Hi List. I have just returned from a four week shoot in West Africa on mining and various architectural assignments. I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences with the list in deciding for the first time, to shoot largely on digital capture in very difficult and adverse conditions.
95% of my work is overseas and although I have shot on digital in the UK for over four years now, I have always gone down the film route overseas, simply because I felt the working conditions on most of my assignments have mitigated against using digital capture. Given the inexorable march of digital capture and client movement in that direction (particularly American clients) it was inevitable that these conditions would have to be mastered. I never have the people who actually commission the photography, with me on these shoots. Neither do they provide any specific brief other than - just get some super pictures! But I do meet company execs on site who are charged with giving me support to achieve this, who are often quite knowledgeable in things digital. So it was against this background that I made the decision to shoot largely on digital capture, with film back up on this latest assignment. The temperature in Ghana at this time of year reaches 28C(80F)by 8.00am and by midday has risen to about 35C(95F)in the open without shade - a situation that exists in open cast mining. Although the best light is either early morning or late afternoon, it isn't possible to carry out all external photography during those times. Inevitably some of it is done when the operational activities are at their best. In addition the humidity is in the region of 80% - 85%. The conditions on the mine are extremely dusty during dry spells and very muddy after the heavy rainfalls, which mostly occur in the afternoon for about an hour. Access to the various sites is on public roads that are poorly maintained with deep potholes which creates a bone shaking journey for humans and a chip shaking one for equipment. A six hour four by four wheel drive from Accra to the first mine, for example, is a typical. The haul roads on the mines are spectacularly good by comparison, allowing 70 - 100 tonne dumper trucks to travel at speeds of up to 80 kph. Underground - the temperatures rose to 38C(100F) and the humidity to 85%-88%. After five hours underground, the sweat sloshing around in my boots filled a one litre jug. The photography involved shots of various aspects of the open cast and underground operations, exploration in the rain forest and various interior shots involving the development of the geological understanding of the region, gold pours and of course the final product of gold ingots. A major aspect of the assignments were the schools, hospitals, local community life and sporting activities, which are supported by the mining companies both financially and in kind, which involved a great deal of people pictures. Most mining companies are very active in returning the land to forest where the gold bearing ore has been exhausted. Nurseries are created where indigenous species of plant life are cultivated, including alternative livelihood projects such as silk worm farming, citrus fruit farming and palm oil groves. All of which, including the local population involved, came under the eye of the cameras. So it was against this background that the two of us travelled discounted business class with 120kg of kit. The benefit of this is of course, the extra baggage allowance, plus roughly half price tickets for extra leg room etc. The down side is that it involves a change of aircraft somewhere along the route. One prays that the eight cases of kit also make the change. One obvious advantage of digital was not having to worry about going through X-Ray machines. In the 120kg of kit were two digital cameras (10D and D60) both capable of providing more than sufficient Mb's for any eventual requirements by the clients, plus three lenses (17mm-35mm zoom, 28-105mm zoom and a 105mm prime macro), a laptop, disc writer and external hard drive and forty discs. This effectively replaced the 6cm x 6cm system of two bodies, four film backs and four prime lenses and 120 rolls of film. The film back-up cameras were an SWC, a 5 x 4 Cambo Super wide and an X-Pan, all for panoramics or very wide shots as and where necessary. 34 rolls of film were shot. I must admit a bit extravagantly and sometimes just for the hell of it! Two Nikons and three lenses were also taken, but used only once - on the eclipse of the moon at midnight! Done laying by a pool and drinking G&T's. Two cases contained the four Lumedyne flash units and back up system for interior work. In operation the following precautions were taken. The two zoom lenses attached to the digital cameras, were never removed. If I wanted to change lenses, I just changed cameras. The only time I needed to change a lens I made sure I was in a clean office to change to the macro to do a close up of a gold vein in some quartz strata. Keeping the cameras clean and free of dust on the mines was a major issue. The ten 256Mb Ridata camera cards taken were only changed inside offices. I use this size of card, because if anything goes wrong with a card, the risk of loss per card is lower. On