Traveling for a long assignment was Re: [Leica] Re: extra photo bag on plane

[jonathan at openhealth.org (Jonathan Borden)]

Tina Manley wrote:
>
> When you are gone on an assignment for a month and are expected to 
> come back with the photos, you have to have a certain minimum of 
> cameras, lenses and film - which is what I try to carry - and which 
> weighs more than you can carry on a plane today.  And I carry much, 
> much less than most professional photographers.  No lights, no flash, 
> no telephoto lenses, no tripods.
>

After listening to this thread, and understanding the inevitable 
problems with air travel today I wonder if there might be two different 
scenarios:

1) Emergency shoot, need to get there quickly
- grab an M6/7/P or 2 a few lenses, some film, hand carry and go..
- otherwise a digital P&S if the quality of the images isn't critical 
-- perhaps that is not a reasonable option for a pro, it just seems 
that there are some small digitals out there.

2) Ship your stuff via Fedex etc. to a known and reliable place (even a 
Fedex/DHL etc site) and pick it up when you get "in country"?

Hassle, yes but I don;t think that the *current* passenger airline 
system is capable of being used to transport large volumes of 
critical/expensive equipment without it either getting trashed or lost. 
Blame this on the terrorists and the economy if you will but with the 
current financial situation in the airline industry, I don't see this 
issue getting much priority -- even though it should. I dunno, call 
your Congressman. Perhaps when they are doling out $ billions to "save" 
the airline industry they can also place some requirement that a 
minimum service level is exceeded, otherwise I don't see the public 
willing to pay extra $$ in higher ticket prices in order to get better 
service (and let's not kid ourselves ... someone has to ultimately pay 
the airport fees).

Jonathan