To Trip or not to Trip ?

(Photography on Organised Trips)

Whilst prices, taxes, volcanic dust clouds, striking Cabin Crews and the World Economy may all fluctuate in both their intensity and the effect that they have on our daily lives in general we live, nonetheless, in an age when International travel has never been more affordable in terms of cost in relation to income. I am all too painfully aware of the fact that, for many, any form of travel, even the local bus into town, is almost a cost too far and takes some considerable thought as to whether it can be justified in the face of a strict budget. However, like it or not, it seems to me that, no matter how hard the times, a vast number of folk seem, somehow, to come up with the wherewithal to embark on at least one annual holiday.

At the risk of strident contradiction I would suggest that, in a great majority of cases, an overseas trip may be no more expensive than a UK based break. It will certainly be more productive in the supply of subject matter that you may not encounter again for the rest of the year. After all, you can cover what the UK has to offer on odd days out and short breaks as and when you can fit them in, but once across the channel a whole new world opens up. Yes, I know the £ is weak against many currencies but you will still find it eagerly sought after by all and sundry from the Tour Operators to the market traders of whatever country you decide to visit. One of the advantages of holding a sought after commodity is that your possession of it, and no doubt reluctance to part with it unnecessarily, normally has the effect of forcing down prices amongst those seeking to effect a change of ownership of the aforementioned commodity.

For those of us with a Wildlife Photography bent I find it hard to convince myself to settle for the newly invented “stacation” ( what sad soul dreams up these words?) when the old tried and tested “vacation” is still on offer. This is especially so since, in the long term, the latter can often turn out to be considerably cheaper.

However – all that apart – for those of us who wish to combine our interest in Wildlife Photography with our normal breaks, of whatever frequency, times, in my memory anyway, have never been better. A number of Tour Operators have sprung into being to satisfy our needs with the result that you can now access almost any part of the known world in the company of like minded souls and under the guidance of leaders whose very livelihood depends on them making sure that you enjoy your trip. “Quids in” or what?

Admittedly this does not constitute a guarantee of enjoyment since the “best laid plans of mice and men etc” but it does go a long way towards dotting most of the i’s and crossing most of the t’s. Added to this is the fact that many of the operators have run trips to the same area for many years and so have had time to “suss things out”. The benefit of this manifests itself not only with carefully chosen accommodation and eating facilities but also in an acquired knowledge of local customs, highspots and the best locations to find whatever you are seeking. I ,myself, know several localities and sites in my own home area in Spain (see article on Castell de Castells in the travelogue section of this website) that host an infinite number of beautiful things, whereas similar looking sites only a few hundred meters away are virtual deserts. The chances of a casual visitor coming across these hidden oases are practically zilch. Whether you initially find these places by accident or not you do, nevertheless, need to be in the area regularly to make sure that you are there when the “accident” happens – and this is where the Tour Operators score as a result of their regular visits. They will also have worked out the best time of year to visit certain areas since a difference of only a few weeks can be all that stands between success and failure.

There is also the old saying of there being “safety in numbers” and here again the organised trip scores over independent travel in certain areas. Apart from spreading the often considerable cost of transport over a greater number of bodies, the chances of being mugged, robbed or ripped off are considerably reduced. Additionally you get the chance to visit places that many would be independent, solitary, travellers may be better advised to avoid.

First glance at a brochure may make you feel that some trips are expensive compared to what you feel you could visit the same place for independently. You have, however, to remember that in many cases, other than the cost of getting to and fro your UK airport, you may not need to spend any more money at all since many of the trips on offer are on an all inclusive basis. Of course you may wish to buy souvenirs and drinks etc, but apart from these most other expenses are included. Added to this is the fact that from a responsibility point of view you will be virtually “stress free”. Part of what you are paying entitles you to sit back and enjoy it while someone else sorts out the myriad niggles and problems that an overseas trip inevitably engenders. No more worrying about where to stay, what to eat, how much to tip, have you got enough fuel and if not where is there some more, no more language problems and if the vehicle breaks down in the back of beyond then Jim – if that is in fact your leaders name – will fix it (or find a man who can)!!

