Photography

I have been keen on photography for many years to varying degrees of fanaticism. The digital camera age has reawakened much of the passion due to how easy it now is, especially for cycle touring.

The Nikon coolpix line gets pretty bad reviews on dpreview.com. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikons10/page12.asp<BR><BR>On my last two tours I took a sony point and shoot, which I really liked (except for battery issues), and on the last one a larger Canon Powershot 620, which is also a great camera. It's amazing what these things can now do for their size.

I want to get a DSLR, mainly because the point and shoots have very limited telephoto abilities, and lacking this really reduces your chances for great photos. You can buy add-on telephoto lenses but these don't make too much difference and they are so bulky you might as well just bring an SLR.

I am leaning towards the Nikon D40X, which is very small for a SLR, and not much more money than a good digital compact. I think it would be acceptable for cycle touring.

The disadvantages of SLR's is that it is hard to throw it in your pocket for going into questionable areas, to just whip it out and take the shot.

I'm sure you've seen the amazing photos on out-there-biking, and these were taken with a Canon SLR, and I'm betting many of those shots were at quite high telephoto.

Another issue is if you want a waterproof housing for diving or rain. One for a compact digital will be much less bulky and expensive than for an SLR.

That's a good point you raise about only living your trip trough the viewfinder. I have been guilty of that, it's kind of like when I was into racing my mountain bike. It took the fun out of riding. I think with discipline you shouldn't have a problem dealing with this.

Regarding taking pictures of people, I never feel comfortable doing this. If I get the nerves to ask, most people say yes. I only ask after I have had a conversation with them. I guess everyone is different in how they approach this. But some people just want their pictures taken. Last week on the docks in Dubai the Pakistani and Iranian boaters were running up to me to ask for their photos, and liked seeing them in the viewfinder afterwards.

i'm not much of a photographer at all, but ended up with some really great pictures on my last bike trip with a new digital camera ($600CDN) that i borrowed from a friend... you can see some pics at grahaminwestafrica.blogspot.com. keep in mind that i know next to nothing about photography and was shocked at how decent some of the pics ended up being.

the camera survived the bike trip in great shape, and was well worth carrying. i avoided taking pictures of people and was relatively discreet about carrying it. the new generation of digital cameras have dummy-settings for various light conditions that a complete novice like me was able to figure out.

Phil,

A Canon g7 could be what you're after. If you check the forums, a lot of people have a go about the fact that it doesn't have RAW anymore (unlike the G6). But to be honest, the JPGs are so good it's not really an issue for most people. In fact, when you delve a bit further, it seems everyone whose actually bought one (including me!) thinks they're great. The main thing I really like is how easy it is to access aperture and shutter priority - no faffing around in sub menus. It's not tiny by any means, but will slot in a bar bag no problem, and is quick to start and focus. The downside is the battery life, which is ok but not amazing, and mainly the price - 300 quid or so, which is ridiculous, and almost as much as a DSLR. )-: The A640 is well worth a look too. £100 less, same quality, AA batteries and manual overides - but shutter priority etc... is trickier to access and it's a bit more plasticky. I tried one out in the shop (bristolcameras.co.uk) and it seemed very good. For something quite different, the Fuji F30/31 is a great little camera that excels in low light. 'Only' 6 MP but very quick, little shutter lag and great battery life, with a nice Fuji setting that gives a kind of saturated, Velvia look.

For our website, we've used a mixture of a Canon DSLR and a Canon S70 (great, but very slow). Nothing beats a DSLR for quality (digitally) but not everyone wants to lug one round the whole time... I think that now the shutter lag is so low on the latest generation of point and shoots, they're much better.

Cass

www.out-there-biking.com<BR><BR>

Meant to add. If you do go for a small DSLR, I reckon one do-it-all-lense is the way to go - though you might want to upgrade from the kit lense it comes with. Although you do definitely loose out on quality and light, changing lense a few times a day is a hassle while you're on tour, and makes it much more likely that you'll get dust on the sensor - which is a right pain.

Can I recommend the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR DX Zoom Nikkor lens for Nikon SLRs - I tried one out at the Outdoors Show and was completely blown away by the quality throughout the entire (massive) zoom range.

I'm now saving to actually buy one, whilst practising saying "could I have an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR DX Zoom Nikkor lens for Nikon SLRs please?" several times a day

Incidently
"giving a good balance between ease of use and good picture quality. I really want a camera i can carry in a pocket for ease of use."
I use the Olympus 410, of an earlier model, but similar to the model on feature page. The waterproof (comes with lens cover- rare) and metal indestruct was the essential. Takes exception good photos with good control. For cycle touring is ideal, and on the check list on site was the only camera gave all I required. Be worth you consider. Can recommend. And at the price, will only cry a little is someone else takes a fancy to it. Is small enuf to smuggle into no photo areas.

I can't agree about missing the experience because of photography. It's like saying cyclists miss things because they're bound to their bike and the road. It's just a way of doing things. Personnally, the photography greatly enhance a trip. I plan shorter days because I know I'll stop often. I wouldn't stop so often and smell the roses if it weren't for photography. I wouldn't hike up a mountain at 5 am to catch a sunrise on a summit and see wildlife others don't see because it's too crowded later in the day. I wouldn't have stayed on a summit until after sunset, enduring hail coming from underneath, not get any decent sunset shot with that huge cumulonimbus cloud, hiked down in the dark and ridden back to camp under a moon bow. The most memorable things I've done were almost always driven by photography. Call it curiosity and a desire to share with other people. Photography is just a medium and I happen to like it.

I don't have to bore my friends either. I just put the pictures on the web and anybody is free to look or not. Ain't that beautiful? I look at my photo trips periodically. There are a few things I would've forgot if it weren't for the images, and it helps when I get the blues at work.

