Just came from a Recent out of town trip and decided that It would be a good idea to share the things you need to do, prepare for your Travel Assignment or Vacation.
What to prepare when you travel?
1. You should have a good Traveling bag for your camera gear. Putting everything in order will help you in those situations
when you need to find your gear or accessories fast. Good Cases
and Travel bags also protect your gear from the elements.
2. Scout the place before you travel. Most Travel Destinations have been photographed before or someone may have went there in the past. Look for guides, warnings or anything online to give you a glimpse of what to expect. Looking at photos of others will give you a window to view where you are going so you can start imagining how you will take your signature shot of the Place.
3. Bring the Right Gear. Why bring a macro lens if you won't use it? It will only make your bag heavy and hard to carry long distances. Bring only what you need.
4. Bring a Good Tripod or monopod for those shots that need the extra stability like night shots or low light level shots.
5. Wear Comfortable clothes that will keep you warm and dry while you shoot. Wear comfortable shoes that you can use for walking long distances. Some people prefer to bring Photographers Vest which is a practical idea knowing that you have so many compartments to place your accessories.
6. Bring only the accessories you need. Graduated filters, polarizers, warming filters bring only what is necessary. Special filters like expodisc or whitebalance card may not be used in outdoor situations for travel photography.
7. Bring Extra Set of Batteries, Water, Gum or candy, a clean cloth for lenses. You will never know when your next store, or break will come if you are shooting travel, It is best to keep stock of the things that you will be needing while waiting. Water to quench your thirst, Gum or candy to keep you from starving and a clean cloth or towel to keep you and your lenses dry.
8. I usually psyche my self up by listening to music that gets me into the mood to shoot. You can do this or maybe view some of your favorite photos or maybe read books on the destination you are going to.
10. There is safety in numbers. Find out who else is going to your destination, if it is a fiesta, festival or some event there will always be other photographers there.
11. Have emergency numbers ready. Not that anything will happen to you but it would be good to have some numbers handy. If you travel abroad, keep your embassy numbers. If you travel to a province or a nearby city it would be good to keep numbers of relatives that live nearby or maybe the number of the hotel that you stay in.
12. One of the important things to consider when traveling in this digital age is that you should consider your shooting capacity and your memory storage solutions. How big your files are and how often you shoot will leave you needing more and more memory cards. There are digital wallets available in the market but I still prefer to download them to my laptop or burn them to CD for multiple backups.
13. Like any other shoot, this is something you should enjoy and make the most out of. Don't Let it pressure you, go with the flow and do what you do best.. Take good photos!