As many of you know, one of my strongest passions is for travel photography.  Every year a great deal of time is spent determining where we will go on our next trip.  Once the next trip is decided upon, I spend a great deal of time debating which lenses and equipment to take on the trip and what types of things I want pictures of.

After spending seventeen days travelling through Beijing and Xi’an in mainland China, then Hong Kong, the following is a post mortem of what wound up working well for me and what did not.

What went well

Having two cameras

This is the first vacation where I took both my 5D2 and my 7D.  This provided quite a few advantages over a single camera – primarily that I did not need to change lenses often and could rapidly switch between closeups and wide angle shots.

The configuration I most often used was a TS-E 24 II on my 5D2 and a 70-200/4 IS on my 7D.  I would often zoom in on details of a building with my 7D, then take the entire building with the 5D2.

I did not always have both cameras around my neck at the same time, and on some short trips I took only one camera (typically the 5D2) so as to not overly annoy my wife, but overall the combo was extremely useful.

Using tilt shifts

As I use my tilt shift lenses more and more, I really am starting to feel that autofocus is truly overrated.  Sure, it is extremely useful for action, sports, and wildlife shots – but for most travel photos it is just a convenience – not a necessity.

On this trip I brought my TS-E 17, TS-E 24 II, and TS-E 90.  By far the TS-E 24 II was the most used.  I also used my TS-E 17 for a number of situations – though for the majority of situations it was too wide.  The TS-E 90 was used sparingly – primarily from our hotel room.

I used shift far more than tilt for most shots.  I did take a few shots playing around with tilt – such as above, but the majority of shots used shift for architecture.

Arranging for private tours in Xi’an and Beijing

Mainland China can be difficult to figure out.  I chose to not bother trying and pay a local to do this for me.  This enabled us to very quickly move from site to site – whereas in other trips we would often spend a tremendous amount of time finding places.

What went OK

China Tours

We used China Tours (ChinaTours.net) to book the private tours.  The guides were cordial and we saw for the most part the places we wanted to see, but what we really did not like was that each day we had to stop at one or more shops and spend a specific amount of time there.  We paid for a tour – not to stop in shops.

For others travelling to China, I would not recommend this agency and I would instead specifically enquire whether any time would be spent in shops.  Once already there, it is generally much better to just hire a taxi – as they were OK with us not wanting to go to shop (they didn’t even ask).

What didn’t work well

Monopod

I did not use this a single time and for our next trip I will not bother to take it.  A monopod works extremely well when shooting with longer lenses such as my 300/4 or 100-400, but for the shorter lenses it is fine to just shoot hand held or when not a tripod is required.

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I also do not want your picture because if you are in my shot and I want to sell it, I either must figure out how to clone you out of the shot or I cannot sell the shot.  So it is in my best interest to take steps to assure that you (and by “you” I mean any one of the other six billion odd people out there) are not in my photograph.

The problem is, when traveling people are like locusts.  Especially if you travel to a popular destination, they are everywhere.  They walk in front of you while taking a picture.  They climb monuments you are trying to take a picture of so that their friend can take a picture of them at the top of a 300 foot tall structure with a wide angle lens.  The new cameras in cell phones are even worse, as it is generally not possible to do a quick shot.  The user stands there for awhile, trying to get the picture he/she wants on the screen.  Then the picture doesn’t come out so he/she tries again, while you are waiting patiently to get a real picture.

Unfortunately, unless you are an emperor or dictator, you cannot do anything about this.  You can plan things so you photograph when the least number of people are around – such as early in the morning or you use your own transportation so you arrive between the tour buses, but for some sites large crowds are unavoidable.

Patience goes a long way here.  Very often, when I want a particular shot I will take out my camera, frame my shot, then wait for the best moment.  That is what I did for the first shot in this blog.

The only problem that sometimes happens is others see my large SLR and think “there must be something interesting there”.  So they take out their cameras and shoot away.  I do not mind this, except when by taking the shot they wind up in my shot.  As I often use my 16-35 2.8 and they often have small compact cameras, this is too often the case.  I won’t characterize stereotypes here, but after traveling and photographing for awhile, you can often get a general idea of the kind of people who do this.  Most of them are part of large tour groups who blindly follow their tour guide from place to place.  In this case, I just wait for the crowd to pass and then aim my camera and take my shot – by which time they can’t get back to take the photo for fear of losing their guide.

