Tag Archives: Travel

These are a few of my favourite (travel) things :) UPDATED.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

Don’t worry I’m not about to break into a medley of songs from The Sound of Music but I could be tempted for a suitable remuneration in which case I can also supply the free loan of a pair of noise-cancelling headphones which make excellent ear defenders. 🙂 Here’s some of my favourite and most useful things that I pack in my travel gear, some general and some photography-specific.

Anker 5-port USB charging hub. Travelled with me extensively and the backbone of my USB charging. Compact, metal-cased and takes an interchangeable figure of eight mains lead and has a 100-240 input voltage so will work just about anywhere in the world with a suitable cable. They do newer versions but this one has served me very well over the years and I don’t have any immediate need to change it.

Another Anker product, my newly acquired Anker Nano USB power bank which I recently posted about. I’ve always travelled with a USB power bank of some sorts and this is very small and light, with a second output port. It attaches directly to the phone so no cable required and is more or less dedicated to topping up my phone battery on the move. It doesn’t have the capacity to fully charge the phone but it does top it up quite a bit until one can get to somewhere where one can charge it normally.

I found a nice dedicated fast charging solution for my Motorola G30 mobile phone the Motorola Turbopower 50W Duo USB-C + USB-A Charger, As my travels are mostly in Europe I wanted a charger with a 2 pin European plug connection, input voltage  100-240V AC, 50/60Hz. Not only is this charger less bulky and doesn’t require a UK to EU plug adapter it also has both USB-C fast charge and USB A sockets so can act as an additional or backup charger to my Anker charger should I require it. It has therefore replaced both my Motorola UK plug phone fast charger and my travel plug adapter/ 2 port USB backup charger. A significant weight and particularly space saving in my travelling tech bag. It has USB-PD Power Delivery and Quick Charge 3.0 technologies.

Another nice thing about this charger is that it could theoretically be used to simultaneously charge my Anker Nano USB power bank and the attached phone using the power bank’s passthrough charging feature and still have an extra USB-A port to charge another device. Not something that I’ve tried out as yet but I will be doing so as it could be really useful in the event of anything happening to my main Anker USB charging hub.

JJC USB dual camera battery charger, I have two of these to suit different types of camera batteries. It has a short 15cm hard-wired built in USB Type A cable which folds away neatly and stores on the back, it’s small, light and works well. It also comes with a short 40cm USB extension cable which could be useful.

My chosen memory card and battery case. This one holds two batteries and has compartments for 5 SDHC cards as well as several micro SD cards and 2 Compact Flash cards of which I have no need so I keep a couple of lens wipe sachets in these yellow-coloured hinged compartments instead. Both battery types (BLN-1 and BLS-5/50) as fit my various Olympus OM-D and PEN series cameras fit in comfortably. It’s not overly heavy, it’s water-resistant, well constructed and gives a good degree of protection to the contents which is just about all I can ask of it. A slight cautionary note, I’ve added some prominent “This way up” labelling to the outside of the hinged lid as if, in an absent-minded moment, one inadvertently opens it upside down then everything is going to fall out!, I speak from experience . 🙂 What would be nice is some form of latching bar mechanism over the batteries and cards which would prevent this from happening.

Subject of another recent post, my matchbox-sized Holux RCV-3000 USB/Bluetooth GPS data logger which is so useful for recording and subsequently geotagging the location of my shots.

Lastly another non electrical item which has come in handy on more than one occasion, my humble multitool. Everything from occasionally using the pliers or screwdriver to possibly, most importantly, opening a bottle of beer. 🙂

When one only has one mains socket and not even a table to charge things on. At least the mains socket didn’t alarmingly come away from the wall when unplugging which has happened to me a couple of times on my travels, a good reason to take a USB power bank 🙂 and I suppose that, looking on the bright side of life, at least I had a chair 🙂

Kind regards

Leigh

Update: I’ve now had a chance to try out passthrough charging the Anker Nano power bank (USB Type-C) and my phone and also simultaneously charging two camera batteries using my JJC USB dual camera battery charger (USB Type-A) from my Motorola 50w USB wall charger. All seem to work well, so these are going in my camera bag hand luggage. 🙂 These are the things that I most frequently need to charge and serving as a backup to the charging gear in the tech bag in my hold luggage should my case go missing.

