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Rant: My trip overseas is really starting to make bunny want to cry.

fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
Some of you may know that I'm currently on an overseas trip.

Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Seoul, South Korea
Tokyo, Japan
Kyoto, Japan
Waikiki, Hawaii - currently here

This trip has only managed to reaffirm my desire to travel by myself in the future.

I hate having to photograph and equally represent 30 people every single day and all of our activities.

I hate it when people don't have the decency to wait up for me. A few days ago we went on a hike, and I'm the only one carrying about 20 pounds of photo gear (2 bodies, 3 lenses including a big telephoto, and other miscellaneous photo stuff and water), with everyone else just carrying the clothes on their backs. I went to the restroom, and when I got back out after a minute everyone had left and I never caught back up until we met up at the top of the mountain, which I then had to proceed down 5 minutes later, hardly giving me enough time to take photos of the spectacular view. Hey, if you want me to take pictures of the group guess what? I need to be with the group. (Diamond Head in Hawaii)

I hate taking crappy "record the moment" shots. There is no art. I really need an artistic outlet. Just today we went to a luau and after taking lots of photos, I finally sat down to a belated dinner. I realized that the sun was setting over the ocean, but didn't think anything of it. WTH? This is inexcusable for a photographer. Have I really gotten to the point that I'm so photo-ed out that I don't even recognize the Golden Hour? I got photos of the sunset only because I noticed a couple of my friends running to the beach to watch the sunset.

I hate all the stuff that goes along with groups. The drama, people interrupting my conversations, the difficulty in planning ANYTHING, the peer pressure to do things I wouldn't normally do, the "having fun on a schedule," the differences in pace (I like to slow down and appreciate things), the disagreements in what to do or where to go, the facades that people put on, the general lowering of overall intelligence, etc.

Lack of sleep. I easily have 5x more work than anyone on the trip. I can't stay out late. I can't go out partying. And yet I feel obligated to because I'm the group photographer, and because my friends pressure me to. And this means I get even less sleep. The workload doesn't just disappear because I go out one night.

Trying to equally represent everyone in my pictures. Everyone has their own clicks (sp?). When we go places everyone tends to spread out. This means a lot of running around and a lot of outside observation, meaning not really being a part of the group, or staying with my own group of friends. Recently I got an email from a professor back at my university saying, "the pictures are great, but stop taking pictures of the same three people." What? I'm doing my friggin' best here. The guy must have only gone through half a gallery in the 98 galleries that I've already posted and jumped at such an educated conclusion.

Helpers crapping out on me. We're taking both photos and video. The video camera is my little Panasonic TZ-1 that shoots widescreen video and weighs about a quarter of a pound. I can't do photo and video at the same time, so I normally tell someone else to take video. Today we were at a luau and after taking 10 minutes of video the video guy comes back and says, "I don't want to take video anymore. My arms are getting tired. Here's your camera back." I took it back and ten minutes later some awesome fire dancers came on stage and I didn't have time to go back and find the video guy or else I'd miss the dance. So I had to choose between taking photos or video, a choice I really hate to make. I took video. Later when I got back my video guy said "hey, I REALLY hope you got video of those fire dancers." Yeah, I did. Thanks a lot. I lug around and handhold massive SLRs 14 hours a day for 30-some days now with too little sleep and you complain about your arms getting tired holding up a small P&S for ten minutes and probably also complaining about not being able to hang out with friends while doing so.

I'm in beautiful Hawaii and I can't get off a single decent artistic shot because I simply don't have enough time. I feel like I need to revisit every single place I've visited on this trip in order to "do it right" the second time around. I've just missed so many REAL photographic opportunities, and the times when I have actually gotten out to do artsy stuff I've paid massively with sleep time lost.

Then there's inconveniences that just aggravate my already gaping mental wound.

My laptop is crappy and SLOW.

Hard drives are the biggest pain in the butt bottlenecks of all time.

No "resume" function on software is VERY bad when there's an error processing 700 hand-selected files and the queue list isn't saved, meaning I have to re-hand-select all 700 files again and re-add them to the queue, only to get an error a second time and want to collapse on the floor and cry.

Extremely spotty internet service. Could not upload photos in Shanghai, in Hawaii our hotel only has internet in the lobby, meaning right now I'm typing this at 2AM waiting for my pictures to get done uploading, whereas if the internet was in my room I could actually be sleeping while things are being uploaded. It's good to know that our professor who selects our hotels doesn't seem to think that internet access is an important thing to have when we have two research projects due during our stay.

