Category Archives: airline restrictions

Packing light

As I prepare to leave for New Zealand, I’m mentally working my way through some new packing ideas. It’s a difficult balance to make sure you’re prepared for whatever might come your way on an international shoot and yet not overpack to the point that you are crippled by your own gear. In the past I’ve loved traveling with a backpack but then I began to realize that, while I had everything I needed in my pack, I didn’t often go to the trouble to take it off to get into my gear. When you have two cameras around your neck getting tangled in backpack straps, it’s not that convenient. A while ago I wrote about switching to a ThinkTank sling bag. It’s a little smaller than my backpack so it forces me to edit my gear a little right off the bat, but the real convenience comes from being able to swing it around and access it without taking it off. So far it has been working well.

On this trip, I’m adding another new element: a Scottevest. This thing is loaded with pockets of all sizes and most of them are secured with zippers. I’m hoping that it will work well for getting a lot of my little gadgets (ipod, headphones, paperback, phone, magazines, etc.) through the airports. It gets them out of my camera bag but doesn’t add another carryon. Then, once on location, I hope to often be able to leave the bag behind for a day and just load those same pockets up with small lenses, flash, filters, etc.

I’d better get back to some actual packing now but I’ll report back on how everything is working when I get some miles behind me. I hope to post from the road but, if that’s not possible, I’ll have plenty to share when I’m back.

Decade in review: 2003

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Continuing my review of the the past decade…

2003 marked the year that I moved solidly to digital. I still had my F100 and shot film on assignment for publications that hadn’t themselves transitioned to digital yet, but for my stock work — and especially international travel — I was 100% digital.

The images in this post come from a trip to Greece and Turkey in May and June of 2003. I had a Nikon D100 and traveled with a Mindstor portable storage device and a 12″ Powerbook for back-up. I remember it was startling how easy it was to pass my entire camera bag and laptop through the airport x-ray equipment without a worry of images being fogged. I was done flying with film and I’ve never looked back.

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I loved Greece and only wish I’d had more time there. With just a few days in Athens and Delphi, then a short cruise to the islands of Crete, Patmos, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini, and a quick stop at Ephesus in Turkey, it was a lot packed into a short time and there was never time to wait for good light. I took what I could get and considered it to be a great scouting opportunity. One day I’ll go back and spend a few days each in one or two places but I now have a much better idea of where I’d like to spend that time.

Of the Greek islands, I think the Cyclades were my favorite. Mykonos and Santorini belonged to this group of rough and rocky islands and I found them to be endlessly photogenic with their whitewashed jumbles of blocky houses and shops.

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These two are from Mykonos. My research had told me that there were a row of windmills on the far side of town from the docks so I made my way immediately in that direction to catch sunset. There’s no direct route to anywhere on Mykonos but wandering the narrow streets was half the fun. The shot looking up through the balconies was taken on the walk back to the boat.

One other lesson learned on this trip: it was during this time that Athens was gearing up for the Olympics and that meant that everything was under construction or renovation. Probably not the best time to visit a place for stock photography. There was scaffolding everywhere. The construction also meant that many images would be dated almost immediately. Still, there’s so much to see in Athens that I wasn’t short of things to photograph. The highway construction that was going on between the city and the airport did make for some nervous moments before catching the flight home, though.

Forces of progress

Shanghai financial district

I still have a few more photos from China that I want to share before my next trip begins on the 1st of February. This is a shot of two of the tallest buildings in China — part of Shanghai’s Pudong new development area. This area has sprung up from nothing in the last two decades and is now a symbol of both Shanghai and a changing China. Such a symbol that my main goal for this trip was to get a good, iconic skyline shot from across the river with the futuristic Pearl Tower and these other giant skyscrapers. More on that effort in the days to come but I’ll use this shot to talk about the shelf-life of Shanghai skyline photos.

In the guidebook I purchased just prior to my trip (published in 2005) photos of this area showed only the 88-story Jin Mao on the left. It was then the tallest building in China. The building on the right has since popped up — taller — and is now the tallest building in China. Great time to get some new, updated skyline shots, right? Surely that guidebook publisher is looking for new images when they go to reprint. But wait. Construction is already underway just blocks away for another new building that will eclipse both of these towers. Looks like my shots will be stale in a few months time, too.

