Hi guys,
It's been a great few months (again), hanging around with you guys in
cyberspace. I learnt a lot (again), was tempted to buy a lot (again), so I'll
definitely be back again too.
But for now, it's exam time. I have very few exams, too, and mainly Japanese
language, which is fun to study. Overall, this sabbatical I've taken to study
Japanese, has been a lot of fun, and I can advise everybody to consider the
possibility. I felt personally touched when I read about the person who scaled
down, sold the house and went to live in his camper. I'm sorry, I forgot who
it was :-( But life away from job stress is very nice, despite the exam stress
now. At least, it's stress I've chosen for.
Another nice advantage of Belgian college life, is a full 3 months of holiday.
So, I'll be taking trains from Belgium all the way to Japan (admittedly, last
leg is a ferry), spending a month underway, and a month in the land of the
rising sun. If anyone of you lives in, say, St.Petersburg, Vladivostock, or
somewhere between Takaoka, Kyoto and Tokyo in Japan, then mail me privately :-)
On topic, I've decided that I'll be taking only an OM-4Ti body with a 50mm/f1.4
(low light, snap shot, people) and 90mm/f2 (nature, general purpose) lens, as
well as a small Minolta TC-1 P&S (with a 28mm/f3.5). With this kit, I think I
can travel light enough to always take the cameras with me everywhere I go. A
necessity when leaving the train for a quick snapshot in a station in the
middle of nowhere ! Since people can get on and off in stations, I don't want
to leave valuables alone, let alone a bag with an 8mm, 24mm shift, 180 and
250/f2 and a 600mm :-) (I wish I had that stuff, so I could sell it and pay my
travels with it).
For the OM, I'm considering Provia 100F for cities, and SensiaII 100 for
nature. For me, the added warmth of Sensia feels much better for nature, but
the extra sharpness of Provia looks great on buildings. I don't know if I'll
end up taking Provia, though. The Minolta will have Portra 400VC. I'll
probably want to load a roll of Portra into the OM from time to time, for
people shots when it's dark. It will give me 2 extra stops as well as some
play in exposure over either of the slide films. I'm considering taking some
B/W as well. I still have a pile of HP5 that's growing old in the fridge. But
that would be 4 emulsions, which sounds a bit freaky. Then again, having 20
boxes of the same type, or 4*5 boxes of different types doesn't make a
difference while packing.
I'm not taking any tripod: nature, and particularly cities, is full of tripods.
You just need to firmly press your camera against one :-) I've worked like
this for shots up to a second (90mm at f2) and it works great. Takes quite
some time for setup sometimes, but it saves me about 3,5kg the Gitzo weighs.
I'm really looking forward to this trip, since I usually make many more photos
while travelling. Using the 50mm/f1.4, I want to focus on people shots that
show the athmosphere. Particularly, available light shots during parties and
on the trains is something I want to have a go at. The HP5 grain would look
good in this context. At other occasions, I've used the Minolta for parties,
but the 28mm is a bit funny when approaching people :-) The tiny built-in
flash with night portrait mode does give very interesting results, though. But
this time, I want to experiment more with the OM. I've done a very small
number of photo shoots with people, and it's been a lot of fun, so I'm anxious
and curious what this will give. I'm planning to do more people work, and this
trip gives me a nice opportunity.
I'm hoping to be able to have my Fuji's processed in Japan, but I'm a bit
afraid that Portra might need to wait until I'm back. I've read that Japan is
a 95lide film country. I'm not worrying too much: I've left a Provia in my
camera, half exposed, for a month, and there was no problem. I don't expect
problems with an exposed Portra that sits for 2 months, though I'll have it
developed if possible. Let's just hope it doesn't get 50 degrees (Celsius) in
the train for a week, or it'll all be baked. Since I'll only be taking a plane
back, I'm not worrying about the x-ray machines either. I've used all four
films before, but if anybody has warnings about these films, or info on cheap
(but quality) places to have films developed in Japan, then please mail me
offline !
That being said, I'm very certain that the list will remain as it is while I'm
gone. It's a fun list to read from time to time, and a fun list to come back
to after weird adventures like the one coming up for me. I'll have slides
scanned after the travels, so by October I should be able to show something.
Take care,
Peter.
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