People not understanding or caring about or appreciating my hardships and my utmost dedication to this trip and to my craft.
 
Originally posted by: rudder
Were you the officially designated or unofficially designated photographer?
Click to expand...

Both. It's hard to be the only one with pro-ish camera equipment and NOT be the official photographer.
 
Originally posted by: tfinch2
I've never really understood why you were documenting this trip so much?
Click to expand...

Because I see everything as priceless memories. I'm doing it for the students, some of which may never come back to these places again. I'm doing it for the parents, many of which go through every single photo, about 7,000+ now. I'm doing it for the faculty. I'm doing it for my university who will use these photos for future programs. I'm doing it for the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students who we've befriended on the trip and have cried together when we've had to part (I'm still seriously reeling from leaving the kids in Japan). I'm also doing it for myself because I believe in doing an above and beyond job in anything I'm entrusted with doing. I'm doing it for the trip because they've never had a person like me with my know-how in the ten years that this has been running, and probably won't have another one for another ten years. They seriously lucked out with me. The other overseas trips don't have photographers, and I've heard of at least one other group that wished they had a photographer on their trip. The past photos were absolutely pathetic. Like myspace material. This is not playtime. This is drive fuzzy into the ground time.
 
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: rudder
Were you the officially designated or unofficially designated photographer?
Click to expand...

Both. It's hard to be the only one with pro-ish camera equipment and NOT be the official photographer.
Click to expand...

You can't be both you have to decide. If your the official photographer then you make people work around you. If you are unofficial then you don't worry about photographing other people constantly or worrying about the video. You went to all these awesome places but you are coming back dissapointed.
 
Originally posted by: rudder
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: rudder
Were you the officially designated or unofficially designated photographer?
Click to expand...

Both. It's hard to be the only one with pro-ish camera equipment and NOT be the official photographer.
Click to expand...

You can't be both you have to decide. If your the official photographer then you make people work around you. If you are unofficial then you don't worry about photographing other people constantly or worrying about the video. You went to all these awesome places but you are coming back dissapointed.
Click to expand...

Then I guess I'm the official photographer, BUT I'm also a student on this trip.

I get treated as the official photographer, anyway. Everyone knows me as the photographer. I don't think there's anything unofficial about it now that I think about it. Bah, at least I'm almost guaranteed an A on this trip.
 
Wow, between the last post of yours that I read in Off Topic while you were in China to this one, your attitude about the trip has went from bad to worse. That does suck that you have no time to really enjoy and take advantage of the beauty of the locales. When does your trip come to an end?
 
That's why I always suggest to people: be careful if should decide to turn your hobby into a professional. Before too long you might not like your beloved hobby anymore.
 
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: tfinch2
I've never really understood why you were documenting this trip so much?
Click to expand...

Because I see everything as priceless memories. I'm doing it for the students, some of which may never come back to these places again. I'm doing it for the parents, many of which go through every single photo, about 7,000+ now. I'm doing it for the faculty. I'm doing it for my university who will use these photos for future programs. I'm doing it for the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students who we've befriended on the trip and have cried together when we've had to part (I'm still seriously reeling from leaving the kids in Japan). I'm also doing it for myself because I believe in doing an above and beyond job in anything I'm entrusted with doing. I'm doing it for the trip because they've never had a person like me with my know-how in the ten years that this has been running, and probably won't have another one for another ten years. They seriously lucked out with me. The other overseas trips don't have photographers, and I've heard of at least one other group that wished they had a photographer on their trip. The past photos were absolutely pathetic. Like myspace material. This is not playtime. This is drive fuzzy into the ground time.
Click to expand...

Now they are priceless memories? Before you said they are crappy "record the moment" photos. If you hate those types of photos, stop taking them. If you're doing it for a purpose, stop whining so much about it. From your comments it seems like you're the only one taking this photography seriously, and everyone else just wants to have a good time. I really don't blame them. Did they bring you along as the official photographer, or do you have another purpose on this trip, and just decided on your own that you wanted to play the part?

And remember, quality over quantity wins.
 
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: tfinch2
I've never really understood why you were documenting this trip so much?
Click to expand...

Because I see everything as priceless memories. I'm doing it for the students, some of which may never come back to these places again. I'm doing it for the parents, many of which go through every single photo, about 7,000+ now. I'm doing it for the faculty. I'm doing it for my university who will use these photos for future programs. I'm doing it for the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students who we've befriended on the trip and have cried together when we've had to part (I'm still seriously reeling from leaving the kids in Japan). I'm also doing it for myself because I believe in doing an above and beyond job in anything I'm entrusted with doing. I'm doing it for the trip because they've never had a person like me with my know-how in the ten years that this has been running, and probably won't have another one for another ten years. They seriously lucked out with me. The other overseas trips don't have photographers, and I've heard of at least one other group that wished they had a photographer on their trip. The past photos were absolutely pathetic. Like myspace material. This is not playtime. This is drive fuzzy into the ground time.
Click to expand...


