Chennai being one of 4 largest cities in India maybe daunting for foreigner who visits it for first time.

The public transport is efficient BUS as well as MRTS but it tends to get crowded during peak times.

photo or video capture. My feelings about country have never wavered from this opinion.

Having said that, I must also admit that Italy - particularly in metropolitan areas - is a problematic country for videographers. Rome,

among other Italian cities, has some of toughest regulations and laws limiting commercial photography.

My husband, Wayne, and I formed our company - VITA Digital Productions - 5 years ago to shoot European video footage - both for

our own specialty-market treadmill virtual walks ( www.treadmillwalks.com ) and to sell as stock footage to TV networks around

world ( www.hdeuropeanstockfootage.com ). We made decision last year to switch over to HD (High Definition) footage after

getting our first request for HD footage.

Our biggest concerns, in planning our recent three-week shoot in May 2005, were 1. safe transport of our video equipment (all in

carry-on bags, for obvious reasons!), 2. ability to shoot in and around tourist-laden locations, and 3. finding ways to get video

footage in spite of stringent regulations enforced in Rome.

Wayne and I have done this several times over past five years - researching a picture-worthy destination in Europe, making our

own travel plans, and packing up like two serendipitous vagabonds to go forth and shoot (you’d just have to know me to appreciate

how foreign this is - no pun intended - to my accustomed, orderly way of life). When I look back to first part of 2001 (pre 9-11) and

our two trips to Italy in spring and summer of that year, I realize now how easy it was to get through customs with unusual looking video

equipment.

When two of us travel on a video shoot, we have slowly learned to take bare minimum of clothing so that we can

accommodate camera, tripods, SteadiCam apparatus, batteries, filters, wide-angle lens, fluid heads, and tape in addition to

spare parts for repairs.

This trip, anticipating problems with airport security, we took pictures of Wayne wearing SteadiCam vest and showing camera

mounted on articulated arm. We then tucked pictures inside luggage for quick and easy retrieval. When security

agents x-rayed our bags, they never failed to have us open our luggage and inspect equipment contained. It expedited

process when we were able to produce pictures showing how every piece of equipment fit together. Wayne also mailed a small and

inexpensive packet of tools (a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and an Allen wrench) to each of our two hotels so that we would not have

those little forbidden items confiscated in airports. And for some reason, an Allen wrench is an absolute no-no with security

agents! I suppose that all of items could have been purchased in Italy, but time is money on a shoot and we didn’t want to waste

time searching for a source in a strange city.

Safely arriving with all of our equipment in Italy, we were ready to begin shooting. We had an itinerary and a shooting agenda for