Post-trip Reflections about Shooting

This will be a post about all my thoughts and experiences about shooting specifically during the South America trip. I'll keep it in point form so that it's short and sweet, and probably easier to digest.

1) Even though I had learnt to shoot in Manual back here in Singapore, I had to quickly adapt to shooting in Auto (w/o Flash) in the first few days of the trip. In fact, I ended up shooting in this mode for most of the trip. Why? I couldn't have expected what was going to happen, and I had to be prepared because usually the moment would be lost if I didn't have the ability to one shot one kill. I did try to go around that by presetting my Manual mode to fit the ambient light using the metering available, but often things still didn't go my way. For example, I couldn't tell if the subject was going to be in the light or in the shadows, resulting in a lot of shots that were totally under/overexposed. Very quickly, I started to get over shooting in Auto and I don't think I've regretted it. The only times I shot in Manual were when I was confident that the shot wasn't going to go away, or when the metering was totally off e.g. the water threw the metering off so much at the Iguassu Falls I had to manually underexpose for it and a few other instances where I was using fill flash.

2) A DSLR may not actually be the best option for shooting at times. For me, I felt quite intrusive and didn't want all the attention I was getting whenever I took out my camera at times, especially when you're a tourist in a popular tourist destination trying to do his street photography. Very often, they would expect you to give them tips just for the shot, and there are many instances where giving them a tip can often backfire because you just won't be able to take any more shots in the area without breaking your wallet, and sort of spoils it for other people trying to get their shots too.

It gets worse when you're just walking around alone or in a small group in those lesser-visited parts of the city just to get a feel of how the not-so-touristy areas feel like, and you're probably the only one with a DSLR in a square mile radius at least, so it makes you feel really unsafe with that hanging around your neck.

So yes a compact would be able to do the job much better at the cost of a little image quality, which is an acceptable compromise for me actually. So I would actually try to get a good compact before my next trip if I can spare the funds for it. An iPhone is a surprisingly good replacement due to its ability to handle colours, but no plans to get one yet.

3) Bring enough memory cards. I can't stress this enough, even though I went there with 2 8GB cards I had to get ripped off at the Buenos Aires airport for a third one because I was running out already with less than half the trip gone. Of course, I didn't have a laptop or any other way to back up my photos every night, in which case you'd probably need less memory, but still I severely underestimated the amount of shots I was going to take. I could probably blame it on bad memory management too (like taking lots of stuff randomly), but I'd still rather travel with a excess of memory anyway. It's not that expensive if you get them during the IT fairs or some other sale, so you don't have to get ripped off like I did. (I paid 29 USD for that one memory card, and it's probably going to stick in my memory)

4) Note the sunrise and sunset timings of every city you visit, even if you don't actively hunt for the sunrises/sunsets to shoot, you'd still be surprised at how you manage to sneak shots while not compromising your travel itinerary. I only started to do that later on in the trip when I was shocked that Buenos Aires had a sunset time of around 8.15pm, and I was quite lucky to wake up or be travelling around in the coach during the sunrise/sunset timings for quite a few days without actually bending over backwards to meet those timings. And of course sunrises/sunsets always look more beautiful when you're overseas, although they are already a joy to shoot in the first place! (I regret noting that on the flight back I did not manage to capture a spectacular sunset in Barcelona - my camera was stowed in the overhead compartment as my bag was too huge to give me sufficient legroom, and I watched in awe for 10 minutes wishing I had my camera with me)

5) Make sure your setup covers all focal lengths you might need. Before I left, I checked the itinerary to see that I'd actually get a chance to shoot wildlife (namely birds) at the Isla Ballestas, so I got myself a second hand 55-200. In reality, I was shooting telephoto so much more than just that - I went for the tango and samba performances, got a lot of close-ups of statues and the like, and did some sniping as well. Boy was I glad to have my telephoto with me.

Of course, besides making sure that your setup covers all the focal lengths, you'd want to consider the cost of your setup too. I spent a long time deliberating the different setups, but I wasn't prepared to spend 1000 SGD on a 18-200 and leave my kit lens in the dry cabinet forever. Therefore, after much deliberation and help, I took the much cheaper alternative of running 2 lenses. I may have lost some time and shots in between switching lenses, but not a significant amount to warrant spending that extra 800 SGD, and can be managed by the next point.

6) Learning how to manage your gear so that everything's accessible. I went with the Vanguard Skyborne 45, a camera and daypack hybrid that I could carry everywhere I went, but that was really bulky. On hindsight, it was probably acceptable to just carry a normal backpack with a small camera bag inside, and leave the backpack on the coach and just carry the camera bag when I went to visit the various destinations. Or just get a sling pouch and sling the other lens with another strap, it really depends on how you like to handle your gear. Also important would be other things you may need such as a rain cover both for your bag and camera, and so on. Bottom line is that you feel comfortable using your setup, it is safe from snatch thefts and you get all your shots.

Looks like I ended up writing quite a fair bit there, but I hoped all these points help you in your travel photography so you don't have to learn these things the hard way like I did. (Well you'd probably still learn some things the hard way, just less hopefully!)

Have a Merry Christmas dear readers!