Grim times bring great things.
A semi-obligatory update before I walk in to what I will describe as the mouth of hell.
End of last year I managed to write off a Macbook with water damage. A few months of rubbish with the insurance company, I manage to write off replacement Macbook. With water damage. Sans laptop, sans software, sans life. So there you go, that’s my tardy apology for lack of my 2010 retrospective and any additional vinyl updates – don’t worry, there’s plenty of them still to come.
So the main thing going on in life is that my trip to Chernobyl which I’ve planned for years has finally come to fruitition and on the 22nd of April, I will be going to Kiev and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. I’m pretty much ready to bite my arms off in anticipation – it’s probably one of the more ridiculous ideas I’ve ever had and it’s definitely not everyones idea of a holiday, but for me it’s an incredible story to tell and time to get my photographic nerd-on.
The repeat question I’ve had is “why would you go?” or – in full – “Why the fackin’ ‘ell would you go there, that’s fackin’ morbid, are you a fackin’ weirdo or sumfin?”. Simply the answer is yes, to all the above.
So photography nerd time – here’s what I’m taking.
- Canon EOS 500D
I’m fairly new in to the DSLR foray, so I’m taking my trust Canon EOS 500D with me – it would have been nicer to upgrade to a full frame sensor before the trip, but the 500D is not to be sniffed at as it’s a very nice mid range camera. - Canon 18-55 EF-S F3.5/5.6
Admittedly this is the stock lens for the EOS 500D but for day to day stuff it’ll do the trick. In low light it struggles and the auto focus is hardly incredible but it’ll do for a case of point and shoot. - Sigma 75-300 DL Zoom F4/5.6
I won this on eBay for a princely £36 and there’s a reason for it. The auto focus is shit and it won’t work on the EOS 500D A DEP setting unless you get it re-chipped by Sigma. Anyway, fuck that, for manual focus for long range, it’s nice. I’m hoping that I will have the leisure of setting up on my trip, it’s not going to be a rushed affair. - Canon 24-105mm EF F4 L IS USM
Did I drop £1400 and buy this? No, I went to Lenses for Hire, who I used for my Canon 70-200mm EF 2.8 at Sonisphere last year. This is fantastic, it’s really going to blow my mind and is going to be the lens of choice for the whole of the Chernobyl trip. Awaiting delivery of it later in the week but expect a run down of that as soon as.
