I was in the city thursday-saturday with my son's school's orchestra. they do a big trip every year and this year it was the big apple. in addition to doing mainly music-centered activities, we got to do a fair amount of touring around. i will say that i am absolutely not a fan of tour-group dining.
as this was the first time i've done something like this, i wasn't quite sure how much gear to take. i wasn't keen on the idea of having a lot of stuff where i couldn't get to it, nor did i want to have something on me only to be told it wasn't allowed (such as taking a pro body into a broadway musical). so i elected to take only my Canon G11 and my Samsung Galaxy III. as it turns out, the G11 went awol on me (battery issues), leaving me to shoot pretty much with only my cell phone.
i'm fairly impressed with it, but using it to document a trip is really hard on the battery, even with a battery-saver app. also have to be mindful of wiping the lens periodically. it's "ok" in lowlight, but for most people viewing or taking cell phone photos, they never know the difference. if you know what you're doing in post, you can clean up most of the things that bug you.
in an only-in-New-York moment, our tour bus was stopped in traffic right beside a taping of an upcoming episode of Celebrity Apprentice, featuring Geraldo Riveria & Kate Gosselin. They were so taken by the attention we gave them that they climbed onto our bus to pitch us on the wedding dresses they were selling! because the camera crew followed us onto the bus, three members of the "clearing" team came aboard to get model releases; they rode with us for over 10 city blocks, getting releases from the 7 of us in the firs three rows of the bus. interesting job. |