How Pros Travel with Camera Gear (Safely and Effectively!)

In this episode of The Wild Photographer, Court digs into one of the most practical, important, and occasionally nerve-wracking topics in travel photography: how to travel with camera gear safely and effectively.

If you’ve ever walked through an airport with thousands of dollars of camera equipment on your back, you know the feeling. You don’t want that bag leaving your side, you don’t want your lenses rattling around, and you definitely don’t want to arrive in Botswana, Alaska, Borneo, or anywhere else only to discover that you missed packing something or have something break in transit.

After 20-plus years of traveling the world as a professional photographer, wildlife guide, and expedition leader, Court has developed a very practical system for getting gear from home to the field and back again. This episode covers everything from choosing the right camera bag to navigating airline restrictions, packing lenses properly, dealing with lithium batteries, deciding whether to bring a laptop, evaluating tripods and monopods, and keeping gear clean in dusty, wet, muddy, salty, or otherwise gear-hostile environments.

The big theme throughout this episode is that traveling well with camera gear is not about bringing every accessory you own or treating your equipment like a museum artifact. It’s about building smart habits, reducing risk, staying organized, and protecting the gear enough that it can do what it’s meant to do--help you make great photos in wild places.

Products Mentioned + Links:

Shimoda Designs Action X40
Camera backpack mentioned by Court as one of his favorite travel and field bags.
https://shimodadesigns.com/action-x40-v2-backpack-black/

Peak Design
Camera bags, clips, straps, tripods, and carry accessories.
https://www.peakdesign.com/

Peak Design Capture Camera Clip
Camera clip that attaches to a backpack strap or belt.
https://www.peakdesign.com/products/capture

Peak Design Camera Straps
Quick-release camera strap system.
https://www.peakdesign.com/collections/straps

Peak Design Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod
Compact travel tripod mentioned by Court.
https://www.peakdesign.com/products/travel-tripod

f-stop Gear
Adventure camera backpacks and modular camera inserts.
https://fstopgear.com/

ORTLIEB Waterproof Backpacks
Waterproof backpack options for wet, rainy, or boat-based travel.
https://us.ortlieb.com/collections/waterproof-backpacks

NOMATIC / McKinnon Battery Case
Battery case mentioned by Court for organizing three camera batteries.
https://www.nomatic.com/products/battery-case

PolarPro
Filters and camera accessories; Court mentions liking a sturdier PolarPro lens cloth that came with a filter.
https://www.polarpro.com/

ProGrade Digital Card Readers
Dedicated memory card readers for SD, CFexpress, and other card types.
https://shop.progradedigital.com/collections/sd-readers

Anker
Charging hubs and USB-C charging accessories.
https://www.anker.com/

Court's Websites

• Check out my photo portfolio here: shop.courtwhelan.com
• Sign up for my photo and conservation blog at www.courtwhelan.com
• Follow me on YouTube (@courtwhelan) for more photography tips
• View my camera kit and recommended camera gear

Sponsors and Promo Codes:

• MPB.com - Buy, Sell, or Trade Camera Gear
• ArtStorefronts.com - Mention this podcast for free photo website design
• BayPhoto.com - 25% off your first order (code: TWP25) 
• ArtHelper.com - a photo community to learn, share and be inspired
• Arthelper.Ai - Smart tools to promo and showcase your art.
• LensRentals.com - WildPhoto15 for 15% off

Transcript

Court (00:00)
Hey friends, welcome back to the Wild Photographer Podcast. Today's episode is how pros travel with camera gear safely and effectively. Those last two points are very, very important. And as a professional photographer and a traveling photographer and a wildlife guide, I I've traveled and I still do travel a lot. So today's episode is really very fun for me to distill what is 20 to 25 years of traveling with camera gear.

Into a single episode for a lot of tips and tricks because it can be daunting, rightfully so. I mean it's it's a big deal. You you might have thousands of dollars in this bag that A, you don't wanna have it leave your side, and B, you want it well protected. And then you also get into other issues of like,

well, how do I keep my camera safe and functional and clean and maintained on the road? So today we're kind of talking about everything that goes into traveling with camera gear into far-flung places in the world. Or frankly, not far-flung places. I think as we wrap this conversation around the far-flung idea, everything more domestic, you know, air quotes, everything closer and easier is even easier and safer. So we're gonna kind of go thinking about

Some of the most extreme travel that I may have done, you know, we're talking about like bush planes, we're talking about being on dusty mountains and in safari trucks and you know all sorts of stuff. we're talking about like proper camera bags and my thoughts on them. We're talking about the age-old kind of question of like, well, do I travel with my camera stuff in a separate bag? And then do I have a different bag for day hikes? We're talking about issues with airlines and how to abate them. ⁓ selecting accessories. What do you think you might need to bring? What are the concerns?

considerations.

