Bangladesh is a country with huge opportunity & resource. There is millions of places & things to explore. Bangladesh is the largest Mangrove forest on the earth. those of you who live and work in Bangladesh are living in one of smallest countries, ranked as 94th in the world. Its size is dwarfed though by its biodiversity and this spills over to the different peoples that populate the country making it one of the most culture rich places on earth.
Here you can ride a steamer from Dhaka, home of Bangladesh’s largest Mosque, down the Buriganga to Khulna to reach the Sundorbon or to Cox’s Bazaar the Bay of Bengal to start your adventure. From here, it is just a stone’s throw to Bengal itself. You cannot travel this country without a camera and the GoPro Hero4 is more than perfectly suited for the task.
Let’s see what it offers and how it can be used to capture all that is in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh: Home to Tigers in the wild
You can see them for yourself and with the GoPro’s Protune (TM) [details on how to use Protune] with SuperView (TM), which delivers that cinema-quality capture you want for video. You can film the tigers in the wild and still be far enough away not to be noticed. You can then switch to the advanced manual control for taking photos or video on the fly, as the action changes. Your Go Pro can do it as it has the world’s most immersive wide-angle field of view on any lightweight digital camera on the market.
However, tigers are not the only attractions. The Bengal Delta to the south of the capital feature amazing plant and animal sights that your GoPro was made to record and bring back home for later enjoyment after your travels.
You can find elephants, The Gray Languor, and even the Crab-Eating Macaque along with the Sunda Pangolin. Further, out in the bay itself, the Blue Whale may be found often in the company of the Pantropical Spotted Dolphin.
When these opportunities arise you need the professional 4K30, 2.7K60 and 1080p120 video.
If you want to catch the action in Slo-Mo, you switch to the 720p240 video that gives you super slow-motion playback. You can also take 12MP photos at up to 30 frames per second as well.
But, you don’t have to chase Tigers and endangered marine life
Go outside the city and a whole world of nature awaits you. The mangrove forest of Sandbanks is a site that was made for you and your GoPro. The area that is declared a World Heritage site has, of course, the last of the Royal Bengal Tigers. But it also homes to 30,000 deer, countless birds, other animals, and reptiles.
You could spend years here and not see all the marvels that are hidden here.
The Ganges mother of life for Bangladesh and India as well provides the water that turns a large portion of the area into a freshwater swamp and wetlands.
You will find the spotted deer as well as the Cobra. The leopard makes his home here as well. You may be treated to see these or one of the many other species of mammals and reptiles that call this region home.
Your GoPro can bring back the sights of this vast area and if you systematically VISTA the different ecosystems you will grow to understand just how lucky Bangladesh is to have this National Park as part of the country.
Here you will find 120 species of fish. However, you may become a birdwatcher as there are 260 different kinds of waterfowl, Parrots, and other kinds of birds that flit from the trees and wade through the marshes looking for frogs and small fish.
The wide-angle feature of your GoPro is perfect for landscape photography and you will capture pictures that many wouldn’t believe you took yourself.
If you travel through the area via boat, you will be treated to capturing videos of the crocodiles swimming through the water or sunning themselves on the mud banks and sand bars. Spend even a day here and your life will change forever and you’ll want to come back again and again and your GoPro will chronically your adventures.
But, if the urban scene is your cup of tea then the GoPro shifts to a city-bred urban photographer’s dream come true.
Urban Photography in Bangladesh with GoPro
Even the train station in the capital is a source of exciting picture taking if you use the GoPro head strap. Because what you see, the camera sees as well.
This lets you get some unbelievable pictures just wander about the city. Go to the markets and you can see the clash of colors and with the GoPro, you can almost smell the street food cooking and the sounds of the hawkers praising their wares and goods.
Dhaka is the haven for some of the favored dishes to be found in Bangladesh and GoPro records it all to send to your friends in the US to give them a taste of home.
Vuna Khichuri, Moglai Porota, Mama Halim, and Morog-Polau are classics that are sold on the street and in fine restaurants like Nanna Biriani, Star Kabab, Fokhruddin Biriani etc. Take you GoPro to dinner and this then can commemorate some of the best food that Dhaka has to offer and your pals in the US or other countries will get a kick out of it and perhaps become homesick as well.
But the architecture of Bangladesh is something that should be photographed and the GoPro is ideally suited to do this. It functions in all light conditions. This makes it great as the sunsets and its last rays gleam down on the Great Mosque highlighting it in the last rays of the day. It reminds you that we are all only here by the grace of the one who is most high.
