South America

Every two years I am involved in an overseas expedition with students. We tend to be away for a month over the summer holidays. The idea is to teach students to be independent travellers, to help them see the wider world and learn from visiting different cultures, as well as to undertake charity work in these countries.

This year, the expedition WAS to Chile and Bolivia. On these trips I generally take a few cameras and this one was no exception. I had a Fuji x100 and a pocket Lumix. I had always planned to use my iPhone and Hipstamatic, but early on in the trip my little Lumix broke and I saw this as a challenge to only shoot with Hipstamatic. The Fuji x100 is a great travel camera but that tended to stay in my rucksack as I found more and more that the Hipstamatic delivered great results and was great for street photography. I had a few days in La Paz and I set myself the task of trying to photograph the area I was in and capture the crazy atmosphere of one day in this very busy city.

I choose the Loftus lens and DC film in the morning when the city was just waking up and switched to Cano Cafenol film with the John S lens for most of the pictures in the afternoon. I feel the Cano Cafenol film really gives a good rendering of the ‘feel’ of the city. The most exciting day to photograph was at a festival I found and I switched to the bright colours of the Ina’s 1982 film with the Jane lens.

I was pretty much the only non-Bolivian there and the crowds of people were very welcoming and it was great fun chasing the parade across the city. As part of the expedition there was a six day trek to the Cordillera Real mountain range for which I only used the Loftus lens with the Rock Bw-11 film which gave a tilt-shift effect which I think really suited the mountains.

The last phase of the trip was a visit to an orphanage followed by some R&R time around Lake Titicaca for which I went back to the lovely colours of the Jane lens with the Ina’s 1982 film.

The final few hours before heading home where spent at a Cholitas wrestling match. In the “show” you see half a dozen matches between men and between women and men. The men’s costumes are outlandish, while the women perform in traditional Andean dress. Chile and Bolivia are both exciting countries and provide many great photographic opportunities.

adventures in hipstaland