Of course, as I travel with two kids and my wife, this is often not possible and they lose patience with me long before the shot is ready.  Therefore, I often need to use tactics that take less time.

The two things that work best for me, which I learned while vacationing in Mexico – where the crowds were the worst I have ever seen – are to either go long or go wide.

For the shot above, there were about twenty other people in the room with me but I managed to wiggle my way to in front of this cave painting in Cappadocia and get my shot.  No, I did not use a flash (which the others in the room would do whenever the guard was not looking).  In this case it helps to have a camera that can do ISO 3200 without much noise.  I used my 16-35 to take the shot.

Using a wide angle lens works best when you can make sure you are closer than anyone else to the subject.  This actually worked out quite well in Chichen Itza as people are not allowed to climb the ruins any more. 

It does not work as well when people are allowed to climb the ruins.  In those cases, you have three possibilities.

1) Frame the shot without them.  If the people are at the bottom of the ruin, you can photograph the top.  Of course, this often doesn’t work as they are spread out over the ruin.

2) Wait for the crowd to be lower.  As I mentioned before though, this often isn’t an option or won’t work.

3) Wait for the people to get in a cloneable area.  If the person is in front of something that doesn’t have much detail, I will take the picture knowing I can clone the person out if I want to.

The other technique is to go long.  In this case, you are a distance from the subject and use a telephoto to get the shot.  Of course, if people are climbing over the object you will still need to be either patient or clone them out.

I used this technique to get this shot of the Blue Mosque – which usually has a throng of people around it.

I deliberately aimed up slightly to avoid the numerous people walking around.  The other nice thing about using a telephoto is you can capture the detail of the building, which many people often miss.

For a telephoto, I most often use my 70-200 4L IS.  I also own a 100-400 but use it far less frequently.  The greatest thing about the 70-200 F4 is its weight.  It functions great as a walk around lens and the IS is amazing.

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About a month ago, my wife, kids and I traveled to Turkey for seventeen days. We spent time at three main places – Antalya, Cappadocia, and Istanbul – in that order.

First up was Antalya.  We really liked Antalya, but the six days we spent there were probably one day too much.  Five days would have been much better.  The old town is very nice and I had a lot of fun walking around one morning, getting shots of the interesting houses there.

We spent a good deal of time there going on day trips and saw Kekova, Aspendos, Perge, Myra, and Termessos.  Perhaps on future posts I will go into these in more detail, but they were very interesting Greek and Roman ruins and I got a lot of shots I am very happy about.

Some of the minuses in Antalya were that within the old city there weren’t a tremendous amount of things to do.  We did take the boat ride and it was nice walking around in the old city, but most of the activities are outside the city.  We did love our hotel there – nestled in the old city.  Staying in the old city was also much better than staying at one of the huge resorts along the coast – which aren’t Turkey at all.

The other major problem we had, which we had throughout Turkey, was the habitual lying.  It was close to impossible to get any kind of truth out of the people who deal with tourists there.  For instance, we thought we might pick up a nice carpet there – as we had heard that the selection and prices were great.

First, I will give you the hard fact.  Unless you are a carpet expert, I would absolutely not buy a carpet in Turkey under any circumstances.  The carpets are expensive compared to places like Dubai and the majority of carpets are fake.  By fake I mean they are manufactured by machine in China.  This is true for many of the high end rugs which are advertised as Turkish silk but are in fact made by hand or sometimes by machine in China – where the labor is much cheaper.

Of course, figuring out which rugs are fake and which ones are real is close to impossible.  Real rugs exist there, but you cannot trust anything the carpet dealers will tell to you.  Many carpet dealers there are happy to point out tricks towards telling what types of carpets are fake – and many of these tips helped us.  However, once you piece together all of the different tips from different dealers, you’ll realize that determining the real carpets from the fake is close to impossible.

I will end my discussion of that and move on to Cappadocia, which was by far our favorite part of the trip.

There are three things that any visitor to Cappadocia must do.  If you do not do these things, IMHO you have not properly visited the place.

1) Stay there at least three days.  There is simply too much to see there.

2) Stay in a cave hotel.  We stayed at Kismet Cave House and it was one of the most interesting places we have ever stayed.

3) Take a balloon ride – even though they are expensive.

We rented a car and drove from Antalya to Göreme, which was an interesting drive if you discount our insane GPS which we wound up just disregarding.  We also used the car around Cappadocia – which worked out very well.  We were able to spend the amount of time we wished at each place and we missed many of the huge tourist buses.

