We came back from our Indian Expedition this time last week. A full trip report will follow, but for us the highlights were:
Tigers - our group saw ten! Amazing, beautiful and hard to see. Unlike in some parts of Africa you cannot drive off-road and have to stick to the park's pretty good tracks. At the start of the day it is somewhat of a race to get to the places where are guides think they may be able to find a Tiger. When it works it is absolutely breathtaking!
The people and culture - we spent some time away from the reserves visiting temples and markets. The colours, smells and vibrancy of the country impressed us all. What is nice about India is that almost everyone likes to be photographed.
The temples are extraordinary and allowed endless photographic opportunities.
And finally we loved the food. Never in the history of Adam's life has he eaten so many Naan breads and Chapattis! Fresh out of the oven or fires and at times with a coating of melted butter .... mmmm mmmm! Three times we ate at roadside Dhaba "restaurants". The food at these places is always fresh and made to order (despite first impressions!), is a little more spicy and gives you a different view of life than our fine hotel dining rooms.
We liked the trip so much that we are planning another at the end of the year to Rajasthan.
Julie and Adam
India expedition 2009 - 5 April
DRC and Kenya Expedition August / Sept 2009
Antarctic Slideshow
Binocular servicing and repairs
I have owned a wonderful pair of Zeiss 10x40 binoculars which have served me well for about 25 years. They are just about the only piece of kit which I have managed to hang onto for such a long time. I have to confess that I have treated them pretty badly. Bumped, soaked, rained on and given a fair amount of sea spray over the years. 
Not surprising that half way through the Antarctica expedition they packed up and refused to focus. Rather then spend £1,000 replacing them, I was determined to have them repaired. I found a recommendation for "Optrep optical repairs" on a Pigeon fanciers forum! A quick phone call confirmed they would repair the binoculars and I sent them off on Monday. By Friday (!!!) they were back with a bill for £125 for servicing, mechanisms decoroded, guide rods unbuckled, threads reground, cleaned, relubricated, adjusted, reset, collimated (I had to look that up in the dictionary) and tested. The guy at Optrep told me that they quality of the Zeiss is such that they should outlive me!
I am really pleased and delighted with the service.
Adam
Focus on Imaging - 22 February 2009
Just back from attending the Focus on Imaging show at the NEC centre in Birmingham. Caught up with one of our friends who lives close by the night before, nice dinner and talking about travel. Crashed at his pad.
The event is actually very good and despite the credit crunch, was very well attended. For us the main point of going is simply to look for ideas that inspire us. Highlights from today:
1. In advance of our Bonobo exhibition to the Congo in August, buying a ring flash adaptor for portraits. We know the Bonobos have seen flash before and so this will enable us to take even better shots.
2. Many, many, many stands offering to produce photographic books, photos on metal, on canvas and on acrylic blocks. We are looking at putting some of our best shots on some of these and once we get back from India will try some out. For us the stand that stood out was Mario Acerboni which had some stunning designs for photobooks.
3. A really funky new form of on-line slide production by animoto. In the next few weeks we will put one of the shows up on the blog and let you know what we think, although having just tried to sign up (yes it looked that good) the site does not seem to be working.
4. An expensive insurance quote for our equipment. Hmmm.
Anyway, great show and good to see Canon out in force (a much better stand than the Nikon one ... in our opinion).
Julie and Adam