There are a great number of Tour Companies operating and I can only speak as I find. I have always used the same company and so I cannot speak for any of the others, though I have no doubt that their continued existence is testament to the fact that they are offering value for money. The Company that I always used when embarking on trips of this nature (no pun intended) was Green Tours of Leigh Cottage, Gauledge Lane, Longnor, Buxton Derbyshire, SK17 OPA. – Phone 01298 83563, and I would recommend anyone to contact them if only to ask for a brochure. I have a collection of these going back over many years and just reading details of some of the trips on offer warms the cockles of your heart on a winter’s day.

All the above said there are several factors to be borne in mind if you are considering embarking on one of these getaways and their relevance is probably greater the more ardent a photographer you happen to be.

Over the years I have been on a great number of overseas Natural History / Wildlife Photography Tours both as a client and as a leader. The nature of the photography that one is able to conduct on these trips is often a far cry from the way you would normally be able to operate on your own and at home. A degree of preparation is normally required without which your chances of success, and retaining your sanity, will be severely diminished.

At risk of sounding like a schoolmaster I offer my own experiences and solutions in the hope that whilst, to many, my advices may sound mundane and obvious, perhaps one or two may benefit and their results be enhanced accordingly.

Most Natural History Tours, perforce, work to a fairly fixed itinerary and the leeway allowed will obviously vary from trip to trip. However, having to make advance bookings for accommodation normally dictates the time that can be spent in any one location, particularly on those trips where you are moving from base to base.

Whilst there are a number of specifically themed Photographic Trips on offer most tend to be of a more generalised nature. On these not every photographer will necessarily be interested in just wildlife in general, per se, and many will have their own specific fields of expertise and interest. Birds often seem to demand, and receive, more than their fair share of time and attention and, whilst your interest may be less specific, you may find that you have to go with the flow for the sake of peace and quiet.

Tours normally seem to consist of smallish groups of only 10/20 people but they will, invariably, cover a wide range of ages, interests, abilities and dietary requirements and preferences. Trying to fulfil your own aspirations in the face of the above can sometimes prove a daunting task. Taking into account the fact that you may never have met any of your fellow travellers before and given the diversity of personalities, quirks of behaviour and individual idiosyncrasies that will have come together in the one melting pot for 10/14 days, there often needs to be a greater than normal degree of give and take if the trip is not to degenerate into a fractious disaster.

The potential for dispute is often triggered by the time allocated to a given location. On a trip covering mixed Natural History interests each and every location is likely to appeal to one set of enthusiasts more so than to another. Human nature being what it is there is obviously the chance that at a Botanical site the Birders are going to get a bit twitchy waiting to move on – especially if the next stop has been promised as Birdy Heaven – whilst the flower followers carefully “garden” and prepare their subjects and wait for the never ending wind to drop so they can get their shot.

Another bugbear can be that on a site with a limited number of potential subjects a queue can often form at the best looking specimens leaving the dedicated photographer with a guilty conscience – and no-one to talk to at dinner!- if he takes too long and the dreaded cry of “back to the bus” goes up partway through the queue. Often when that cry goes up and everyone is back in the vehicle –grudgingly or otherwise- a head count will reveal someone missing. If you are one of the righteous ones ensconced in your seat it is more than a little annoying. If, however, you are the guilty party you will find that you can get away with it once by offering some jocular explanation based on the effects of the change in diet. Twice is pushing your luck and three times leaves you ostracised and persona non grata for the rest of the trip. I, myself, have been know to tarry over the odd shot and I well remember, on a trip to the Galapagos, that the guide made the whole group stand and wait each time until I caught up. Try that a few times and you soon discover how not to make friends and influence people!

Mealtimes can often provide a little light hearted relief. You are probably dealing with cuisine alien to your norm and there will always be at least one to whom it is not suited. The success of your meal in many countries where English is not the language of choice will often depend solely on the abilities of your leaders to converse in the local vernacular. Despite their undoubted expertise there is always plenty of room for error. It often pays to be somewhat forgiving should the need arise and it frequently pays to shut your eyes and swallow rather than inquire too closely into the antecedents of the suspicious offering in front of you.