I'm mostly interested in nature, wild places. I don't meet many people except service employees (park, grocery store). I promised myself I'd take more time getting to know the people living on the land I travel. How? photography again. I don't like portrait with the "say cheese" smile so I hope to capture people in their element, doing their thing. I think people prefer that to forcing a smile while looking into some inanimate glass lens.

As for equipment, I tried some compacts and don't like them. It's not about image quality, it's the operation. SLRs are simpler. One button = one function. The viewfinder don't compare. Also, compacts lack really wide angle lenses, which is important for me. I actually carried two SLR on a trip. One digital and and one film because the 20-35 wasn't wide enough on the DSLR. I also carry a tripod. Olympus just came oput with a compact with a crazy 28-500mm zoom (35mm field of view).

I've written a couple of page on photography while touring. One on equipment, which is pretty generic, and another with tips and tricks that might help photographically challenged people. Nothing to make great pictures, but more to avoid bad ones. :p

Equipment
Tips and tricks

I'm a snap-shot photographer but have always found cameras and the hostile environment of cycling don't mix very well. I think for good snap shots the camera must be instantly accessable and always there ready to take a photo in a second. But touring involves rain, sweat, dust, rivers (my wonderful Olympus XA took a swim once in Laos when I fell during a river crossing) so therefore my camera would end up put in a safe spot in my panniers and thus I'd lose that instant access. So I bought one of those water resistant cameras, a Pentax W10 and I love it. It lives in my back pocket and now I never ride without it. I even take it bunch riding with my club, I got a great photo recently from inside our bunch of us training in the pissing rain, a funny photo, a classic snap shot but would be impossible to do with a regular camera as I took it while riding, in rain with wet hands.

There's a couple of other brands that do similar water resistant, I'm not making a recommendation of camera but recommending water resistance as the key feature for cyclists. You can stick it in your back pocket and forget it until you need it and if it rains while your out it doesn't matter.

One great advance on my new camera I also like is the editing. I can crop & resize, then do a save as, thus keeping hi-res but having low res to email and therefore not needing to edit photos on the crappy internet cafe computers. You can walk in with your photos to email home all ready to go. I'd suggest including this in your list of what you want your camera to do.

Cheers,

Lindsay

I more or less agree with dotravel. If you are professional, use professional gear. if you are an artist, use the gear that will get the results you are after and that could be anything. If you are after a personal record, you can be perfectly happy with results achieved with digital compact cameras. If you were hoping to blow things up to large size, perhaps an slr is required.

For my money, i recommend that travellers just buy the best digital compact they can afford. Canon and Nikon have the best optics so for me, i would be buying the best canon or nikon i could afford, and because canon as i understand it has the best package of modes and gizmos, i would just stick with buying the best compact canon i can afford. My canon is only $400 bucks and i am happy withthe results because they are for personal use. If i was richer, i might spend more money but i would be reluctant to sacrifice the lightness and ease of use of a compact digital.

Photographing people. My favourite snaps are usually of people. I try to take plenty of pictures of myself on route, not because i am vain, but because the pictures are more meaninful when looked at later. I have paid people in the past for a snap but i wouldn't do it again. I always ask if they are close by but if they are not i just snap. When people ask me to pose for their snaps, i always oblige. I try to be an obliging tourist, so its a two-way thing. I love to take pictures of people doing things or in their surroundings, not just face portraits. I find most of these a bit boring now, having seen so many.

Many unpracticed photographers take too many landscape snaps in my opinion. They are just not that satisfyinig to look at afterwards, unless they are very good. When snapping away, i find it helpful to think of what i am doing in terms of separating the view of the scene in front of me, from the picture that will result. the scene in front of me might be rather nice but this is not enough for a good picture. It helps to learn about quality of the light for good photographs. It makes all the difference to a landscape picture. If there is haze, most of the time you will get a crummy picture. If its the middle of the day, you might get an ok picture but often it will be dull looking. The lighting after rain is usually very very good. Otherwise the general rule is in the morning up till about 10am and after about 3pm in the afternoon. You get longer shadows and more contrast. Keep the sun behind you or to your side but not in front or overhead, but i know its not always easy to control this.

Then there are the photographs that we've all seen a million times before. Why do people keep posting their pictures of the taj mahal as if they have captured something special. The taj mahal does not lend itself to beautiful photography. Its almost always just an average snap. The Sydney Opera House on the other hand, is an excellent building to make your own personal document off. You can make it your own.

Bill looking at some of your pics on your website, i think you are being much too hard on yourself. Are you expecting to do as good as the magnum photographers? If you were that good, you'd be getting paid for it. You pictures illustrate your blog perfectly well. If you want to make more stunning pictures, you need to do that thing about travelling through your camera lens and then some. Personally for your own personal travels, i think its a mistake to do that. You miss things when capturing the scene becomes your main focus. On the other hand, being on the lookout for a good snap can sharpen your gaze.

Bill if you want to improve your photography study the old great photographers and read their works: the likes of W Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier Bresson, Atget, Brassai, and a zillion others, or modern ones, you will have to go to the library, i can't remmber their names. There is a great american whom i love. Frank someone or someone Franks. Actually there are quite a few great american photographers, all black and white and i am not referring to ansel adams whose work is made great by darkroom stuff which won't help you with contemporary colour photography. Laslo Maholy Nagy. Travel pics in magazines are pretty much all the same. Look to the artists, the ground breakers for inspiration. I wish i could remember more names for you. Go see exhibitions of photography. That's where you might see some brilliant stuff.

My favourite photographer is Bill Henson but he does art, not travel. His landscapes are sooooooooooooo beautiful. Try google images if you want to see. In my view he is Australia's best photographer.