The whole region is just spectacularly beautiful and deserves its own post in the future. In particular, the owner of the Kismet Cave House chatted with us often, served as our guide around the area, and my kids played with his kids and his new puppy.  In the end, all of us had a great time in Cappadocia.  People were also much nicer and honest in Cappadocia than in Antalya and Istanbul.

The trip ended in Istanbul, where we spent seven days.  Again, one day less would have been great here.

There are a number of very interesting things to see around Istanbul – the Haghia Sofia, Dolmabahçe Palace, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, the Basilica Cistern – and I absolutely would not visit it in two days like many of the cruise ship passengers we saw.

We stayed near the Blue Mosque, which for tourists is probably the best place to say as it is within walking distance of most of the interesting sites.  Interestingly, the best hotels in Istanbul are far away from the action, while the hotels closest to everything were more moderately priced.  Go figure.

The biggest disappointment in Istanbul was the Grand Bazaar.  Although it truly is quite large, as stated with the carpets a great number of items there are fake.  The prices are also very high compared to other countries we have visited like Jordan, Dubai, Malaysia, and Thailand.  We were excited about seeing the Grand Bazaar, but in the end we didn’t buy too much both due to the prices and due to the fact that we could not tell the real items from the fake ones (which is fine if prices are very cheap – but when they are expensive you at least want something real). 

Even the fake clothing was a problem.  Obviously they do not have real Prada purses and even they will tell you that – but it was difficult to determine the real quality of the fakes they offered.  My wife, who loves fakes, feels that Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand had the best quality fakes for the best prices.

In the end, while the lying and deceit certainly put a damper on our trip, the sites more than made up for it.  It was also a good location for our kids, as Turks tolerated our kids misbehaving very well – much more so than in the US, England, or France. 

At the end of each vacation, my wife and I rank the vacation we just went on.  I would rank this vacation third – behind Peru and Dubai.  It is just ahead of Thailand and much better than the Riviera Maya (Mexico) vacation we went on last year – which we placed near the bottom of our list.

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The reality of course, is that this is often not an option for us mere mortals. We do not have the flexibility to get up at the wee hours of the morning and trek to a good spot that we scoped out the day before and stay there for several hours getting good shots.  If we did this, our families would kill us.

Therefore much of the light we get to shoot in is of the worst kind.  It occurs when the sun is high above during the mid day.  The other reality is that you may find that the sky is cloudy and ugly on that particular day.  However, this does not necessarily mean that all hope is lost.  There are a number of options available to you and in this post, as well as future ones, I will go over these in more detail.

First, there are some things that you can do to get that ideal morning or late afternoon light without dragging your family out of bed.  This is possible through prior planning.  If you make sure that your hotel is located near some interesting sites, you can wake up early in the morning to photograph them and return to join your family for breakfast.

For instance, on a recent trip to Turkey I made sure to stay in the Sultanahment area – which contains the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sofia – along with a host of other interesting places.  This enabled me to get out and shoot some photos in the morning.  I would wake up around six in the morning, shoot for a bit, then join my family for breakfast.  It also enabled me to get some shots of these crowded places with fewer people in the shots.  My wife loved this solution as she appreciated sleeping in a bit and when we did get out I didn’t stop every few minutes to take a picture.

However, this does not work well for day trips – when you are seeing locations further from your hotel.  In these cases, you almost always wind up seeing the site during the middle of the day.

You will of course not get dramatic sunrise or sunset lighting during this time, but a blue sky is better than a blown out sky.  There are several options that I make use of during these times.

The easiest option is to simply pay attention to the light.  For example, most of the time if you are facing horrible light, if you turn around you will find the lighting much better.  Always avoid shooting towards the sun.  This sounds very simple, but you would be surprised how many times you’ll find yourself doing it.

There will be times though, when you simply cannot get behind your subject or your prefer the viewpoint that looks almost right into the sun.  In this case, you will have to contend with the wide dynamic range.  Of course, you don’t always have to get all of the dynamic range in there.  I am a sucker for silhouette shots, though many others don’t like them.

Another option is to take an HDR shot.  This is particularly useful inside dark buildings where the outside is very bright.  Of course, you may not like the effect, but in many cases this is the best way to get the closest to the full dynamic range.

Even in this shot, the dynamic range was too much to get the outside behind the door correctly exposed.  However, it did improve the gleaming light on the floors and in the windows above.  As tripods and monopods are often not allowed, I shoot these HDR shots handheld using exposure bracketing.  Unfortunately, Canon is still brain dead in this area and only allows three shots on all but the 1D series cameras.  To compensate for this, I set the bracketing to every two stops and shoot in RAW.