But the capital is also home to more modern buildings and the crowded streets set off a contrast to the city. It being one of the largest in the country and as such, you find people from all parts of Bangladesh rubbing elbows with foreign visitors from China, America, and even Germany. This makes Dhaka one of the great melting pots of the Indian Subcontinent. You will find a great article from one of the greatest blogger who has to spend his whole life in Dhaka and write his awesome observation and posted on “The Daily Guardian” Newspaper. Here you can take pictures of markets filled with trade goods at the End of what once was the Silk Road and it still is in use. You can still see camels and to be riding one with your GoPro is a treat you can share with your family back in your hometown or village.
There is a plan to build a new Silk Road between the nations of Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar. President Xi and President Hamid have paved the way to connect markets in the Far East with Europe via a Land and sea route once more.
You can already see this in the markets in Dhaka as there is an influx of goods from China in the form of computers and other electronics. But as a photographer, you are more interested in the color of the saffron and the bolts of brightly colored cloth and yes, a bolt or two of silk as well from China.
The People are the heart and soul of Bangladesh and human drama is everywhere
The GoPro Hero4 (Silver Edition or Black Edition) is perfect for getting the true picture of the world of Bangladeshi society and you can see it on the worker trudging off to his job or the mother sending her child off to school.
Photographers flock to Dhaka because it is the center of urban life in the country. But that is not to say there are not other places where people live and work.
Hiking away from the city and visiting the villages in Bangladesh can give you a chance to meet people you never thought you’d meet. Carrying a GoPro is like a diplomatic pass, as people will open up their homes and their lives to the traveler and they don’t mind if you take photos of their lives.
To say Bangladesh is crowded is an understatement. If you were traveling about last summer, you would have photographed the devastation that occurred during the floods that inundated the Delta region.
Here is where your GoPro can perform invaluable service as you can chronically the events and post it on the Internet (i.e: YouTube)as it helps show the world the plight of the nation and helps drum up relief aid to help those hardest hit by these occurrences.
So, when these events occur in the future your GoPro may become the star of the efforts to help those who are devastated when the Ganges overflows again. You may even be called upon to help in rescue efforts. A head strap can leave your hands free to aid those who need it and your GoPro can record the events as they happen.
Global warming has made the weather of the world unpredictable and with your GoPro, you can be there and record the human drama for flood, Typhoon, and earthquake.
You’ll be able to have a video to remember all the people you help and the smiles of gratitude from children and adults whom you have aided in their time of need.
And the many who have bought this camera have said:
- As a professional Photographer and as a contributor to the SLR Lounge this camera has all the qualities of a pro camera and it costs a fraction of what an upscale DSLR does
- I just got back from the mountains and the pictures I took were totally Rad!
- I did my sister’s wedding and she was shocked at how good the pictures came out. Especially the one video I shot while dancing with her.
- We went fishing in the bay and I took pictures of a Porpoise and got some shots of the big one that broke the line and went free
- I took some photos of my family’s old house in Chittagong and my mother cried when she saw them
- I sent some video of the capital back to Rajah and now my brother wants to come here too
- I saw my first tiger and lucky I had my GoPro. He was gone in an instant but I have him clearly and in slow motion, you can see every detail from tail to snout. Even the whiskers stand out
Though the camera is great it isn’t perfect
- Battery backup is less about 90 minutes only specially for 4K videos
- It can overheat if you run it at 4K resolution too long
- Don’t take it into the water without a waterproof housing even though it is rated to 30 meters
Final Thoughts
Tourism in Bangladesh is growing too fast and exploring Bangladesh is now new trends. From personal tours to corporate- exploring Bangladesh event is getting popular. To make the all local and international tourist more safe and comfortable, Bangladesh has started special police called “Bangladesh Tourist Police” To make your tour more memorable, GoPro is still one of the most popular cameras around in spite of some bugs. GoPro is working on the heat issue and in the meantime, shoot in 10 to 20-minute segments and you should be fine. A fix will be out soon. Due to this, the otherwise great camera only rates a 4.5-star rating out of 5.
Taking any camera underwater without a protective case is silly except in shallow water and 100 feet is below the limit of most, which skin dive and swim for fun anyway.
But other than that, the majority of owners like the camera as it works in regular light and even under the hot sun in the middle of the day in Dhaka don’t seem to bother the camera. It works astoundingly good at night and you can get some amazing pictures of the city at night while you are out strolling about to relieve some of the heat.
So, with all things considered. This could have been a great camera. But for the money, it is a good buy and is recommended as such.
