EOS R2” or direct successor yet, here’s what industry watchers are speculating:

• Canon EOS RX or R1X: Some rumors suggest Canon may introduce a new ultra-high-resolution or cinema-focused flagship, possibly with an 85MP stacked sensor or 8K RAW video capabilities.

• Modular or AI-enhanced body: Canon may explore hybrid designs that integrate AI-driven autofocus, modular EVF/LCD options, or advanced heat management for pro video.

• Global shutter tech: A future flagship could feature a global shutter sensor, eliminating rolling shutter and boosting dynamic range—especially for sports and wildlife.

Strategic Direction

Canon seems focused on refining its RF lens ecosystem, expanding video-centric bodies (like the EOS C50), and pushing AI-enhanced autofocus across its lineup. So the next flagship may not be a direct R1 successor, but rather a new category altogether." (Microsoft Copilot 2025)

Canon EOS R1 and Future Expectations

"The Canon EOS R1 landed as a bold statement: a mirrorless reinterpretation of Canon’s “1-series” flagship ideology, tuned for pro sports, news and wildlife shooters who need blackout-free 40 fps bursts, rock-solid AF, and rock-steady ergonomics. But flagships don’t exist in a vacuum — they push competitors, expose gaps in their makers’ roadmaps, and set expectations for what comes next. This piece looks beyond the R1’s headline specs to ask: where does Canon go from here, what will photographers want next, and how might the camera market respond? (Canon U.S.A.)

Quick Baseline: What the Canon EOS R1 Already Delivered

Before predicting the future, it helps to be explicit about what the R1 changed. Canon packaged a 24.2MP stacked CMOS sensor, a new image-processing pipeline, deep-learning aided AF and 40 fps blackout-free shooting into a rugged pro body — essentially a modern, mirrorless take on the DSLR flagship for action shooters. Reviewers praised its tracking and speed; Canon also positioned it as a platform for future feature growth rather than a last word. (DPReview)

Two Obvious Avenues: More Speed vs More Pixels

Historically the “what’s next” question after any flagship splits into two camps.

• Higher speed / lower latency improvements — More frames per second, even lower rolling shutter, faster AF with better subject classification, improved buffer/heat management and global-shutter options for perfect frames of fast motion. Some manufacturers have been repeatedly rumoured to be exploring global-shutter full-frame sensors to eliminate rolling shutter entirely; it’s an obvious technical target for action/video professionals. (Digital Camera World)

• Higher resolution variants — A second direction is a higher-pixel variant of the same platform: keep the R1’s processing and AF, but swap in a 45–60MP stacked sensor for sports that also value print/cropping, or for hybrid shooters who need high resolution and speed. Canon community chatter has already speculated about “R1X” / higher-pixel R1 variants that could sit above or alongside the original R1. (Canon Community)

Those two directions often conflict: bigger sensors generate more data (thermal and bandwidth problems) and can compromise burst performance or buffer depth. What manufacturers increasingly do is split the product line (one model emphasising speed, another emphasising resolution) rather than force a single “do-everything” camera.

Video: cinema features creeping into flagship bodies

The R1 is primarily a stills/action tool, but the lines between stills and cinema are blurring. Pro buyers expect useful video features in flagship bodies — higher internal raw resolutions, open-gate capture, expanded log and HDR profiles, and more robust heat management. Canon’s own EOS cinema line has been a training ground for features that later trickle into EOS R bodies; expect future R1 derivatives to adopt more cinema-grade codecs and “open-gate” or oversampled modes aimed at hybrid shooters and broadcast. The R6 III rumours emphasise open-gate and stronger video chops in the mainstream lineup, which indicates Canon is taking a system-wide push toward improved video in stills bodies. (TechRadar)

Computational and AI Advances — The Software Race

Hardware improvements are costly and slow; software and AI can deliver step changes without new silicon. Canon has already leaned on deep learning for AF. The next moves will likely include:

• Smarter in-camera subject prediction (anticipating trajectories for athletes or birds).

• Real-time per-pixel processing for noise reduction and dynamic-range recovery that preserves detail.

• Adaptive AF profiles that learn a shooter’s preferences or tune themselves by scene type.

• On-camera computational stitching or HDR for fast turnaround workflows in news and sports.

These are iterative but meaningful improvements: they lift a camera’s practical usability for working photographers in the field without blowing up the price.

