Prem Sagar's blog

Backpacking in Borneo-1

Its travel time! In less than 12 hours from now! Backpacking to Borneo this time!

Oldest rain forests on Earth, few of the longest caves in the world, tall peaks such as Mt Kinabalu, a plethora of wildlife… Borneo has it all!

As I had tweeted earlier, my Leh-Ladakh trip went to the dogs courtesy the rain gods and the unfortunate devastation there. I had to quickly make alternative plans. I was thinking of either of these

• Dharamshala
• Valley of flowers
• cycling in Nilgiris in rain (again.. never get tired of it)
• Some other place in Western ghats

However, Adarsh had other plans. Borneo! Initially I didn’t give it much thought, especially because I wasn’t interested in an expensive trip. But when he said he had applied for a visa, I started thinking about it seriously. The fact that I could do this 10 day trip in less than 40K (INR) was another alluring carrot dangling in front of me. I gave in!

Here is my 10 day trip plan:

• fly to Kuala Lumpur on a cheap ticket (Air Asia) and then to Sandakan
• Uncle Tan’s wildlife stay (2 nights)
• fly to Mulu via Miri
• spend time in the Mulu caves and rain forests (3 nights)
• fly to Kota Kinabalu
• trek the Mt Kinabalu and spend time in Kota Kinabalu (3 nights)
• Kuala Lumpur (1 night)
• return to Bangalore

And just in case if you are interested, a total of 8 flights cost me 23.4K INR! Air Asia prices are awesome! I only hope the service is decent too. I hope to keep the expenses below 40k (backpacking, staying in dorms, sleeping for a night in the airport, eating cheap stuff, .. you get the picture), but at the same time, not compromise on things that could make for a good trip.

My backpack is packed. Almost all of it is camera equipment. The clothes don’t even weigh as much as my macro lens! I am carrying my 70-300, 10-24 and 105 VR micro lenses. Along with the SB600 flash and Gitzo tripod/Arca swiss ball head. Trekking up Mt. Kinabalu with all this weight is going to be fun… will come back and tell you if I made it or not .

My internet access in the next few days is limited. Whenever possible, I might upload a picture or two and post an article maybe. For now… please allow me to drift into dreamland!

Wish me a good trip!!!

City life!

City life is great! You have money, opportunities, facilities, infrastructure, …. what not!

Alas, it comes at a price! The price is getting dearer and dearer every passing day!

The price is

- congestion

- confinement in ever shrinking homes

- decoupling from nature

- mechanisation

- pollution

- money is more important than time attitude

- stress

Okay, I could be exaggerating a bit here. After all, Bangalore is kinder than most cities. But hell, it still drives me mad!

I grew up in Nilgiris amidst all that greenery and beauty in a very old farm house.

Days began at 6.30 am and ended at 8pm. Work (/school) hours were usually from 9-4. And your commute took 30 minutes on a bad day… on a bicycle!

You played cricket every day from 4.30 to 7.00. And cycled up the hills with friends during the weekend! When it rained, your dad was there indoors to play chess with you! When it was sunny, you were allowed to stupidly dig up the soil to sow the seeds of a plant in your self-proclaimed, self-twig-fenced small plot of land (in your father’s farm)… no one but you had the powers to set foot on it (of course, the stray dog that your dad raised never listened to you and always freed itself of the poop exactly on your part of the land much to your annoyance!). Of course, the crop was a failure… for you dug up the place only in 7 days expecting a full crop!!! Ah… good old days!

Now that I have a daughter, I need to think.

Can I give my daughter the same lifestyle in Bangalore? A big NO is a no-brainer!

Of course, when you are exposed to an addiction, it is hard to get rid of it. Moving out doesn’t seem to a solution… at least for now.. it takes away with it the opportunities, the exposure to city living,… and yes, the money!

Then, is dual living a solution?

- a few days in the city and the rest in the country side

- an income (note, I didn’t say employment or business or entrepreneurship) in the city and an income in the country side

Am already thinking seriously on these lines!!!

New coins in my collection

Quite a few new countries added to my collection. See the list of additions below.

If you want to see my entire collection list, click here.

Home!

Am back in Bangalore.

After being jet lagged for almost a week, things are slowly on track again. Office, traffic, work, home, daughter, biriyani, catch up with friends… rinse and repeat!

I am already feeling itchy. Already have plans to do a week long Leh-Ladakh trip. Need to see how things work out.

For a couple of weeks, its gonna be just idle time.

Photographing fireworks

On July 4th, we had gone to see the fireworks display at Pier 39. It was pretty good, but personally, I was disappointed that it lasted only for 30 minutes.

Nevertheless, here are a few things that helped me photograph the event. Hope it is useful to you too.

1. Use a tripod
Since you will be photographing primarily in the night and shutter speeds will drop to several seconds, you just cannot do without a sturdy tripod.

2. Use a low ISO value
Since you have a tripod, and since you need slightly longer shutter speed to capture the firework trails, use a low ISO value.

3. Aperture of f11-16 works best for me
Wider than F11, the light at the middle could be blown out. Narrower than F16, you could have diffusion issues depending on your lens. F11-16 works best for me.

