My meeting place was close to Victoria station where the company I work for has their London office, right across Westminster Cathedral on Cardinal Place. Since I had walked past Westminster Cathedral a couple of times already on past visits to the office without seeing the inside, I decided to go check it out this time. Personally, my views on religion are mixed – each to their own liking though! – but I enjoyed the inside nevertheless. It was not crowded at all. Some tourists were checking out the interior while others waited outside.

Westminster Cathedral, London, UK. August 2013.

I also enjoy the unique British characters roaming London. This young man featured some impressive tattoos on his arm!

Victoria Station, London, UK. August 2013.

Two fingers of coke

Every metropolis has a commercial dense spot, where consumers flock on shopping sprees and well known brands are lined up one after another. Some cities have more than one such spot, but even then, one sticks out. 5th Avenue in New York City is certainly king of the hill among these hot spots of street activity. In London, to me, the area around Oxford Street and Bond Street have that kind of impression on me. Even on a Sunday, shops are open for business and the sidewalks are crowded with a variety of people running their errands or just enjoying window shopping adventures.

I love the energy of Oxford Street and mostly, people do not bother that someone is viewing the world through a viewfinder of a camera in their midst, making them the main actors of a play that has no script. I’m not Garry Winogrand or Joel Meyerowitz – I am still trying to figure out what works for me artistically. I am interested in moments that have a specific action going on – like the woman on the ground getting helped up by other pedestrians, the group of Muslim women taking a shopping break outside a store. On the other hand, I am aiming for a more visual than story telling approach, accepting the anonymity of nameless people in the frame forming a visually appealing composition without deeper meaning. I find this very challenging and I sense this will occupy me for quite some time to come before I am happy with the results of my work.

Pedestrian Flow | Shopping

At night, every city I have visited changes its rhythm. The stage is remodeled, the actors exchanged. Night, per definition, is the absence of light, or more specific the absence of daylight. However, light never goes away in a city. It transforms. It becomes artificial, more complex. At night, there can be countless light sources in a single frame of photography. There are static light sources from street lamps, illuminated buildings, stores and restaurants, theaters and bars. There are moving light sources from cars, buses and bicycles. The more glamorous places have illuminated billboards, like Piccadilly Circus.

Light at night is more complex to work with but it enables visual expressions within a frame that are just not possible during the day. Strong backlighting is rare during the day but can be constantly available during the night. Construction workers remodeling the interior of a store at night, backlit by small spotlights used to illuminate the construction site, for example.

London Night

Usually, when leaving the UK, I always take the plane. Traveling for work mostly, it makes sense as the expense is covered and flying meets the demand of a business schedule that doesn’t allow for long transits during working hours. I tried something different recently, taking a night bus from Victoria Coach Station to Bercy in Paris. While waiting at the gate in the coach station for the bus to arrive and boarding to begin, I enjoyed the variety of characters at the station. There none of the business types that usually accompany me on my flights. The dirt cheap ticket prices of bus travel attract mainly the frugal and young people, too young to have a steady income to afford flight tickets. I found that the coach station is a location likely for me to return to for more candid photography. Unfortunately, my camera was only loaded with ISO 200 film that evening, so my options were a little limited, but some shots still came out great.

The Goodbye | Victoria Coach Station

London will always be one of my favorite cities for street photography. It’s a timeless city with an eternal elegance and relevancy to it that has been enriched with the influences of a thousand cultures the city attracted over the last 100 years. While the UK colonized half the world, I think colonization has backfired on the UK’s most important urban area and enriched it – literally – with the world. Still, London will always be London.

The entire set of images from both parts of this post are also available on Flickr.

