Words of Wisdom for my first big European Trip

<p>I don't see a need to have numerous cards for the camera since you should I hope be returning to a building most nights where you can download the day's shoot onto your notebook and then make a back-up on a storage SD card to keep safe .<br>

I learnt a long time ago the value of a neck strap ... I doubt if your head will driop off in the situation E Short portrays :-) The only problem maybe if you get so hot and bothered and you go to remove your pullover and forget the neck strap is around your neck and both pullover and camera come off together ... yes it happened to me :-(</p>

<p>Shoot in the blue-zone, after sunset, but before total darkness, when the night skies and light levels on the ground balance out. Use a bean-bag under the camera, placed on walls, fence-posts etc, to steady camera in those low light situations. Also use the self timer to trip the shutter.</p>

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<p>You'll have a great time. Europe is fun - it's full of Europeans - you know the ones - those folks who gave you the New World, the leaning tower of pizza, and german beer and oompah bands in the Hill Country of Texas. Oh and crepes and paella too. You'll love it. Oh and I forgot smorgasbord, shepherds pie, fish and chips, haggis and whisky, brown ale, morris dancing, morris minors, cricket, rugby - the game for men with funny shaped balls, caber tossing, belgian chocolates, red phone boxes and double decker buses, punks, Stonehenge and the Queen. But there's more than that if you look really carefully. 7 x 16 gigglebytes should about do you I'd guess.</p>

<p>This message was brought to you live from Europe (well from the forgotten bit just above England).</p>

<p>Hi Guys, Some really helpful information.</p>

<p>My itinerary: Perth (Australia) - Hong Kong - London - Liverpool - London - Bruge - Paris - Reims - Lucerne - Zurich - Venice - Rome - Positano - Amalfi Coast - Rome - Home :-( travelling soley by train (Well a plane from Australia)</p>

<p>My partner has spent months backpacking Europe so I feel confident we have taken enough safety precautions. I do have a money belt and other safety devices.</p>

<p>We have arranged all of our own travel and have booked most legs so there isnt a massive amount of freedom to change the itinerary too much.</p>

<p>I figure what ever I do I am going to look like a tourist lugging a big backpack with me so I will try to be prepared rather than camouflaged.</p>

<p>I have a mini tripod. I travelled to Chile and the US in April with one of those little flexible ones like a Gorilla Pod and hated it. Ive since bought a little metal expandable Tripod that goes to 80cm tall.</p>

<p>I wont have a backup to take but my partner will have her camera. It is just a PS but at least I can photograph Maria Sharapova in the nude with it! So my gear is: G1X, 7 SD cards, Tripod, Spare Battery and Lens cleaning kit. I am spending the next 2 weeks learning it even better with my eyes shut.</p>

<p>I have an old-style leather case and wear my camera around my neck so its always at the ready. Those fitted cases are fantastic. The Camera is ready to shoot in about a second.</p>

<p>I have been pouring through the WNW street posts to get ideas for composition as its too late to learn anything new.</p>

<p>As I eluded to earlier it seems a lot of the scenes I will encounter will look fantastic in BW yet the G1X seems to take washed out old Grey scale. I need to play with those settings. I also like the intentionally noisy photographs so I am going to have that nailed before I go.</p>

<p>Thanks for the great responses. Looking forward to more words of Wisdom!</p>

<p>Don't bother about composition ... you either have it deep inside you already or you will never have it ... Composition are merely rules that people have invented to critique others work .... take the photos that appeal to you of things you might want to remember and inflict on others when you return home. If you belong to a camera club you could explore the possibility of concentrating on one aspect .. perhaps a cathedral or castle that moves you and shoot enough to compile an AV show when you return home.</p>

<p>I wouldn't rely on the camera to do your black and white conversions. Shoot in color then convert to B&W when you get home. You should go to Scandinavia for Midsummer. Its amazing. I saw balloon flights taking off at Eleven o'clock at night in the Stockholm twilight, a farmer in Norway mowing his hay at the same hour and his neighbors having a barbecue. I was there for two weeks and it never got dark. </p>

<p>good shoes</p>

Absolutely take your most comfortable shoes..