The other option, which also works for cloudy days when even exposed sky will be white, is to add the sky in post processing.  This is quite easy to do, though it takes some time to get it perfect.  The following is a shot taken during a cloudy day.

The following is the same shot with a bit of editing.  It is still a bit raw, but gives the basic idea.

To do this, I took the shot above and another shot with a better sky and did the following.

1) Copied the shot above as a new layer on the one with the sky.

2) Selected the white sky using the magic selector.

3) Deleted the bad sky – replacing it with the better one.

4) Burned the building a bit in order to make it look a bit more natural.

I do not advocate using this as an escape, but there are times when the scene is very interesting and the weather just refuses to cooperate.  A true pro would stay in a location for a good period of time and wait for the right weather, but the rest of us need to deal with what we are given.

This certainly is not an exhaustive list of what is possible, but I hope it has illustrated that it is still possible to get good shots without waking the family at 4 AM every morning and trekking them to the same spots to get the best light.

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After nineteen days of travel in Istanbul, Antalya, and Cappadocia, we are finally back!  Actually we got back a few days ago, but it has been difficult getting back to this time zone and taking care of various issues.

The trip was very interesting and was one of the better trips we have taken.  Everyone had fun and I set a personal record with over 2000 pictures taken and 80GB of data.  Rather than discuss at length what we did, I thought I would cover what went well and what did not in terms of the photography planning I did for the trip.

What went well

Canon 100-400 lens

This was my first vacation with this lens, and it was very useful.  Admittedly, I did not use it nearly as much as my 70-200 F4 IS or my 16-35 2.8 II but I did use it about 15% of the time.  In particular, it was very useful during the balloon ride and when on sightseeing boats.

Slingshot 200 bag

This was the first vacation where I used this bag and it was certainly very handy.  I used it for walking around town and carried my 70-200 F4 IS, 16-35 2.8 II, and a 580EX II flash.  Sometimes I also added my 50mm 1.4.  The bag was very light and seldom caused problems.

Canon 5D Mark II

I simply cannot imagine what it was like now with my old 5D.  The two features most useful were the high ISO capabilities – allowing me to photograph in dark caves and churches – and the video functionality.  I took several videos while there that I know will be family classics.

Canon 70-200 F4 IS and 16-35 2.8 II

These are the main lenses I use for traveling and again they did not disappoint.  I find that I need to go either very wide or need a medium telephoto.  The IS of the 70-200 worked splendidly in museums, while the 2.8 aperture of the 16-35 worked wonders in dark caves and churches.

Nexto DI backup HD

I borrowed a 120GB unit from a friend and it turned out to be a very wise decision as my Digimate III died on the trip.  I was a bit nervous, but this device read the cards quickly and worked like a champ.  Without it, I would have been limited to the capacities of my flash cards.

What went just OK

ThinkTankPhoto Airport Accelerator v2.0 bag

I cannot trash this bag as it did fit easily into the overhead and IMHO is the best solution for transporting the maximum amount of equipment in the overhead.  On our return flight, a Lufthansa representative almost did not let me take it because it weighed more than the allowed 8kg.

What really bugs me about this bag though is it is a very poor bag for the field.  Its lack of pockets meant that I had to dig through the two pockets provided when I needed something.  I rarely carried it in the field, but did take it on longer day trips.  Some time in the future I will probably buy a different bag for use around Seattle and at times abroad.

Gitzo GM5561T monopod

I wound up finding my monopod useful only once – during an air balloon ride in Cappadocia.  Although it was extremely useful there, otherwise I did not use it at all.  I did try using it with my 100-400 on a boat, but the rocking of the boat caused all of my shots to be slanted.  I obtained better results hand held.  Also, the foot fell off the monopod and was lost, though I understand it is easy to replace.

What did not go well

Canon 180mm macro and macro flash

I took exactly three shots with my 180mm macro on the trip and did not use my MT-24EX at all.  I did see a lot of interesting insects, but there were simply too many other things to photograph.  For future trips similar to this, I will leave all of my macro equipment at home.

Pocketwizards

I played with them once but otherwise I didn’t need to bring them on this vacation.  On future vacations, they will stay home.