Most of my photographs are heavily influenced by the fact that I only stay very short amounts of time at a single destination, usually a day or two, sometimes a work week but rarely longer than that. A large amount of time of each trip is the actual act of getting from A to B, being in transit at train stations, at airports, on trains or using means of public transportation. I find this environment very rewarding when looking at it with a photographer’s eye through the viewfinder of my camera. Looking around, you’ll notice local commuters, family members or spouses welcoming their loved ones back or saying good bye. You’ll see business travelers, adventurers and sometimes stranded travelers. There is a certain type of aesthetics around train stations and airports or “travelling places” in general that is the subject of art for centuries already. Alain De Botton describes this in “The Art Of Travel” in the chapter “On Travelling Places”, illustrating the poetry within the lonely service station, train station or hotel room with the help of the images of Edward Hopper. De Botton concludes this chapter of his book with the following words:

“If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colors and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.” Alain De Botton, The Art of Travel

I find these words to be true at the very core. From a visual perspective, the architectural compromises, the garish colors and harsh lighting all contribute to the quiet dramatics of the stereotypical train station, service station or airport. Sometimes, the place can stand on its own and transport a message of urban poetry without a single human soul present in the picture – a silent wink to loneliness. In most of my cases however, the traveling place acts as a stage for the actors that set the scene in my viewfinder. It are these actors, that display the ‘alternative to the selfish ease’. It is the group of business travelers lost in whatever they use their smart phones or tablets for while sitting on the Heathrow Express to the airport. It is the couple saying good bye at the boarding gate at Victoria Coach Station with expressions of sadness on their faces. It is the young man waiting on platform number nine at Reading Station for the train to London to arrive with his reflection mirroring in the window of the train on the opposite track, his gaze fixed impatiently on the direction the train will be arriving from.

Embrace I | Underground

Of all the traveling places I have witnessed to this date, the London Underground is one of the most fascinating. It still maintains a Victorian elegance while at the same time it faces all the challenges of a modern mass transport system in one of the biggest cities of the world – unimaginable masses of passengers during rush hours, threats of terrorism, vandalism, pick pockets, accessibility concerns. For me, the Underground and the Tube are the lifelines of London, always bustling with activity. Using my Oyster card is as normal to me as it is to native Londoners. I love the small, confined spaces of the stations. Forgiven the initial grudges due to the narrow walkway tunnels with stairs defying all suitcases and luggage I have carried with me. I love the quiet moments on the platforms, watching the diversity of passengers this city can come up with. I love the unique and classic architecture of some of the most beautiful subway stations in the world. I am still amazed by the long and steep escalator stairs going up and down some stations in parallel rows of four with endless streams of passengers riding them.

Train travel in London extends beyond the Underground. Going into and leaving London, I frequently take the train to and from Heathrow and Reading. While the Heathrow express with its short 15 minute ride from Paddington to Heathrow or the other way around does not really lend itself for intricate moments to unfold with business travelers focusing mostly on themselves and their smart phones, even such a moment can have a certain symmetry that is appealing to the eye.

Heathrow Express/Mobile Devices

As appealing as train stations and the underground are, I am just as much drawn to London’s streets. I can even endure the touristy areas of London, finding my quiet moments in side streets just next to major landmarks. Sometimes, these side streets display more “London” than any of the main tourist attractions. It’s better to turn your eyes away from the clearly defined tourist attractions and look past the curtain, past the overpriced and crappy restaurants designed for tourists, past the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and so on. In street photography, it has been popular for quite some time to document the behavioral pattern of the stereotypical tourist around major tourist attractions. Think Martin Parr. This is entertaining and interesting but to some point, it can be misleading – misleading about the place depicted. Neither the tourist attraction, nor the tourist can make valid statements about the city. I’m not claiming that a specific, single location elsewhere in the city can, but putting distance between your viewfinder and tourist attractions can help to come up with a more truthful approach to describe a city visually without producing postcard images [which can be a rewarding task in itself, it’s just not my cup of tea]. When straying from the obvious, you can still include iconic subjects that identify the city in question. A London black cab, the typical red buses, classical architecture or street views – that is all fair game.

Turning Point

Concluding this first part of my post on my London impressions, in the second and final part, I’ll take you to pubs, Oxford Street, London at night and Victoria Coach Station for a proper goodbye.

