Going Non-digital into India

Lost in India

Hello fellow IMers,

i'm going to be traveling in India for a total of 6 months (a bit less with the visa date thingy), and part of my travel is based on getting a photographic project out of it.

now, i'm pretty much an anti-digital photography type of guy (you can like it, fine with me, i just don't) with mainly a background of large format photography (4x5 mostly, but 8x10 also).

of course, going around india with a 4x5 bag with all the gear it requires is not so bright an idea, so i'm gonna be going SLR way, 35mm, both color and B&W but mostly color i would say due to more readily available stock and developing solutions.

the main point of my post comes right here : developing solutions. since i am going to be gone for such an extensive length of time and that exposed film tends to like to be processed as soon as possible, i am wondering how its going to be possible to get that film processed and stored safely until i make it back.

what i have thought so far is to shoot and get them developed at every facility i can find along the way, and ship the negatives home in some sort of tough box that can handle the post.

1st, can i trust the processes in most of (northern) India?
2nd, can i trust the post to make it back to canada ?
3rd, i am sure i'm not the first one going through this, how did you solve such issues ?


thanks for your time,

Lost

Merchant

You might try to work with a pro lab in Delhi or Mumbai, ship everything to them along the way, have them develop and sleeve your negs, and then you can collect it all on your way back home. I wouldn't try to get stuff developed along the way in your journey. You would be dealing with mini-labs whose quality will vary. Plus, I would rather have my load get lighter, not heavier, as the weeks wore on.

The other option is to ship everything home every so often. If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do. National Geographic photographers ship rolls back to their lab from the field, even-numbered rolls in one parcel, odd in another (in case something gets lost). No matter what you do, you'll have a massive organizational issue from six-months of pictures. You'll need to number and catalog everything anyway (after a point, all Indian towns begin to look the same). You can figure out how best to group and ship.

If you ship stuff home, you will at least be in a better position to supervise the developing process. Pull/push this roll or that one, B&W here, color there. Contact sheets for this, prints for that, etc. You can shoot a lot of pictures in six months,

I wouldn't worry about waiting six months to develop your film. As long as the rolls are not on a dashboard in a closed car in the sun, it will be fine.

cyberhippie

Second that, the quality of prints and development is patchy at best, Old equipment undertrained staff and old chemicals all contrive to spoil things!

There are of course good developers along the way but finding them would be a headache!

Delhi Photo Company on Janpath is a well regerded developer in Delhi, though I believe there a couple of better choices in Delhi!

Darmabum

and elsewhere carrying exposed film. My decision was based on the fact that I simply didn't trust developing in India, and, I was very seldom close to a large city where better facilities might have been found. Having been a student at one of the best photography schools in the States I noticed very little, if any, harm to my film once it finally was developed.
I carried a wide range of films from ASA 25 to 200 slide films and Tri-X B&W.
On that particular trip, it was in 1982 (December to June), I had my film with me all the time: from Calcutta to Madras to Delhi and Rishikesh, then up the Ganges valley into Nepal then six weeks on the trek with me.
I was not in India during summer though I still took the best precautions I could to keep it cool and out of the sun.
In four subsequent trips to India I've gone digital, though last year I was in Varanasi for six months of spring/summer shooting video, and again, no apparent harm is evident in my video footage.

__________________
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure - Marianne Williamson

Lost in India

thanks for the replies.

i'm not too worried about exposed film after august, but july might still be a bit hot for exposed film i think. but i guess it cannot screw a film as bad as a badly regulated processor with the wrong chemical dilutions and all that can go wrong with undertrained staff in a darkroom.

now, if we talk about the two other solutions being carrying it all with me until home and shipping them in separate batch by post, one question remain in this post 9-11 world : how safe is it to cross film at the airports with all those insane security mesures ? i know that before you could ask them to verify by hand, not under x-ray, but is this still a viable option ? i can easily see the freaked-out american border agent putting it in a hardcore xray machine to make sure his job catching terorist is thorough, if you know what i mean. same goes for the shipping : i would expect most of the packages going by plane would be xrayed now.

anyone has opinions/facts on this issue ?

Thanks again for your time,

Lost

ps : I intend to shoot anything from 25 ISO to 1600 ISO

cyberhippie

Are those old X-Ray resistant film bags now banned.........I guess so.

Merchant

In the US, you are supposed to have the right (not the courtesy) of a hand inspection of film, according to TSA guidelines. In India, asking is usually enough and saying "professional photographer" works like a charm. Really, though, your film is safe for the x-rays used for hand luggage. The effect is supposed to cumulative. I've had many rolls irradiated 12 times or more with no discernible effects.

Darmabum

call the airline/airlines you'll be traveling with and ask them how they handle that. Same goes for international shipping companies.
Upon arrival in Mumbai it was insisted that I put my bags - all of them - in a pre-Cold-War-looking X-ray machine . . . I did, unexposed video tape included, no problems. Though on the American end I did notice that warnings were printed on the X-ray machines indicating what speed films were "safe."

Lost in India

Ok thanks.

yeah, i'll be asking the airlines for more specific informations once i know more precisely which company i'll be traveling with, but this being a border security issue, i dont think the company makes that much of a difference.

what i heard, but was left unverfied, is that film under ISO 400 were totaly safe, and that higher than that, it gets very hazardous.

I'll try to get more information and post my findings here.

thanks again folks,

Lost

Wanderer22

Hi Lost,

I'm facing the same dilemma. My earlier work in India was all shot on film, but last trip went minimalist with just a small digital point and shoot. Although I got some interesting images with the little digi, limitations of high ISO noise and shutter lag drove me nuts. My first thought was to go higher quality digital, and have been using a D200 for the past year seeing how it performs. While the D200 is a fine instrument, have come to the realization that it may not be the ideal India camera for me. I find it too big and cumbersome especially when you add in all the extras that are needed, plus there is the dust on sensor issue to worry about. Have had my old rangefinder Leicas rebuilt and will probably go back to using film again.
Not sure which route you'll fly, but being on the West Coast I'll probably travel via Singapore. My plan is to buy film in Singapore in an attempt to avoid any more x-rayings than absolutely necessary. Last trip on that route there were five or six x-ray inspections each way, and as I'm sure you know they are cumulative. My flight stopped in Korea for an hour and everyone was ordered off the plane with ALL cabin baggage for yet another x-raying before continuing to Singapore. Why that happened after going through two screenings in Vancouver I'll never know? Some airports do a preliminary x-ray screening just to enter the main building, then another one before the boarding area. In Chennai they even x-rayed all baggage before allowing you to leave the airport. If I can't find a suitable lab to soup film in India, may see what's available in Singapore on the return trip. I understand that you can request a hand inspection for film > 800 ASA, but that this can't be counted on. So far I've been lucky and only had one instance of fogging while flying into Russia. Film in a lead bag was OK, stuff in the camera had weird streaks. This link may be helpful..http://www.kodak.com/global/en/servi...01.shtml#SEC43

Even though I plan to shoot film, will probably still take a little digi as backup just in case excrement hits the fan. I'm also into large format (4x5") and can just imagine what airport security would try to do with boxes of sheet film. What's in here?

Did an interesting test recently comparing D200, 30mm f/1.4 with Leica RF, 40mm f/1.4 under identical low light conditions.. Although it wasn't very scientific, film had the edge in both resolution and dynamic range.

Wanderer22