Digimate III

I always try to bring two backup hard drives, and it turned out to be a very wise decision on this trip.  My Digimate III died on the trip (wouldn’t stay on for more than a few minutes – even when fully charged) which would have been a disaster had I not borrowed a friend’s unit.

Turkish GPS

Though the GPS was in English, it drove us in circles for an hour and a half until we put it out of its misery and just used a map.  I’m not sure what was wrong with it, but it clearly had no idea how to handle round abouts and sent us in the opposite direction from where we needed to go, but once we started using the maps it agreed with our course.

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We have two boys – ages four and five and we usually take one international vacation each year and fly domestically twice each year.  Our domestic flights are usually either to New York City (which is an easy direct flight from Seattle) or to Rochester, NY – which is more difficult because we have to change planes and the aircraft are smaller.

So far we have taken our kids to Rome, Singapore, Thailand, Israel, and Mexico on separate trips.  Our five year old has been to ten countries already and both are very used to aircraft and are seasoned travelers.

In every trip since I bought my DSLR three years ago, I have brought the majority of my equipment.  The equipment has varied as I accumulate more of it but it started out as a fully loaded Tamrac Expedition 5 and now I use an Airport Accelerator from ThinkTankPhoto.  The following are my recommendations for traveling safe and sane with both.

Photography Equipment

First, from a photography perspective things aren’t that difficult.  If I bring a tripod, I always pack the legs and bring the ball head in my carry on luggage.  I place the tripod in a layer of clothes to protect it.  In my experience, most thieves do not think that a tripod has any value – they are far more likely to steal any electronics equipment.

I always carry on my camera body, lenses, and other equipment.  The Airport Accelerator from ThinkTankPhoto works very nice for this.  I have been able to fit it in every aircraft I have flown in thus far – even a small regional jet with only three seats across.  I do not travel with a laptop though.  If I had used the laptop bag I would have had to remove it and place it under my seat.

Traveling with children is a bit more complicated and IMHO most parents go way overboard.  They attempt to carry everything including the kitchen sink on board and my wife and I often laugh at the parents obviously traveling for the first time with children.

Strollers

The stroller is perhaps the most important piece of equipment you will bring.  It is also the biggest mistake I often see.  I see all types of huge strollers that are not only an inconvenience in the airport, but are also an inconvenience wherever you go.

Infant strollers

For infants, you are probably stuck with the travel system strollers – many of which are made by Graco.  For young children under one year of age, this is probably your only choice.  You’ll check the stroller at the gate, but you do have choices from there.

First, on international flights some airlines have a bassinet in the bulkhead.  Many of the US airlines no longer do this but I believe there are some foreign airlines that still offer it.  You’ll need to call ahead to do two things.

1) Ensure that you are sitting in the bulkhead.

2) Ensure that you have reserved a bassinet on the plane.

These are both very important and I have found most airline representatives do not know much about this.  Make sure that you find one that does.  Also, when you check in make sure this is available.  Most airlines are not very good with keeping these reservations.

Car seats

The other option is to bring a car seat on board and place the baby in the car seat.  This is also a good option for children up to two years old.  After that, the car seat is more of a hindrance than a help.

There is a bit of a trick to installing car seats on planes.  Most airline personnel will not help you do to legal issues.  When I see other parents struggling with installing a car seat on a flight, I often try to help where I can.  The following are the steps to install a car seat on a plane.

1) Recline the seat fully.  Do not worry that you’re not supposed to recline seats at this time, the seat will be forward shortly.

2) Place the car seat on the airline seat and bring the seat belt around the back per the instructions on the car seat.

3) Tighten the seat belt as much as you can.  Even when you tighten it, you’ll notice that the car seat does not feel solidly secure.

4) Bring the seat forward.  When you do this, you’ll notice that the car seat is in there and doesn’t budge.

Jogging strollers

I won’t say much about these, except to not do it except under extreme situations.  There is probably only one situation where this is the best choice.

When we traveled to Singapore, we had two young children (10 months and 23 months) and we wanted to maneuver and walk on the beach.  We chose a double jogging stroller that was on the smaller side as far as jogging strollers go.  Most normal strollers can’t move on sand and the front to back strollers were larger.

It was a real pain moving with that stroller though.  In the crowded markets we often couldn’t get down a path and it was difficult to find a taxi that could fit the stroller.  Neither of our kids liked baby carriers so that wasn’t an option.  The jogging stroller was the best choice but I have seen some more compact solutions now.

