It Doesn't Work Anymore!

On a recent British Guild of Travel Writers trip to Manchester, England to see the brand new facilities for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in July, the biggest international sporting event in the UK since the 1948 Olympic Games, one of my colleagues proudly showed me her digital camera, a Nikon 995. She has been very pleased with the results and ease of use and asked when I was going digital.

We got to the magnificent new stadium, which is nearing completion, and I left the writers listening to the PR person and got busy finding interesting angles to shoot. Suddenly my colleague appeared holding up her Nikon with a disconcerted look on her face, "It doesn't work anymore, what can I do?" she said.

The camera was dead, so I first told her to switch it on and off a few times, it could be a dirty switch, but this was to no avail. My next suggestion was to change the battery , so syhe did this after I cleaned the contacts, which were dirty, but it still wouldn't come alive. So my last resort was something that often works with electronic equipment when all else fails, I told her to give it a good thump. She looked aghast then tapped the camera gently, so I took hold of it and gave the reluctant machine a solid whack. It sprang to life and she was able to take pictures again.

This was one of those occasions when there would be no second chance, a situation all travel photographers face as a day-to-day occurrence. You get used to it. Which is why I always carry a back-up camera body as insurance and am constantly amazed at some of my colleagues who don't. However, the colleague with the Nikon was writer first, photographer second, whereas my priorities are definitely the other way around.

As for going digital, I look forward to doing so at some point in the future, but I know I will have to buy at least one back-up body plus another compact-type camera for a "last resort," a considerable reinvestment. I couldn't imagine being somewhere remote (like the Australian outback) without a working camera, although electronic equipment does become more reliable all the time. So film it still is for me right now, and a considerable comfort for a travel photographer is that you can get 35mm virtually anywhere. I'll even use colour negative if that's available. When traveling, I get films processed in professional labs wherever possible, then I can see what I'm getting and know then that the cameras are working okay!