It has been so long since my last blog I almost forgot how to log in to the website. However, I have been busy.
I finally found an answer to the Leeds - Temple Newsam - You-Can-Never-Have-Too-Many-Photographs-Of-Ducks photographer's fatigue. I have exhausted Temple Newsam, and I have finally decided, Yes, You Can Have Too Many Photographs Of Ducks. Even ones like this:
I have truly Maxxed Out on Ducks. And short of photographing Temple Newsam upside down, I can't think of anything else to do with it.
The simple answer was to go to New Zealand and photograph something different.
Well I said it was simple, I didn't say it was cheap.
As you can imagine, once released from the relative photographic prison of Leeds and Area, I went a bit nuts and at the last count, my computer is now over 4,000 photographs richer. Relax, gentle reader, I do not intend to post ALL 4,000 on here. Maybe 2,000.
So my plan is - a few blogs, in instalments, taking in Hong Kong, Rarotonga and New Zealand in turn, with maybe some observations on travelling with cameras on the way.
The first observation is I am now a different shape. Not fatter, thanks to what I think is a tapeworm I picked up on Hong Kong, which has sadly now left me, but with legs like a baobab tree trunk. This is because I was going to photograph night scenes, cities, landscapes, and possibly tiny insects and that meant taking both cameras and an assortment of lenses, which can be a little heavy.
There are dire warnings all over photographic phorums about checking your beloved camera into hold baggage as you might as well wrap it up with NICK ME tape, so basically you have to carry it all on yer person into the cabin. And I rapidly discovered that with two cameras, a 14mm wide angle, a 150mm macro, a 100-400mm zoom, and a 24-70 mm zoom, not only was I not zooming ANYWHERE, but I was also overweight. Most cabin baggage allowances run to 7Kg and this lot weighed something more like 10Kg. I also had to include a small laptop, for transferring the pictures onto an external hard drive, and spare batteries, because you can't put either of those in hold baggage.
So, tips for the phlying photographer:
First of all, get an App called 'My Packing List' which will allow you to input the weight of each item, so that you can work out how much it all weighs without having to balance on the scales and deducting your body weight 50 times.
Secondly, get a small carry on, like a 'reporter bag' because you are usually allowed to carry a cabin bag, and one small item, like a brolly, coat or small bag, and work out, to the gramme, which lenses you can swap over into your reporter bag before you check in, to get your rucksack down to 6.99Kg. You can swap stuff over later so that you can have something useful to put under the seat in front of you rather than two inert lenses.
Thirdly, vitally important, when you check in, DO NOT put your rucksack down. Sling it casually across one shoulder, because, like, it's not heavy. Assume an air of nonchalance. Watch videos of drug smugglers being caught at airports, and don't do any of the things that they do if that helps. This should mean they don't realise how heavy your stuff is.
Fourthly, very important this, don't forget to put Your Medication in your rucksack. Make sure there is quite a lot of it. Doesn't matter what it is. Aspirin, Diet Pills, Bisodol, Multivitamins, Dried Frog Pills, because you see, you can't travel without Your Medication, and if you have like 15 bottles and four spare camera batteries, they're not going to ask you to just put them all in your pockets. Fake an asthma attack if you get stuck, but also bear in mind your inhalers will have to be in clear plastic bags.
Swap the random lenses you'd ensconced in your reporter bag back into your rucksack after you've checked your hold luggage in.
Going back to the Before You Leave bit for a moment, which I did many, many times on my subsequent travels, ask yourself, do I really need ALL of those lenses, because by the time you've finished dragging them half way around the world, trust me, you will feel the weight of every one of them. And you too will end up a Different Shape.
It's not just airports you have to think about. It's rental cars. It's places where you might have opened the boot and someone might have had a chance to look inside. It's hotels that you're checking into, that don't have the room ready, and offer to keep your bags. One of the nicest hotels we stayed in was in Hong Kong, the Novotel Century, quite posh, freezing airconditioning, a large atrium with no discernible ceiling and an air of ruthless efficiency from the staff.
On our arrival, we had hours to kill before our room was ready, and jetlag. They helpfully let us leave our bags, all very efficient, and even gave us a numbered security tag so that we could reclaim them, and off we went into the sweltering Hong Kong heat. So that first time, the only time, I left my camera rucksack with them, and when we returned to the hotel, as I walked up, noticed all of our bags, along with my rucksack, on the street, where the taxis pulled in.
They were secure. Well, they had a rope around them. It was quite a thick rope. And apparently there's very little crime in Hong Kong because they're all too busy looking at their phones. You think we have it bad in our country...
Hong Kong was an experience, but all talk, no photographs. I'll cover a bit more in a subsequent blog about the stop in Hong Kong on the way back. But for now, some pictures. As ever, click on the pick to get a bigger version to look at.
