Sunday 7 August 2011

Getting ready to go

Of course you don't just book a flight and to travel to Uzbekistan. There are lots of easier places in the world where you can do that - but how interesting is that? I mean if you need a Letter of Invitation (LOI), and a visa and loads of USD because there are very few places where you can use an ATM, and prepay your hotels before you can even get your visa - well you are already getting into the Uzbek feeling.

In the next few weeks I'll make a few updates to this - just to get into the blogging mood. There is just as much fun to be had in the preparation as there is in the going.

So what's the plan? Uzbekistan is a big place. Rene Fischer from The Matter has got together several young enthusiastic photographers whom I will meet during the 2 weeks we'll be traveling round. I'll be giving a few workshops, demonstrations as well as teaming up with the Epson distributer in Tashkent to run through a few printing tips with those who are curious and inspired. Of course the learning conduit always goes both ways, and I'm looking forward to tapping into the hearts and minds of these people and find out what photography means to them.  Finally we'll set some of these people a 'boot camp' project to be getting on with and a get together sometime around September 9th to have a look through the work they have done.

Naturally I'll have a few cameras with me - well at least 2 if my iPhone 4 is considered a camera - and try to limit the weight by leaving heavy lenses out and work with the 'less is more' philosophy to see what can be done with 1 lens per camera with the assumpton that it is easier to change camera's on the move, than changing lenses so lets see what happens. My favorite travelling camera is the Sony R1 - a little ancient by now but light as a feather with a remarkable Zeiss T* lens on it that my Canon L series don't come close to.

So lets leave it there for the moment. I'm looking forward to getting these last travel arrangements completed and start the packing list. Oh, yeah - great little App called Packing which I've been using for a couple of years now that makes the whole thing a piece of cake. Just add to the list as you remember what you want to take with you and when you come to pack check them off one at a time until you have no more items visible in the window. Very useful for photographers when there are batteries, card readers, laptops and power supplies involved.

See you at the airport....





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