What about whether you need to bring a laptop or not? What do I do? What do others do? And how to evaluate whether you need a tripod or not? And then we're gonna end with how to protect and maintain your gear while traveling. And I'll be honest, as I've outlined this, ⁓ there's a there's a little bit of duplication in these individual sections, but that is hopefully going to be helpful because there are so many things to consider. ⁓ I'm not gonna be too worried about repeating myself in this because some of these things are very big age-old questions, and I do have.

some very specific advice so just bear with me if a couple of these bits and tips and tricks you hear them a couple times they're just you know they're important and they're also germane to each of these sections I just mentioned.

Before we jump into today's episode,

I wanna take a moment to thank one of our sponsors, MPB. As photographers, we all eventually hit that point where our gear needs change. Maybe you're upgrading a lens or switching camera bodies, upgrading camera bodies, simplifying your kit, or realizing that just something that's sitting on your shelf isn't really getting used like it once was. That's where MPB comes in. MPB makes it so easy to buy, sell, or trade used camera gear in a way that feels simple and very trustworthy. That second point is extremely important. Every item is inspected.

Tested and photographed individually so you know exactly what you're getting at your door when you order something from them. And if you're buying, there's a warranty and easy returns, which makes the whole process feel a whole lot less risky. And selling is just as straightforward. You get a quote, you ship your gear with free insured shipping, and once everything checks out, you get paid directly. No awkward meetups, no haggling, no guessing. It's just really, really simple and effective. So whether you're upgrading for your next trip, refining your kit, or turning old gear into maybe funds for something new or a next trip.

MPB is a great place to start. Buy, sell, or trade your camera gear with MPB And keep doing what you love. Alright, let's get into the show.

Okay, I'm starting this talk with a big question that I have all the time, and probably something that you have, is you know, is there one bag to rule them all? And what do you do about traveling to again far-flown places with camera gear? And then you have to go on day hikes. ⁓ so the reason I'm thinking about this is it's a complex thing that I want to distill, hopefully, quite simply. And again, because I've done this for 20, 25 years, I've tried a lot. ⁓ I do not just have one camera bag to rule them all, it differs from trip.

trip and I also vacillate between bringing a proper roller bag with my camera gear for big like international travel days and then having a day pack that I can actually put my camera gear in when I am hiking because I'm obviously not gonna hike with a roller bag but as you know if you've traveled and have a roller bag doing it as a carry-on and toting that thing with you through airports with long terminals and big distances between gates it makes it a lot easier so I I don't want to just say you know stick with one bag and never consider a roller there are

times and places for that. I do have rollerbags. I have rollerbags with two wheels where they kind of drag behind you. I have what's called coaster carry-on rollerbags and that's like four wheels

They're all good, they all have a use. if I can bring a roller bag on a trip with me, I love to do that. And you know, generally there are many places in the world where it just doesn't quite work because once you get to the destination, once you get in country, you're then switching to small vehicles or small bush flights. I'm thinking of most of Africa, ⁓ a lot of Arctic areas, Alaska, the list goes on. When you're getting in bush flights, those kind of hard-sided or even what you might think of as soft-sided, they

Are technically considered hard-sided suitcases, they don't fly. They're not gonna go in the fuselage, they're not gonna fit and contort to the dimensions of the small cabin. So, unfortunately, sometimes those are not passable. however, for a lot of trips where you're not doing in-country flights and you don't have really strict luggage allowances in terms of like the weight and the size and blah blah blah, then all of a sudden these roller bags are incredibly useful. I love them because it's so easy to drag them through airports. You know, I might have three, four, five different flights to get.

Where I'm going, and of course, I carry my camera gear on the plane with me, right? I mean, I'm definitely not checking that. I do know photographers that check their equipment because they have so much. ⁓ I've never gone down that road, so you're getting a little bit of a biased opinion here. but I do have enough that it does fill a small carry-on-approved roller bag, and it's great, I love it. But then the trick is

is, and this is really the big constraint of those types of situations and those bags, is that most often when we're doing our nature and wildlife and landscape photography, we are going to have to have a different bag to bring into the field with us each and every day. You can't imagine walking down a trail in the Grand Canyon with a roller bag behind you. Like you would look silly, it'd be very ineffective, you'd get dust and dirt all over it, just not the thing to do. I mean, I I don't even need to belabor the point. You're obviously not gonna do that. So then you have to think, well, gosh, now

I have to bring a backpack, then I carry all the stuff with you. You could, of course, have that as your second item you bring on the plane, but you know, for me and probably folks in the audience, if you're toting around the equivalent amount of stuff that was in that roller bag now on your back, we're talking about a pretty big size bag that's not gonna fit under the seat in front of you. You might have to check it, you might have to put it in your larger suitcase. So, you know, drum roll, I do have a solution here, and I found one when I can't bring a rollerbag or I don't want

For whatever reason, I found that there are a few bags in the market, and I think there are more and more all the time that are not only great padded, compartmentalized, modular style camera bags, meaning they have the little panels that you can organize. You know, this lens is smaller, so I'm gonna take that Velcro off and move it over here. But they're also really great backpacks, and that's something that I think has been kind of lacking on on a broad scale. There have always been a few companies that have done it. LowPro back in the day was pretty good at it, but now we actually have what I believe to be probably a half a dozen, if not more.

