Packing Up for a Euro Foto Trek

Packing up two camera systems for a shooting journey in Rome, Paris, and London this month.  I’ve decided to shoot both digital as well as medium format film.  The majority of the large prints we sold at our show this week at the 124 Gallery were captured on film, and this gave me pause.  Perhaps the look of film registers with people in a subconscious way.  The inexactness, the inconsistent grain and wavering tonality.  The prints looked hand-made, which everyone prizes these days in craft as well as art.  

In the old days before baggage limits and fees, I would have take along my Noblex and 6×17 too, but now I have to be selective.   I got the following into a camera pack that I then stuffed into a wheeled suitcase that fits in an overhead compartment:

Nikon D3: 18mm, 24mm, 35-105mm, 80-400mm, lensbaby, and a 35mm shift lens

Pentax 645 (with 67 lenses adapted): 45mm, 75mm, 135mm

Tripod, filter set, ext. tube, cable, hoods, hard drive, Powerbook, polarizers. 

Film:  about 50 rolls of 120 including Tmax, HP400, NC160, Provia and Ilford 3200

 

Talk soon, Chris

 

Lago Atitlan Days (photos from www.chrisengholm.com)

Spending the better part of two weeks making side trips out of Panajachel on Lago Atitlan. I will post a few as I go…

Photographing Panajachel on Lago Atitlan (www.roadofawe.com)

This morning’s issue was whether to take a chicken bus, taxi, or tuk-tuk up the hill to San Jorge to film at a sacred cave overlooking Lago Atitlan.

The taxi driver wouldn’t talk about the idea; he was hung over. The tuk-tuk driver wanted $6. The chicken bus won the day and cost only 20 cents; moreover, I got to re-experience my life three times over during the 5 minute drive careening up and down steep grades above the lake on rain washed roadway on totally bald tires. But it was worth every rerun.

Afternoon photographing in San Cristobal de las Casas (www.roadofawe.com)

I arrived in San Cristobal yesterday in Chiapas. I flew into Tuxtla and prepared for the cachechtomy at the airport to get a taxi to SC–a non-negotiable $60. Yea, I know I could have gone into the city first and saved $20 but I timed my arrival to hit a May tropical downpour that put us in a whiteout all the way up the mountain.

In SC, I wandered into the Nicolas church compound next to the zocalo and shot a little in the damp air. I had to break to get a ticket to Pana on a shuttle ($30) for eight in the morning. SC is experiencing good tourist flow right now, which surprised me after what we saw in Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua last month. The taxi drivers all confirmed that Chiapas is ‘tranquillo,” and “seguro,” and without notable violence of any kind. My fingers are crossed as this is a beautiful part of Mexico I would hate to see experience what we saw in the north recently.

Here are a few pics from my afternoon walk yesterday.

“Mayan Vision Quest” Photography Workshop in Guatemala (www.roadofawe.com)

Please consider joining me and friends on a great photographer’s workshop in Guatemala this coming July, 2010.

Please visit RoadOfAwe.com for more information.

Cheers, Chris