Umbrella strollers

Most umbrella strollers are too flimsy to withstand a trip very well, but the best strollers we have found are made by MacClaren.  The one we have is the Maclaren Volo Stroller and we have two of them and find them to be worth their weight in gold when traveling.  Make sure to also buy a Maclaren Universal Organizer that takes almost no additional room and helps greatly when traveling.

These strollers weight less than nine pounds and are easy to sling over a shoulder when the kids are walking.  We still use them for extended trips with our kids when we know there will be a lot of walking involved.  They also have a good deal of storage for a stroller that is so compact.

Toys

I often see parents who seem to have brought every toy the kid owns on a plane.  Kids do need toys, but there is a limit.  Think high impact toys.  If your child only plays with a toy for a few minutes at a time, it is probably not a wise choice to bring it.  The following have worked well for our kids (both boys).

1. Small metal cars.
2. Schleich dinosaurs
3. Leapfrog gaming systems and their variants
4. Paper and large crayons
5. Sticker books

On international flights – and some of the longer domestic ones now – they have televisions on the seats.  These are great and can keep a child interested for several hours.

Another thing I do on the longer flights is buy a few new toys.  New toys almost always get more attention than older ones and will often buy us an hour or more.

However, the key is to keep the toys limited.  Other than my camera gear, we fit all of our carry on luggage in a single duffel bag.  This includes some reading books for my wife and I, toiletries, changes of clothes for the kids, etc.

What else to bring

The following are also very helpful on the flight.

1. A change of clothes for the kids.  The general rule of thumb is your child is much more likely to wet himself/herself on the plane so take the average number of times the child wets himself/herself and double it.  We still take at least one set of clothes even though our kids our older – they still have the habit of spilling on themselves.
2. Enough diapers and wipes for the trip.  Buy a small travel box of wipes and calculate how many diapers you will need for the flight and add a few to spare.  We used to pack the rest of the diapers.  On international trips, we would only pack enough diapers for the first few days and then buy more diapers there.
3. A baby changing pad if you have an infant.  Don’t count on being able to access the rest room to change a child.  Sometimes you have to do it right on your seat.  A traveling changing pad will be a great help.
4. I strongly do not recommend drugging children for a flight.  If the child happens to have a cold then bring something that helps alleviate this especially for takeoff and landings.

On your lap or buy another seat

Most airlines allow children to travel in your lap if the child is under two years of age.  Except for the smallest of infants, I recommend that you always purchase another seat.  This will make the flight much easier on both you and your child.

In particular, it makes it easier for the child to sleep, which makes it easier for you to sleep as well.

I hope this information helps you when traveling with children and your photo equipment.  As you can see, it is quite easy to travel with both.  The first flight can be a bit nerve wrecking with them, but remember to keep calm and try not to bring literally everything.  I’ve found that the one thing our kids like best is the fact that they have full access to their mommy and daddy – and that they have their own TVs.

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At the time, Eitan and Nathan were 23 months and 10 months old.  Nelya wanted to take a nice relaxing vacation.  Her ideal vacation was resting by a beach, but she wasn’t against shopping.  My ideal vacation was exploring an exotic location.  I spent months searching for the ideal destination, with the end result being the island of Sentosa in Singapore.

Sentosa is a small island literally connected to downtown Singapore.  While it is very close to sites to see, it is geared towards families and has an aquarium, animal enclosures, a man made beach, and paths going through small patches of jungle.  The merlion above, which is the symbol of Singapore, is also found in Sentosa and at night there is a laser light show near it.  The following shot came from our hotel window.  Of course, the background leaves little doubt that we were in one of the busiest ports of Asia.

Singapore is a great place to photograph animals.  They have three zoos, seashores, and a large patch of tropical jungle called Bukit Timah.  Unfortunately my camera fogged up there so I don’t have any shots of it.  I do have shots of the other zoos.

They have an ‘ordinary’ zoo, which is a large form of the zoos we have near us.

However, they also have two very unusual zoos.  The first is a night zoo, which is located right next to the normal zoo and opens right when it closes, making it possible to do both in a long day.  The night zoo contains only nocturnal animals.

Finally, they have Jurong Bird Park, the largest zoo devoted to birds in the world.  The zoo is humongous and features the largest aviary in the world.  I would love to go back there with better lenses someday.

Singapore is extremely safe and about as clean as possible.  Everyone there is very friendly and helpful (friendliness is part of the schooling there) and I was rather taken back by the fact that whenever I looked lost, someone would stop and actually ask to help me – without any ulterior motives of selling me anything.