Seeing that Davey does not target only professional photographers on a specific assignment, my advice to everybody out there: do not waste your precious time on the road staring at your notebook to sort through your images. Unless you are a professional on a specific assignment with a pre-defined list of images you need to deliver and your deadline is close to the end of your trip, do not bother carrying a 5 pounds notebook when traveling.

Practical reasons for not taking a notebook when traveling

A notebook on the road is one of Davey’s pillars of his backup strategy. While this does the job, so do much smaller devices such as portable hard drives with a built-in power source and card reader. They are smaller, cheaper, easier to replace, easier to stow away in your luggage, easier to lock into a hotel safe and so on. No one really needs to bring a notebook to store a second or third copy of their files while on the road. If you need to professionalize your backup as your livelihood depends on the images you took, you might also consider a professional camera that has two card slots and allows simultaneous write of the same data to both cards or duplicating the content from one card to the other. My Olympus E-5 offers this feature and I use the SD card to backup files, while I take the images by writing to the faster CF card slot. To summarize: you are not gaining anything but weight and an expensive and bulky item to carry around and safeguard by backing up to your notebook on the road.

There are other, more practical reasons for not taking a heavy and expensive piece of hardware with you when traveling. When you are out shooting, taking your notebook adds a lot of weight you need to carry around. While professional photographers such as Davey might stay at hotels that have good security and a solid safe to lock away a notebook, the majority of travelers does not enjoy such luxuries. When traveling to more interesting and remote regions, there will be no option to safely lock away a notebook, with hotel rooms being too unsafe to just leave valuables there.

A notebook is also an unnecessary luxury for communicating on the road. Every smartphone that fits into your pocket can perform the same function as a computer in terms of communicating. In fact, a notebook needs a WiFi in most cases, your smartphone can roam to send and receive text messages, emails and the likes. Take your iPhone or [insert crapy Android phone of your choice here] instead of your computer.

And the most important reason for not taking another 5 pounds (or more of gear): you gain agility. I have recently started to adopt Micro Four Thirds as my go-to solution for travel gear. My full set of gear, including my Olympus OM-D E-M5 and a set of lenses covering all focal lengths I need, fits into a small shoulder bag that’s not even big enough to hold an iPad and weighs less than my 13″ MacBook Pro. For longer trips and to be more versatile, I’d probably take a slightly bigger bag, add either my E-5 with a longer zoom lens and a tripod. That would bring my equipment to about 14 to 15 pounds. Lugging around 15 pounds a whole day is hard enough. I neither want to carry an additional 5 pounds for a notebook, nor do I want to leave it at a hotel and worry about it all day long while I need to focus on getting good images.

Images must stand on their own, not associated with memories and perceptions of your travel.

Davey’s first argument in favor of editing on the road is to avoid a backlog of editing work when returning home. This of course is nonsense. The amount of editing work will still be the same, no matter if performed on the road or at home. So, editing on the road does not save time. Instead, it wastes precious travel time – time you should better use to either go out and take more pictures, make friends with locals and indulge into the local culture or get much needed sleep so you’re sharp when you attack the next day, most likely by getting up really early to shoot the sunrise. All of these options are a much better way to improve your sense for your current location and allow you to take better images.

There is another good reason to actually be happy about the editing backlog piling up: it forces you to take a healthy distance from the images you just took. Everybody knows the feeling when they just took a couple of images while traveling, being surrounded by so many impressions of the location – smells, sounds, the general atmosphere. When you edit your images just after you took them, your judgement will be clouded by the fresh perceptions and memories attached to the images. A mediocre image, associated with the memory of a brilliant sunset will probably receive a four star or five star rating in Lightroom, Aperture or whatever you’re using to organize your library, just because your subconscious associates this image with a pleasant memory. If you look at the same image half a year, or even a year later, you will probably dismiss it easier and more fairly as you are not blinded by the memory but you can look at the image and judge it by its own merits only. I cannot stress this argument enough – it’s better to let some time pass, before you actually look at your images the first time to edit them.

Editing is not meant to help you figure out how to operate your camera properly, it’s meant to help you form a consistent body of work of meaningful images.

