Some thoughts and feedback on the "low tech" aspects of my 2015 Year end cycle - Paksan to Oudomxay.
CAMERA / PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT
I only took my Olympus OM-EM1 mirrorless camera and a single fixed focus 34mm (full frame equivalent) lens. I really struggled with this decision, and was expecting to be often frustrated at not having a wider range. Normally, I would take a 24 – 90 zoom, as well as a 35mm, 50mm and maybe the 90mm primes.
I was so wrong.
I can only think of three occasions during the trip (video and stills) when I wished that I had a longer lens, that’s 8 days of traveling and shooting landscape, street, portrait, video, all the time. The freedom I discovered at NOT having a choice was as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and my entire attitude towards filming and shooting along the route was light and uncomplicated. I never realised just how much pressure “choice” can actually exert on creativity, for me anyway.
I’ll still lug around all my cameras and lens with me when weight and space is not an issue, but in certain circumstances, where the journey or the moment is the most important focus, less is certainly a LOT more fun.
I shot 6 hours of awesome GOPRO action video at a useless 12fps because I didn’t check the settings before I left.
Smack!
SMART PHONE / STUPID PHONE
Before this trip, I bought the cheapest phone I could find and a new sim card to go with it, no camera, internet, Facebook, WhatsApp ….. oh it had a game loaded but I couldn’t figure out how it worked.
For the first day, I kept unlocking the screen to check for…..mm…..for…..well, that’s the thing, there was nothing to check? It felt quite quaint to use the “phone” function, something that had got lost and buried under whatsApp, WeChat, skype, facebook messenger, etc, etc, …….and SMS! Remember that?
Did I miss it at all?
Actually yes, I missed a lot of things, I missed having my music to listen to during the difficult times on the road, I missed having my photos to show and share with local people I met who were interested in my family and work, I missed checking my route on google maps A LOT, I missed the little bits of contact or sharing a trip photo with friends and family, I missed been able to ask people I know or Google for advice about the area, guest houses, best restaurants, symptoms of chest pain directly related to massive cardiac failure.
Was it a bad thing?
I don’t actually think so. I found out again that I have the same iTunes playlist of songs inside my head, but with superior earphones and that it’s also set to random, playing songs that I love one moment, and songs that I really am totally going to delete when I get the time, on the other. I had to describe people and places more than show, which made me think a bit more about the people I care about and focus more on the people doing the asking. I actually looked at my paper map and wrote down the names of the towns I would be passing through. I had to take my chances on whether or not the towns I passed through would have food, accommodation or shops and got surprised by some and disappointed by others.
But the major difference was that I wrote, actual real pen and paper writing. I wrote during coffee at breakfast and during a beer in the evening and before I went to sleep and once in the middle of the night. I wrote slowly and thoughtfully and at times and wildly and passionately sometimes near the end of a beer or two. I wrote on a plane, in a bus, on a tuk tuk, on a chair in a bed with a really sore head. You get the point.
After 8 days, without charging, the cell phone had only lost 25% of its charge……. now that is hilarious!
Facebook / Inside my own head?
Concerning Facebook, and here’s the thing, I realised again during the trip that only one half of the joy and fun and challenge that these trips or experiences bring me are for my own personal benefit, the other 50% is in sharing that experience with all of you. In some ways, it’s as if I have an obligation to scrounge through the garbage of reality to find the small precious or semi-precious stones that are always lurking there somewhere within every situation, usually under the wet fish, which is my attitude and then share them with you. So I probably will continue to share photos on Facebook and make out as if I am a hero, but maybe I need to add more whotos (word photos), wordscapes and pentraits along with the images…..but would anyone even bother to read beyond line 3? I usually stop reading after I see “click for more”
E-READER / BOOK
This is the one bit of technology I don’t mind defending. As many books as you like, crammed into a space the same size as an old square “Archie” comic, but lighter, with the ability to crank up the font size to granny mode without anyone even been aware of it and to top it all, a battery life that will outlast “The cruel sea”.
Win, win and win again.