Anker Nano USB Power Bank

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently purchased one of these small USB power banks. I have several Anker power banks one of which usually lives in my camera bag whilst travelling which, over the years, has always served me well. I’m rarely off grid for long enough to concern myself too much with running out of power for my mobile devices, especially my camera as I usually carry a couple of extra charged batteries in my bag. The appeal to me of this particular power bank is a combination of its size: 7.7 x 3.68 x 2.5 cm, weight: 98.5 g and versatility rather than it’s charge capacity. I have bigger power banks should I need the extra battery capacity but these come at a premium regarding size and weight which runs contrary to my longstanding travelling as compact and light as is possible philosophy.

The unit has a fold out USB Type C connector and it plugs directly into my mobile phone and doesn’t add much weight so no cable required to connect the two together which is handy. it’s a firm fit but when attached I’d make a point of holding the phone and not the power bank to be on the safe side. It also has a Type C socket on the side, this socket is bi-directional and doubles as a charging port and second output port and the unit also comes with a Type C male to male cable to plug in and connect to another USB device eg. one of my USB dual camera chargers or maybe, with a USB Type C female to Micro USB Type B male adapter, my Bluetooth data logger, both of which also habitually travel with me in my camera bag.

I mentioned capacity, depending on one’s make and model of mobile phone it almost certainly isn’t going to charge a heavily discharged mobile phone battery to full power, that’s not what it’s designed to achieve, but it will serve in emergencies to top the phone battery up quite a bit until one can get to charge it normally. Likewise I can’t see myself using it very often to charge two devices simultaneously via its two Type C connections as that would drain it considerably faster. It came with about 25% charge or one of the four charging LEDs lit. I charged it with a standard, not fast, USB wall charger and it took approximately 1 hour and a quarter to charge to full capacity which is reasonably fast as I hate having to hang around whilst devices like this are charging. It also has passthrough charging to charge the power bank and attached device at the same time, not something that I will probably ever need to do with my typical usage as I have a mains-powered Anker 5-port USB charging hub that I always take on my travels but never the less another nice and potentially useful feature especially if one only has a single port USB charger. They also do a model with lightning connector suitable for I-Phones.

I’m always on the look out for ways to lighten and further compact my gear so a nifty little addition to my travelling kit as well as a nice little day-to-day unit to slip into one’s bag or pocket as and when one feels that it might be required.

Kind regards

Leigh

PS. I forgot to mention that, unlike my older power banks, when it’s connected to my Motorola Moto G30 phone it charges in fast charge “Turbo” mode same as the supplied mains wall charger which is a real boon when one need to get a good charge in quickly. As an example it charged my phone from 22% to 66% on fast charge before becoming depleted, this might improve slightly after several charge/discharge cycles. As they say “your mileage may vary”.

Follow up post to my Geotagging post.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d post a couple of example screenshots showing a track file that I recorded on my GPS Data logger when I visited Brugge some years ago. The first is from Geosetter and the second, of the same track as displayed in GPS Track Editor.

On the left one can see the list of folders containing one’s shots, select the appropriate folder and then the images can be Geotagged to the location information contained in the selected track file and displayed on the map.

On the right of the shot one can see the individual track points and one can edit these if one wishes. It also gives an indication by colour on the map of the speed of travel as well as direction of travel arrows. One can select multiple track files and overlay them on the map so if one has recorded several days of travel around an area they can be viewed at the same time.

Apart from Geotagging my shots I have a love of maps, I studied Geographic Information Systems which included Satellite Remote Sensing at University so I really enjoy viewing my travels especially on a street map at ground level in Google Earth. 🙂 To give an example, when strolling around one takes a picture of a building eg. a beautiful church and one doesn’t know it’s name but can subsequently easily locate it on the map and use it when naming one’s shot which has been useful to me on numerous occasions.