the trip two cards eventually failed by suddenly showing corrupted data. I think the heat got to them in the end. Fortunately, I didn't lose any images and was able to complete the trip using the remaining eight cards. Each camera was kept in a plastic bag in its case together with packets of silica gel. In offices and the accommodation bungalows, the cameras were kept out of the main stream of air-con so that they did not cool down too much. At no time during the trip did they get cooler than 21C(70F). Several times on the open cast mines and in other open areas, when directing machinery, people and in waiting mode for things to happen, the cameras were out in the open getting very hot, albeit under the cover of a focussing cloth. The trick was not to panic, but let them cool slowly to the temperature in the shade, later. Other times they were shielded from rain with an umbrella. The biggest problem was the sweat running off my face into the viewfinder and gaps between body and buttons on the back. In general, the operation of the digital cameras was far quicker than film and far less exposures were made. With a bellows extension on the LCD panel, viewing became very easy in bright light. So I am happy with the digital capture side of things. So what are the downside issues. Well, by far and away the greatest negative aspect of this mode of working comes at the end of the day, when we spent two to three hours downloading the images instead of spending it in the bar with our client colleagues, enjoying recounting the day's activities over beers and groundnut soup with banku, etc! We always had to take our leave to transfer all the images via the laptop onto an external hard drive and then onto disc(s) as backup. This had its moments when power cuts would happen fairly regularly and often choose the moment when a disc was being written. Even our voltage protectors were no match for the vagaries of Ghana's electricity supply. On one occasion the laptop froze, I think because of over heating! An anxious hour passed before it returned itself to normal. It was always a very strange feeling when one deleted all the images on the camera card to start afresh the following day. I must admit to checking more than once that all the days' images were on the hard drive and CD's before I finally picked up courage to press the delete button. The upside of all this, created a very worthwhile opportunity. I was able to secure a further commission from another American client whilst out in Ghana, on the basis that not only could they see my work on a Power Point Presentation, but that I was able to write images to disc after the two day's work to send to the USA. On top of this I have secured two other assignments in Scandinavia from this client. The ability to respond quickly to clients needs is another plus in the digital route. All this was after they had been let down by another UK photographer who was flown out to recce the original job and who subsequently returned to do the large and magnificent architectural interiors with a flash on 35mm film camera job. Which brings me to another point, that someone might like to comment on. At least 50% of the work is interiors. That is where the four or five Lumedyne kits come in. I have noticed that when shooting digital capture I require about half the power of light output when compared to that required by film rated at the same ISO 100 setting. This represents a great benefit in photographing large dark industrial or architectural interiors. It presumably has something to do with the sensitivity of the sensor to electronic flash. One final point. I chickened out from using digital capture at 1700 metres underground. The humidity became so high that even the simply constructed SWC took over an hour to acclimatise to the conditions. The flash tubes on the Lumedynes took the same time to dry out before I felt happy in firing them. In the end, it became impossible to see through the misted up viewfinder of the SWC, so picture framing became a bit of a lottery. However, I got very good shots, after Pat used her helmet light to define the edges of the images. So in summing up - This digital equipment appears to be pretty well up to the task in these conditions, providing one takes the extra care required in keeping it clean and dry. The main consideration is to have two identical camera bodies to avoid changing lenses - and back up facilities for downloading. It was a hectic schedule as these trips often are. It remains to be seen whether the camera gear stands up to years of punishment, like the film cameras have done. Postscript: I arrived back in England to an email from the client in Denver, wondering when they could have the images. I think there is this perception that images can be downloaded onto CD's or hard drive before the camera shutter is fired. Perhaps that is the next stage of digital photography. One's brain is wired to the laptop and the images thought of, are downloaded instantly. Someone, somewhere in the world is probably working on it! Regards to all Norman Childs Mobile: +44(0)7831 519217 Tel: +44(0)1256 767611 Fax: +44(0)1256 767612 Website: http://www.greenshoots.co.uk =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
