Some travel tips

Here are some photo tips for travel that I’ve gleaned over the years.

The best camera bags are from Think Tank Photo. I’ve been using their Speed Freak bag, with two modular belt pouches. For travel I can stuff two Canon 5D bodies with lenses attached (70-200 and 24-105), a 16-35mm, a 15mm Fisheye, and two Speedlights. It’s really too tight a fit to keep both bodies in the bag, and I’m going to try the next size up, the Speed Racer. The extra pouches and like on the bags make total sense, and I’ve never owned a bag so compact and comfortable. Robin regularly pokes fun at me regarding all the camera bags I own, but this is the brand I have finally made a long term commitment to.

There are a variety of wallets out there to hold your compact flash cards. Most of them have too much Velcro for my taste, and are hard to open when you need to get to a card fast. My favorite is the Lowepro wallet because it zips. It is important to replace these wallets when the card slots begin to stretch, as the cards can fall out.

I have all my cards numbered, and I use them in sequence. I have 20 cards, ranging from 4 to 1 gb. I’ve yet to fill them all in a day, but I’ve come close. When a card is full, I turn it over in the wallet (an assistant pointed out to me that I flip my cards in the reverse way than every other photographer she works for. How was I to know? I just made it up.) Lately I’ve taken to keeping the cards for each camera body in separate wallets so I know which card came from which camera. I also have the wallets tethered to the camera bag.

How do I know which camera body is which? One has a patch of gaffer tape on the prism.

I do not clear my cards until I have the data transferred to my computer, as well as to two external back-up drives. When the images are in three different places, then I format the cards. If it’s a multi-client assignment, I’ll burn DVDs between jobs and FedEx them home, just in case.

I have just learned that, if you travel with more than one camera, you should bring more than one battery charger. Getting up in the middle of the night to change batteries so that they’re all charged for the next day is a drag. Double check that the outlet you’ve plugged in your charger is not a switched outlet. A lot of hotel rooms turn off the wall outlets when you turn off the light switch by the door. The bathroom outlet is usually the best bet, but I’ve been stung there too.

A power strip can be a good idea to bring along. Stick in a couple of 3 to 2 prong adapters in it—they can be useful to stack battery chargers and other DC converters that take up all that real estate on the strip.

Join AAA. Most motels give you a discount, and you can stop in any office and pick up free maps. You go through a lot of maps on a trip.

Get to bed early, and eat a big breakfast. Talk to your spouse at least once a day, preferably more often. Up the minutes on your phone plan before you go. Let them know how excited you are, and let them talk about their day. It really helps reduce the re-entry conflict. But know that you’re going to have it.

Comments

[Robin Shapiro]

Talk to the spouse, one more thing to be gotten out of the way, like bringing a power strip. Ho hum!
R!