Taking care of your gear - page one
Taking care
of your gear - page one
Photograph
© Philip Dunn. Horse race in the Jordanian desert. For Saga
Magazine.
Working in hot, dusty conditions like these calls for extra care
when handling your cameras. If there is a choice between shooting
with a wide angle lens and a telephoto, choose the telephoto -
it will help keep you clear of the dust.
Properly treated and used only in perfect conditions, a modern camera will last a lifetime - perhaps an older camera will last several lifetimes. The trouble is, pictures aren't always to be found in perfect conditions. Rain storms and downpours; heat and dust; cold so intense it can freeze a camera solid - not to mention what it can do to a photographer - may all be encountered in the working life of a professional's gear. He will expect his camera to operate properly no matter what - no pictures, no pay.
Theft is probably the greatest single threat to
your gear. Always keep your camera bag zipped closed - especially
when working in crowded places - nimble fingers can rifle through
it very quickly. Never put your camera bag on the floor when you
travel by bus - it is easy for the person sitting behind you to
slit the bag open and steal its contents.
Few amateur photographers would subject their cameras to the sort of brutal treatment meted out to a pro's gear, and people sometimes raise their eyes in horror when I tell them about my cameras sliding across the deck of a trawler, smashing into a coaming and coming back to me across the deck when the ship rolled the other way. The camera still worked fine after a wipe with a sea-sodden handkerchief, and the moral of the story is that it doesn't matter how bad the weather gets - keep tight hold of your equipment!
Sand and sea
Perhaps
the most hostile place for a camera is the marine environment,
and by that I mean not just working at sea aboard a small boat,
but on the beach and coast, especially in bad weather when sand
and sea spray are whipped into the air. The only real answer is
to keep the cameras tucked away under your jacket or in a camera
bag until the very last moment. So it is a great help to be able
to assess a potential picture even before you put the camera to
your eye and look through the viewfinder. This can only come with
practise - the more the better.
Photograph ©
Philip Dunn. 18ft Skiff Racing, The Solent, England. For The Daily
Telegraph
The marine environment can be deadly to cameras and film. Always
use a protective filter on the lens, and check this often to keep
it clear of fine spray. Try to keep the camera covered until the
last possible moment to minimise exposure to spray. While this
shot is not strictly a 'travel' picture, it does illustrate the
sort of conditions that can have a serious affect on your cameras.
If the establishment looks half way reasonable,
put most of your gear, together with passport and airline tickets,
in the hotel safe when you go out in the evening - take only the
minimum gear with you.
Sometimes there is very little you can
do to protect a camera, and there are even occasions when a professional
may have to judge whether the camera is worth risking for the
sake of a very special shot, but we'll not go into that here.
So let's look at just some of the problems you might face on your travels and some of the ways you can overcome them to keep your cameras in perfect working order.