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06/13/2007 10:15:42 PM · #1 |
Ok I am going to Africa. It has been 2 years now I have been working on this project and June 29th we go.
village galleries.
It all started with a conversation over lunch, about wanting to do something more with our cameras..
We plan to bring 24 digital cameras to the Maasai in Tanzania, teach them how to use a camera, and help create galleries that will involve storytelling in the villages. Everything looks in place, but I am sure I will have many surprises along the way.
We ran a successful fundraiser, and hope this whole thing will grow when we come back, eventually looking into trying to build a cultural center.
Two reasons for this post, one was simply to let people know about the project.
The second is to gain any insights from fellow members.
I do have one direct practical question..what about portable storage for my personal use. Those epson photo viewers look great, but are insanely expensive. Thought about the lacie rugged all terrain but they too are very expensive (we will have access to laptops that we are using there...I may not get to use one for personal storage though). Thought about just bringing any external hard drive, hooking it up to the laptops, or maybe even a photobank.
I am all over the map on this one...any insights would be appreciated. Cost is an issue. |
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06/13/2007 11:03:45 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by bucket:
We plan to bring 24 digital cameras to the Maasai in Tanzania, teach them how to use a camera, and help create galleries that will involve storytelling in the villages. |
Sounds like quite a project, I look forward to seeing the results.
As for your storage needs, if you are sure that you will have access to laptops then I would go with external hard disks. They are cheep enough that you can likely have two. I am paranoid about data loss and always like to have my data in at least two places at once. When I copy from card I copy to two drives, one in my machine and the other in a NAS device. When I archive I copy to two dvds of different brands. I'd hate to think I traveled to Africa and held all my photographic eggs in one basket.
Message edited by author 2007-06-13 23:04:35. |
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06/13/2007 11:34:53 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by bucket:
The second is to gain any insights from fellow members. |
You sure they are interesting in participating this project? The Maasai I met were nice folk, but they live the lifestyle they live because they want to. Some of the tribes actually don't want outside influence, although some of them welcome the flow of money into their village from their sharing their culture with the tourists.
I'm curious if you've spoken with Lynn ( ellamay) who arranges trips every year to Kenya including the Maasai Mara. Last year I went to Kenya with her, 16 days, shot 4600 images, filled 23 GB of my 40 GB Epson. I trusted that the images got transfered since I could actually see them. One guy in our group brought his laptop and 2 USB hard drives, but to me that's too much weight.
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06/13/2007 11:58:39 PM · #4 |
Alright... "You were going to Africa"
Sorry - still delirious from last night's madness! |
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06/14/2007 12:27:50 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by smurfguy:
Alright... "You were going to Africa"
Sorry - still delirious from last night's madness! |
Crap - that's exactly what I clicked on this thread to do.
skeery...
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06/14/2007 04:40:28 AM · #6 |
Sounds like an interesting project.
The external HD is a good cheap option if you are sure that you will only need to make transfers when you have access to a laptop. It probably needs to be combined with a decent quantity of CF cards.
Portable HD is necessary if you want to make transfers from cards on the move. A screen is reassuring in this case to ensure that images transfer cleanly (and also lets you preview images on the move). There are a lot of options.
If it helps, I was pleased with my choice of an Archos portable media player (I have the AV560). I can plug in a card reader and make transfers while on the move. When I am at home, the Archos works as a digital video recorder - I use it regularly for taping tv and replaying it on the tv or watching it remotely. This way I don't have money tied up in a device that I only rarely use.
Have a great trip.
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06/14/2007 07:06:17 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by _eug:
Originally posted by bucket:
The second is to gain any insights from fellow members. |
You sure they are interesting in participating this project? The Maasai I met were nice folk, but they live the lifestyle they live because they want to. Some of the tribes actually don't want outside influence, although some of them welcome the flow of money into their village from their sharing their culture with the tourists.
I'm curious if you've spoken with Lynn ( ellamay) who arranges trips every year to Kenya including the Maasai Mara. Last year I went to Kenya with her, 16 days, shot 4600 images, filled 23 GB of my 40 GB Epson. I trusted that the images got transfered since I could actually see them. One guy in our group brought his laptop and 2 USB hard drives, but to me that's too much weight. |
Thanks for all the input. We have been formally invited by the Maasai. A long story, but essentially they are looking to the future, and trying to combine formal and informal education. Evry part of this project has been done in consultation with the Maasai directly. We are co-ordinating through a woman working for an NGO in Tanzania. I have even been part of a conference call with one of the Maasai representatives.
