After my last post, Mum (Jenny) sent through the following insights from our Cape York trip.
After reading your last instalment concerning the Simpson adventure and the discussion Re: photography, I thought I would remind fellow travellers that you can, in fact, have too many cameras.
Those on the Cape York trip may or may not be aware that we (Rob and I) travelled with 7, yes seven cameras! The thinking was that we would have the time to set up a tripod to capture maybe a great yawning crocodile at sunset, the graceful flight of one or two Brolga or even with luck an elusive Palm Cockatoo all taken with a huge Canon EOS 5D Mark II with telescopic ET-83C lens with an image stabiliser. This particular camera weighed in at 3½ kg! Guess what – didn’t use it once. It took up valuable real estate in an already over-full vehicle.
We also packed a Lumix SLR DMC-FZ50, a Lumix small point and shoot, a Nikon Coolpix shockproof/waterproof camera with built-in world map/GPS, a JVC movie camera, the indestructible GoPro and of course Rob’s phone camera. When driving most of the time the GoPro was the camera of choice, both for stills and on the move, and I guess it would have to get 1st Prize out of all the array of imaging we carried.
Why? Because when a Cassowary decided to step out of the scrub in front of the vehicle for a split second the only camera at the ready was the tiny humble GoPro which captured the elusive male and two chicks through the rain and windscreen wipers before disappearing forever in the Daintree jungle.
The thing you most want to capture while travelling is usually the unexpected and the GoPro was always at hand.
Fellow travellers think again when wanting to take a menagerie of cameras – all with letters after their names. KISS is the only thing you have to remember.
Jen.