Travel light but have adequate protection with clothes.

 

Personally, I'd bring another small camera as a back-up even if my partner had one, and leave the tripod

at home.

<p>Nice itinerary. Cannot understand why anybody would want to visit Liverpool - a post industrial city that has had money thrown at it but underneath it's still a city seeking a new identity and purpose - all that is left of the Beatles, Merseybeats and Gerry and the Pacemakers are re-creations. Your other cities are among the best in the world with no security problems. If you have the time between Venice and Rome add in Florence, home of the Renaissance, the Medicis, Banking and Accountancy - an extraordinary mix that enabled the city to act as a beacon for the development of European civilization. Walk along the roof of the Cathedral and think yourself back 500 years. In Rome get the popular tourist scenes out of the way and then stand on almost any street where you will have a wealth of photographic opportunities. If it were me I wouldn't bother with a tripod, take instead your 5D, exploit the high ISO and use any nearby solid object for steadiness. Those little advantages of the 5D will expand your possibilities for many more pictures. As everybody says travel light, really, really light - consider one set of clothes to wear and a change and just do overnight washing. In all of those cities you will have no language problems except perhaps for poor old Liverpool.</p>

Years ago I spent seven months backpacking through Europe. What I discovered is that it's really important to spend a

little bit of time in a place, rather than just pass through it. I got to where I would stay at least a week wherever I went. If

you have too ambitious an itinerary, you end up covering a lot of miles, but not ever really seeing – or experiencing –

anything. Just three years ago, I spent two weeks in Paris and then two weeks in London. The substantial time spent in

each place was very rewarding. I got to see the same scenes more than once. Light always changes, and the same

scene looks different from day to day and from hour to hour. So I would be cautious about setting too ambitious an

itinerary. It also seems that you have more than enough cards for the trip. On the seven-month trip I took through Europe,

I think I shot approximately 20 rolls of film at 36 exposures per roll. By being careful I ended up with a high proportion of

keepers. Being judicious with your shooting forces you to really look. Spraying away tends mainly to exercise your shutter

finger.

 

Although I didn't try this, the last time I was in Europe, I talked to some Australians who reported good luck with going to

cybercafes to burn DVDs of their CF cards. So if your 102 GB of storage begins to run a bit short, you might try that

approach.

I meant to say something similar to what Barry says here. In traveling I found a long time ago that I liked

to stay- at least in the larger more interesting cities- 5 or 6 days. That way you get to know the place and

it begins to feel like home, or like a friend. That to me is a much more rewarding experience than

breezing through and moving on somewhere else right away. If you don't get to every place on your list

there will be other times and other trips.

<blockquote>

<p>My itinerary: Perth (Australia) - Hong Kong - London - Liverpool - London - Bruge - Paris - Reims - Lucerne - Zurich - Venice - Rome - Positano - Amalfi Coast - Rome - Home :-( travelling soley by train</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Looks fantastic, but wonder why you goo to Liverpool and Reims. The Beatles and the Cathedral ? or family reasons.<br>

If you go to Bruges, which is surely worth a visit (especially in dim light in the evenings!), you are almost doomed to pass by Brussels, which is worth at least half a day to taste the beer and visit the Grand Place. <br>

The lake of Lucern is just beautiful with the mountains in the background (get up ver early). <br>

Venice is a dream, but get, as mentioned outside the tourist areas as rapidly as possible and walk in the small streets. Jump on the Venice's water buses (Vaporetto) - not all transport can be done in trains - to get a good view of the city. I agree you should definitely visit Florence and also Sienna, before going on to Rome (you are passing by train !!).<br>