Therein lies your problem. You don't need 7000+ photos to have priceless memories. Memories come from the actual experience. Although a well crafted photograph is a pleasure to look at and reflect on... when you look at those photos you will just remember all the hassle you had. It was a nice gesture, but next time consider reserving certain days for serious photography... and other days just carry around a 28-105mm lens and shoot only with that.
 
Originally posted by: tfinch2
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: tfinch2
I've never really understood why you were documenting this trip so much?
Click to expand...

Because I see everything as priceless memories. I'm doing it for the students, some of which may never come back to these places again. I'm doing it for the parents, many of which go through every single photo, about 7,000+ now. I'm doing it for the faculty. I'm doing it for my university who will use these photos for future programs. I'm doing it for the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students who we've befriended on the trip and have cried together when we've had to part (I'm still seriously reeling from leaving the kids in Japan). I'm also doing it for myself because I believe in doing an above and beyond job in anything I'm entrusted with doing. I'm doing it for the trip because they've never had a person like me with my know-how in the ten years that this has been running, and probably won't have another one for another ten years. They seriously lucked out with me. The other overseas trips don't have photographers, and I've heard of at least one other group that wished they had a photographer on their trip. The past photos were absolutely pathetic. Like myspace material. This is not playtime. This is drive fuzzy into the ground time.
Click to expand...

Now they are priceless memories? Before you said they are crappy "record the moment" photos. If you hate those types of photos, stop taking them. If you're doing it for a purpose, stop whining so much about it. From your comments it seems like you're the only one taking this photography seriously, and everyone else just wants to have a good time. I really don't blame them. Did they bring you along as the official photographer, or do you have another purpose on this trip, and just decided on your own that you wanted to play the part?

And remember, quality over quantity wins.
Click to expand...

I think he meant he generally sees what he wants to take pictures of as priceless memories. Not a bunch of people posing for the camera every 5 minutes.
 
And this is why I never want to be a professional photographer. Can't enjoy something when other people have so many claims on your time and so much authority over your decisions.

ZV
 
This is why I said travel light 😉

It's a hard thing to do, to shoot for yourself and to shoot for others at the same time. Sometimes you just have to tell people no, because you can't expect them to understand that you see things at a different pace. If you can manage it, then disappear from the group for a couple hours and shoot on your own. It'll help clear your head.
 
Sounds like you're near the end if the trip, but if not, I'd just tell the group that you have more than enough posed photos and need more candids and location shots. Tell them you'll take one big group photo at each new location and then the rest of your time there will be getting location shots and candids when you see the opportunity. If someone still asks you to take a photo of them and some friends, tell them you'll do it sometime when they're not posing for the camera because it will be more fun for them to see the candids later. Then snap a few candids before you go off on your own to take your location shots.

Either that or go buy a bunch of disposable cameras and throw them at them. 😛

Hope you're having SOME fun!
 
As you described the reasons you are doing this ( for the students who won't return, the faculty, the parents who didn't go, and the school to show how worthy the trip was) I suspect that you don't realise that the "artistic piece" you are creating is a collective memory of the trip, not an individual shot. This would not be an artistic piece, but a Master Work. As such, it takes all you can give and asks for more. Be sure to take some time for yourself too!

It sounds like you're creating something you will take pride in and others (even if it's not all others) will enjoy for years to come.

Jim
 
Originally posted by: allies
Originally posted by: tfinch2
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: tfinch2
I've never really understood why you were documenting this trip so much?
Click to expand...

Because I see everything as priceless memories. I'm doing it for the students, some of which may never come back to these places again. I'm doing it for the parents, many of which go through every single photo, about 7,000+ now. I'm doing it for the faculty. I'm doing it for my university who will use these photos for future programs. I'm doing it for the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students who we've befriended on the trip and have cried together when we've had to part (I'm still seriously reeling from leaving the kids in Japan). I'm also doing it for myself because I believe in doing an above and beyond job in anything I'm entrusted with doing. I'm doing it for the trip because they've never had a person like me with my know-how in the ten years that this has been running, and probably won't have another one for another ten years. They seriously lucked out with me. The other overseas trips don't have photographers, and I've heard of at least one other group that wished they had a photographer on their trip. The past photos were absolutely pathetic. Like myspace material. This is not playtime. This is drive fuzzy into the ground time.
Click to expand...

