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[OM] Re: travel kit

Subject: [OM] Re: travel kit
From: Daniel Mitchell <danmitchell@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 11:28:32 -0600
One more comment on travel kits -- I just had a three-week trip back to the UK 
(stopping off in Seattle [1] and Copenhagen [2]); travel kit was:

XA, 400 film in that all the time, lived in pocket for snapshots.

OM4T, 24/2, 135/3.5, and a Vivitar 17/3.5.
This worked out very nicely -- 24/2 for interiors when it was gloomy, 17/3.5 
for shots of things I couldn't otherwise get in shot because the street's too 
narrow, and the 135/3.5 for people shots. I've only got the first four rolls 
printed up so far, those were colour 1600 film shot in a big gym at the 
juggling convention, and those have come out surprisingly well given I had an 
80A filter on the front to get the colour to balance out right. Spot meter on 
my hand, set to manual so the camera doesn't get confused by background lights, 
and I could just about get a 125th at f3.5 for the longer lens, which is fast 
enough to freeze motion; I have a lot of blurred photos of people juggling from 
previous years, it's not just hand stability that's the problem.

I think next time I'd replace the 135 with a shorter lens, maybe a 100/2.8 or 
even a bit shorter than that (90/2, say.. ha! )-- most of the time I found 
myself walking away from the subject to fit people in, rather than towards it 
to get more detail, so I guess that tells me something about how I take photos. 
I do like the smaller DOF you can get, though.
I'm not sure what to go for, actually; annoyingly, all the smaller lighter 
lenses take 49mm filters, whereas the 24/2 takes 55mm. Ooh, though now I check, 
one of the local shops has an 85/2 in stock, those are pretty tiny and have a 
good reputation around here..

On reflection, it's interesting that I never once wanted anything around the 
50mm length, and I didn't really miss the lack of a zoom, either -- so as far 
as an exercise in self-discipline goes, it was a roaring success.

-- dan

[1] Great place -- the underground tour is great fun. Sure, it's cheesy, but 
it's so well done it's hard to object. The view from the Bank Of America tower 
was _spectacular_, especially as I got lucky and had a lovely sunny day, and 
the new library is also great -- and that, combined with a bit of wandering, 
filled the day up.

[2] The Tivoli Gardens don't open until mid-april, so I went to the tourist 
center who gave me a walking tour pamphlet, so that was another great place to 
wander through.

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