Countdown to Departure: 5 Days

The overstimulation continues.

I continue packing, organizing, and preparing for my return to Meheba. It's an almost infinite process, crushed into a very finite amount of time.

It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to purchase a Superspeed before I go. Nobody seems to want to part with the ones they have. I'll probably end up renting one, which is less desirable, but I really do think I need one, so what can I do?

My film shipped from Kodak today, so that's something to be excited about. I'm going to hand carry to Zambia. Moving Pictures Anywhere told me transporting it through their service would cost about double the price of the stock to begin with. I suppose I could have purchased in London, but the extra cost, plus the fact that it only would cut out 2 of the 6 flights made it an unattractive option, especially considering the nice discount Kodak gave me on the stock to support the project.

Still have to get the temporary import papers from the Zambian Embassy in DC.

I got my pre-departure package from B&H photo. For a digital intervalometer, I just decided to go with Nikon Capture 4.2 and a 16 foot usb cable. None of the other, non-computer options made sense for the D70, as it doesn't have the port for a remote trigger release. The D70s does, but.. that's just too close to what I have for me to want to change. I tested it out Saturday night for sunset and the KFOG fireworks in San Francisco. I got some cool stuff for a first attempt, and learned a lot. The software definitely didn't act as expected (for instance, if one picture was still downloading, it just skipped an interval before shooting again - no buffering). Maybe that's a setting somewhere. I'm sure that additional practice in London and Paris will allow be to lock it down before I get to Zambia. (For those that don't know, I'm going on a 2 week family vacation before heading to Africa.)
I also got a new lens for my D70, a 24-120mm Vibration Reduction lens. I figure it will be good to be able to zoom in closer to people, and steal shots from further away, especially at the repartiation convoys.

My Aaton has returned from Abel and will be joining me in London. I had it shipped to my father for him to carry-on, as I'm going to have so much else to deal with (film, laptop, video camera, still camera, lenses). I'm going to have to check some things I really don't want to.. He is also taking delivery of the video tapes, DVD-Rs, and print packs for my PictureMate.. that's right, I'm bringing a photo printer this time. I figure I can give people their photos as thank yous. Many people were asking me to give them the photos I was taking last year, and I felt like a real jerk not being able to do it. This year I will.

Today I am also burning my last DVDs, doing back-ups, and moving data to my laptop for the trip. I am going to take apart my editing suite for storage this evening. In some ways, that's the biggest part of the moving process!

And one other nice thing has happened. CML, or Cinematography Mail List, is now going to host this blog! I'm excited that such a great resource for the professional camera community will be presenting what I'm up to. The url is:
http://www.cinematography.net/david-mallin/index.html
I'll be keeping both sites active for now.

Better get back to it.
David