LTL SLR

On our trip throughout the south of Ireland, we stopped in Cork for an hour and a half lunch. Emilee and I were still pretty full from breakfast so we decided to do some shopping instead of eating. Less than a minute after we stepped off the bus we saw a shop that peaked our interest. The sign above the door was canary yellow, and the name, 'It's a Deal!' was lettered in candy apple red. An assortment of kitchen goods and crystal decorations sat in the window, and behind them you could see that the shop was packed with tons of random merchandise.

We browsed around and realized it was basically a garage sale in a storefront. All the prices were on little yellow stickers with initials of who the seller of each item was. Behind a couple bins of records was a cabinet housing a half dozen film cameras. Most were just simple point and shoots, but there were two SLRs. One of them was black and looked very similar to my Minolta X-700, but it had a large, strange looking flash unit attached. I don't remember what the brand was, but it was definitely some European one I'd never heard of before. The body was priced at €20 and the flash was €15-20. It was a really cool camera, but €30-35 was a little too steep for me right now, so I turned my attention to the other SLR.

It was a silver Praktica LTL-3. I knew nothing about Praktica—I'd never heard  of it before then—but the design of the camera was so interesting. Instead of the shutter button being on the top of the camera near the film advance lever and the shutter speed wheel, it was on the front of the camera just to the left of the lens (if you're looking at the front of the camera; to the right if you're taking a picture). Another interesting thing about this camera is that it's a screw-mount lens, meaning that the lens actually screws into the body instead of twisting in. It takes about 4-5 full turns to get the lens attached rather than the 1/4 turn required of normal lenses. I asked one of the guys working at the shop about it, and he said, "It's German, I think. The guy I bought it from told me they're practically bomb-proof." How cool is that?

Even though the light meter wasn't working, I bought the Praktica for €20. Once I get a new battery, I'm assuming it'll work just fine since the rest of it seems to be in really good condition. Later I did some research and found out that what's in the camera now is likely a mercury battery, so that's awesome... I'll have to figure out how to dispose of it properly. But I can get a new, non-mercury battery in the States for $10. I also found that Prakticas were made in East Germany from 1970-1975. Since mine's an LTL-3, it has to have been made in one of the later years (there was an LTL and LTL-2 before the 3 came out, each with only slight changes). This puts my camera collection up to 11!

Walking the Country Roads of Ireland

When we go out taking pictures (shooting), we mostly just walk along the roads leading out of Louisburgh. Some have sidewalks but most don’t so you end up walking on the road itself. This can be a bit nerve wracking until you get used to it. The roads are narrow and the cars fast.

It’s a good idea to take at least one other person shooting with you. That way they can keep watch as you take pictures and vice versa. Your ears tune themselves to pick up the frequency of engines off in the distance, and your mouth becomes habituated to warn, “Car!” once you see it rambling over a hill. Waterproof shoes are a must as just stepping to the edge of the road isn’t always enough; occasionally you’ll need to tramp into the soggy, grassy shoulder.

At first this kind of thing really frightened me, but I got used to it within a couple days. We had one experience last week, though, that had my heart racing and adrenaline pumping. Emilee and I were on one of our usual photo excursions walking up a very narrow uphill road when we heard the tell-tale sound of a car approaching the crest from the opposite side. Only it didn’t sound like a normal car. It was much louder and a lower pitch, and that could only mean one thing: a truck. As it materialized at the top of the hill, Emilee and I looked at each other. Her face mirrored the “oh shit” look I knew was painted on mine. Had we been closer to the foot of the hill we would have jogged back down to a wider road. But we were more than halfway up the hill and there weren’t any driveways nearby so our only option was to just stand on the tiny shoulder and let the truck pass us. So we stepped over onto the grassy shoulder only to realize that there was also a trench on that side of the road. It was about a foot wide, but I couldn’t see how deep it was; thee was definitely water at the bottom, though. So there we are, standing on a strip of grass ten inches wide with a truck approaching on one side and a trench on the other. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place—or should I say a truck and a deep place.

The driver saw our predicament and tried to drive as close to the other shoulder as he could, but that’s not exactly possible when the truck is nearly as wide as the road itself. It was so close to us that I wouldn’t have been able to fit a camera between my face and the side of the truck. Maybe four inches, six tops. It would have been a cool picture had I thought of my camera at the time (instead my inner monologue was more like, “Fuck. Don’t move. Breathe. Stay still. Shit. Shit. Shit. Holy shit. Breathe. Calm down. Whatever you do, don’t move. Breathe. It’s okay. Almost done. Breathe.”). Once the back bumper had passed us, we breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief but stayed frozen in place for a moment. When we were finally capable of moving again we booked it up the hill and down the other side. There was no way in hell we were going to get caught on that road with another truck. I was scared shitless at the time, but now—less than a week later—I just laugh about it.

