After expecting severe delays at London Heathrow, we arrived in Vancouver last night on a surprisingly smooth British Airways flight. The queues had certainly calmed down from last week and the staff were courteous throughout.
In terms of photographic equipment, however, things we slightly less smooth.
Firstly, hand luggage is now subject to both size and weight restrictions. Although I was expecting such a measure to be in place (the BAA website clearly notes the maximum carry-on dimensions at 45cm wide x 35cm long x 16cm deep/high), I didn't expect all the luggage sample boxes to be of different sizes. Thus, our Lowepro Mini-trekker and Compu-trekker rucksacks both fitted snuggly into the luggage box in the car park but then wouldn't fit into the box at check-in. Thank-you very much BAA...
The airline staff at check-in noted that we could take both bags through to x-ray but also clarified that because the Compu-trekker was too big for the box at check-in, there was a chance that security would tell us to come back to the desk and check in the bag.
As both bags contain thousands of pounds of camera equipment and film, this was not an outcome I was willing to accept. Thus, some frantic re-packing was called for...
Now, at this stage I would like to ask fellow photographers to cover their ears and eyes - what you will read in the following is tantamount to blasphemy, I know. We managed to repack a Linhof 617, 72mm lens, 90mm lens and Canon 1ds mkII into the Lowepro Mini-trekker and then the Canon lenses, Lee filter system, Sekonic light meter and many rolls of 120-roll Fuji Velvia film into a over-the-shoulder bag loaded and padded with, umm, socks and T-shirts. A wonderful bit of Band-Aid thinking :-)
Needless to say that everything arrived safe and sound in Vancouver and the cameras were soon packed into their rightful homes.
On a slightly more creative note, this whole process has begun to make me think about the future hassles which photographers must now face. Specifically, I am more concerned with the loss/theft of equipment (insured or not) and its commensurate impact on artistic creativity at the destination rather than the material value of the goods. I’ll post more on this subject after I’ve had time to resolve my thoughts…
Anyway, we are on the road now (after picking up some of the last Fuji velvia in Vancouver via Beau Photo) and will hopefully report back with some pictures from Banff and Montana very soon.
Happy travelling!
Jaspal