Nelya loved that her favorite flower, the Plumeria, was everywhere around.  Actually one of the most famous varieties of it is called Singapura.

Nelya also loved shopping, particularly in nearby Malaysia where she picked up the latest in fake fashions.  I liked the electronics malls, though the prices were higher than in the US – even after bargaining.  As for what Eitan and Nathan thought of the trip, the pictures tell more than words.

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First of all, you have to be very realistic about the place you are going to?  What types of macro pictures will you really take there?  While macro photography can be done anywhere, some types of trips make certain types of macro photography difficult.  For instance, my wife and kids generally will not sit around and wait while I setup a tripod to take a picture of a flower.  While I occasionally use a tripod for my flower pictures in gardens around Seattle, I never use a tripod for macro photography on vacation (I do use one for sunrise/sunset and night shots though).  The following are my experiences on different types of vacations.

Jungle adventures – I spent some time in the rainforests of Peru before I had an SLR.  One of the members of my group brought an SLR together with a 50mm macro lens.  He expected to get close shots of army ants but came back without a single decent macro shot.  There were several problems with his approach.

1. He had no prior experience with macro photography.  When on vacation, I find that I need to move quickly for my macro shots.  The time to learn is back home – not on the road.
2. The 50mm macro is one of the worst lenses you can take with you on vacation.  It simply does not offer the distance you need to get the shot right.
3. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you don’t want to be that close to army ants.  Fortunately he was not bitten, but when starting out with army ants I suspect I would try a 180mm first.
4. He had no lighting equipment.  He did have a tripod, but this won’t help much with quickly moving army ants.
5. The group kept moving.  He never had time to properly attempt much because the tour guide kept us moving.

Jungle trips are one of the best places to take macro shots, but you will need ample time to perfect your technique before going there and you’re best shot at good macro pictures will be in the vicinity of your hotel.  Unless you are on a photography specific tour (and even then) the tour guide will keep you moving.  You will not have time to stop and get the ideal macro shot, except during down times when you can check around the camp.

Tropical trips – These are trips to tropical countries where you stay in hotels instead of camps that are usually in built up areas.  While tropical locations do have excellent opportunities for macro photography, you will still find that your best opportunities are in the vicinity of the hotel.  Therefore I highly recommend that you choose a hotel that is located closer to nature.  For instance, when traveling to Singapore, stay in Sentosa rather than in the city.  In Bangkok, I found a number of opportunities at the Marriott – which is located in the city but has ample gardens.  Many resorts not located in cities are already close to nature – but make sure to not choose one that uses pesticides or your subjects will be few (except for flowers of course).

European trips – For the most part, these aren’t the best trips for macro.  I’m sure there are some areas where you can find some interesting subjects, but unless you are staying out in the country you’re unlikely to find great subjects.  When I travel to Europe, I generally leave most of my macro equipment at home.

In general I find that I do not have much time to take my macro shots when on vacation.  I do sometimes take walking trips for an hour or so while my wife and kids relax in the hotel, but I certainly don’t have the time to setup a tripod and get things exactly right.  Therefore, I highly recommend that you take a form of macro lighting with you on vacation.  The best choice is the MT-24EX.  I won’t go into detail here about the advantages of this flash, but while on vacation I constantly have it on my camera if I am using any of my macro lenses.

Of course, this means that you have another thing to carry.  This has caused a number of problems for me as I do not have a large backpack and don’t want to carry an extra large backpack when I am on vacation.  Therefore, I often divide my equipment into two camps – macro equipment and non-macro equipment.  When I am out and about visiting sites, I generally have the non-macro equipment.  When I am walking around the hotel, I generally have my macro equipment.  As I have already stated, the vast majority of my macro photography is done near the hotel.  When I am out and about I simply don’t have the time and most of the subjects are not macros.

So now you have the lighting, but which lens do you take?  In my experience, most people who have a macro lens have the 100m 2.8.  This is an excellent macro lens and is always the lens I recommend to people getting started.  On vacation, I think this lens is the ideal choice with a cropped frame camera.  However, with a full frame camera I think it falls a bit short.

The main problem I have run across while on vacation is I never know what I will want to photograph.  For instance, on a recent trip to Mexico I was photographing a flower by a bridge.

Suddenly, I heard a pack of coatis.  I didn’t know how much time I would have with them, so I dared not change a lens.  Besides, the only other lens I had on me at the time was a wide angle lens – I had left my telephoto in the hotel to make room for the macro.  Luckily, I had the Canon 180L mounted on my camera at the time.  I turned on auto-focus and took several frames of the coatis.

