Getting Close
We're inside of 36 hours from departure now. Tomorrow, we'll gather for pizza at our place and a bag check with enough time to run out and buy anything else we might need at the last minute. My hopes of packing light fell apart today as I dropped by the very generous folks at the Academy Admissions office to get free stuff to hand our as gifts and mementoes while we're in Cambodia. Let's see, we got: sunglasses, workout towels, carabiners, pins, foam baseballs, shoulder bags, a gross of pencils, temporary stick on face tattoos (falcons and the like), and other goodies. I'm also bringing along several Astro Department coins to give to our hosts at the Embassy and at the Cambodian National Defense University. Becky also got a UV pen-style water sterilizer to help with water, so that adds some weight, too.
I'm receiving a nice wide-angle fisheye style lens as a loaner from Mike Cutler of Canon Imagery. I used it in France last year, too, and it's lots of fun. Here are a few examples of what it can do...
Anyway, I'm looking forward to using it at Angkor Wat and the other temples.
It's difficult to decide what lenses to bring, since they're pretty heavy. But, I think that I've settled on Canon's 70-200mm f/28L IS Mk II, 50mm f/1.8, 24-105mm f/4L IS, 16-35mm f/2.8L Mk II, and the fisheye. I'll also bring along my 2X teleconverter in case I need something to extend the 70-200mm for birds and wildlife. I'm also bringing a second body, my Canon 7D, as I mentioned earlier, I think, so one of the cadets can have fun with it--and to have something in case conditions claim my 5D. Both use the same batteries and mount, so that's nice.
All of my stuff is preliminarily packed, though I know I'll repack tomorrow after comparing what I have with the cadets. We'll also hit the Credit Union tomorrow to change lots of our $20 bills for smaller denominations.
That's about if for now. We'll check in tomorrow evening when everyone's here.
