Cameras and lenses, Oh My!

I was diving through my most favorite images a few days ago, and decided to use Adobe Lightroom's meta data filtering capabilites. I sorted all of my favorite few hundred images, and here are the most popular lenses from my safaris since I switched to digital in 2002:

16-35mm f/2.8 = 5
24-70mm f/2.8 = 34
24-105mm f/4 = 17
70-200mm f/2.8 = 11
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 = 36
400mm f/4 = 57
500mm f/4 = 81

 
I can certainly see the trend in my photographic style, as well as my use of certain cameras and lenses. What is amazing is how many of these images were captured with non professional camera bodies. I had a good run of images back in 2003 with only a pair of Canon 10D cameras.

I am using shorter and shorter lenses these days, as well as specialty cameras such as a modified Canon Rebel XTi for infrared. I have also purchased a 6x24cm panorama film camera, which will be put to use next month in Tanzania. My photographic vision is certainly changing right now, and I am trying to visualize and capture all of my African images in black and white. I like to think that this is the next challenge for me, and I am certainly making it a challenge. My new Fotoman 624 panorama camera is huge, only captures 3 images per roll of film, and is quite challenging to use for moving wildlife. For example, in ample light I plan on shooting with ASA100 film. To obtain an adequate depth of field for my subjects at 300mm, I will ideally shoot at f/16 or f/22. This might give me a shutter speed of 1/125 at best. I must be nuts. But challenges is what I am into, so bring em on.