I’m skipping most of what was another good day in Panama, to focus just one brief but amusing incident which occurred on our way to where our little group of pre-voyage adventurers (17 of us) was to board the National Geographic/Lindblad Quest, to begin our cruise through the canal and then on to Costa Rica.
We had spent the day visiting a National Park (Castillo de San Lorenzo) and then visited the first lock on the Caribbean side of the new canal channel. We then had a relatively short drive to get to the docks in Colon. We were very close, moving along on a small road when we hit a police roadblock – apparently there were repairs in progress on the road, and the police pointed us on to a detour. But, we immediately noticed that the detour was an entry to a cemetary. Really. Not just a little cemetary, a huge cemetary, which included a separate Jewish cemetary. It was kind of interesting, but very weird to be driving in a bus, on our way to board a cruise ship, and winding our way through an overgrown but still active burial ground. We also passed some very large, extremley delapidated buildings which someone noticed happened to be a prison. Even better. A real adventure!
So we continued on down the road, wondering where it was leading, until we hit the main road we had been on. Where there was a locked gate, and two police cars. The two officers were unable to open the gate, so they indicated that we should turn around and head back But by that time, there was a line of cars and buses behind us. Quite the show. So, our fearless driver managed to turn the bus around without driving over a grave, and we headed back to where we first entered the cemetary. By this time, we were giving our trip lead a very hard time about this unannounced excursion on our itinerary. Others wanted to know if we could stop and take pictures (just kidding). We got to pass the prison again, and someone noticed that the inmates were hanging out the windows, waving to us. I guess everone got a good laugh out of this.
So we had to back track a bit to take a different road into town, and we eventually made it to the ship. We were just a little late. And I had another good story to tell.
After two full weeks of puttering around the house, I finally dedicated a day to go through the two 500GB SD cards that I used for the Sony A7 cameras (A7IV, A7RV) on the Antarctica trip. Most of the images I have posted so far on the blog or Facebook, were captured with my phone, with a smattering of images from the cameras from a cursory pass I made of the SD cards while still traveling. I’ve just been lazy, putting this task off until yesterday.
This turned into a significant effort:
Each card had at least 1300 separate images, each with a JPEG and RAW version. You can shoot a lot with 10 frames-per-second.
I first went through each of the JPEG versions, deleting duplicates or images that I knew I’d never do anything with. Digital cameras are wonderful – unlike film, it costs nothing to take a lot of lousy shots. But if you take hundreds of images, you still have to review each one.
After going through the JPEG versions, I used the list of remaining JPEG’s to compare with the RAW images, and delete the same files. Once that was done, I then did a backup of the remaining images to my two archive drives. I will probably need a new, dedicated archive drive sometime in the near future. More toys.
Phew! That was a lot of work. I decided I needed a glass of wine after that.
The end result of this process is about 650 images that need a more detailed review – still a lot, but much better than 2600, and all of them are pretty darn good. Some are amazing, and really capture the vastness, magnificence and beauty of the ice covered Antarctic landscape. And of course, there were more fun images of penguins.
So now I have to work on the remaining batch images, and determine which ones I want to submit for club competitions, print on acrylic (I’m turning my house into a photo gallery), or just share with friends and family (and everyone else) on the blog. I’ll probably take my time on this, but will eventually wind up with about 50 or so, “keepers”. Maybe more. A lot more. I might wind up just putting together a digital photo book for the trip, and post that on the blog.
I have also started reviewing some of the videos I shot with my phone and the Sony A7IV camera. I have just started dabbling with video this past year, first with the GoPro, and just recently with my latest Pixel phone. I had never used the slow motion or time lapse feature that are available on both iPhone and Android cameras – fun stuff. I also tried out video on the Sony camera once or twice on the trip, since it is supposed to be one of the best features of this camera. I intend to post one or two of those in the next day or two.
And finally, since this post seems to have evolved into another discussion on photography, I’m buying myself a Christmas present today – a new camera lens. I mentioned before that I really want to reduce the amount of gear I bring along on each trip. The camera backpack I lugged around in airports this past trip weighed in at 20lbs. That did not seem so bad on the trip down to Ushuiai, but seemed to weigh even more on the way back, as I dragged my tired body through seemingly miles of airport corridors. I also want to avoid having to carry two cameras on hikes if at all possible. It was really difficult managing two heavy cameras/lenses while stumbling around on the snow and ice when we were visiting the penguin colonies – we were not allowed to put anything on the snow, so I had to have someone hold my pack while I switched cameras. Awkward at best.
I’m hoping that the Tamron 25-200 lens will become my go-to for most on-shore activities, and only travel with that and the 150-500 lens. And then there is the Baja trip in February – we are limited to 6.5 pounds for carry-on, and 30 pounds for the checked bag. The Sony A7R5 weighs 4.5 pounds with a lens, and my smallest camera bag weighs 2 pounds. I will likely only bring the new lens for this trip, and one camera body. Ouch. The GoPro will fit in my pocket, or in the duffel bag. And I will have my phone as well. If the grey whales do what they are supposed to (come up to the boats for a back rub), then I should not need the long lens.
OK, enough geeky camera stuff. Here’s a couple of images from my recent review. Oh, and I will have a post or two before February – I’m heading off to the coast in January, to visit the elephant sea lion colony at the Ano Nuevo State Park. They have docent-led walks to watch the huge males fight during mating season. No penguins though.
A since I mentioned it, short video clip, as we cruised through an ice field:
The Traveling Widower 