<br>

And then, concerning Paris, get over with the tourist attractions in one day (all a must: Louvre, L'Opera, Champs-Elysées, Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame etc etc) and use what ever you have got more of time to go to the different areas of the city by bus (so that you see the street life or the metro which is faster) : Latin quarter with the university and the many cafées and restaurants, on the left bank of the river (metro station Odeon) and visit the Luxembourg garden and Saint-Germain-des-Prés; walk around in the Marais, on the right bank, and visit Place des Vosges (Metro station St Paul); be sure to find time to walk by the river in the evening from Saint-Michel to the Concorde square and back !<br>

<br>

I agree that it is a pity that you seem not to go to Scandinavia (the midnight summer dreams) and extremely friendly people that all speek English for sure, and neither Southern France (Aix en Provence, Marseille, Avignon...), not to mention Spain, Portugal and Greece or the many interesting places in Eastern Europe. <br>

I'm sure you will plan for a second trip to Europe after having seen, what you are already planning.<br>

Take care of night-trains ! Pickpockets don't sleep !<br>

Don't forget to eat the local food from the markets and the small restaurants and cafées, and shun all thoughts about junkfood.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Cannot understand why anybody would want to visit Liverpool</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I don't understand why people book extensive tours and only visit large cities and towns!</p>

<p>+1 Florence<br>

-1 Reims:<br>

No disrespect to the "Rémois" (my wife is one) but you're better off spending more time in Paris, visiting Versailles or getting some extra days to visit Florence. Reims' Cathedral is nice but unless you're a real history buff, you'll get enough Cathedral-seing in Paris already. Unless of course you want to visit some Champagne makers (outside of Reims)</p>

 

<p>Re. backup:</p>

<p>I always wondered if taking a small USB hard drive AND a 64GB USB flash drives to use as a back up for 1 or 2 SD cards wouldn't work?</p>

<p>I never tried it but I imagine you can find easy access to computers (hotels, cybercafés) where you can plug your camera's USB cable as well as one of the USB drives and do your transfers every evening or so. I personally would hate to spend any $ on a netbook (just my personal opinion). </p>

<p>As for the equipment back-up for the Sharapova shoot (!): in a pinch you can also buy SD cards or a good camera in any one of the cities you're visiting! VAT-free, it might end up cheaper than Australia (home?)</p>

 

My my questions ended up sparking more debate on where to visit!

 

Liverpool because my partner has work there and in Bruge also. I have 5 nights in Bruge while she is at a conference so I

have plenty of day trips including Brussels.

 

It all comes down to budget and time and things I have always wanted to see. I could spend years there but I have work

and a budget! Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Prague, turkey, greece, croatia, Germany.....there is so much to see but

unfortunately I can't. Now I all sad...

<p>Don't worry about (not) getting around with English, I haven't been to Italy myself but even there you'll probably find a lot of english speakers, and you should have no problem at all in any of the other cities on your itinerary. Except for the fact that genuine English can be very hard to understand if spoken by genuine locals in some UK cities :)</p>

<p>When in Bruges, set aside a day to visit Gent (although the main station there is an unholy construction site and has been so for a decade now) and take Tram nr 1 to the historic city center & back. As a formerly industrial city it's less quaint than Bruges but more boysterous and walkable than Brussels. July 14-23 will be "Gentse Feesten" which means the whole city eats and drinks itself to oblivion 24/7 for ten days straight, with lots of street performances while almost every non-entertaining kind of business remains closed shut for the duration of the rolling good times.</p>

<p>When looking for food, check out the small restaurants with just a few tables before considering the big places (even if those have loads of people) - the food is likely to be better+fresher and the service less slow in the smaller places. Take note also that service will be slow even if it's fast - by local standards. Except maybe in Zurich where you'll want to try a german-style "Brauhaus" with everybody sitting shoulder to shoulder at 100 or more tables, and beer+food supply running on the basis of efficiency rather than the chef's gastronomic/artistic whim & fancy.</p>