Bathrooms can sometimes be a fraught experience. Apart from the general state of the plumbing, which can be mind bending in its complexities, there can be local customs and idiosyncrasies that sit ill with our reserved English natures. I have never yet come to terms with the requirement in many locations, such as Greece, not to put toilet paper down the loo. This is obviously to avoid blocking up the pipes or the septic tank with that which may not be biodegradable. This leaves you having to put the used paper in a bag hung beside the loo for collection by some unknown person later. I do not believe that there are too many Anglo Saxons with whom this practice sits too easily. I well remember once being on a trip to the Amazonian Rainforest where the lodge was built on stilts in a swamp and the same rules applied. To ram the message home, when we were given our “indoctrination lecture”, the guide was at pains to point out that, should we disobey the rules in this regard, then the person responsible for clearing the certain and inevitable blockage that would occur also happened to be the Chef. He added, almost as an aside, that if we were prepared to have dinner cooked by a chef who, only moments before, had been up to his armpits in who knows what, then it was up to us.

AThere are other bathroomy things that sit ill with me. As a wet shaver the habit in some countries, such as Spain, not to supply a plug for the washbasin, drives me to delirium. Supposedly some ethic dictates that you shouldn’t wash in dirty water – hence no plug. I also hate those showers where you have to hold the unit in your hand because there is no hook on the wall to hold it for you, or the one that is there has gone floppy. Often there is no accoutrement shelf either. How you are supposed to hold soap, shampoo, your alltogethers and the showerhead all in one hand at one time defeats me.

Even more so than a shower cubicle without wall mounted “hooker onto” is my intense dislike of a bathroom where, instead of a shower cubicle there is a bath with a combi tap/shower head unit but still no hook on the wall. I can never make my mind up whether to stand up, sit down, kneel down or lie down. If you stand up there is normally no shower curtain and you soak the floor. If you kneel down you can’t get at your feet and your knees hurt and if you sit down or lie down you can’t reach the shampoo and soap that you left perched on the end of the bath.

Over the years I have also got used to mine hostelry supplying shampoo and soap. Even if the soap is in such small bars that you cant hold it once it’s wet I still make sure that I use it, particularly so on a trip where you are moving around. If you are forced to use your own bar, probably of a decent substantial size, you have to return it to your plastic soapbox when you pack to move on. Once ensconced in this plastic mausoleum it cannot dry out properly and so the next time that you use it you have to fight your way through a thick layer of viscous sludge!

Enough! I’m writing this whilst on a Botanical trip to some of Europe’s major mountain ranges and I need no further reminding since much of the above is contributing to my current daily discomfort. Let us lay my pet dislikes to one side and return to the photography.

One of the biggest problems of dealing with a possibly tight schedule is that you find yourself having to cope with the conditions prevailing at the time. You cannot, normally, come back next week when conditions may be more clement and so you have to make the most of what is thrown at you. This really is often a case of take the shot despite the conditions or risk not getting a shot at all. Do not rely on assurances that you will see many more of this particular thing later in the trip because you may well not and conditions, even if you do, may be worse.

I have one or two failsafe strategies to fall back on particularly when photographing plants. If it is raining I have waterproofs for both myself and my gear and I try to avoid using flash for fear of the inevitable searchlights of reflection from water droplets. If it is windy I have a fold up length of plastic plus some light tent peg type supports to make a windbreak. Additionally I carry some spare bootlaces to either tie the subject down or tie back overhanging vegetation. I also have some large green clothes pegs to pin foliage back or pin the subject to a supporting strut if necessary. I use green ones since, often, your image can come close to a peg and a green reflection tends normally to be much more in keeping than a red or blue one.

I don’t much bother with mammals or other distant subjects in the rain since the power of modern digital technology is such that it can capture every raindrop and leave you with a nightmare of an enhancement job on your hands. A further problem with most mammals and some birds in the rain is that you end up with images of what resembles a drowned rat or a wet feather duster.

I also carry two of those “fold up into nothing” umbrellas. One for me and the camera, and one for the subject. This latter one has a spike on the handle so that, with luck, it can be fixed over the subject without having to convince some poor soul to stand there and hold it. You have to be careful shading a subject from rain since it is often impossible to exclude raindrops without excluding what little light there may be as well. You also need to be careful if shading a subject from bright sun. There is a great danger that some of the bright surroundings that fall outside of your shaded area may end up in your image. If this happens you may find that the resulting lighting contrast is too much to overcome.