Dealing with the Weather while Shooting in Ireland

Ireland’s green landscapes are amazing for photographers, but lots of greenery means lots of rain. And lots of rain can be frightening to photographers who have spent hundreds to thousands of dollars on their camera equipment. But you shouldn’t let a little rain shut you up indoors—this is Ireland after all.

One thing essential to photography in Ireland is a good camera bag. You want to make sure you have something that is waterproof so water won’t leak in while you’re walking, but having something really bulky can be a real pain in the ass. I have a few different bags in various sizes—a largebackpack, a standard Nikon bag, and a small holster—and I decided that the smallest would be the most practical for me while I travel because I like to bring along a water bottle, some basic medicines like ibuprofen and Benadryl, a snack, and some other miscellaneous things when I shoot. So for me the smallest was the best because I can pack it away in a messenger bag with the rest of my stuff.

When choosing what bag to bring, think of what other gear you’ll want while there. Do you need an extra lens? Room for a battery charger in the bag? Space for extra memory cards? Lens cleaning supplies? It’s important to find a bag that fits everything you’re taking, but try not to get a bag so large that it leaves you with a lot of extra space. If you do you’ll regret your purchase after lugging it around day after day.

Some bags have zippers, some have clasps, some even have both, but which is best for dealing with the rain? Each type has their advantages…and disadvantages. Zippers allow your bag to fully close, but unless the zipper is really good, it may not be waterproof and might let some drops of water through in a downpour. Clasps allow the top of your bag to lie flat against the sides of the bag, but if you have something in the bag taller than the sides the top won’t shut all the way, leaving gaps open to the elements. Having both zippers and clasps seems like the perfect solution, but it comes at the cost of time. If you’re caught in a sudden downpour, you’ll be fumbling to undo the clasps and open the zipper while your camera sits in the rain. My favorite kind is zippered, and even though I know the risk, I have never had water leak through. Which type you have should depend on your shooting style, how full you pack your bag, and how quickly you can move things around.

Emilee and her camera baby--she has
yet to name it

You should also consider the clothes you’ll wear while shooting. A zip-up hoodie or jacket is a great way to protect both you and your camera from the rain. You want to wear enough layers that you won’t be cold even if you’re wet. It’s extremely helpful if your outermost layer repels water because a soaked coat will not only make you miserable, it’ll weigh you down, too. Zippered hoodies and jackets are much better than pullovers because if it suddenly starts raining and you don’t have time to put your camera in the bag, you can slip it between your shirt and outer layer and then zip it up to protect it. Yeah, you’ll look kinda strange but it works—you might even look pregnant like my friend Emilee when she does this.

Definitely consider your shoes before you go. Waterproof shoes are a must! Because Ireland gets a lot of rain, patches of grass are often soggy, and tramping around in wet shoes is just no fun (and makes for stinky feet!). Hiking boots are a great choice not only because they’re nearly always waterproof, but also because they go higher up on your ankles. Depending on where you are, you might be trodding over uneven ground or along rocks, so ankle support is nice, especially if you’re like me and have weak ankles.

You might want to throw a hat and gloves in your bag for colder days. You don’t always need them, but it’s nice to have them there. Hoods can work as a substitute for hats, but they tend to blow down in the strong winds that the west coast has been experiencing, and they can get in the way of your peripheral vision. With the kinds of roads you’ll be walking, believe me, peripheral vision is necessary! Normally I would say mittens are fine, but for photography purposes they’re a poor substitute for gloves. Mittens will leave you fumbling around trying to press buttons and turn wheels to adjust your settings, but gloves give you almost a full range of motion.

Now for a couple miscellaneous things that would be helpful to throw in your camera bag. A lens cleaning cloth. Obviously rain accumulates on things, and it is important to keep your lens clean of droplets otherwise they’ll blur areas of your image and there’s no easy way to fix that in post-production. A plastic rain sleeve for your camera.  They can be a little awkward to use, but it’s the best way I’ve found to protect your cameras for those times when you absolutely HAVE to get the shot. The one I have even has a hole for the view finder, so you can take the eyepiece off your camera, put the sleeve on, and reattach the eyepiece over the sleeve; this way you don’t have to keep readjusting it when you or the sleeve move. An alternative to this is a plastic grocery bag. Put your camera in the bag and tear a hole in the bottom just big enough to fit the lens through. Don’t put the whole lens through, just the end. I haven’t used this method, and you should do it with great care: grocery bags are thinner than a rain sleeve and are more susceptible to tearing.

Of course, you should use your best judgment when shooting in rain. If it’s a light rain, I will usually take my camera out for a few shots and then zip it back up under my jacket. But if it’s heavy rain, I won’t even take my camera out of the case. Watch the clouds and if they get dark, it might be a good idea to put the camera away entirely. Cameras are built to stand up to a certain amount of moisture, but it’s best to not push your limits too far or you might have to shop for a new camera.