What Would You Miss In Twelve Months?

Generally when I travel – most of my trips are 2-3 weeks maximum.  I have done a few 4 weekers and 2 eight week trips over my travelling history.

So it is not a great deal of time away from home right?

So why, when you are on holidays do you get these unexplainable urges for something back home?  Whether it be a juicy steak from the Brekky Creek ( when you are in India of all places ) a packet of twisties ( there are eqivilants but it’s just not the same ), craving for your favourite chinese food that just no-one else can emulate, carrot cake from the bakery across from your work, your best friends advice or your god-daughters laughter….

I am sure I am not on my own.  There must be other people out there – whether you travel for 4 days, 4 weeks or 4 months – there must be something that you miss from home while on the road?

I was thinking about this the other day and as corny as the saying sounds

“you never know what you had till it’s no longer there"

or something to that effect - you get my drift. 

So what will I miss most about being away for 12 months?

*A place to call home – I think that is going to be my biggest ‘miss’

*My psudeo family – you guys know who you are

*My friends–I know I will make new ones–but nothing beats people who know the real you

*My God-daughters unconditional love and their 5 and 3 year old aspects on life

*Work – that sounds sucky – but my workplace is awesome.  Maybe it is the people rather than the ‘work’ side of things I will miss?

*Johnny’s ceasar salads – yes I know you can get ceasar’s all over the world but not like Johnny’s.

*Driving my own car

*Knowing where I am and where I am going

*The Caxton – sad but true

*Clothing options – you try and live in a backpack with the same clothes for 12 months

*Speaking to people on the phone - my world will totally become electronic

*Cadbury chocolate and Smith’s and Samboy Chips

*Chris’ hot chips with seasoning salt – no really it is the best salt ever… oh and his fish stips… d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s

*Red Rooster chicken – no one cooks chicken like Red Rooster

*Race Days with the girls and our crazy hats that we wear

*Christmas day and waking up to the sounds of excited children

They may seem like small things – but these are what makes your life a home and as much as I am looking forward to all the new places and experiences I think I am entitled to miss some things from home…………

What Would You Miss In Twelve Months?

Photography Preparation for a Photoholic

Okay so those of you who know me know that I take a lot of photos. 

A LOT! 

I like to call myself a Photoholic or a Pathological Photographer. 

Either way I ♥ love taking pictures.  People, places, scenery, food, signs – you name it I photograph it.

I am guilty of being a point and shoot kind of gal – and all my camera’s have always been of the point and shoot variety.  I decided maybe it was time to upgrade my camera ( without going crazy – as I have to carry the stuff ) and I have gone and purchased a Pentax X90 superzoom with 26x optical zoom lens and all the abilities of a SLR camera but just not as big.  Don’t get me wrong my point and shoots will still be coming along for the ride ( both of them – I’ll explain further later ) but I really wanted to make sure I was going to capture the type of photos I hope to get out of my trip.  Like the Gorilla’s in Uganda and Rwanda, the stunning untouched beaches of the Seychelles, a close up of lions and giraffes in Africa, the iceburgs and penguins in Antarctica etc……...  Okay you get my drift.  We know what comes along with a camera with more capabilities – a BIG arse manual on how to work the thing.  And then they start talking ISO, aperture, shutter speed, exposure, bracketing etc ….  What the hell?  It opens up a whole new world of photography.  Maybe I should just stick with my point and shoots!!!

Well I’m always up for a challenge.  I have bought 2 travel photography books and the one that I am getting amazing information from is Lonely Planets Guide to Travel Photography.  It is like a photography guide for dummies and I am gleaning so much information from it.  I have started the ‘Bernie Course 101’ on how to use my camera to the best of it’s abilities and how to get more professional shots.

 

“Travel is an exciting experience and your photography should reflect it”

So how may camera’s is too many?  Don’t ask me as a have a load of them.  But I will be taking on my trip 3 camera’s and they will all be serving a purpose.

Beside being back-ups if one breaks or is stolen the use for each one is:

◙ My Canon IXUS 105 aka also known as the ‘drinking camera’.  It is an awesome little camera and is the one if I was on a night out and had too many sherberts then it is not the end of the world if I lost it.

◙ My Samsung TL225 is my pocket camera.  This camera is super awesome for such a little guy and will be the main camera I will be using from day to day – especially when it will not be practical / advisable to have the larger camera with me.  I love this camera though and a lot of editing can be done on this one.  Best functions is black and white and the ‘beautify’ function – not that I need that for myself right?

◙ The last camera is my Pentax X90 – which I am still learning to use.  I am really excited on the photos I will be able to capture on this one, with the additional zoom and the ability to change light, shutter speed etc is a whole new world to me and I think this will out weigh the downside of the bulky size.

So being such a HUGE photographer ( I loosely use the term photographer ) - I am now working out the best way to take, store and publish all my pictures on my trip.  It will be a massive job – to be honest I think at the end of 461 days I will have, at a guess 45,000 pictures!  Imagine the slide show I will have when I get home!  Who’s got a spare 10 hours to look at my photos upon my return?  Yawn yawn yawn I hear you say – I wouldn’t do that to you all anyways – would I????

My biggest fear is losing photos.  Whether from some-one stealing my camera, stealing my bag with my memory cards, my computer stuffing it, Facebook going down ( heaven forbid ), heat, x-ray etc…. the list goes on…..  So I have an over cautious plan but I want you to remember it is better to be safe than sorry when you read what my back-up plans are.

I will have a memory card for each ‘trip’ I have booked – okay maybe 2….

At the end of each day the photos will be saved to the hard drive of my notebook.

I will then also save them to an external hard drive ( still yet to buy )

I will then also save them onto 64GB USB sticks

…and finally when I get internet access I will also load them onto Facebook

Over cautious I hear you say – tough.  I lost my camera in Sydney once at a travel function and I felt like I had left a piece of me somewhere – it was a terrible feeling .  I had a picture of me and Larry Emder on that camera.  Imagine how I would feel if I lost more important photos than Larry!!!!  So I am certainly not taking the risk of losing those pictures of Lemurs in Madagascar, party nights in Ibiza, or riding a camel in Morrocco – you get my drift – irreplaceable…… Over cautious – tough……..

Hope you can join me on looking through my lens to a window of the world we live in.