Perhaps the biggest problem is accepting just how little time you may have. Just because the brochure says that there is plenty of time for photography that doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be time for you, personally, to carry on as if you were at home. You have to get in and get out ASAP. In times gone by, when slide was the order of the day, much precious time was wasted at each stop in looking for the best specimen or view. Whilst I would never advocate settling for second best there is a case, in these digital days, of settling for an “acceptable” shot provided that any shortcomings are such that they can be put right in your enhancing. The days when you were loathe to accept a flower with a minor blemish on a petal or an insect with slight damage to a wing are, fortunately, long gone. With birds and mammals there are many variables but whatever enhancement software you are using it is a nonsense to ignore its capabilities in situations such as these.

In ideal or near ideal, circumstances I would always advocate going for as perfect a shot as possible including selecting the best image available to work with. However, on a trip, you do not always have the benefit of those kind of conditions and you are often flying by the seat of your pants. My advice is to get the best shots you can as quickly as possible so that, at least, your subject is “in the bag” and then search for perfection if the timeframe permits.

If you are taking prescription medicine make sure that you take more than enough to last the trip. As we have seen recently it only takes an untimely volcanic eruption, or other unforeseen circumstance, and your trip could suddenly be extended by several days. You cannot depend on obtaining prescription drugs in foreign countries even if they are major players in the EU. Things can go wrong and it is “sod’s law” that they will. Weather, unexpected and lengthy Bank Holidays, strikes, social unrest and the ever present terrorism threat, to name but a few, can all play their part. Also take plenty of the more obvious remedies like plasters, pain killers, anti-inflammatories and germicidal cream. Your leaders will no doubt have a good supply but, apart from your own requirements, you can easily find yourself having to share what you have with someone who has come unprepared. Make sure you have a decent sunblock and “après sol” cream. Windswept hillsides may not seem all that hot but with a normally unexposed skin, especially if you are involved in a heavy and protracted photographic session, you are constantly at risk of burning and may not notice it happening.

Last but by no means least, even if you do not normally need them, take some of those remedies geared up to ensure the smooth running of your own internal combustion engine. A change in water, local bugs and beasties, and a plethora of other organisms that bear you ill will can cause a certain looseness, of which we are all only too well aware. What is often overlooked is that a succession of unexpectedly late nights and early mornings can play havoc with routines of metabolism that have taken you a lifetime to perfect. This, coupled with the all too easy mistake of not drinking enough to suit your changed conditions, means that it is as important to have “un-bungers” as it is to have “bungers-up”. Personally I have found that the best cure for the “looseness” that accompanies much foreign travel is to forgo the pleasure of all foodstuffs and beverages other than plain water for a full 24 hours. This normally works a treat and clears things up completely without ruining the balance of your digestive system. Many of the undoubtedly effective “bungers up” only alleviate the symptoms temporarily without addressing the cause so that, at best, they only delay the suffering.

Apart from ensuring the smooth running of your own internal processes it is obviously of paramount importance to keep your photographic systems flowing sweetly. In this digital era this can put you in the position of needing to have reliable battery operated, as well as mains, downloading and backup facilities. On some trips you cannot always rely on a mains supply. Personally I have dual purpose mains/battery operated downloader and disc cutter. In addition, of course, where possible, I have my laptop. I also carry several memory cards and sticks and, one way or another, I get by. Remember that you are probably going to be taking far more photos than you would, perhaps, normally do at home especially since you could well be on a once in a lifetime experience. The downloading capabilities that would have been more than enough to cope with a stroll up your local hillside in the UK will prove woefully inadequate in foreign sites where you are likely to find yourself surrounded by all manner of wonderful things and no chance to come back next week and have another go!

In closing I would only advise that you avoid the politics and in-fighting that, all too often, seem to arise on trips of some duration. Best to do your own thing, remember why you are there, and get on with it. Leave those who wish to squabble to do so amongst themselves and maintain a firm stance on the touchline. Close confinement for periods of up to 2 or 3 weeks can bring out the worst in folks and it really is best if you can stand back and leave them to get on with it. People are often not themselves under the stress of foreign travel and 2 to 3 weeks is too long to maintain a false front so it is not surprising that, occasionally, the niggles come out and get an airing.

Finally I would reiterate – do your homework, cover your options, don’t forget essential items and I’m sure you will have - and my best wishes go with you - the trip of a lifetime!

Brian Pettit