photo wallah - photography questions.

Aredsloth

Hi all, been lurking for a week or two now.
The best way to get answers is to give a little eh, so here goes: Capetonian, in Muscat. Photo related profession. I have a serious addiction to the lolcats site and bmw's. Early thirties , agewise. My mottos are "when you're falling, dive" and "never put off till tomorrow what you can avoid completely".

Meeting up with a good friend in Mumbai for 3 weeks - in july. We have a fairly busy itinerary with nothing longer than about 3 days per stop.

Mumbai - Gujarat ( no specific location yet ) - Jaipur - Amritsar - Delhi - Aggra - Varanasi( eclipse!!!) - Patna - Kathmandu ( if time permits ) - Kolkatta.

This is a very casual itinerary. We can go where and when we want with the rail pass according to my mate.

For me this is a chance to take my photography to the next level, ya, you can get subject material for a portfolio anywhere but I'll be away from work, which changes everything. Yes, it's a very "quick" trip, with little time to fully experience any of the destinations but that's ok by me. I can nip over from the gulf for short return visits, which I think will happen, having read about some folks who holiday for months at a time.

Main subjects of interest for me are experiencing the ganges and Varanasi. I'm a bit miffed about chances to see tigers as I've read that they tend to be more reclusive than usual during the monsoon.



Photo :
1: Worried about damp and other monsooon problems, dslr user. I've read about silica bags and rice and will be using those.
2: Will probably get some camera armour to throw over the body. Anybody ever used this during a monsoon? It may have to be removed regularly as it will probably trap water between it and the body ?
3: Storage, my biggest problem so far. I can shoot between 3 - 8 gb per day... A laptop is much too large and heavy for me. I can't find notebooks that have a dvd burner + large enough hard drive - and are cheap enough. So I'm going to buy as many 32gb cf cards as I can afford ( talk about expenses! ) and try to get stuff burned onto disk at internet cafes as a backup to the cf cards. I'll be traveling as light as possible with a "daypack" 20l backpack and a camera bag, reluctantly a sleeping bag too. Two camera bodies and 2, maybe 3 lenses. And a mini tripod.
4: If it rains, you go out and shoot anyway... I've read about the heavy steam that rises after rains in some areas and it sounds like a great photo op!
Anyone ever taped/elastic plain plastic wrap over a camera during monsoon, as a kind of raincoat ? Pro photo 'camera raincoats" are too bulky and just another expense.
5: Yeah, I know, just go, shoot, deal with it when it happens. Is it better for me to insure the photo gear in Muscat where I live, or in India btw ?
6: Anyone ever fallen off a boat/capsized while shooting ? I'm probably going to be the first...


Cheers for now.

OceanTragic

Whoa. I'm made up that I've 20Gb total storage, for 25 days.

Anyway, do a search for the user Zoltan and photography. He's got a device for backing up photos that he loves. I think it cost a bit but could be invaluable.

I've bought myself a Lowepro Slingshot which has a bit in raincover, which could be useeful for you if you're in the market for a new bag. It's a brilliant design for quickly getting hold of your camera when you're carrying the bag.

rebeccam

Welcome, Aredsloth, aka Photo Wallah!

Your home country, including Capetown, is quite a place for stunning scenery!!

I'm nowhere near your professional level-- use just a basic "point and shoot." But due to the subject matter, my photos taken in India are "knock-out" level. Where else can you take a photo of laundry on a line in all its bright multicolored splendor, and have it elicit " WOW!" ? So you are in for the photographic treat of your life in India.

As for the memory cards, is there a branch of Amazon on the internet, for South African product distribution? Their prices here (USA) for cameras and accessories (memory cards, camera protection gear, etc) are excellent. Amazon is the advertising venue for other companies/distributors. For example, a 16 gb memory card is USD $28. Perhaps thisinformation will help a bit.

Good luck, and don't fall off that boat. (But if you do...dive!!!)

theshutterbug

Aredsloth,
In india you should expect the unexpected. Don't expect any patch work on your camera will save your cam from the mad monsoons.

I suggest you invest in a good waterproof camera. Panasonic and Olympus have excellent waterproof and shockproof pocket cameras with 10 MP resolution. It would keep your dslr safe and you can boldly venture or dive in varanasi..

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My India Travel Pictures

Darmabum

Over the course of three separate trips, I've spent over a year of my life in Varanasi; the last two trips there being six-months each. I have been there through every season. Oh yeah, and I shoot lots of photos/video . . . and my last time there, Feb - July, 2006, I went specifically for monsoon.

I would never wrap a camera in plastic bags, for any length of time. Condensation can occur inside the bag, so while protecting it from the outside weather, you're creating a micro-climate inside the bag.

Last time was the first time that I left my still cameras at home, but I did take a high-end video camera. I kept it for those six month in it's carrying case (just a canvas camera bag), inside my room, with no silicone bags or any heroic means of dampness protection - no problems. I stay in Rs150 rooms - i.e., no AC, and for much of the monsoon time, no fan (due to power cuts throughout the city). Real rain didn't start until June, and even then, it wasn't as if it rains all the time. Evening was a popular time to rain, with cloud build-up common throughout the day. My video project didn't require me to shoot during a rain, but I would have felt safe with my camera under an umbrella.

I too own Lowe camera bags and recommend them highly.

Steam rising from the river can be common in the morning, when the air might be cooler than the water; and yes, it is quite a photo-op, with the orange sun filtering through it. Many days the highest humidities I can remember resulted from evaporating pools of rain water from the night before.

Should you be caught in the rain, as I was many times, and still want to shoot, there always seemed to be places I could duck under cover, and still shoot.

And the eclipse should be amazing. For the film I created I shot a full moonrise from the protection of the second floor of the Ganges View Hotel, at Asi Ghat. GIANT moon rising above the trees on the eastern shore . . . deliberate, tattered clouds passing over it . . . clearing, crossing it again . . . and don't forget, with those rains comes thunder and lightning . . . filmed a few lightning storms passing over the city. Varanasi is magic, add some lightning to that and the magic deepens. Safe travels.

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

Paleface

Try real film?? Pick up a SLR cheaply and run some Velvia thru it, shooting the same scene digitally and with film - Spot the difference???

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Only a mediocre person is always at his best. Somerset Maugham.

OceanTragic

If anyone wants to try a film SLR I've got a free Ricoh XR-X waiting for you. Obviously though you'll have to live somewhere near me; or pay for my airfare