On another thread, a blogger just asked me what photographic equipment I travel with and what equipment, in my opinion, is necessary for great travel photography. Here's my response:
One of the classic responses you'll get to this question comes from the phenomenal American Photographer,
Chase Jarvis . His response to this question is, "the best camera is the one you have with you." To prove his point he has been doing an ongoing fine art photography series taken only with his iPhone. Check his pics out...they are awesome and incredibly humbling for someone who regularly travels with thousands of US$ of camera equipment.
Now for my answer:
I find that the grainy and low quality pics that come from the average point and shoot camera to be insufficient for my needs. But, with that said, I regularly blow my pictures up to 24x36 inch pictures. You just can't do that with a point and shoot. On the other hand, for the average person, the point and shoot camera is more than adequate. My wife uses one and gets great pictures that are great for her.
When I first started our year long trip back in 2006 I started with a Canon point and shoot. I outgrew it fast and moved on to Nikon DSLR equipment. I bought a D80 and the really great all around 18-200mm lens. It sufficed then (and still does sometimes today) for most picture needs, specially in good bright light out doors.
The challenge for most travelers is that you tend to have limited time in one place and are forced to deal with the light and weather you get when you're there. The only way to get Great pictures in bad conditions is to have more and more gear that is capable of overcoming the bad situation. In my case this meant more lenses and even more importantly a tripod and a bunch of photo filters like neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters which make a huge difference in uneven light (for instance is the sky is really bright on a cloudy day and the ground is dark these filers act like sunglasses for the sky).
Today I own a Nikon D700 and regularly travel with the following lenses: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and the Nikon 105mm Macro lens. This is roughly 30 pounds of equipment that costs tons of money. Of course, I've gone pro and shoot portrait shoots that help pay for this equipment and all of it is insured!
For the average traveler this is WAY overboard and totally unnecessary. If tomorrow someone told me to travel with five pounds of equipment I would bring my Nikon D90 backup camera and the 18-200mm VR lens I bought back in 2006 and call it a day. If that was still too much I would probably get a Canon G10 and be very happy with the quality of what I had.
In my opinion there are no wrong answers to what should you travel with and what is enough. But, if I had to give one piece of advice its, "don't buy fancier cameras! Instead become a better photographer with what you have and upgrade only if you get to a point where your equipment just can do what you want."
Anybody else have thoughts? What equipment do you travel with? What would be your ideal setup regardless of cost and weight? What would you take if you were limited by space and weight?
Mike T.
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