Tips to know before your travel photography adventure

Pack light ultra-light as possible

Travel photography is exciting and inspirational. But you could get carried away when packing. There’s nothing like being able to take everything with you, but this just won’t be possible when you think about things like insurance and baggage allowance. Some of the important things you need to take include a body, a few memory cards, a mini tripod, a flexible Gorillapod, pocket-sized compacts, some lenses, a camera bag and a portable storage unit.

Lenses & the right equipment choice is crucial 

There are a number of genres which you can explore when traveling. But which lenses do you carry? If you don’t have too much space and want to choose just one, go with something that has fast zoom like an 18-200 or 28-300 mm.

Choose the right format

Shooting in JPEG or RAW will offer additional flexibility, but this means traveling with a lot of high-capacity storage cards. Form a habit of downloading images to a storage device or your laptop every day to free up your cards. When you’re off shooting, remember to carry additional cards with you just in case.

Scouting locations for the right shots

If you have trouble finding inspiration for shoots, start with a visit to the local information center and find out which places are recommended for a visit. Explain your photography style and ask if there are any fellow photographers around too. They may be able to show you something away from the beaten track. One major stumbling block for photographers when traveling is confidence. Everyone would love to take portraits of beautiful environments, but they tend to do so from a distance. There’s no harm in asking a subject if you could take their photo. The worst thing would be that they’d say no. But in most cases, they would probably smile and agree.

Staying safe & Taking care

Most places are safe, and you will find lots of friendly people. But there are some places where this may not be true. That’s why you should be conscious of your safety and take precautionary steps to gain confidence when in an unfamiliar place. Invest in anti-theft bags and luggage locks. Also, keep a list of common phrases in the local language and emergency numbers just in case you need them. Keep some local currency on your person with the rest stored safely elsewhere. Keeping these things in mind will help ensure you have a good travel photography adventure.