Thursday, January 26, 2012

Travels without my camera. Pie Making V Photography

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Cameras ruin travelling!  I've always thought that and haven't owned one for over 10 years now.  I find having a camera in tow really spoils the experience.

Through the camera, I find I am not seeing what I want to see, instead, I am hoping for a shot that will impress my friend, wife, mistress (oops), boss or my friend Tony who is a journalist.  Whilst this is going on, I am not taking in the scenery or enjoying it for what it is and this holds true for wildlife, adventure, bike racing and hill trekking.

I have owned cameras,  but never had much luck with them, most of my shots being out of focus or missed all together.  Below are two genuine pics I took at the Phuket Lagoona Tri-Athlon when my friend Mark was racing.  It was his camera and I told him I was no Lord Litchfield or David Bailey and below is the proof of this... as it were needed.

These were genuine attempts with his camera.   In shot one,  I got him perfectly on the finish line and it was only later at home we realised the guy 207 had timed his walk even better and blotted him out just as he broke the tape.  Didn't even notice when I took it.  Maybe he transported in.

If you look at his time, this also sadly reveals that I had a full six hours and 55 seconds to set up this shot!















Another earlier attempt brought this classic and I doubt he will be asking me for my assistance next year.

My wife did actually cap these effort with her movie of the start line.  She had set it rolling and we have great footage of the start line and the tension up until the start.   She then pressed the button to  "start" filming, but as it was already rolling she only succeeded in stopping it... just in time to miss the action.  It really was a terrible effort as if the camera had not been rolling at the time, she would have missed the start and it would have been awful but for a different reason.

Again, not staged and I hope Mark will comment on this.




In a lifetime of crappy shooting, the worst miss was when filming in Phang Nga bay for the Indian Bollywood prodction of "Blue".  During the scene where the boat is blown to bits, the English Director decided to watch the big bang from the comfort of my boat, jumping in as the countdown started.  My camera on the bow was primed ready for this very big explosion and he just dripped four or five drops of water on it as he leapt aboard and it was enough to short it out.

This will not become anything approaching a travel blog, there are many out there and none with pics worse than mine.

With the end of my first full month approaching, I do have ideas to bring some order to my erratic train of thought.  I'll do a poll for it which will confirm I have mastered the poll buttons if nowt else.

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