Davey keeps stressing that the whole idea of editing on the road is to improve your photography during the same trip. He even advises to study the EXIF settings of failed shots and take them into consideration when you continue shooting during the trip to avoid the same mistakes. My opinion is, that most photographers fail to take good images, not because they don’t get the camera settings right, but because they fail to compose properly. “The serious, committed photographer”, that Davey addresses in his post, should know how to set their camera so that the image is in focus and properly exposed. They shouldn’t even worry about this when taking images. Managing the exposure settings should be a second nature to the serious, committed photographer, much like an experienced driver knows their car inside out and does not need to look at the instruments to know what gear to shift into next. Photographers who do not know how to work their gear like a second nature should not even bother correcting this mistake by looking at the EXIF settings on a notebook they carry around while traveling. They will be fiddling with their camera settings all day long, missing moment after moment and won’t be able to enjoy their travel at all. In that case, don’t mess around with your camera. Set it to “P” mode, let the camera handle ISO and auto-focus and just concentrate on framing your images right. I promise you, you will both enjoy your trip much more and your images will be so much more rewarding.

Improving the craft of photography versus improving the art of editing.

Davey fails to make the point as he thinks you can improve your photography by editing on the road. You gain nothing for your photography if your editing process is bad and you’re doing it for the wrong reasons – such as figuring out wrong exposure settings by pixel peeping and studying EXIF information. Editing is about selecting meaningful images which together form a consistent body of work. Only if you master your editing skills, you can become a better and more consistent photographer, not the other way around.

You won’t improve your editing skills by looking at images while still traveling, with memories fresh and mixed with different influences while taking the images. Don’t believe me? It’s easy to prove. Go out and shoot. Edit your images the same day. Do not delete any images while editing, just mark them or group them into albums or whatever categorization your image management tool allows. Now, let someone else with a good knowledge of photography edit the same files. Let them be brutally honest and do not intervene. Do not explain why you took the shot. The images have to stand for themselves! Compare the results. You can repeat this experiment by being the other person yourself. For that, just put away your images for some time, a month, maybe longer and edit again with a fresh and unbiased perception. You will not believe what a difference this makes until you try this.

I am not a professional photographer, however I managed to exhibit some of my work through fine art galleries, selling the occasional image to art collectors. One of my smaller bodies of work got shortlisted in last year’s Travel Photographer of the Year competition, making me one of the finalists. I am a serious and committed photographer who travels a lot for fun and work. In fact, I travel so much and so often with so little free time to edit my work that I pile up a backlog of editing work all by itself. Last year in October 2011, I traveled through Andalusia, Spain for a week by car on a road trip. I took tons of images – all digital. I did not edit these images until recently. While I had vague memories of images I thought were good at the time I took them, a very small percentage of these images actually turned out to be good when I edited after more than half a year. I was able to tell fast since I was looking only at the image, not at the memory of the moment. I have been to Southern China in April this year. I have a USB hard drive with an Aperture library of images of this trip I haven’t even touched yet. I am looking forward to do this – but I have no rush as I know the sense and vision of a good image in editing ripens like a good wine in the wine cellar.

Let me know about your editing workflow in the comments, all opinions welcome.

The latest Fotopedia app features images from China. Right now, it seems half the content is focussed on sights in Yunnan, my favorite Chinese province with places I have been too already. One of the most brilliant places featured is Yuanyang County with it’s awe inspiring rice terraces.

Get the app here (at the time of writing it’s free).

I haven’t really looked at any of the photographs I took until very recently. They were resting, hidden away and seemingly forgotten, in a dark corner of an external hard drive where I put them right after this one week of vacation. One or two images that I logged into my memory as I took them at the time were retrieved earlier and made it Flickr, not necessarily an elite pick but profiting from the memory of the place and the emotion remembered while taking those images. Only now did I look back at all the photos with a more neutral view, not clouded by memorized emotion and compiled a small portfolio of images, focussing on what I experienced on the streets – people, scenes, moods, light & shadow, colors.

