Since I'll be carrying everything on my back for over 200 kilometers, weight is a real issue on the Camino. No back-up vans or donkeys for me; I am the beast of burden on this trip. And so I'm considering what for some would be unthinkable: leaving my camera behind.Yes, I want to document the walk, but I've also been on lots of trips sans camera and have never really regretted it. I'm not much of a photographer, and my snaps of places never do them justice anyway. Also, I'll be lucky if I find internet cafes where I can post on this blog. How much harder will it be to find a place to download my photos and then post them? Will I need the little card reader too, or will the USB cable be sufficient? Sure, it'd be nice to have photos even if I can't post them along the way. But still...
I'm thinking of bringing a lightweight pair of binoculars instead. My painter friend Andrea, who recently got a Masters of Fine Arts at Rutgers, writes, "I am excited for you to see all the portals that I so diligently memorized only two years ago. Beautiful carvings to be seen. Notice how the religious message gets less threatening and condemning as the cathedrals get younger."
I'm excited too. But some of those portals soar pretty high and my eyesight is poor. With a pair of binocs, I'd get to see just what sort of torment those saint are enduring.
My old Nikon Coolpix 775 weighs 6.5 ounces without the battery, but the battery dou
bles the weight, plus I'll need an extra battery, compact flash cards, a cable, and maybe the card reader. That's over a pound total and maybe more like a pound and a half. And remember, I'm trying to keep my total load under 15 pounds (my pack itself weighs 5 lbs.).My REI 8 x 25mm binoculars feel like they weigh about as much as the camera with its battery.
Maybe I should forgo both tools? Some may say the solution is easy--just buy newer, better, lighter equipment. But I've got a list of new gadgets I need to get first, starting with a job.
2 comments:
Erin - you may be the only person on the pilgrimage without a digital camera! It's great that you're resisting the temptation to make a digital documentary of the pilgrimage ... on top of the formidable prospect of actually making the pilgrimage...
Getting the weight you'll be carrying down to the bare minimum is almost symbolic of reducing excess mental baggage one would have to carry... I would assume that this is all part of what a pilgrimage is about - reducing things to the bare essentials in order to maximize the enounters with people, nature, cultures - and even the physical exhaustion wears down ones filters and defenses.
You're left with the raw encounters along the way, and as a writer you meditate and reflect on, process and share those experiences... It's a courageous, noble thing you're doing - and thanks to your talents as a writer, we'll all be making the pilgrimage with you... well, minus some of the aches & pains.
Great work.
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