CameraClix Travel Updates: March Forecast

This is the inaugural travel blog for CameraClix! In this we aren't going to be going indepth on the gear or techniques you need, for that we recommend our Travel or Nature Technique and Gear Guide blogs. 

No what this blog is aiming to do is to highlight different travel seasons from around the world, where locales are at their best to photograph and give you some inspiration when, and where to take advantage of the gear you have!

To get started...

Events

These are just a few of Major cultural events around the world to capture some authentic and genuine travel shots.

March

• Venice Festival, in Venice (yep) started Feb 22nd and ends March 4th, a famous event of masks it marks a huge occasion to capture all the colours and characters

• Mathura and Vrindavan in India, for the amazingly colourful Holi Festival on the 4th March is an amazing opportunity to capture vibrant crowds and people in celebration! We definitely would recommend something small and compact, preferrably a wrist strap with those dense crowds; oh and don't forget a Lens Filter so none of those beautiful colours get on your expensive lens.

• New Orleans' famous Mardi Gras hits the streets March 5th, once again, small and compact is the way to go here, but we also recommend something with great low-light performance, as the night will be deceptively dim in your photos!

• F1 is coming to our home! Melbourne specifically over the weekend 14th - 16th, make sure to bring a monopod and telephoto lens with a high shutter speed camera to capture those blisteringly fast shots!

April

• F1 in Suzuka, Japan from 4th-6th is a great opportunity to push those shutter speeds and bring out those telephoto lenses to capture the best racers in the world!

• 10th through to the 13th in New Orleans, America we have the famous French Quarter Fest, one of the most characterful cities during it's most character rich times, is perfect time to bring out those small compacts, primes, and inconspicuous cameras!

May

• May 3rd and 4th the Golden Week festival of Hakata Dontaku Matsuri comes to Fukuoka Japan, parades and traditional dress and costumes, it's a great experience to see and capture!

• Cinco de Mayo is familiar to us here in Australia, but to see it at it's most enthusiastic and authentic head to Puebla in Mexico, on the day of 5th May. The colours, dress and reenactments capture the the vibrancy of Mexican culture. 
  

• In Fes, Morocco on the 22nd of May sees the World Sacred Music Festival light up the night and fill it with music. Getting amongst the crowds we recommend keeping things light, and compact; but we would also suggest a versatile zoom or telephoto lens once the performances are on-stage!

Seasons

These aren't any individual events, but ideal times to visit around the world, whether that's because of flight prices, good seasons, or any other reason this time period is the ideal time for a photography holiday. Generally you will want to travel light, so compacts, mirrorless cameras with pancakes and short primes, are all great options; we will however call out any locations where we would recommend something extra.

Japan, March - May

Japan hits spring, filled with pink thanks to their iconic cherry blossom trees, along with their famous Golden Week festival period. If you want to avoid crowds we recommend late March early May; just be aware it does mean missing the peak period of cherry blossoms and Golden Week as mentioned earlier.

Japan is an absolute treasure trove of opportunities for Street Photographers, it's neon cities and narrow alleys of Tokyo, and culturally unique Kyoto, but even the less troden prefectures of Shirakawa-go, Takayama, Tohoku, and Kanazawa , or the castle in Matsumoto gives you a glimpse of culture outside of the heavily urban Tokyo and Kyoto central hubs.

Morroco March - May

Morocco is a country of vibrance and colour in it's cities, with a deep and longstanding culture that you can see in it's architecture; but a land with beautiful forests, mountains, and dunes. The crown at the end of the season is the Festival des Roses in the Dades Valley filled with traditions, dance and music.

If you are planning to stick to the cities and towns compacts and wider focal lengths will suit fine; but if you are planning to take advantage of the pleasantly warm weather to hike it's natural landscapes we would recommend taking a good telephoto lens. Morocco doesn't contain many large animals, and a lot of very skittish small mammals such as Macaque's, Sand Cats, and Fennec Foxes, so having that extra reach will be invaluable to not miss the opportunity.

Vietnam March - April

Vietnam's weather, which can be notoriously humid with torrential rain, is at it's most pleasant during this period it's dry season. It's cities are filled with vibrancy with street markets and colourful culture, and home to a vast amount of wildlife in it's jungles!

If you do decide to take a trip outside of the colourful cities, again a telephoto lens is key to get the reach you need, but we also recommend a macro for the smaller insects you can find. If you don't want the hassle of carrying a macro lens in addition to everything else, we would suggest NiSi's close-up lens kit.

Chile March - April

Particularly any trips going to Patagonia or Chile's famous wine country; it has a the mix of colonial architecture and colourful street art across it's capital of Santiago, or the city of Valparaíso providing stunning shots thanks to it's bright houses, steep hills, and street art.

If you are more interested in the nature side of things, Chile being so narrow has a huge variety of natural environments to explore, picturesque mountains, glaciers and lakes, dry deserts, flat plains and coastal cliffsides, sand dunes and salt flats; go from beach to the top of the Andes and back to the beach in the same day.

Borneo April - September

Borneo is renowned for it's dense lush jungles absolutely teeming with life, and with that opportunities to snag some beautiful wildlife photographs. April through to September is when Borneo is going through the Dry season and weather is more moderate, and those treks in hopes of seeing wildlife is at it's best.

Telephoto is an absolute most, but remember most of your travel is going to be via foot or boat, so finding that balance between something you can handle by hand and giving as much reach as you can carry will be critical. Waterproof gear, or covers to give waterproofing is also critical, rain comes and goes in a flash so make sure you are prepared. Finally we would recommend a macro option, whether this be a dedicated setup of lens and flash, or maybe a one of NiSi's macro lens converters will bring out some pop to photos of the myriad of small animals.

Conclusion

This list is by no means exhaustive, but our hope with this is to inspire some people ways to use gear they already have, inspire new trips not just to well established destinations but shine a light on some lesser known locations and the opportunities they present! We of course recommend some of what we would consider optimal gear for these trips because we want to make sure that you make the most and capture memories of that once in a lifetime trip. If you have locations or shots you want to see we would love to hear from you!