The trip was born out of the necessity to kick back for a week, get out of town and forget the burden of work itself and the routines of the work days for a little bit. Also, since I am currently based in Hamburg, Germany, the region of choice had to offer warm, pleasing weather that can make someone forget the grey, windy and wet October weather at home for a week.

Toledo – Untitled – Toledo, Spain. October 2011.

With limited financial resources and little time to masterfully plan a frugal escape based on scavenging various last minute offers on flights, hotels, rental cars and such that would add up to a comprehensive itinerary, the whole trip was booked from a travel agency in a package with a single price that provided the train tickets to and from Frankfurt airport, the flight tickets, the rental car (minus gas expenses), the hotels (pre-booked at specific locations and days) including breakfasts. The remaining requirements can be shortlisted as driving skills compatible with Spanish traffic, navigation skills (the rental car came without a GPS, I brought my own) and a rough idea when to be where. For a complete package booked through a travel agency, this trip offered a lot of individual freedom and I couldn’t have found a cheaper way myself to get what came in the package. I can heartily recommend this.

Mucha Policia Poca Diversión – Jaén, Spain. October 2011.

Photography in public is all the latest craze – mostly on the community driven parts of the Internet and I have to admit that I am far from feeling completely secure and convinced regarding the work process and results I achieve for myself. Taking these seemingly random snapshots while on vacation in Andalusia I didn’t shoot with a particular theme or project in mind other than enjoying the experience and capture what I thought was important to capture at the time. These images are supposed to be as raw and authentic as the experience I enjoyed when walking these personally uncharted territories in Spain’s colorful and warm Andalusia last October.

Relajarse – Granada, Spain. October 2011.

Needless to say, Andalusia is renowned for its rich history and architecture influenced through Moorish occupation in the past. I was equally impressed by the mundane and authentic beauty of events taking place on the streets. A single young man in a suit walking down a narrow street in Toledo, framed within the shadows of buildings unseen. The cathedral of Jaén facing an enormous empty space in the front and clear blue skies in the back. Opinionated graffiti on a wall. Spanish men hanging out at a bar. Playing children, a young girl showing of her new Flamenco dress to her muslim mother. Tourists at awe within the Al Hambra in Granada.

Fun – Granada, Spain. October 2011.

Andalusia, being very much the most southern part of Spain, is dominated by strong, direct light and harsh shadows resulting from this. The heat of the day, even in October, mandates the events on the streets with most streets being vacant in the early afternoon – Siesta time.

The Chase – one two three four – Granada, Andalusia. Spain. October 2011.

One of the visual observations I really enjoyed is how detached Spanish children are from the mainstream brands fashion dictated on kids in Germany. There is a certain elegance and authenticity Spanish children express, in a way a forecast of their future adult selves is displayed in the way they dress which juxtaposes with their child behavior.

The Dancer – Granada, Spain. October 2011.

Spain has a rich culture, rich because various cultural, ethnic and religious influences were dominant over the course of a couple of hundred years. I love the image above of the little girl especially as here muslim mother is watching her daughter showing off her new Flamenco dress and shoes – such a nice combination of cultural influences.

Alhambra – Tourists – Granada, Spain. October 2011.

Andalusia’s obvious gem is the marvelous architecture left back by Moorish occupation such as the Alhambra in Granada, a huge fortification towering over the city with beautiful architecture and artful details of medieval craftsmanship.

Rather than focussing on a specific destination, de Botton structures his book around the more basic aspects of travel that tend to get ignored, overlooked or just de-prioritized in your perception – the departure, motives, landscape and art that travelers encounter, the return. Each aspect is illustrated using the author’s personal experience on his own travels as well as making use of recognized artists, writers, philosophers or scientists whose works and views De Botton cleverly integrates to make his point and open your perception about things you might otherwise overlook lightly in your own travel. My personal favorite was De Botton’s use of Edward Hopper’s work to introduce the reader to the visual poetry of travel – or rather those moments in transit, at typical transit locations: airports, hotels, gas stations. Edward Hopper is the master of painted urban poetry who understands perfectly how to portray the beauty of the mundane, lonely places of travel and urbanity. De Botton is a master of helping you make use of Hopper’s perception of urban beauty and open your eyes on your own travels.

