Sometimes I look at my photo’s and see nothing except the image — a door, a flower, the beach. Sometimes I find the ‘Lotus Beauty Parlour’ and I smile.

I know! You’re gonna tell me the shot is a bit blurred. But wait! It was early evening and I was at full zoom (12x digital or 423mm) and the shutter was wide open (f3.3) and the speed was dead slow (1/40) and the shot was hand held. Now, you gotta admit that’s bloody remarkable. For those of you who don’t already know, the camera is a Panasonic Lumix FZ5.

Eyes might be windows to the mind but I find taking a snapshot of the rear of someone quite insightful. No eyes, no expressions or gestures to get in the way, yet you do get a sense of the scene and a sense of this man.

It was market day. Lots of people going about their business and then there was me and my camera. I reckon this is Grandpa reading her a story. Although, it might be Grandpa reading a Chinese version of The Da Vinci Code for all I know.

One thing I did learn that day — I should have brought a few more cards with me. I was getting short of space on my last SD card and had to cull — small screens on the back of digital cameras just doesn’t cut it for editing. I ended up keeping a few bad shots that looked good on the screen, so maybe a few good ones got trashed.

Very cool! This is the first color image of Mars from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Link

The last few days have been about sorting tickets and visas, buying stuff and ensuring the Panasonic Lumix FZ5 and my Treo 650 are fit. It’s also been about deciding on clothes and exactly what other stuff I’m going to be taking with me.

The last couple of times I went to India I took my Powerbook and a whole swag of other gear (tape recorder, cameras, palm, mp3 player, cd’s, cables, more cables and every plug known to mankind). This time I’ll be leaving it at all at home — I’ve decided to travel light and see if my new-found strategy (and gear) work as expected.
 

Part of the reason for the trip is to do some show-and-tell and receive a new brief from a Tibetan Rinpoche we’ve been helping with creative stuff for a few years now. Late Feb seems to be the only time he stands still long enough for me to grab. Working with him is fun, but it’s also an exercise in extreme patience and since I’m no Buddhist patience is not one of my strong points.

So what will I be taking?

Two piece of kit only — my Lumix FZ5 digital camera and my Treo 650 mobile phone. There’ll also be a few minor bits: 4 SD cards, a small card reader, one of those incy-wincy 256MB drives and a folding QWERTY keyboard that I use with the Treo. But that’s it! Well, I will need two adaptors for India and also the two chargers.

I’m really enjoying the FZ5 — is a great camera. I had it with me in Tibet last year and it absolutely shone. I mean, it was just bloody fantastic to have such a small camera that is capable of taking near DSLR quality shots. It packs a fast Leica 12x digital zoom (36-432mm) lens and it sits unobtrusively and hidden from sight, in my bum-bag.

The Treo 650 is a mobile phone and a Palm handheld rolled into one — it’s a truly amazing piece of gear. I’ve used it travelling here in Australia and in Tibet I am sure it’ll work for me just as well in India. The folding keybord is flat and small and I use it with the Treo to type stories and emails. I can send them via GSM or I save them to the SD card then email them later when I get to an Internet cafe.

The software on my Treo will read/write/save to any MS Office program and I can also surf the net from anyplace, via GSM, if I need to. The Treo is also my tape recorder, my MP3 player and a place I can store a few books to read. Which I do here and while I’m away.

I leave in just over two weeks and will be away for about a month. I’ll be in the South for the first couple of weeks and then I’m heading North to Delhi, Varanasi and Bodhagaya. It’s a hell of a life but someone has to do it…

I bought my Panasonic Lumix FZ5 camera back in August in preparation for a trip to Tibet. My wife had been there for a few months teaching spoken English at a monastery school in Ganzi and I was heading off to meet up with her.

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