John Isaac has had a distinguished photography career, including twenty years - from 1978 to 1998 - with the United Nations in the Department of Public Information. During that time, John traveled to more than one hundred countries, photographing the struggles and triumphs of our changing world. Throughout his career, John received numerous national and international awards for his work, including Lifetime Achievement Award from International Photographic Council. In 1978 John was awarded first prize in the Photokina International Photo Contest held in Cologne, Germany. In 1991, he won Best Outdoor Photograph of the Year from Graphis magazine. John was named the 1993 Professional Photographer of the Year by the Photographic Manufacturers and Distributors Association. John has authored many books, including a series called "Children in Crisis." Through this series, John gives a first-hand account of the daily lives of children and their families in troubled regions around the world. He co-authored "Endangered Peoples" for Sierra Club and "Coorg, Land of the Kodavas" with his wife Jeanette. Besides his work with the United Nations, John has spent much of his photojournalist career dedicating his talent and time to working with landmine victims. He has provided coverage for UNICEF, working closely with the late actress Audrey Hepburn and has worked for Luciano Pavarotti's Foundation, Pavarotti and Friends. He has covered Michael Jackson's concerts and was asked to provide exclusive coverage of Michael's first baby, Prince. John first used Olympus digital cameras in 2000 when he traveled back to his native India to photograph tigers. Since then he photographed digitally in Pennsylvania, Maine and the American Southwest and has participated in the Day in the Life of Africa project where he shot with the Olympus E-20. Seven of his images were included in the book, which was published in the US in October 2002. He now shoots exclusively with Olympus digital cameras.

I made 5 trips to Kashmir in the last 12 months with my OLYMPUS E-1 system. Two trips to India to photograph the birds and tigers. The working conditions in Kashmir, which is located in the Himalayas, were not so easy. The extreme weather conditions and the political situations did not help much. But, as for my Olympus equipment, they worked like a charm. In all those trips that I took carrying my cameras on a mule back or in a small boat in harsh weather conditions like snow, freezing weather, rain and dust storms they never failed, not even once. The cast alloy rugged construction of the body is exceptional. The greatest advantage that I have over other brand digital camera users are, the size of the lenses (the 300mm.2.8 is actually a 600mm 2.8 equivalent to the 35mm format) The quality of the lenses are just as good or in my opinion better that most others (Olympus was the first to develop Digital lenses). The metering system is just as good as using a hand held light meter. I traveled by horseback and mules carrying my camera gear up the glaciers in Kashmir. At one point I was 13,000 feet elevation and camped in a small pup tent in the freezing weather at Shesnag. My gear worked like a charm every day with out fail. (Better than my 61 year old body did.) And for my wildlife coverage of Tigers and birds these small sized lenses that are big in focal length equivalent to 300mm/F2.8, 600mm/F2.8 is a blessing. Many a times I hand hold and shoot when I see others with huge tripods...