Throughout the book, the writing is very light and uplifting. The reader is carried through the book through small episodes and every point is well put without keeping it alive artificially. As such, the book is entertaining and informative at the same time at any point.

I can highly recommend this book to everyone who has become the indifferent traveler that needs to recalibrate their senses. Also, if you’re into photography, this book may give you new ways to look at travel with your camera.

The dominant religion in Xishuangbanna is Theravada Buddhism. There are a number of ancient pagodas and temples, some dating back almost a thousand years. The way religion is interpreted in China is not as deep as in other Asian countries though – the decades of Communism rule and the Cultural Revolution have left their marks.

Throughout the recent decade, the infrastructure has improved tremendously – at the cost of the environment. Xishuangbanna now has modern streets, most smaller towns have electricity and clean water. The original, natural rain forest has been displaced almost completely by either tea or rubber tree plantations.

View this set of images on Flickr.

Film, especially after it has been exposed already, is a very sensitive medium. It’s easy to ruin film. All it takes is too much heat, too much radiation, a critical amount of moisture and so on. While handling and taking care of film is usually no problem within the comfort zone of your home town it becomes much more inconvenient when you enter public transportation with all its modern, post 9-11 security requirements. One of the most dangerous sources of radiation that can harm your film are X-rays as you will encounter it in numerous scanning devices at all airports and many train and bus stations in many countries of the world. Also, covering a lot of distance inflight at great height will expose your film to a some radiation unless you shield it properly.

To what extend do X-rays harm your film?

Well, X-rays can fog the film, rendering it virtually unusable. The effect depends on the total amount of radiation applied to a film and the speed of the film. Faster films (with higher ISO ratings) are more sensitive. Films already exposed but not processed are also more sensitive. Kodak has done tests with slow and medium-speed films (rated at up to ISO 200) and they were found to be able to handle up to 16 passes through the X-ray machines used to check hand luggage at modern Western airports. Faster films, starting at ISO 400 are much more sensitive to X-ray damage. They probably won’t handle more than four or five passes – less if you already exposed them. If you push film – for example exposing an ISO 400 film at ISO 800 within your camera – the problem will be more severe as well. The X-ray machines in remote regions of the world will most likely emit a much higher dose of radiation.

How can I protect my film while traveling?

Answering this question is fairly easy. Keep your film dry, keep it away from direct sunlight and don’t let it get X-rayed. Securing the first two items on that checklist is fairly easy. The biggest problem will be dealing with countless security workers at airports, train and bus stations and many public sites that require a security check. A few general rules of advice apply:

• When flying, don’t put your film with your checked baggage. Checked baggage X-ray machines use a much higher dose of radiation.
• Don’t put your film in a shielded container. Once inside an X-ray machine, the operator will just increase the radiation volume until he’s able to see what’s inside.
• Put all your film in a transparent Ziplock bag and store that bag inside your carry-on luggage where it’s easy to reach and pull out. Nothing is more annoying than someone in line in front of you, digging for a piece of luggage deep down inside his bags. Don’t be that guy.
• Mark the exposed rolls of film, so you can easily sort those out if needed. Also, mark rolls pushed beyond their ISO value. Having an organized system helps when dealing with airport security while they hand-check your film.
• When traveling with film, plan for up to an hour of additional time in security. Yes, you can get that unlucky.
• Don’t put film into your camera(s) when going through a security check. The camera will be scanned, there’s nothing you can do about it. If you’re really unlucky, it will be hand-checked and maybe opened, ruining the film anyway. If you have an already half-exposed roll of film in your camera, consider the risk and decide if you want to rewind it and get it out. That’s your call.

Dealing with the airport security staff can be frustrating at times. In general, security workers will try to persuade you to just put your film through the X-ray machine. Always bear in mind, that you absolutely need to be friendly and respectful – or you will achieve the opposite of what you intended. Also, always be honest about what you say. If you don’t have exposed film in your luggage, don’t say so. I have encountered countless airport security workers at airports around the world and the discussion about checking film always boiled down to what I have formatted as a dialog guide with the security staff’s arguments and your possible answers:

Security: It’s safe to put the film into the machine. The X-ray machine has been designed for this (a “photo safe” sticker on the machine indicates this).

