Month: August 2012

One of the reasons for travelling is my interest in photography. I want to see the wild places of the UK and to record my visit.

To this end I have a rather nice Sony alpha DLSR with a Tamron 10-24mm wide angle lens. The combination takes impressive pictures, some of which I’ve posted here.

One problems is carrying the camera. As a DLSR, it is not the most petite of things and the lens adds more size as well. I have a Lowe Pro Toploader camera bag which in the past I’ve carried round my neck. This is ok but awkward as the camera swings around and the weight is taken on the neck. When scrambling, it can come perilously close to bashing expensive electronics off unforgiving rocks.

But a solution was suggested to me in one of the Flickr groups (sorry, lost the reference for it). My Osprey Kestrel day sack has some hooks on the front of the arm straps. Thus yesterday I picked up a couple of carabinas and attached the Toploader to the hooks on the arm straps. That plus passing the sternum strap thought the belt hole snugly attached the camera bag to my day sack. The camera is secure but ready for use and the weight of the camera is taken on the shoulders and waist with the rest of the day sack’s mass.

I’m looking forward to getting out and trying it out and of course, I’ll post any pics in the usual places.

Life is normally routine. You get up, go to work, come home, have dinner then go to bed. It becomes unconscious activity, done without any real mindfulness. What we need is transcendence.

Travel is physical form of going beyond. You pack up a small selection of possessions, you lock the front door and leave the routine world behind for an adventure.

As the engine starts and you pull out onto the road, the cares of the world slip away. Worries about the future and past are replaced by a sense of being in the moment with only the immediate problem of navigation occupying the mind.

And once at the destination, the looser routine of the campsite takes over. Water to be fetched, food to be cooked but that is all. No Internet to distract no e-mail, facebook or twitter demanding attention. You have transcended the daily life and moved to a more relaxed, more immediate plane. You move at a pace only dictated by internal desires.

Senses are heightened by the mind being at rest. Campsites often remove the physical clutter as well, many being in the countryside close to wild and open places.

Obviously this must come to an end and the real world re-entered. But the moment remains, to be recalled by a photograph or a smell or a sound. The travel is instant, taken back to that time and place and just for a moment there is bliss.