Sensor Tech: Stacked, BSI, and the Global-Shutter Question

Canon’s use of a stacked, back-illuminated sensor in the R1 is part of the modern performance playbook (fast readout, low noise). The next steps in sensors are likely incremental: better readout electronics, improved heat dispersion for longer raw video takes, and — if the industry overcomes yield and cost issues — practical global shutter full-frame sensors. A global shutter would be a genuine game-changer for video and certain kinds of action photography, but trade-offs remain (dynamic range and noise), so expect it first in niche or very high-end models. (DPReview)

Ergonomics, Modularity and Professional Workflows

Pros don’t only buy pixels: they buy systems that integrate into workflow. Subsequent R1 models or pro additions might emphasise:

• Modular grips and configurable controls to suit different shooting styles (motorsport vs birding).

• Improved battery life / new battery standards that borrow from cinema bodies.

• Faster, redundant media options, e.g., multiple CFexpress slots with higher sustained write speeds or internal RAID modes for hot-swap reliability.

• Networked live-image workflows, with multi-camera tethering and lower-latency wireless for on-site editors and broadcasters.

Canon’s product announcements and the way magazines discuss the R1 suggest Canon intends the R1 to be a platform that can be extended through accessories and firmware. (Canon U.S.A.)

Lens Ecosystem Pressure & RF Roadmap

A flagship sells best when supported by a complete lens ecosystem. Expect Canon to continue expanding RF options targeted at pro shooters: ultra-fast telephotos refined for AF performance, lighter composites for field use, and specialist optics (super-tele primes, long-reach zooms, and improved image-stabilised zooms). The RF mount already gives Canon design freedom; the next phase is pushing lenses that truly exploit the R1’s AF and high-frame capabilities (and, just as importantly, lowering weight for wildlife shooters who walk miles with their gear).

Competition Matters: What Sony and Nikon Push Back With

Canon’s next moves will be shaped in part by Sony and Nikon. In 2024–25 the competitive field tightened: Sony’s Alpha 1 II and Nikon’s Z9 lineage have driven Canon to respond aggressively with the R1 and R5 II; each maker chases different strengths (global shutter, resolution, raw video workflows). Historically, competition produces faster refresh cycles, so expect Canon to respond by both iterating the R1 firmware and introducing complementary bodies in the 12–24 months after a flagship release. (PetaPixel)

Firmware Upgrades: The “Free” Future

One practical and immediate “what’s next” is firmware. Professional cameras increasingly gain major feature sets via firmware updates — better AF modes, improved menus, and even new shooting modes. Expect Canon to push meaningful firmware updates to the R1 class (improving subject detection, adding new frame-rate options or video codecs) — and to use firmware as a way to keep the platform relevant while hardware R&D catches up.

What this Means for Buyers and Working Professionals

If you already own a Canon EOS R1, you’re unlikely to need an immediate upgrade unless your work demands higher pixel counts or cinema-style continuous raw at very high resolutions. For buyers deciding now:

• Choose an R1 variant if your primary need is ultimate action capture and fail-safe AF.

• Wait for the next generation (or an R1X) if you need higher resolution for crop-heavy sports/wildlife editorial or large print.

• If video is increasingly part of your product, watch Canon’s firmware roadmap and the broader R-system updates; a hybrid R1 derivative could appear that blurs the line with cinema models. (Fstoppers)

A Realistic Timeline and What To Expect in 2026

Canon tends to alternate between major hardware launches and incremental product expansion. Expect the near-term roadmap to include:

• R1 firmware updates improving AF and video features.

• More RF lenses optimised for speed and weight.

• A higher-pixel or hybrid R1 variant announced within 12–24 months if market demand justifies the engineering investment (and if competing bodies push the pixel or video envelope further). Canon community reporting and rumours already point at potential R1-family siblings. (Canon Rumors)

Final Thought: The Platform Matters More than the Model

The most important shift the R1 represents is that Canon treats the RF flagship as a scalable platform. That is good news for photographers: rather than a single monolithic camera trying to be everything, we should see a family of bodies and lenses that let professionals pick the mix of speed, resolution, video, and portability that fits their work. Expect incremental sensor and processing gains, smarter on-camera AI, and targeted body variants — not one camera that solves every problem for every shooter." (Source: ChatGPT 2025)

Canon Camera Disclaimer