Thanks again for the input. |
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06/14/2007 07:15:59 AM · #8 |
| I recently met the guy who wrote this about an encounter with a rather nasty group of 3 (armed) Maasai on a road trip from the UK to Cape Town. Quite a tale... |
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06/14/2007 07:17:45 AM · #9 |
sounds amazing. i have no input on the storage side of things, sorry. jsut don't do what i did - share with massai warriors a tuna and three bean salada sandwich - fish is completely taboo. one was polite and ate it, the other stood awkwardly until his friend finished. i'm sure the one who ate was slapped on the head when they were out of site.
(we were having a picnic by the side of the road. they came down a path, stopped to say hello (the only word we had in common) and we offered to share our lunchwith them. we only found out later that fish is taboo. oops)
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06/14/2007 09:10:33 AM · #10 |
| I love my flashtrax. I can download to it while still snapping with another card (takes CF cards directly). I can verify the downloads before formatting the card, and it downloads pretty quick. Battery use is pretty good but not great. I would definitely carry a car converter to charge the battery while driving. |
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06/14/2007 09:44:21 AM · #11 |
I'm off to peru in 2 weeks and i am taking my laptop - just bought a 160GB external HD and i have another 40gb external for backup of the more important stuff (i'm there for 3 months so i doubt 40gigs will get everything). There is 20gigs on the laptop as well which will have some use. Feeling fairly confident that it will suffice, have a 512 ultraII a 2gig exIII and a 4gig exIII - so i can probably leave the laptop behind when going out for the day. Fairly barebones (another 160gig drive would make me feel a lot more secure i suppose), but should be ok.
I did look at the portable storage stuff but decided it was too expensive... i paid £70 for the 160GB and as i remember some of the fancy media storage thingeys are a lot more than that (and dont have 160gb either), i would recommend getting two hard-drives and duplicating. And so you cater for not having access to the laptops 24/7 then get a good amount of memory card storage too (i'm thinking of getting another 4gig card - i shoot in raw) |
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06/14/2007 09:56:57 AM · #12 |
| I prefer the portables with a screen so I can verify the transfer. They are a little more expensive than the ones without the screen but what price do you put on peace of mind? |
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06/14/2007 10:43:08 AM · #13 |
How wonderful. Hasn't  gsal taken images in their tribe?
I can't wait to see what transpires. Now go get all of your shots. ;~D |
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06/14/2007 10:52:02 AM · #14 |
Not to the lines of answering any question, but sharing something similar a friend of mine started few months back.
//www.linesofgrey.org/
and here is her portfolio
//photo.net/photos/Suchitra |
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06/14/2007 11:41:22 AM · #15 |
the epsons IMO are truly the best device. If you cannot afford to buy one, maybe you can borrow one? They are easy to keep the dust away from even if you are in the vehicles. A laptop is also a possibility.
I hope with the cameras you are bringing computers, a life time of batteries, and flash cards for the masaii otherwise there ability to use them will be short lived. None the less I think it would be very cool to see the images they come up with. I know some of the Masaii are quite up with modern things and some are still very traditional. I assume your group is a bit more up with technology.
All the best with your trip it sounds very interesting, what is the NGO you are working with? |
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06/14/2007 05:41:34 PM · #16 |
Fantastic! Have a great trip...
Message edited by author 2007-06-14 21:33:22. |
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06/15/2007 09:02:37 PM · #17 |
Will you have electricity?? A generator? Solar? Bring a gazillion batteries and chargers. Everyone can spend hours looking at the images on the camera screens, uses a lot of juice. I went to South Sudan las October to the middle of nowhere with no power of any sort for a days journey. It was wonderful. The pictures the kids took were easily as good as anything I took. Have a grat time.
Some pictures of South Sudan
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06/15/2007 09:46:42 PM · #18 |
Yes batteries...certainly a big concern...thanks for reminding me...
and as forwhat NGO, am actually working with someone who works for an NGO but am not working with the NGO..one of our teams' sister is working out of Dar...she has been amazing, has co-ordinated everything for us...without her we would out of luck...
am leaning toward either an 80gig photobank or an external harddrive..the epson and others with viewers are just too expensive, 800 doallrs Cdn vs 200 for one without a screen...if anyone owns a photobank please let me know what you think of it...
and thanks to all for the good wishes... |
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06/15/2007 09:51:11 PM · #19 |
enjoy! looking forward to results!
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