Securing my digital needs for Hawaii

Image by whl.travel via Flickr

I'm looking forward to a relaxing time on our Hawaiian vacation.

After booking the flight, hotel, and rental car, my next step is making sure I have my photo gear set for the trip. I want to travel light, but I also want to pack the gear that will get the shots I want. Most people will bring a short lens followed by a long telephoto. Unfortunately the auto focus on my telephoto is broken, so I'll have to stick with my new Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. Here is a quick video review of the lens.

                                       

I learned about this lens through a great lens review site, so far the photos are looking good. Here are a few samples while I was messing around.

This photo was taken by my 5 year-old son, Braden. Thanks to the Tamron's Vibration Compensation he was able to take a sharp photo with a shutter speed of 1/40 of a sec.

The lens is also pretty sharp. Here is another photo taken by my son, notice the nice blurry background (called bokeh).

Finally, here is a photo I took of my dog. This image displays the wide angle this lens of capable of capturing.

After taking the photos, I obviously plan to post them online, which means I'll need a computer and an Internet connection. I'm inclined to bring my older laptop since I don't want to risk anything to happen to our newer computer.  That computer is running a Linux operating system, so I can't use Lightroom to organize my new library of photos. Instead I'll use this opportunity to test the open source programs designed to complete the same tasks.

One other feature I plan to use the the Canon 7D's ability to take photos in in both RAW and JPEG formats so I can have the RAW photos for later and the smaller JPEG files for on-the-road blogging.

In case you were wondering what camera gear I was planning to bring on my trip, here is a little video of me taking inventory of every item.



Since I'm planning to blog and use the Internet, I thought it would be a good idea to check what Internet services are offered at our hotel. It turns out the Mauna Lani Hotel and Resort offers free WIFI!

I promised my wife I would not bring too much photo gear to our trip.
I'm wondering how much is too much?

The only problem we'll run into is our mobile phone service. My wife will bring her iPhone 3G, but our plan doesn't include minutes outside of Southern California. We have a really old and cheap plan which is great for home, but roaming charges will kick us in the butt. I looking into upgrading our plan, but it doesn't make sense  just to save a few bucks on our one week trip.

I know it sounds like I'm putting too much thought to this tech stuff, but I just want to land in Hawaii and start having fun. I don't want to think about anything but playing with my kids on the beach, laughing with my wife, and taking lots of great photos to remind us of our wonderful time together.

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Getting ready for Hawaii

Image via Wikipedia

Hopefully this is what I can expect at my Hawaiian destination.

I'm getting myself and photo gear for our upcoming trip to Hawaii. Before I start thinking about anything like lenses I'm going to solve the humidity problem.

Last time I ventured to a tropical island my lenses fogged and I couldn't use the camera for hours. This time I plan to come prepared with a cool little cleaning cloth that's supposed to get rid of the foggy lens and allow me to shoot right away.


The product is called "Fog Eliminator". Even though the product is distributed by Nikon, the cloth will work on glass from any manufacturer. I have no idea what makes this cloth so special, but I'm willing to give it a try. I heard about the cloth by listening to This Week in Photography and thought it was worth the $8 to see if it works. From what I've read you simply wipe the cloth on the lens and you're good for a couple of hours. I'm not sure if anything can be done if there is condensation on the inside of the lens, I think this is where the pro-grade lenses with weather sealing become more useful.

I think what I'll do is simply get a bag of rice and place my lenses in it, then let the bag sit outside for a while to acclimate to the new surroundings.. I know I'll be anxious to snap some photos when we land so I'll have to exercise some patience in the first few moments.



*I just remembered the last time I returned from Hawaii at 5am a few years ago. We were returning from Kauai and I had to place my keys in the little tray when walking through the metal detector. The problem was I forgot to pick my keys back up. When we touched down after a 5 hour flight I searched everywhere for my keys but couldn't find them. I finally called back to Kauai and was able to locate the keys back on the island.  It was early morning in a dirty terminal, with a 1-year old, an angry wife, and my parents shaking their heads. I think I was fortunate enough to find a hidden spare to make it home. From there I was able to break into my house and use a spare set of keys until the other set arrived in the mail. Needless to say I will be far more careful with my keys this trip.

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