<p>Don't bother with hotel breakfasts but ask around about the best local fresh bakeries and go eat there, in many cities there's one on almost every corner. Also ask locals (eg in the bakery) about the best money changers, the ones recommended by hotels and/or at transportation hubs almost always have the worst rates. Shop on fridays and on saturday mornings for weekend supplies, closing hours differ from shop to shop and place to place but grocery/commodity shops often close surprisingly early on weekdays and all day sunday (or monday!)</p>

<p>Note also that quite often you'll need to enter the pin code of any bank cards you plan on using there, in many places your signature and/or ID will not be considered sufficient to authorize credit card payments (and I do mean credit cards as well as any debit/cash cards you might bring). Don't forget to tell your bank(s) that you'll be using your card(s) abroad, or they might block it after the first time you use it.</p>

<p>Be prepared to contend with tiny restrooms & highly dubious plumbing in many local bars & restaurants. I'm writing this as a belgian who got used to american standards of sanitary spaciousness and dependability & now has an even harder time fitting into the miniature cubicles back home. And yes, do watch out for pickpockets & con artists, especially in trains, subways and their respective stations - and especially when traveling with backpacks or luggage. For road trips in US deserts I definitely bring and use my biggest cameras and lenses, but in european cities a good p&s is far easier to carry along all day, and much less targetable by muggers whenever you're using public transportation or exploring on foot.</p>

<p><em>"Cannot understand why anybody would want to visit Liverpool"</em><br>

In general I find places off the tourist trail are much more interesting than the places on it, but I travel to meet people, so to each his or her own. I was born in Liverpool but left when I was zero and have never been back. It's on my list for next year. </p>

<p>Hey thanks guys. Loving the advice.</p>

<p>Can you see any flaws in the list of equipment I am taking? I know I can purchase everything there but I like to be prepared. I do like the netbook idea but I also loke the idea of having a NEtbook also...Hmmm</p>

 

<p>Nothing to add on equipment George except that if you start to run out of cards, you can always buy more. A short train ride from Brugges is Knokke, an upmarket, Belgian seaside town. It's the North Sea, not the Med or the Gulf but I have got a lot of good pictures there. Regarding Brussels, while it is the capital of Belgium, it is possibly the most drab and boring capital in Europe. Instead visit Antwerp, about 30 minutes on the train and a vibrant, picturesque centre of commerce and entrepreneurship. If you have more time, which you probably don't have, visit Luxembourg City and the Grund where you will use up a whole card and then drop down to the Mosel, one of the prettiest rivers in Europe, hire a bike and cycle along the cycle way. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Regarding Brussels, while it is the capital of Belgium, it is possibly the most drab and boring capital in Europe. </p>

</blockquote>

<p>Robert, I don't know how you got that impression. For others it is animated and cosmopolitan. Go to the Luxembourg Square after five and during the evenings, go to Sablon for the cafées, go to the Grand Place, Rue Boucher and the Galerie de la Reine for the restaurants and medieval buildings - and the tourists, walk around in the quarter around Place Saint Catherine for the fish restaurants - and you will find not only animation but innumerable occasions of shooting. <br>

That is not to say that Anvers, Gent or Knokke-Heist are not highly recommendable destinations, especially, if you are staying nearby in Brugge and reach them by train. Surely the city of Luxembourg is worth a visit too, but difficult to reach from Brugge.</p>

<p>I've been to Europe many times. Here are some general things I've learned over the years</p>

<ul>

<li>Many cities have an old section of the city - but that depends - London got got wiped out by fire, others were destroyed by WW2 bombing. The oldest sections of the cities generally great locations for shooting pics. If not the major city, ask around sometime an outlying city you can reach by train. For example - London doesn't have a trully old section, but a quick train ride to Canterbury and you have a large section of the city that dates back to the 1400's. Prague was virtually untouched by the bombing during WW2.</li>

