Lend me your abundance of knowledge!

Hello!
Right, Jan 07 I'm off travelling for a year. London to Canada to America to Aussie land, Bangkok, Europe, Back home to Wales. I'm prepped to hopefully not have to work while I'm travelling, simply return when I run out of money....BUT...I want to do some serious image capturing while I roam the wilderness. If I were to do this, I'd probably run out of money within a month! Has anybody got any ideas as to how I can get some sort of funded travel photography commission going before I leave. I've been asking around for months and regularly searching through travel newspapers etc and there's nothing! Help!:o
Also, I'll be taking my EOS 20D, filters a couple of lenses and a laptop. Appropriate?
Cheers guys, Any comments or suggestions would be really appreciated!
Thankyou!
Lorna

what are you accomodations? i wouldnt imagine leaving a 20d and so on in a hostel.

canada is nice and frozen in JAN, and Australia is in the middle of its summer. so what kind of clothes will you bring? snow shoes and a bathing suit?

you have a LOT of reading to do and P L E N T Y of fund raising ( unless you have a VERY supportive family with D E E P pockets)

my .02$

Im a little bit confused. Surely you have the equiptment already, so why would taking lots of photos deplete your funds so quickly. As long as you have plenty of storage (maybe a portable hard drive) you can take as many as you want for nothing? At least you have a year to prepare though huh.

I hadn't thought of taking a hard drive! That's a good idea. I have a spare already so I could just use it alongside the laptop. I was originally thinking that I'd want to take a medium format film camera as well but I am confident with my 20D so I guess it should do the job.
You're both right, a lot of reading and a lot of working! Have you seen the price of open end round the world tickets. Meant to be cheaper than bying seperate fairs along the way as well!
I'm trying to build up a list of connections in different countries that have offered me places to stay so hopefully most of the time I'll be staying with friends or friends of friends etc!
I only have the 18-55 lens on my canon at the mo and I'm trying to decide which would be the most useful second lens to get. Any suggestions? Adebass - What's the sigma 50-500 like. What does it open up to?

I did a trip similar to yours a few months ago.

Number 1 - I definitely WOULDN'T take your laptop. Unless you're planning to stay in one place for a long time it will weigh you down too much, and be too much of a security concern.

Number 2 - I took a Sigma 18-125 which was prefect for my needs. If I were to go again I think I'd probably take a Canon 24-105L.

Number 3 - I'd seriously consider taking a compact digital camera. There are times you don't want to be carrying a backpack around, and a compact camera can be ideal for candid shots etc.

Number 4 - having your images copied to CD/DVD is easy to do and relatively cheap. Get a couple of copies, sending one home and keep one yourself.

Number 5 - unless you're extremely talented, and have good connections, you're unlikely to find somebody who will fund your trip.

Hope this helps

Thankyou very much for that! I'm sure that there will be opportunities for me to connect to the net also which would enable me to send images. That's a good idea about the dvd option!
Not massively talented, have ferw connections but I am very determined so something will happen! It has to!
Thanks again for your help! Could I ask you where you went? Did you have to work at all while you were travelling?

Im in two minds as what to say here. I love my copy of the BIGMA. Its sharp and feels great, and is so far producing some very good images. But it is by no means a small lens. It is quite heavy and to get the absolute best out of it a tri/monopod helps. My advice would be to seek one out and have a feel with it. If you can see yourself taking it around the world then its a good choice. Oh, and it opens up to 4.5 50-100 and 5.6 above 100 (i think).
As for the price of round the world tickets. I know before i went travelling in 2004 they were around the £1200-1300 mark allowing around 7 stops. Im sure there are some better deals available too now. If youyr planning to visit alot of places its financially the best option. I only travelled around australia and south korea so it was cheaper for me to buy the flights seperately. I would shop arounf the travel agencies, they generally have some good advice and are often willing to compete with others when undercut.
Keep us updated on you progress.

PS, i can send you some BIGMA pics if you want to see examples?

Yeah that would be great please! I'll let you know what ticket ideas I come up with. Internet quotes seem a bit unreliable to be honest! Face to face with an agent would be easier!
Thankyou!

Here you go mate, couple of shots. I havnt had the lens yet so ive by no means got the best out of it yet, but it gives at least a rough idea. And it shows the two extremes of range. The first is shot at 50mm and the second at 500mm. And im sure you can get far far better shots with it than this. It really is a great lens.

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That clarity and definition is fantastic. I think it would be a good lens to pick up at some point! Cheers mate. That Loch Lomond shot is beautiful. I think that you'd like the work of Jeff Alu. He is a digital fine art photographer that I've discovered recently.
http://www.animalu.com​/pics/photos.htm
Mainly Black and White but he uses a feel that reminds me of yours above. Very good website too! I'm quite a fan of all things creative and he has done a lot of creative writing etc. Look him up!
I think that lens would become very useful when I venture towards the Grand Canyon one spring morning next year! Oooh the excitement!

Thanks for the advice.I had a look at the web site and is shots really are very good, i agree. Thanks for the positive comments about the photos. If you do decide on the lens im sure you wont be disappointed. Now stop talking about you trip would you! Im jealous enough as it is....hmmmm, maybe after my PhD's fnished..........

hee hee - I'll make sure I keep updating my plans - PhD is it! That's posh. Maybe when I get my degree AND TRAVELLING out the way! What a tough life!

wow i cant even see the duck in the first pic! that thing must zoom like crazy!

I had planned to do: Thailand -> Singapore -> OZ -> NZ -> Fiji -> US (West to East Coast).

Those plans went straight out of the window when I fell in love with asia. Prior to setting off I'd seen my 'highlight' of the trip as being NZ, but in the end I didn't even get there.

My route ended up being: Thailand -> Singapore -> OZ -> Thailand -> Laos -> Thailand

I didn't work while I was away, but many do. I was only away for 4 months and spent around £4k in total (inc flights). If you're planning to work then OZ will probably be the place. Don't limit yourself to just Bangkok while in asia, there are many other places you should visit (Chiang Mai, Kho Pha Gnan, Pai, all of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia).

Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you want any more info