If I had the 100mm 2.8 at the time, I would have had a much more difficult time getting this shot due to the shorter focal length.  On a cropped frame camera, where the 100mm macro is really a 160mm lens, I don’t think the difference is as important – though the 180L will still prove to be all the more versatile.  This lens served this purpose multiple times on vacation and is now my favorite macro lens for vacations.  Granted, it is a much heavier lens than the 100mm, but it is also more useful.  Also, a number of animals are a bit shy (such as the lizard above) and difficult to get too close to.  The 180L makes it much easier.

Keep in mind that I am not advocating you do most of your wildlife photography with the 180L.  On my last vacation to Mexico I used the Canon 70-200 4L IS to take most of my coati and bird shots.  The extremely quick AF in that lens allowed me to get more keepers.  However, my images from the 180L were a bit sharper.  Still, when I had the 70-200 that was the lens of choice as the 180L has very slow AF – even with the focus limiter.  This isn’t really a drawback of the lens – it’s not really intended for that purpose anyway.  What the 180L did offer though was the ability to switch quickly from larger wildlife to smaller critters.

What about the MP-E 65 that I currently use for a majority of my macro shots?  While I love this lens, for standard vacations it is not very practical.  This lens requires a lot of patience and time to get a good shot – even with a macro flash attached.  I simply don’t have that kind of time when on vacation.  I wound up not taking a single picture with it on vacation.  I did put it on the camera a few times, but most of the subjects I found were flowers that required the 180L.  It also didn’t help that the hotel used pesticides and as a result insects were hard to find.  Lizards, on the other hand, were in large supply – but the 180L was required because they were skittish – and too large to be photographed with the MP-E 65 anyway.

For future vacations, I will likely leave the MP-E 65 at home unless I am going on a tropical vacation where the hotel is in close proximity to the jungle – and the hotel does not use pesticides.

The last piece of equipment I take with me may be overkill for some, but I always take two Wimberley macro arms to hold the MT-24EX.  In general I find that putting the lights closer to the subject makes the lighting more pleasing.  Therefore I always use these together with my 180L.  The combined rig tends to scare some fellow tourists and I always receive a wise crack or two whenever I go out.  However, if you are using the 100mm 2.8 or shorter, I don’t think this is necessary.

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The full name of this mammal is “Coatimundi” and they are relatives of the raccoon.  Unlike raccoons, though, they travel in large packs – as many as 40 coatis in a pack.  The baby coatis travel with the parents – as you can see in the picture above.

As evidenced above, they are quite friendly with people.  However care must still be taken because they are wild animals.  Technically, you are not supposed to feed them but it was quite difficult to resist.  In the picture above Nelya is feeding them a fruit smoothie out of a cup while Nathan looks on.  Not in the picture is Eitan – who was afraid of the coatis and was quite upset that we were feeding them.

While I would be very hesitant getting this close to a raccoon (though I have in the past – as Tom can attest to) coatis are a bit less fearsome – though they contain a very sharp pair of incisors in the front of the mouth.

Like raccoons they are very smart and will beg for food in a similar manner to raccoons.

As I had so many opportunities to photograph coatis, I used a variety of lenses.

Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro – I used this for the shot above and the coatis were tame enough to let me get some closeups of them.  Of the three lenses, I like the bokeh effects of this one the most.

Canon 70-200 F4.0L IS – The shot at the beginning of the post used this lens. It offered the best range and was the most natural lens to use – but I prefer the shots taken with the 16-35 and the 180L

Canon 16-35mm 2.8L II – The nice thing about this lens is it can get quite close – which lead to some interesting effects.

The baby coatis in particular were adorable and had no problems getting close, as is evidenced by this one who decided to test my minimum focus distance on the 16-35!

Here’s another shot I got with my 180 of an adult coati begging.

In general the resort had quite a bit of wildlife – both wild and constricted.  I had long wanted to see coatis in the wild and had hoped that I would fine one on my Peru vacation – but coatis that truly live in the wild are much more skittish.

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We stayed at an all inclusive hotel that had a good deal of wildlife so I had a number of photo subjects.  I also took several day trips and have photos from them.  In the next few days I will begin posting blogs about the different types of wildlife I saw there.  In the meantime I will share this picture I took early in the morning at the beach by our hotel.

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