Top 10 Gear Every Professional Travel Photographer Needs
Ann Esievoadje
Travel photography is a different ball game from a tourist who just likes to take beautiful pictures.
It is a genre of the photography profession that involves documenting the landscapes, history, culture, and people of a particular area. I’m talking Time Magazine, National Geographic, and UN Humanitarian shots. Some pictures we see on exotic locations in Nigeria’s tourism scene are taken by professional travel photographers. Fancy as it may seem, this lifestyle requires a lot of commitment to the craft.
Travel photography
For a newbie into this scene, you might not have the money to pay for travel trips yet to build your portfolio. Sometimes, you may not even get a contract or an assignment that would require you to travel and take Pictures. An example of such a gig is traveling to take shots of an event like Calabar Carnival or Durban Festival. But you can start small from where you are; photo-documenting your city and it’s customs until you get that big break where you get paid to travel to a destination on an assignment.
So if you are interested in going into this field of photography, here are the key equipment you may need:
Camera – There is only so much weight one can bare while being mobile. So, the key factors for choosing a camera are its size, high image quality, and lightweight.
Lenses – Sometimes, you may not need to carry multiple cameras for a different effect. A set of lenses can substitute for different camera types such as a zoom, stock, fisheye, all-in-one or prime lens. But when traveling, only two lenses will do. You can travel with one zoom and one prime lens.
Tripod – A travel tripod doesn’t have to be big, it can be small enough to fit into your travel camera bag. The space where you intend to place it determines the size of the tripod you travel with. An example of a travel tripod is a Gorillapod for DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras weighing up to 3kg.
Camera Bag – You can either have a camera backpack for hiking or long walks or a small well-padded one shoulder sling camera bag. The bag should be such that dust or harm does not come near your gear. But if you have breakable or sensitive gear, go for a hard plastic pack. Something that won’t break if manhandled at the airport or luggage packing systems. To be on the safe side, make sure your gear can fit into your carry-on luggage or any bag you can sit with in a car, bus or train ride.
Battery charger, Adapters, Converters – The last thing you want is to be out of power on a travel trip because you could not recharge your batteries due to a voltage or socket configuration irregularity. Get chargers and adapters suited for universal Power. Always keep spare batteries on the side, ready to use, on travel trips.
System (either an iPad or a Laptop) – this is necessary for backing up and editing shots. For travelling light, you can replace the need for a laptop with a smartphone and a tablet.
Flash or Speedlight – Having just one flash that can be triggered remotely if it is connected to the camera by a tether or a smaller unit on a camera.
Power strip – Get one which is easy to store and has up to two USB ports. It makes it easy to share or connect with international plugs when at an outlet where the ports are overloaded. Make sure you have a voltage converter nearby before you use it though so variance in power does not blow it up.
Underwater Protection Gear – If you are not using an iphone7 or Samsung Galaxy 8, you can get a Lifeproof FRE case for underwater shots using a phone. The disadvantage is that it reduces the amount of light getting into the camera. Other waterproof cameras you can get are Olympus Tough! TG-5, Nikon Coolpix W300, Panasonic Lumix FT5 / TS5, Canon PowerShot D30, Fujifilm FinePix XP120.
Other Accessories – Memory Cards are also essential for storing pictures so the internal memory of your camera is free. Filters are also useful; so take one circular polarizing filter or GND Filter for good measure. Also, a “selfie light” helps with night shots or snapping bright face beat selfies. Lens cleaning kit with a sensor brush is a necessity to make sure your lenses are clean and smudge free.
Never forget, as important as having equipment is, it is just an instrument. Don’t focus so much on trying to own high-tech gadget. Rather, focus on using what you have to capture your vision for a shot. Understand of the scene you are trying to capture. Learn more about photography from reading books about it and use what you learn whenever you travel.