Kind regards

Leigh

Horses for my courses.

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment and tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I am constantly revising and giving a lot of thought to my gear choices, partly based on experience and, unfortunately, ever-increasingly as dictated by my physical health. Below are three of my current favourite Olympus camera and lens combinations and my personal rationale for each.

Firstly, for travel, of the three, the middle weight combination my Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mk II camera and M.Zuiko 14-150mm II “super zoom” lens. Both are weather sealed with an excellent all-round focal length range without weighing me down too much. I’ve taken this camera and lens on lengthier travels and, like my other Olympus gear, they’ve performed faultlessly.

Next the lightest of my chosen camera and lens combinations, great for shorter stays and days out where I want to travel as light as possible whilst retaining as much versatility and image quality as possible, my Olympus PEN E-PL8, electronic viewfinder and M.Zuiko 12-45mm PRO f/4 constant aperture lens. Weather-sealed lens but not camera body but you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I have a suitable rain cover. 🙂 This lens also has the useful added advantage of a very close focussing distance.

Lastly the heaviest of the three camera and lens combos my Olympus PEN-F camera and M.Zuiko 12-40mm PRO f/2.8 constant aperture lens, a lens which has achieved pretty much legendary status amongst Olympus Micro Four Thirds users. I’m a huge fan of this retro looking stylish camera with its 20MP sensor and the lens is the bigger and faster sibling to the 12-45mm lens and shares its build quality, weather sealing as well as having a manual-focus clutch mechanism and lens function button. Again, the body isn’t weather-sealed but I can use a rain cover if needs must. It was amongst the first MFT lenses that I bought and I used to use this lens a lot more on my travels but, although it remains a great lens, it is the heaviest of the three. Nowadays this combination is mostly reserved for “special occasions” and/or for when I feel I’m up to carrying the extra weight for any length of time.

Kind regards

Leigh

Rain Gear

by in Photography and tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

Along with my self-confessed obsession with lightweight camera gear goes my, borderline paranoia about keeping everything, including myself, dry in inclement weather. Okay so I guess my motto could be “be prepared” although I was never a Scout which says considerably more about me than the Scouting movement, as Groucho Marx famously said “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” 🙂 but, moving on. Rain protection is one of those things that you either have with you and the weather turns out beautiful and you’re stuck with carrying around all day or you trust to luck and leave at home and end up cursing having done so,

One doesn’t live in the UK without possessing at least one rainproof garment and, in my case, currently, three and last Winter and this Spring have been so wet it seems like it’s rained at some stage every day since about last October. Here comes the proverbial dilemma, unless it’s raining heavily when I set off I don’t want to be stuck wearing a bulky and, should the weather turn out to become nicer, uncomfortably hot rainproof jacket. Bare in mind that I’ll be on foot most of the time and therefore there’s nowhere else to store it but on my person or in my camera bag and, however small the compact pack-a-mac type things are they’re always somewhat bulky and hard to accommodate.

So here’s my solution, some while back I bought a pack of five of those disposable plastic rain ponchos. They’re sleeved with a draw string hood and elasticated cuffs so I don’t know why they describe them as ponchos. They certainly don’t bare the slightest resemblance to the kind worn by Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Western films. I can keep one of them in my camera bag along with my camera and bag rain covers and it doesn’t take up any appreciable space nor add any weight. That way I have everything with me to keep myself and my gear dry if caught out by the weather, The only downside is that they make one look like a real complete and utter prat but, when it comes to such things, I have no shame! and my trendy clothing days are, I’m sorry to say, well and truly behind me so I’d rather look like a dry prat than a drowned rat, 🙂

