Practical considerations – photography

Obviously one of the key components to the upcoming trip is the photography. It’s my first trip with my new digital SLR and Cynthia will be bringing her new Pentax K10D.

On our previous trip I used the Sony F828 which was a glorified point and shoot camera.
It had the benefit of having a built in but very versatile 28-200mm lens and it did a good job. I can’t complain about the pictures I got in Venice or the glorious time-lapsed picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Now with the Sony Alpha 100 I find myself with 6 lenses, 4 of which I plan to take with me on the trip.

Where the F828 was easy to manage and carry in a small shoulder bag, my current photo equipment needs required the purchase of something a bit larger. I went with a Domke F-3X after seeing how nice Cynthia’s Domke F-5XB bag was.

It’s made of good, solid canvas construction with minimal padding except on the bottom. This makes it much more flexible for storing a variety of lenses and other gear. The strap has a non-slip surface so it doesn’t continuously slide off of my shoulder.

It holds all I need plus some stuff I don’t. The side pockets hold my external flash and the charger quite easily.

I was really happy to get this sorted out but during our research we realized something that has thrown a kink into our planning. We kind of knew this from before, but it’s even more of an issue now and that is the fact that many museums don’t allow camera bags. You have to check them at the front desk. Of course this means you might get your bag back with certain key elements missing, like your camera or lenses.

Most places will let you carry your camera and some allow photography without a flash but the bag-check issue it a real problem. It looks like I will have to purchase a photographers vest. That way I can check an empty bag while carrying my lenses and accessories on my person.

When looking at the camera store the vests run around $100. I just ordered one off of EBay for less that $40.

Monarch Caterpillar

I was over at my friend Jim’s house working on his computer.
He’s finally replacing his old E-Machine running Windows 98 with a newer IBM running XP.
Sadly he’s still using dial up rather than high speed Internet which presents it’s own set of challenges.

We took a break and went out in the yard. Jim has tons of Monarch Caterpillars which have been attracted to the numerous butterfly friendly plants he keeps growing.

Advance travel planning – Gibraltar

We spent the better part of today hammering out some of the details of our trip. We’re determining how many days we need to each leg and starting to fill in the schedule.

We have discovered that getting in and out of Gibraltar is going to be much more difficult than we had previously imagined.

Apparently the fact that Gibraltar is subject to a disputed irredentist claim by Spain means that practical methods of ingress and egress are not high on the priority list for Spain.

We have determined that we will need to take a 3-4 hour bus ride to La Linea from Seville as there are no trains that travel the route.

From La Linea you can just walk across the border to Gibralter. We ‘re trying to find out if we can manage this as a day trip. From what I can tell there’s not enough to do in Gibraltar to fill two days. If we can get there early enough we can tour The Rock and then go back to Seville that evening.

We have not been able to find too much information on the web, but if we’re lucky, there will be any number of companies marketing trips to Gibraltar from Seville and it will just work itself out once we actually get to Seville. Otherwise we’ll need to stay the night in La Linea and then find our way on out the next day to go back to Seville or just move on to Granada from La Linea via a convoluted combination of bus and train trips.

Even though the Spanish government and the transportation system seems determined to hinder our ability to add Gibraltar to our itinerary, Cynthia is adamant about going to see the monkeys (apes) and Europa Point.

Hangin’ Out

Some people have today off due to Good Friday. I have it off due to my 9/80 schedule which gives me every other Friday off. Since I didn’t have to work and several friends were also at loose ends I decided to go to see Beetle at the Continental Club. As it turns out it was VERY loud indicating that I am, in fact, too old.

Retired to the Big Top to hang out with some friends and indulged in my latest photo interest.
Black and white shots in a room illuminated in dim red light.

I like the results I get. The room is quite dim, but there’s something about how the red lighting affects the subject allowing for some great results when using the the 50mm 1.4 Sony lens even while keeping the ISO down in the 400 range.

Reservations and time off

Cynthia and I put in our time off requests with our respective employers on Monday. Mine was approved that day, Cynthia’s boss made her wait till today.

I’m burning up all my saved vacation plus one personal day. Cynthia is doing more or less the same thing. That’s in excess of 170 hours of vacation each. 4 work weeks and a few work days plus the weekends.

With approval secured we went online to buy the tickets this evening.

Buying this far in advance and not travelling during the peak season means we are saving about $500 each on airfare which is good. Of course the airfare is only a small portion of the overall cost of spending a month overseas but every little bit counts!

Now comes hammering out the exact itinerary in terms of days per location and proceed time for each destination followed by researching hotels and making the reservations.

Our experience on our European vacation in 2005 was that the hotels with the best overall rates were not easily booked online, but usually had a web page with contact information with pictures and descriptions of the facility.

The process was for us to find the one’s we were interested in and then e-mail them to check on availability. They would respond the next day and then we would make a final decision and arrange to fax or phone in credit card information to secure the rooms. This worked really well from Amsterdam all the way down to Rome.

We’ll also need to sort out which rail pass will be the most efficient.

It’s hard work nailing down all the particulars, but it’s all part of the experience for us. We don’t want to be tied down to a tour group or a scheduled dictated by a third party. We want the freedom of exploring on our terms based on well thought out decisions that we have made.

We’re using a lot of what we learned on our last two trips to ensure the success of this one. The most practical and useful decision we came up with last time was to travel using only what we could carry in a back pack and a camera bag. The back pack measures 9″ x 21″ x 14″ and I had it down to 20lbs last time. Not having any checked luggage and being able to “wear” what you’re bringing with you does wonders for your mental state.

On the European trip we brought older underwear and socks and just disposed of it as we travelled. That was good plan! Our load lightened as we travelled! Plus you’re not stinking up your clean laundry with dirty socks.

Midway through the trip we did have to make a laundry stop in Paris.

Going to the grocery store to buy laundry detergent in a foreign land and a foreign language adds a whole new dimension to any trip. You would think picking a laundry detergent would be simple, but I was never absolutely certain that I wasn’t marching off to the laundromat with a box of dishwashing detergent, all the while being snickered at by an amused clerk who had done their level best to convince me that they spoke no English.

Then there was what could have been an international incident as I crossed the border from Rome into Vatican City to dispose of the last of our dirty undergarments. I could just imagine hearing something like “Arrestar, arrestar! Siete sotto l’arresto per terrorismo biologico!”

Fortunately I was able to utilize the cover of darkness and slipped stealthily to the dumpsters and returned without incident.

We’re starting to feel the excitement!

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