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The importance of having access to a backup camera

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Last year, on my trip to India I took the Pentax 645D, a 35mm wide-angle lens and the new 90mm macro.   I also packed a Pentax K5-IIs with a 40mm pancake lens for low-light  street photography. The K5-IIs would also be my backup camera in the unlikely event that the 645D was stolen or had problems. The K5 takes the same batteries, charger and SD cards as the 645D. The body and pancake lens combined weigh about 800 grams so it didn’t t take up much space or weight if it wasn’t used. The image quality from the K5 is excellent, obviously not on a par with the 645D, but I would still be able to use the images for commercial purposes. While in Agra, shooting the Taj Mahal at dawn, the 645D suddenly stopped working. The shutter seemed to open for a couple of seconds then the screen showed just a black image. I turned it off and on, removed and replaced the battery, the lens, the SD cards, but the problem was …

The Best of Nara

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Nara and Kyoto are the two biggest tourist destinations in Japan. Kyoto, the more famous of the two, is home to both the remaining geisha and the iconic golden pavilion. Nara, however, is the heart of Japanese Buddhism. Its temples are not just world heritage sites, but are often the largest, oldest and most sacred of their type. Standing among the pagodas and cherry trees it is possible to imagine Japan before cell phones, neon lights and the tsunami of concrete. Nara was Japan’s first permanent capital, and remains as one of the world’s great cities. Nara is not a large city and nearly all the historic sites are located in and around Nara Park. Tour groups on a day trip often complete a brief circuit of Kofuku-ji Temple, Todai-ji Temple and Kasuga Taisha Shrine in a matter of hours before returning to Kyoto or Osaka. Visitors, who prefer to travel without a megaphone wielding guide, would be better off spending two or three days on a tranquil journey of discovery, rather than an afternoon …

Lighthouse at Cape Zanpa reopens

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A couple of weeks ago the lighthouse at Cape Zanpa reopened to the public. I was out teaching the Photography Fundamentals workshop when we came across the special opening day event.  The mascot got my seal of approval. Unfortunately nobody seemed to have checked which end of the flag festooned rope they should attach to the top of the lighthouse. The result is that the flags of about 50 countries were flying upside down, an international signal of distress.

The Best of Hokkaido

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Hokkaido is the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands, and its final frontier. It has a quarter of the country’s landmass, but only one twentieth of its population. Large sections of the island are national parks where foxes, deer and brown bears outnumber people. Visitors come during winter to ski, and during summer to camp, hike and soak in hot spring pools. Hokkaido provides an escape from modern Japan to an almost primordial time. Amidst volcanoes, geysers and ice flows visitors can experience the ancient, wild side of Japan. Winter Attractions Skiing and Snowboarding Hokkaido’s winter weather is strongly influenced by the cold winds blowing in from Siberia. In Sapporo, the temperature regularly drops to -5°C, and further east, away from the ameliorating affects of the ocean, it gets as low as -30°C. The winters bring a lot of snow, and the big dumps of fluffy powder make the island’s ski resorts the best in Japan. Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, but until recently, Hokkaido’s excellent skiing and boarding was not well known outside …