4. Shoot manual
Go to manual mode. With the aperture mentioned above, you should be able to click at 4 seconds or so and get a decent light trail of the bursting cracker. Depending on the firework, you could get a very nice streak of light.

5. Focusing
Focusing in the dark could be an issue. Few like to focus on infinity and shoot. However, I waited for the first firework burst, when it turned bright, focussed on it and then turned auto-focus off. Until I changed my focal length, I used the same focus. However, you need to be careful not to accidentally turn the focus ring to offset it.

6. Compensate for the fluorescent colors of the crackers
You may perhaps like to use a warm flourescent light white balance if the crackers used tend to emit strong flourescent colors.  Of course, shooting in raw will help you play with multiple white balance options.

7. Mirror lock-up mode with remote release
To avoid shutter release vibration, use the mirror lockup mode and trigger the shutter using the remote. You could also use the 2sec timed release option in your camera if you do not have a remote.

8. If light is too blown out even at low ISO and F16ish apertures, use neutral density filters
Use neutral density filters. If the burst happens in the top portion of the frame, perhaps a 2-3 stop gnd could help.

9. Time the burst
Note down how many seconds every burst and its light trail lasts. Try to match the full duration of the burst trail to get proper trail streaks.

10. Try to shoot when the wind is calm
When the wind is strong, clicking a picture could mean that the streak trails could be blown away by wind causing a fading light blur which you may or may not like. If you want a proper trail, try to click when the wind is calmer.

11. Turn off noise reduction in your camera
If your camera has noise reduction feature turned on, you could spend quite a bit of time between shots when the camera is busy working on the noise reduction (this is why clicking a long exposure could take a long time before camera is ready for next click).

Have fun!

US diaries-7: A quick review

Am returning to India on July 11th.

Yes, I am excited to be back home and look forward to playing with my kid. But there is a tinge of sadness too. I had a great time here. Easily, it was one of the best trips of my life. I visited a lot of places and made a few friends too. Will miss them all. I will especially miss the wonderful national parks of US and those mammoth landscapes!

This post is a quick reflection on my trip in Twitter style. Few words. A photo or two, thats it.

My 3 favorite photos of the trip:

1. Tule elk shot at Limantour wilderness area

2. Antelope canyon

3. Tufa’s of Monolake

Places visited and a one line description of each

• Point Reyes (Limantour, Drakes beach, Bear Valley, Tomales point, lighthouse, Muddy hollow): An amazing place with a great diversity and a great place for birders.
• Bryce canyon: Amazing hoodoos that can inspire your soul and a clear night sky that can transcend you to Neverland.
• Grand canyon south rim: A geologists dream. Huge. Did I just say huge?
• Antelope canyon: An awesome awesome awesome place to be in when the crowd is less.
• Monument valley: An interesting place at the right time of the day.
• Horseshoe bend: Sitting at its edge can pack you off to eternal bliss’dom.
• Colarado river gorge: Unnoticed beauty with extremely inspiring rock formations.
• Marin Headlands: A cyclists dream route.
• Golden gate: Shot to death several years ago by photographers.
• Yosemite (Toulemne meadows, Le Vining, etc): Wonderful. A big big bang bang wonderful. Did I say wonderful?
• Monolake and its Tufa’s: A wonderful and ever-ongoing love story between a certain Mr Calcium and one Miss Carbonate.
• Convict lake: Be there at 5.45 am.
• Alcatraz prison: I went to the once most dreaded jail in the world and came back! Alive!

Most memorable moments
- Cycling in Marin in pitch dark of the night. Taking a detour on Conzelman road and photographing Golden Gate in pitch dark from an isolated area.
- Walking up the Sunset point in Bryce Canyon and being wowed by its beauty.
- First morning in Point Reyes HI hostel. Waking up early and seeing through the large window. Chilly morning. Rain drops. Dreamy mood!
- Driving through Toulemne meadows in Yosemite early in the morning.
- Driving through Point Reyes, esp the Pierce point ranch early in the morning.
- Being so close to a bear in Yosemite.

3 most admired things in US
- Amazon.com
- US national parks
- ownership of assigned tasks

Random thoughts from the trip
- Absolutely love Galen Rowell’s adventure photography and his go-light-on-gear attitude. A huge Galen fan now!
- David duChemin. I knew him before, but got hooked to his photography during this trip.
- Tenting is fun.
- Night photography is way too much fun.
- VR/IS/SR can never kill a tripod.
- US has as many problems as India does.
- US media is worse than Headlines Today in India.
- We Indians respect white folk more than we do our own folk. The spillover effect of a British raj!
- When you are in trouble, do nothing. Just wait until your head is clear. Most likely, the issue would clear by itself.
- Ghana deserved to win the game. Suarez snatched a goal and got away with a penalty. A sure goal != a chance for a goal.

Additions to my equipment during the trip
- Gitzo 3541LS tripod and Arca Swiss Z1 monoball head
- Nikon TC17E II
- Singh Ray 3 stop soft GND filter
- B+W Kaesemann polarizer
- Canon S90 pocket camera
- Eureka Nxt 2 man tent

Books purchased
- Mountain light by Galen Rowell
- Picture this: How pictures work by Molly Bang
- Photography and the art of seeing by Freeman Patterson