You: It may be safe once or twice, but I will be traveling through quite a few security checks and each one adds up to the total amount of radiation the film will be exposed to. Can you please hand-check the film?

Security: What do you have there? ISO 1600? Anything below ISO 1600 is safe, put it through the machine! (This version often comes with a sarcastic tone when they notice your ISO 100 rolls)

Security: You will expose the film to a higher dose of radiation anyway when you take it on the plane. Just put it through the machine. (Also, this one often comes with a sarcastic tone)

Security: It’s safe to put the film into the machine. I’m a photographer myself, I have tested the machine with my own film and I could not detect any negative effect on my film.

You: Kodak has tested the effects of modern X-ray scanners on unexposed film up to ISO 200 and test results have shown that this film can be rendered useless after 16 passes through the machine. As I will be traveling through a lot of security checks with this film, I cannot take the risk of the film being exposed to unnecessary radiation. Can you please hand-check my film?

You: I have film already exposed here too. Exposed but unprocessed film is more sensitive to radiation. I cannot risk damage to this film. Can you please hand-check it?

You: I have pushed some of the film beyond its ISO value (for example exposing ISO 400 film at ISO 800). The film is more sensitive now, can you please hand-check it?

When I expose on film I actually always have film rated at ISO 400 with me and a lot of times, I push ISO 400 to ISO 800. For the sake of being able to argue that way, it doesn’t even hurt to take one or two rolls of high ISO film with you. If you store everything in one transparent bag, it doesn’t make much sense to sort out the slow film, put it through the machine while the fast film is hand-checked, so everything will get hand-checked.

I experienced that it helps a lot if you’re able to speak the native language of the security staff. At Amsterdam/Schiphol (which is a horrible airport by the way), an additional security check with X-ray scanning is necessary before/while boarding the plane. The security staff was extremely uncooperative as there wasn’t much room or time to hand-check baggage items. As I switched to Dutch in our conversation, they became extremely helpful and hand-checked my film – while plain refusing it beforehand. I experienced the same on the return flights through Amsterdam/Schiphol.

I have never managed to get my films hand-checked in Heathrow. The security staff working in Heathrow is ruthless and they refuse to accept any of these arguments. When traveling through Heathrow, I never take any film.

Some countries have a weird attitude of high respect towards foreigners which might work to your advantage. In China for example, I just acted like it’s the most ordinary and usual thing that film gets hand-checked. While I put all my carry-on luggage through the machine, I just handed the security staff the bag with my film, asking them in a more or less “matter of fact” way to hand-check the film. I never had any problems. If you want to try this, just remember to stay polite and respectful. At most train and bus stations in rural mainland China, you also have to walk through a security check with a regular metal detector to walk through and an antiquated X-ray machine to check your carry-on luggage. I usually grabbed the bag of film – often showing it to the security guard next to the machine – while passing through the metal detector without subjecting the film to the X-ray scanner. Almost nobody in China wants to deal with a “foreign devil” it seemed, so this worked out neatly all the time.

In hindsight, I will probably avoid traveling with film in the future. While it’s still – or now even more than ever – a great medium for photographic exposure, it’s just a lot of hassle and worry when you’re passing through airport security. Ideally, if you really want to expose on film, you might plan your trip in a way that you’ll buy the film on location if that’s possible and get it processed on location as well. Unless you’re traveling to under- or non-developed countries, that might probably work out fine as long as you research a suitable local store beforehand. In fact, for trips to modern Western countries, passing through major cities, there shouldn’t be any problem with that approach.

For more information regarding this topic, check out Kodak’s pages about traveling with film. They even have a “do not X-ray” print-out label for your luggage to download. I don’t want to argue about how useful that really is. Maybe it’s useful to you. For feedback, your comments will be most welcome.