Papa’s got a brand new (camera) bag :)

by in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Hi everyone,

Apologies to the late and great James Brown, I couldn’t resist it 🙂 . For my next trip I was looking for another small, lightweight bag with an extra bit of storage when compared to my older Manfrotto bags. I like the Manfrotto bags as they’re lightweight, compact, well designed, well padded and rugged. Another good thing about their bags is that they do a mind-boggling range which seems to be continually changing so one can pickup their previous generation designs at a fraction of their original price, I paid £19.99 UK for my new bag. The model number is Manfrotto Compact 1 Advanced Shoulder Bag for CSC – Black (MB MA-SB-C1). Outer dimensions – ‎26 W x 12 D x 18 H centimetres. weight – 0.54 Kilograms according to manufacturer’s specifications. Important to note that the 18cm height includes the top compartment. I’m happy to say that, unlike one of my other Manfrotto bags, they have included a rain cover that doesn’t require having to detach the bag strap to fit/remove it every time one wants to use it, nice touch! as everything can get very wet very quickly whilst faffing around detaching the strap, threading the cover through and re-attaching it if one’s caught out in a sudden heavy downpour as has happened to me on occasions. I also noted that the bag’s fabric is smooth and not coarse like my older bags so water should run off it and it should be fine in all but heavy rain.

Here’s a few pictures, the first a size comparison with one of my older, smaller bags, a shot of the back of the new bag and, lastly, a shot of the bag’s main compartment. It has a top zipped compartment in which I’m stowing two rain covers, the one supplied with the bag and another for my camera with enough room left for my mobile phone and case. The main compartment comes with two dividers and I’ve packed my OM-D E-M5 MK II camera with Lumix 12-60mm f/3.5-f/5.6 zoom lens and hood fitted on its side, my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens and hood. two JJC battery/SDHC card boxes, each of which contains one spare camera battery and two SDHC cards and lastly one of my dual USB camera battery chargers and one of my Anker 6700 mAh USB power banks. There are also two small velcro-fastening pockets in which I put a microfibre cloth, several Zeiss lens wipe sachets, an extra filter and USB charge cable. Lastly as shown in the shot of the back of the bag, there’s one additional shallow zip-up pocket big enough to store my very small table top tripod and a lens pen. All the zip pockets open from the back so, when the bag is hanging from one’s shoulder or crossbody, (my preferred method as it’s less easy to snatch), they’re against one’s body, a nice feature to help prevent pickpockets gaining access to the bag contents, the main compartment opens outwards away from one’s body. The supplied shoulder strap has a nicely padded shoulder pad and not the rigid plastic/rubber type which cuts into one’s neck when wearing lightweight summer clothing and I like having a grab handle on the bag. I always like to try and accommodate a USB camera battery charging solution in addition to the charging gear I pack in my hold-luggage as, if the latter goes walkabout, I can still charge camera batteries or my mobile phone at least for a while and also as a backup camera battery charger should the other one fail or get damaged.

All-in-all another nicely designed Manfrotto bag that accommodates all the gear that I want/am restricted to having to take with me as hand luggage eg. rechargeable batteries and still small enough to fit under the seat on an aircraft. Also worth noting that, if you register your purchase online it comes with a 60 months warranty. Whether it’ll be my go-to travel bag in five years time only time will tell but for now, it ticks all the boxes.

Kind regards

Leigh

Long time, no see.

by in Corfu, Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Hi everyone, hope you’re keeping well,

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last post. I just haven’t been able to get out and get any shots. Firstly my health hasn’t been that good, then there’s the weather which, with relatively few exceptions, seems like its been raining every day for months. We’ve also had and are still repeatedly having very high winds and we’ve had local flooding. I’m also reliant on public transport which is few and far between in this part of the World and financially it’s been a tough time. So, putting it all together, there have been very few days when I’m feeling up to it, the weather’s been sufficiently favourable and I’ve had the funds, usually one, the other, but rarely all at the same time. Notwithstanding all of this, we’ve booked a much-needed short holiday return visit to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu which we’re both very much looking forward to after last year’s disastrous week-long trip to Malaga Spain which saw me confined to our hotel room for days on end with a nasty bout of food poisoning resulting in very few opportunities to get any shots or, for that matter, do pretty much anything else.

