How to Pack Your Photography Bag for Your Next Travel Photography Adventure

Whenever you’re planning a travel photography trip you always have to consider the issues of all the equipment that you need and all the way to your willing to carry. The purpose of this post is to help you get the list of must haves and then also help you eliminate what you don’t need.

Check out this video on what to pack in your camera bag for your travel photography adventure!

Getting the Right Camera Bag

First I guess its possible that you don’t even have a camera bag.  So for step one let’s make sure you get the right bag. First you have to determine if you are going to be hiking or will you be doing smaller day trips?

If you’re going to be hiking consider a backpack type bag where you can put all your photo gear in the bag and put it on your back so that you can walk freely. Make sure the bag is well balanced but also well padded because this equipment really does get heavy quickly. Make sure the bag can hold your tripod also because you will need it to get the very best pictures.

The Lowepro Flipside 400 all weather bag is just perfect for hiking. It’s the perfect weight it has many compartments for all your lenses are all of your other equipment it easily carries a tripod on the side and as it is perfectly balanced for very long hikes. I have had this bag for several years and I really do love it.

If you’re just going on much smaller day trips you obviously need a much smaller bag. You need something to carry all of your supplies but you may not be doing long hikes you just want something that you can throw over your shoulder. In that case something like the Lowepro Nova 200 is perfect for those shorter trips.

Camera and Lenses

Camera

This discussion obviously depends upon what type of photography you’re planning on doing but being your reading my blog I’m assuming you’re doing and travel photography capturing landscapes and architectural works. So no matter what your particular camera is whether you’re a Nikon or Canon or Sony or Olympus person none of that really matters just make sure your camera is in good working order. If you’re concerned at all about your particular camera working, then seriously consider having a backup camera body available to you. Whether it’s an exact duplicate of your main camera or if it’s a smaller type camera that can hold your same lenses or even whether it’s a relatively high quality point and shoot type camera, you never know what might go wrong so it is often times good to have a backup.

Lenses

My lenses for this type of trip again need to be a balance between quantity and weight. I always want my 80% lens which is my 24 – 105mm L series lens on the Canon. I call that my 80% lens because its on my camera 80 percent of the time. I shoot the vast majority of my landscapes with this because it gives me the flexibility to be able to zoom in a bit or to be quite wide and it also gives me great quality.

Secondly then I want my very wide 14 mm lens to capture amazing architectural scenes that I run into or huge vistas like the Grand Canyon that just need to be very wide to be captured well. For this lens I use the 14 mm Canon L Series lens. Is the most expensive lens in my arsenal but it’s expensive for a reason. It produces amazing results!

Finally, you will want some type of lens that allows you to zoom in a little bit more. For this case I have a very cheap lens that still produces the results I need. It’s a 70 – 300 millimeter lens. This allows me to capture the eagle up in the tree or the goat along the side of the mountain. I don’t use this that often but when you need it it’s great to have something in the bag. There is one other reason to bring this particular lens. It has a macro switch on it even though it is incredibly cheap it produces quite magical macro images with the amazing bokeh background.

Remember to bring your lens hoods. These can easily be placed over the strap of your camera bag so they are not taking up room inside your camera bag but you want your lens hoods both to protect your lenses and to reduce lens flare when you don’t want them.

Also, be sure to bring some filters.   I never leave home without my circular polarizing filter.  This filter reduces glare on water and produces incredibly deep rich blue skies.   There are also times when you want to reduce the amount of light in a scene and you do that with Neutral Density filters.   We will have a more complete discussion on filters at another time.

Lens Cleaners

So if you’re going to be in any areas that have dust or dirt in the air you need to make sure you have plenty of lens cleaners. Whether those be micro fiber cloths are complete lens cleaning kit either way make sure you have something to keep your lenses clean. Also consider having a sensor cleaning kit with you if you’re going to be changing lenses a lot of your chances of getting some dust and dirt inside your camera I go up quite dramatically.

Batteries

Make sure you have all kinds of batteries and of course hopefully the rechargeable and you bring your charging unit also. Batteries need to be with you for your hike to charge you going to come stay back in your room at the Hotel but just make sure you have access to your charging units. Try to plan to have at least a day of batteries with you charged all the time.

Memory Cards

Being with shooting with digital photography it’s easy to get carried away and shoots a thousands and thousands and thousands of images. So make sure you have plenty of memory cards or very large cards so you can comfortably keep shooting. As you’re buying these cards consider what your needs are for the speed of your cards. If you’re going to be shooting fast sporting events and you’re going to be shooting in a rapid fire make sure your cards are very fast so you don’t get slowed down by your memory cards.

Tripod

I encourage everyone that I speak with to be sure you have a tripod for all these trips. A tripod is one of the most important tools in your arsenal for making your photography truly phenomenal. Keep in mind if you’re traveling into like a city of New York and do some of the buildings you may not be allowed to bring a bigot tripod so plan ahead with a much smaller and more flexible tripod unit.

Off Camera Microphone

If you’re going to be doing any video work consider having an off camera microphone. An off camera microphone will dramatically improve the sound quality of your videos. Sennheiser has a great microphone and there are many more to choose from.

Flash

If you will be in dark areas may be doing some macro photography you consider an off camera flash unit. Not mandatory and you can be flexible using a higher ISO but if a macro is your main purpose for this particular trip I would highly recommend bringing flash you may need to be in control of the light.

Miscellaneous Supplies

If your tripod does not have a level make sure you have a little one level that you can attach to your flash unit. These really come in handy to help make sure you’re capturing the right image right up front.

And of course make sure you have your camera manual. You never know when you’ll want to do something that you’ve never done before and happy that manual available gives you the opportunity to learn something new try some new technique and get that perfect image.

You never know when you’ll need a flashlight you might be out chasing that perfect image then all of a sudden it gets dark. Be sure you have a couple of flashlights with you in your camera bag for these emergency situations.

Conclusion

So now you should be ready for your big trip. You will have everything you need without bringing the kitchen sink.  I what to see all the great images you capture on your trip so be sure to stop by and tell us all about it.  If by chance I have left something off the list or if you have some other great ideas be sure to let us know by dropping us a line.

Be sure to subscribe to our email lists and check out all of our Photography How To Videos on YouTube and be sure to subscribe.

Until next time, get out and capture the adventure.

 

Written by Wayne Moran - Visit Website
[email protected]