My recent trip to Belize was my first big vacation with the DSLR, and an undeniable slip down the slope of photo obsession. My carry-on bag basically consisted of the following:
- Rebel XTi with kit lens
- 50mm f/1.4 prime lens
- Canon SD630 point and shoot in waterproof housing
Over the week, I shot about 1000 photos, 300 of those underwater while scuba diving, and 50 taken by my dad with the same underwater camera.
The biggest surprise for me was never using my prime lens. For outdoor shooting of landscapes, the kit lens’ wider zoom was an obvious choice. And for macro work, it focuses at a closer range to provide a fuller frame. It’s one shortcoming was the high f-number; shooting in dimmer light under the jungle canopy was a struggle. Sometimes I had to resort to the flash, though I never thought to employ my flash diffuser. That begs the question of a lower f-number upgrade, though Digital Photography School’s post on Travel Photography - Which Lenses to Take? doesn’t offer any runaway solutions to me.
Another piece of equipment I didn’t use was my new 50mm lens hood. After anticipating the strong Central American sun to be a lens flare problem, I purchased it for the trip, naively thinking it would also fit the kit lens. Of course, it didn’t so a few of the Lamanai photos have a bit of flare.
Overall, carrying around either camera wasn’t bad; the only difficulty was having my LowePro shoulder bag swinging around when scrambling up to the top of the unexcavated Mayan temple at La Milpa. (I do have a waistbelt for the pack, which would solve the problem.) Having add-on pouch for a water bottle was also a life saver, though with a big bottle and no camera, the bag was a little unbalanced.
Post-processing and trimming the photos was surprisingly quick over the course of two days. I’m getting much better about making the first cut of interesting photos from everything I shot. The second cut is tougher, trimming near duplicates and otherwise good shots that just don’t add to the album as a whole.
My one disappointment was the inability to get good color correction when post-processing the underwater photos, though people still thought they were pretty neat, so I guess I shouldn’t sweat it. Next time, I’ll try using the flash to get more balanced colors. Overall, though, it was a great trip for photography!
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