Prior to the pandemic, my family would take many vacations across the United States and overseas. For every single one of these trips, my carry-on would be my camera bag. Shocking right? That being said, there have been many lessons learned over the years from the mistakes I have made while traveling with my camera equipment.
#1 Bring Extra Batteries!
I can not stress this enough! Bringing only one battery on a vacation or any photoshoot for that matter is extremely risky. For the longest time, I survived by just owning one camera battery. As soon as my camera started flashing that low battery symbol, I would wrap up whatever I was shooting and pack up my equipment and leave my location. I do not recommend this method as it caused me to miss out on capturing so many photographs. Bringing extra charged batteries will save you from the frustration of a dead battery, allow you to utilize your time shooting to the fullest, and that extra trip back to your hotel room to re-charge your battery.
#2 Do Not Use Super Old SD Cards!
Unfortunately, I learned this lesson the hard way. Back in 2018, I went on a trip to Australia for two weeks. We started off the trip in Melbourne and then made our way to Sydney and then Coffs Harbor. From our time in Melbourne to our first day in Sydney, I filled up a brand new SD card. Fortunately, I brought multiple SD cards with me about 4 or 5 of them. So for our second day in Sydney, I put a different SD card in my camera. I spent the whole day taking photos of the Opera House, the alleys, the architecture and did some street photography. When I arrived back at our hotel, I immediately wanted to transfer my pictures to my laptop as soon as I put my SD card in and opened the file there were no pictures on the card. I found out that the card was corrupted and that the card was purchased in 2004. I've probably lost over 1000 photos that day and had to retrace my steps the next day to recover some of the pictures. However all of the street photography and the sunset and the lighting from the day prior would not be the same. So do not use super old SD cards and bring extras!
#3 Triple Check that you have Packed Everything
Sometimes rushing out of your house to get to the airport on time can cause you to leave some stuff behind. In my case, I left behind my tripod when going to shoot photos on the Oregon Coast. I had planned for a majority of my nature and landscape photography to be focus-stacked images. When doing focus-stacking, it is essential to use a tripod. This is because you have to take multiple photos from the exact same position and overlap them post-process. Since I left my tripod and didn't want to purchase a new one, I had to improvise and use tree stumps among other semi-sturdy objects. Not having my tripod made creating these focus-stacked images much more difficult. So Triple check that you have packed all of your gear. An extra helpful tip is taping a packing list to the door that you will have to leave out of to go on vacation. This way you are forced to think about what you have packed as you leave the house.
Traveling with camera equipment can be stressful at times, but hopefully, you can take something away from my mistakes, so you aren't faced with similar issues! Happy Traveling!
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