Suitcase Photography

Sri Lanka

2011-12-22T03:59:00.000-08:00

Well Sir Roger, it's almost that time again. Off to Sri Lanka this time the mission includes an elephant orphanage, wild life park, heritage tea factory, a number of temples and a train ride into the mountains, which I am looking forward to. I rendezvous with some locals on my arrival for lunch and will make sure I pick up a gift for them before I travel. The case is all packed, the cameras ready and the countdown begins.

Alphabet Travel Quest continues

2011-02-28T02:55:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I outlined my current travel quest, which is letters of the alphabet, with the letters remaining as D, P, Q, Y and Z. The letter D will soon be retired with a visit to Denmark. As part of this trip the other destinations visited include Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. I am especially excited about visiting Greenland and the Faroe Islands because of their remoteness and these are not common places for Australians to visit. Both places as well as Iceland should contain some spectacular scenery and I am travelling to some remote parts of Iceland that should give some great photos.

Kind regards,
Derek.

Top Ten Most Photogenic Places

2011-01-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

For my most recent trip to Borneo and Brunei I visited the Omar Ali Saifuddein Mosque in Brunei and this is easily one of the most beautiful places I've seen - incredibly photogenic.

So here is my top ten most places I like to photograph the most.

Siem Reap, Cambodia - home of Angkor Watt, Bayon, Ta Prohm and other amazing places

Omar Ali Saifuddein Mosque, Brunei

Sedona, Arizona, USA

Antarctica

Borobodur, Indonesia

Uluru, Australia

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Venice, Italy

New York, USA

Capetown, South Africa

The last three will likely fall off this list when I get to Egypt, maybe Pagan in Myanmar, Petra in Jordan, Peru, India and the Greek Islands. And a few places you thought might have been on the list but are not - the Grand Canyon, London, Paris and Rome. Ottawa in Canada just missed out.

Borneo and Brunei

2010-12-20T03:22:00.000-08:00

The adventure continues. Not long now until I go searching for the old man of the forest, the Orangutan and the wealthy Sultan of Brunei.

Camera Equipment

2010-07-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

It's said the worst thing you can say to a photographer is 'gee, great photos, you must have a good camera'. Poor quality camera gear will make things hard but good quality gear doesn't make a good photographer. Many people get wedded to different brands too and the reality is it doesn't matter whether you like Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus or any other brand. What matters is the quality of the lens and in the case of digital the sensor. There are some basic functions that are valuable with cameras - depth of field preview, exposure lock, different metering modes, continuous and single autofocus, manual focus, and various exposure modes (fully automatic, aperture priority, shutter priority, program and full manual).

Likewise with a flash there is some key functionality to look for - the ability to swivel up and down and left and right and the ability to change the power output. Bonuses are diffusion panels and a catchlight panel.

Whatever gear you buy though, make sure you invest in learning to see firstly and then understanding composition.

Travel technology tips

2010-06-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

Each travel destination presents a challenge in terms of the amount and content of luggage I should take. My theory is that if you cannot haul your luggage about 2 kilometres in hot sun up a slight hill then you have to much. I have had to do that many times and also carry it up three flights of narrow stairs. I am always looking for ways to minimise weight and maximise capability. Here are a few tips:

1. I've found that soft-sided suitcases are better than hard cases. People often prefer hard cases thinking they are more resistant to intrusion from theives but this risk is fairly low and hard cases are heavier and when dropped they can shatter at the point of impact.

2. Towels take up an incredible amount of room and once wet require a reasonable amount of time to dry. While you can leave a towel at home I've been in hotels that have run out of towels. A great tip is to take a human shamois, or a micro-fibre towel. These towels will fold up to next to nothing, soak up water very well and dry really quickly.

3. One of the things that takes up so much room in luggage is socks and underwear along with jumpers. A great technology is stuff-sacks. Don't go for vacuum systems as while you can compress the clothing at home once you are away you are unlikely to have access to a vacuum. A stuff sack however uses cables to compress the air out of clothing and save a significant amount of space. For Antarctica I compressed all of my Antarctic clothing into a stuff sack to save room in my luggage.

4. Look for smaller toiletries. On the trip to Arabia and East Africa I found a concentrate for shaving cream. Instead of a heavy shaving cream canister instead I had a very small bottle of shaving cream concentrate that saved lots of room and weight.

5. Jeans can also create a significant amount of weight and occupy a reasonable amount of space in your luggage. Again on the trip to Arabia and East Africa I trialled some very lightweight trekking pants that had the added bonus of being able to unzip above the knee to convert to shorts. This was useful in swapping between cooler and hotter weather and after getting the bottom of my trousers covered in mud I was able to quickly room the bottom part of the leg for cleaning along with my boots. Selecting waterproof boots was also a great idea as often times during the trek to see the gorillas my feet were immersed in water, and yet with thick socks and waterproof boots, my feet remained perfectly dry, which is important when you have to trek for a long time and do it again on subsequent days.