<li>Make sure you take a tripod, gorillapod, something that will allow you to take night shots</li>

<li>Either have some method to offload your memory cards (laptop with external HD) or bring lots of extra memory cards. You will shoot way more pics than you thought you would</li>

<li>Each city has the well known tourist destinations - Parliment, Eiffel Tower, Coliseum, etc. They are always crowded, hoards of people taking photos, etc. Either research before, or ask locals, where the 2nd tier, 3rd tier places are. Just as picturesque, lots less people.</li>

<li>Don't forget to take pictures of the "mundane" - people, simple architecture, street musicians, doors (each city/country can have a unique style).</li>

<li>Most cities have an area where the buskers (street performers) hang out. It's a great opportunity for taking pics of people.</li>

<li>City/Village Markets are great for taking photos - lots of characters, bold colors, etc.</li>

<li>In terms of safety, theft, etc. It varies by city, areas within the city, etc. (just like any place in the US). Ask around in terms of what places you should avoid.</li>

</ul>

<p>Examples:</p>

<ul>

<li>People : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudorapmadoc/sets/72157629845415087/</li>

<li>Doors : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudorapmadoc/sets/72157629675405755/</li>

<li>Buskers : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudorapmadoc/sets/72157629309279714/</li>

<li>Barcelona : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudorapmadoc/sets/72157630048815558/</li>

</ul>

<p>'<em>Robert, I don't know how you got that impression. For others it is animated and cosmopolitan.</em>' <br>

Anders, It's interesting how one sees different slices of places that one visits. I used to class Stockholm in this category; I had visited many times on business but of course I trod quite a narrow path of hotel, office, restaurant. It was only when I went as a tourist and visited some Swedish people that I knew, that i got a completely different and enjoyable slice of the city.<br>

Perhaps I made too many business visits to Brussels. Agreed Lux is a bit far from Brugges and while it is only 200 kms from Brussels the train still takes an awfully long time. Today, by the way, I was in Arlon, for the market.</p>

<p>You are right. I have visited many, many cities in the same way as you, on business trips.<br>

Arlon is a surely worthwhile. Have you been to Mechelen too, for the market and the Cathedral ?</p>

<p>Just a few points, which like all others reflect the writer's taste rather than attempting to predict yours.</p>

<p>In Belgium, here's another vote for Brussels as boring. Bruges is worth about two/three days as a first time visitor- its really very nice and rather photogenic but the centre is walkably small. So you'll need somewhere else to go. Ghent is a thought but only for the day since the old part is not very big. Antwerp is another candidate. </p>

<p>It is absolutely possible to see the best of Switzerland by train but visiting Zurich and Lucerne is not IMO the way to do it. They are pleasant enough cities but they aren't close to the best mountains. Meanwhile staying in Interlaken (if not Grindelwald and/or Lauterbrunnen, all accessible by train), gets you right onto the mountain railroads (BOB) and the excellent network of lifts up and down the Bernese Alps. If you only see one thing in Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland should be it IMO.</p>

<p>I live close to London and regard it as my city. I like living here and the general restaurant/bar/theatre/gallery scene and there are some great walks along the river in particular. But I don't photograph in London( well not unless I'm getting paid to do so) and it doesn't do it for me the way that say Hong Kong , NYC and Paris do. There's plenty of opportunity for street work though, albeit that in the tourist centre you'll be photographing tourists. But for me, if I were coming all that way and wanted to get lots of photographs, I'd be looking at day trips to outside the very centre. Locally, Richmond and its river and park, Hampstead and the Heath, Greenwich, make a lot of sense and not so far away that they eat up your day travelling. Within Central London IMO spend time on the streets of Soho, in the little lanes of Chelsea, and visit Borough Market and the area around. As mentioned above there is no medieval quarter in London.</p>

<p>One final point-if you said when this trip is happening I missed it and I hope its not during or around the Olympics. </p>