Pontikonisi, Corfu – Olympus OM-D E-M1 I and M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 lens.

Naturally my thoughts have recently turned to which gear to pack. I considered taking my smallest, lightest camera, my PEN E-PL8 but decided that, for a few extra ounces I’ll take my much-loved, much-travelled and much-trusted OM-D E-M5 II camera principally for it’s weather-sealing, faster maximum shutter speed (particularly useful in very bright conditions and when shooting HDR) and electronic shutter. The large eyepiece I fitted some years ago after my laser ops in both eyes that resulted in halos in bright light. Regarding lenses, I’m typically going to travel light with only two lenses, my Lumix 12-60mm f/3.5-f/5.6 (24mm to 120mm equivalent) weather-sealed lens for general shooting and my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 for low light/interior and evening use. Both of these lenses have great image quality and have travelled with me on several previous trips abroad as well as in the UK particularly my Lumix 12-60mm which has the useful bonus of extra telephoto reach, punches well above it’s cost and weight and is significantly lighter when compared to my other “standard” zooms. All of this along with a few small accessories: spare battery/s, rain cover, lens wipes and CPL filter in one of my very small Manfrotto camera bags, another of my best buys at £8.00 UK each. 🙂

I’ve only splashed out on one new item a new camera strap by Tarion (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0194X71JQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) for which I paid the less than princely sum of £9.00 UK 🙂 seen here attached to my E-M5 II. The strap is pretty wide at approx. 1 3/4 inches, nicely made, it’s classic styling is esthetically pleasing and, most importantly of all, it should spread the weight and prove comfortable in usage. I’ve fitted my Peak Design type connectors and buckles to the strap enabling quick release. Worth noting that the strap does come with triangle rings which is a nice touch if one requires them. It’s funny how one’s tastes/needs in straps change over the years as one’s age, gear and physical condition changes, think neck and back pain 😦 . I did notice that they show a less secure method of attaching the strap than I’ve been using for years. For anyone wanting to adopt a more secure strap fastening method, if they don’t already, I suggest looking at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_paXysiGsxs&ab_channel=ShotKit I did contact their support and, to their credit, they responded quickly and positively,

I have so many different types of straps and for that matter camera bags, which have worked well for me at one time or another but not so now. I’m thinking I should have a stall in the local market selling used camera straps and bags. 🙂

Olympus OM-D E-M5 II camera, bottom-opening leather-like half case, Tarion strap, Panasonic Lumix 12-60mm and 20mm lenses. The 20mm has a 46mm to 58mm step up ring fitted to act as a lens hood and also allow my 58mm CPL filter to be fitted without adding very much bulk to a very small, compact, pancake design lens.

Take care, best wises,

Leigh

New work: “Down by the riverside”

by in art, digital art, Fine Art, Photography and tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hi folks,

My first new work for a while, a painterly view of the River Thames at Twickenham.

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Hope everyone is doing well,

Kind regards

leigh sig 2

 

My competition entries – Voting deadline extended until 21st November.

by in art, digital art, Fine Art, photo, Photography, soft furnishings, Travel and tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Hi everyone hope you’re all keeping happy and well,

I’ve been a bit quiet recently and taking a short break. I’ve entered three of my works into a competition. I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a sec. to click on the photos below and like them on the Facebook like buttons on their website as it helps me with a chance in the competition or even better you might like to share the links and one of your friends might even like to buy one :).

I’ve never won anything in my life so maybe I’m in with a small chance in this one. One of my works did get shortlisted for the British Life Photography Awards earlier this year but that’s as far is it got.

Many thanks and kind regards

leigh sig 2leighkemp_autumnalleaves_cushion_grandeleighkemp_highestcolourstouchingothers_cushion_grandeleighkemp_plainandsimplelandscape_cushion_grande

New work: “Relics of a bygone age”

by in digital art, Fine Art, Photography, Travel and tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Telephone box and post box, Valletta, Malta.

Relics of a bygone age for blog