Just as well. Even though it looks like a beautiful day in this shot, haze made getting a distant skyline shot difficult during my two days in Shanghai. I’ll post a few shots that I did manage to get during that time over the next couple of weeks but that twilight shot of sparkling towers reflected in the river just never came together for me. Flexibility is the name of the game, though. There’s always something to shoot.

Progress has also been affecting my life in other ways lately. I’ve recently updated all of my Adobe software to the CS4 versions. That would include Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Lightroom, Contribute… you get the picture. It’s always a little unnerving to update so much software all at one time — especially software that you depend on daily for your livelihood — and there have been a few hiccups but nothing insurmountable. It’s just that darned learning curve again.

Don’t get me wrong — I love to learn new things and I thrive on change — but there’s just a whole lot at once right now. Beyond the software, I’m still sorting out my new travel kit and the new D700 and D300 bodies. I finally decided it was time for a new bag, so I ordered a Think Tank Photo Airport Ultralight.

think tank bagThis bag weighs in at just over 2 pounds when empty so it adds very little to the carrying weight which is a major concern of mine, especially when getting through airports. The dimensions look good for the overhead bin and it has a very sleek outer surface that should avoid snagging as it gets stuffed in. I’ll typically still pack a small bag in my checked luggage that I can use on the street. Backpacks are great for getting all of your gear to a location, but they’re not so convenient when you’re trying to get to a lens fast on a busy Shanghai street. So far, I’m very impressed with this as a travel bag and look forward to putting it and all the other new stuff through their paces next month.

Seventeen days and counting until my 2009 travel year begins. I’d better start going through that 400+ page D700 manual.

Odds and ends…

It’s been a busy week with not much time for blogging but I thought I’d add a few links to things that I’ve seen in the last few days that are of interest to the frequent traveler…

• United Airlines is starting a new policy of charging for a second checked bag.

• There was this news that the TSA was insisting that all electronic devices be removed from bags when going through security. Then this clarification on the TSA’s blog. Who knew the TSA had a blog?

• A possible answer to that portable computing device I’ve been wanting? (can you take a possum carcass as carry-on? Would that count as your one personal item?)

New Ireland gallery

Sunrise at Killarney

I’m trying to get a new gallery posted to my new website every week to get some content built up. This week is Ireland. The photos come from 2002 — the last international trip I made before moving to digital. The shot above comes from a frosty morning overlooking Killarney.

I still remember going through airport security with my large ziplock bags full of film. I’d taken the film out of their boxes but had left them in their clear plastic canisters. The security folks would first try and run the bags through the x-ray but, when I asked for a hand check, they would comply by taking each roll of film out of each cannister and wiping them with little swabs they held in tongs. Needless to say, with hundreds of rolls of film, it made the connections a little tight.

I do everything I can to make getting through airport security a simple thing. On days that I’m flying I take all my change out of my pockets, don’t wear a belt and make sure I have shoes on that slip off easily. My camera bag is packed to hold my keys and anything else metallic that I need to have with me and it all rides through the x-ray machine just fine. I like to do what I can to get through the metal detector in one try so that I can catch up to my gear as it comes off the conveyer belt on the other side.

The security people have an important job to do and it’s often a thankless one. By doing everything I can to make their job a little easier it will hopefully make both our days a little better.

Korea, batteries & kinnearing

Korean temple guard

I’m still tinkering away at my new website. Today I’ve added the first gallery to the images section. I chose to start with a gallery of photos I took in South Korea and will be adding others soon. This one is a multimedia slideshow but others will be more traditional image galleries so that there will be something for every bandwidth. I’ll let you know as others go online but I imagine this will be an ongoing process.

A couple of other items of interest: First, there are new regulations going into effect today for those flying with lithium batteries. There is some information about this on the TSA site. Also this information on SafeTravel.dot.gov. The basics seem to be that you can’t pack spare lithium batteries in your checked luggage anymore. You can still have them in your carry-on luggage as long as they are packed correctly and meet the other lithium content requirements. More joy at the airport. I guess I’ll no longer be cutting down on the weight of my carry-on by checking my batteries.

And lastly, this item from the New York Times’ site on the buzz words of 2007. It seems a couple of new photography-related words cropped up this year. My favorite? Kinnear:

kinnear v.

To take a candid photograph surreptitiously, especially by holding the camera low and out of the line of sight. Coined in August by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee of the Yarn Harlot blog when she attempted to take a photograph during an encounter with the actor Greg Kinnear at an airport.

I do that all the time (just not of Greg Kinnear). Now I know what to call it.