Now they are priceless memories? Before you said they are crappy "record the moment" photos. If you hate those types of photos, stop taking them. If you're doing it for a purpose, stop whining so much about it. From your comments it seems like you're the only one taking this photography seriously, and everyone else just wants to have a good time. I really don't blame them. Did they bring you along as the official photographer, or do you have another purpose on this trip, and just decided on your own that you wanted to play the part?

And remember, quality over quantity wins.
Click to expand...

I think he meant he generally sees what he wants to take pictures of as priceless memories. Not a bunch of people posing for the camera every 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

Both of you missed the mark, but understandably so.

I think my shots are record the moment shots devoid of art. But these pictures devoid of art are still priceless memories for the students on this trip. I myself don't really require so many pictures as memories, but this is something that I want to give to the group. And just because I have a purpose doesn't mean that I can't whine about it. Having a purpose doesn't make the task any easier. I'm still going to whine about hard things especially when I bottle up all my feelings so I can function on the trip. I'd rather complain a couple of big times to an internet forum than complain daily to all the people on the trip.
 
Originally posted by: virtuamike
This is why I said travel light 😉

It's a hard thing to do, to shoot for yourself and to shoot for others at the same time. Sometimes you just have to tell people no, because you can't expect them to understand that you see things at a different pace. If you can manage it, then disappear from the group for a couple hours and shoot on your own. It'll help clear your head.
Click to expand...

Hehe, photography is strange. Ease of use increases with weight. Having two bodies is SOOOO nice because I can just switch between my normal zoom and telephoto rapidly. I use both almost constantly, and would miss many shots if I had to switch lenses.

Here are the things I have on my body every day:

Lowepro hip belt:
Sigma 30mm - great for people shots in dark settings
Sigma 100-300mm - use it all the time, almost as much as my Tamron 17-50mm
Sigma 10-20mm - use it occasionally but still quite often for those only-an-ultrawide-will-work shots
Tamron 17-50mm - workhorse
XT
30D
Portable mini hard drive for unloading CF cards on the go - Required and a godsend. I have four 2GB CF cards. I have to unload at least one card to the HDD every single day.

All the lenses I carry I use every single day, so at least they're being used and I'm somewhat justified in carrying all that stuff. I really love the Sigma 100-300mm. It is a great conversation starter 😛

And I have gone out to shoot on my own, and boy were those times great. But then I get back home at 2AM and feel sad knowing I have to wake up the next morning at 6:30AM 🙁
 
Oh man fuzzy. Sorry for bothering you with all the private messages lately 😱. Just hang in there! At the very latest, people will appreciate the job you do when they see your pictures.

Maybe if you had a couple people in your corner, it'd be easier for the rest of the group to understand. People can be quite oblivious to the hardships of others 🙁. Just hang in there!
 
this is going to sound mean but i mean it matter-of-factly

i hate traveling with people like you

so maybe you should travel alone

you are either in Hawaii, etc. to experience it and have a good time, or you are there to take photos. if taking photos of a place is you idea of having a good time, then you are in a very small minority of people and those types of people are the only ones you should travel with

i go to a place to experience it and record the memories in my mind. if an opportunity presents itself to take a picture, i might... i.e. photos fit around activities and experience, not the other way around

ill take this quote of yours:

I'm in beautiful Hawaii and I can't get off a single decent artistic shot because I simply don't have enough time.
Click to expand...

and attempt to reword it as the other people in your trip might feel:

"I'm in beautiful Hawaii and I can't enjoy this [insert activity here] because this guy keeps wanting to stop and take pictures"

when taking a picture gets in the way of living your life (in this case enjoying a vacation), then that annoys me
 
Can't wait to see your pictures, since I know they are incredible! This is a big reason why I don't tell alot of people that I like to take photos....I usually just say that I like to travel. When I just had a P&S it was great, I could carry it everywhere, and did so.

I love the flexability with the XTi, but since I got it, I got suckered into shooting a cousin's wedding...I have no problem taking photos at weddings (done 5), but my aunt insisted after she saw my pics from her daughter's wedding in the fall. I didn't realize that I would be the *primary* photographer (and expected to take all of the "classic" shots). I know it will be difficult since I will have to be in many shots, and know it will be painful to get everything that everyone wants. Maybe it would be different if I was actually going to get paid, or I could care less about the family dynamics.
 
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