6. A watch might seem like a simple thing but I've finally found a good travel watch. Dual time and two alarms comes in very handy when travelling across multiple time zones and having to ensure that you are at certain places at certain times. I also make sure the watch is waterproof, which is great when are snorkelling and must be back at a certain time.

7. Cameras are also a part of my travel. A camera bag doubles as my carry-on luggage and I make sure it doesn't look like a camera bag. I have a number of camera bags and choose the most appropriate for the job. For some spots I want to be able to quickly access a camera and quickly put it away. In other cases I use a reverse access bag, which means when the bag is on my back the only way to get to the cameras is for me to take the bag off. This second bag is more resistant to petty theiving activities but means there are no quick grab shots. Irrespective of what bag I take though I make sure it doesn't stand out as a camera bag. Digital cameras are great compared to when I used to travel with film and all the issues plus I can always be sure I am getting the shot I want but I choose cameras that don't take exotic batteries so I can easily replace them if necessary. I always have plenty of spares but it's nice to know I can buy the batteries I need anywhere if I have to. Oh and apart from the SLRs I will always have a little snapshot camera that fits in my pocket for photos at dinners and places it would be too hard to use the big cameras.

8. I like to read and listen to music on my trips. MP3 players are great compared to the older compact disk player I used to travel with. MP3 players fit far more song on them, take up virtually no room and again I choose one that doesn't require exotic batteries or charging mechanisms. Books are still a reasonable amount of weight in my luggage but electronic equivalents are not quite there yet in terms of robustness and multiple uses. Try wiping with an e-book and see how fun that is. What I do nowadays though is pick books that I am happy to donate once I have read them and some places have an exchange policy - leave a book, take a book.

9. I don't generally have much trouble with a sense of direction or finding my back while out walking but a new handheld GPS is an added bonus as I can track the path I walking and then get it to instructions to get back to my origin. Again, I chose one that runs on commonly available batteries and indeed the same batteries as my camera.

10. Finally the most valuable travel technology I have - the Swiss Army knife with built in knife, fork and spoon. I have used this on so many occassions that I've lost count. The tool also has a small pair of scissors that I have also had to use on many occassions. Taking up virtually no room and weight this is a travel technology I am never without.

Clothing range

2010-04-24T02:32:00.000-07:00

Suitcase Photography has produced a new travel T-shirt, "Image'n the world", comes in a variety of colours, styles and sizes; available from Redbubble.

A second T-shirt has been produced based on a recent trip gorilla trekking in Rwanda and Uganda. Captioned "This shirt contains 97.7% pure me" with an image of a baby gorilla, the shirt is a desire to help conserve the mountain gorillas.

Travel quests

2010-04-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

My upcoming trip is part of a quest to visit a country from each possible letter of the alphabet. There are no countries starting with X. On this trip I will visit countries starting with O, K and R. That will leave me D, P, Q, Y and Z to complete the alphabet.

This quest came about after accomplishing some previous quests:
- To go overseas, the first and most fundamental (completed in 1994)
- To visit Africa, the second, having already visited North America, Asia and Europe (completed in 2000)
- To visit all of the Australian states and territories (completed in 2003)
- To visit South America, the sixth continent (completed in 2007)
- To visit Antarctica, the seventh contintent (completed in 2008)
- To visit 40 countries before age 40 (completed in 2009)
- And now the alphabet quest, which will probably take another 4 years.

Then there is to visit every region of the world and to visit every country. Regions include, for example, micronesia, melanesia, polynesia, southern africa, eastern africa, central africa, northern africa, western africa, south amerca, central america, north america, western europe, eastern europe, scandinavia, south east asia, central asia, east asia, russia, the subcontinent and there is bound to be a few more. In the mean time though, quests could include - complete a continent (other than Australia) - South America is the most likely candidate with Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia (can be done in one trip) then Colombia, Venezula, Suriname, Guyana. Ideally French Guiana (Fr) and the Falkland Islands (UK) to. Venezula has Angel Falls and the amazing Tepuis and Peru and Bolivia with Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca.

The current trip will get me to country 49 and so the letter P, next trip, will also be country 50. Not really a quest but a significant milestone.

Welcome to Suitcase Photography

2010-04-06T04:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new Suitcase Photography blog. Be sure and check out www.suitcasephotography.com for travel photos, videos, stories, podcasts, the ability to send electronic postcards, buy stock photos, calendars and more.