Sunday, 23 February 2014

Getting Ready | Gear Porn



The time draws nigh for my departure to Delhi, where I'll stay for a couple of days before leading The Sacred Cities Photo Expedition-Workshop to Varanasi and Vrindavan.

This weekend will  see my sorting out the gear I plan to take along with me on this two weeks photographic trip, and having to plan to protect my cameras during the week-long Holi festival is an added preoccupation.

I usually place all items of my gear on a sofa, so I can visually inspect each....then clean and check the operation of each item. I also either recharge or refresh batteries.

So far, the gear list consists of:

1. Canon 5D MarkII and a Canon 7D (as back up and for video).
2. Canon lenses: 24-70mm 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 17-40 4.0.
3. Fuji X Pro-1
4. Fujinon 18mm 2.0
5. Leica M9 and the Elmarit 28mm 2.8. ***
6. Tascam DR40 Sound Recorder
7. 3 Portable Hard Drives (iomega and WD)
8. Two Black Rapid Straps
9. Gaffer Tape And Ziplock Bags
10. Rain Covers (for Holi) and spare UV Filters.
11. Spare Batteries, Memory Cards.
12. Various electronic paraphernalia, thumb-drives, chargers, etc.
13. A 13" Macbook Air, and a iPad Mini Retina.
14. An iPhone and a Blackberry (for local SIM card).

**The Leica gear may or may not make the final list. It will depend on the final configuration of my camera bags.

All this gear will have to fit in my beaten-up Domke F8 bag and in my brand new Wotancraft Atelier's Scout camera bag. I'll carry both on my flights, but the Canon 70-200 lens may have to travel in my checked luggage. Although my usage of this long lens has decreased considerably over the past few years,  I expect I'll have to rely on it a lot more on this upcoming trip.

Call Me KIJU

Here are impromptu street portraits of Kiju on Crosby Street in Soho, NYC. Kiju is an alternative rock performer.