options when it comes to a backpack that is a great camera bag and a great backpack. ⁓ I will be totally honest, Shimoda Designs has sponsored this podcast in the past,

But when I got a hand on one of their bags, it's instantly become one of my absolute favorite bags out there. It's called the Action 40 Liter. ⁓ it is simply amazing. It's got hip straps, it's largely water resistant, if not waterproof. You probably couldn't dunk it and submerge it, but it's really, really great. ⁓ it is very comfy. It's got water bottle holders, it's got a tripod holder, it's got enough space inside that holds all my camera gear. They even sell these little core units that

Divide your camera gear into little boxes and segments if you're if you're that kind of person, and I certainly am to help protect my stuff. It also, and this is the most important if you're evaluating other camera bags in the market, is the way you access that big compartment is not only from the top, just like a normal backpack would be, but the entire back panel zips off, meaning like the same panel, the same side of the backpack that has the backpack straps. And I'll tell you why this is important is that very often for nature photography, when we get to a location, we are gonna be there for a

little

bit and we're gonna break out our gear. We might be hiking, not even having a camera out because we're we're in the forest, we're getting to the end. You might have a camera out, let's be honest, but you're not breaking out in the whole kit and caboodle. Having that back panel be the thing that opens opposed to the front part of the backpack means that you can put that backpack down in the mud, in the dirt, in the dust, in the plants and vegetation wherever you're at. And then when you put it back on, it's not the part of the backpack that the

Then gonna go on your jacket on your back. So it's something that I'm surprised that some camera bag manufacturers miss. It's it's actually the opposite. It's like the front panel that opens. So once again, if you're wishing to access that, it's the back of the backpack that will then ultimately touch you and your clothes. It gets really, really muddy and dirty. And again, you know, just trying to keep tidy out there. but the basic gist is Shimoda Designs is great. Peak Design, great camera company. You've heard me talk about them with their

camera clips and all sorts of different accessories. They're a leader in the market. They have a fantastic bag as well. And then I've recently been turned on to this company. It's not a new company, but a colleague and friend of mine is doing work with F-Stop, and those bags look great as well. So again, I'm not gonna give you a laundry list of every single bag that's ever made the cut, but a couple of those key things is: you know, it's gotta be a proper camera bag that houses camera gear well. And then it also has to be a comfortable backpack, and then bonus points if it's a little bit waterproof, and then

And for me personally, and I think that you will agree that that back panel access is really, really important. And I apologize if it's hard to visualize what I'm talking about there, but again, the same side of the backpack that has the backpack straps, that's the part that opens so you can rest the backpack down on the front side.

Now I did mention that, you know, in one of the first and foremost, that it needs to be a great camera bag. I'll be honest, like that's actually not, I'm gonna backtrack a little bit, that's not a deal breaker. I have seen many a photographer go to their local outdoor store or an REI or somehow get their hands on like a proper backpacking backpack, like these big 50, 60, 70 liter backpacks, and then inside put their camera cubes, like the actual interior boxes that house their cameras and their lenses and their accessories.

So you don't absolutely have to have a proper camera backpack. It does help. I think it's easier than ever. But frankly, if you're looking at the perfect camera bag, that means you don't have to check it that you carried on the plane with you. You're foregoing the rollerbag option. You just want to one-stop shop. I think kind of first and foremost, it needs to be a really great, comfy, usable, workable, effective backpack. And then if you can also have it from a camera company that builds it out to be friendly for photographers, you know, like tripod clips and so on and so forth.

That's a huge bonus. And then there is

one other company that I'm enamored with, and I have friends that swear by them. And this is for photographers and travelers that need fully waterproof. I want to make a clear distinction here. Water resistant and relatively waterproof is very different than fully waterproof. And the big difference is if it can be thrown in the water, bobbing up and down, and not get water in it, if it can be maybe partially submerged or fully.

Submerged by a couple inches under the water. you might be wondering who the heck needs this. Well, if you're out in the field all day every day in rainy places, this could be in rainforests. This could be like the temperate rainforest of British Columbia or even southeastern Alaska or heck all of Alaska. Places where you're in and out of the zodiacs all day, every day, and there's a chance of there's a good chance of getting splashed, there's a good chance that camera bag might have to sit on the bottom of the zodiac, kind of sitting in a little bit of water. ⁓ again, you know.

Do your best to avoid that, but Ortlieb, O R T L I E B, I'll put this in the show notes. ⁓ really cool, fully waterproof bag. You sacrifice a little bit in terms of like the number of pockets and pouches, it's essentially like a big dry bag, but it's got hip belts. The access to the gear is on that back panel. It's all these things that I'm talking about in a fully, fully waterproof design. And it's pretty cool. I've be honest, I've been looking at it. I don't have one yet, but that's something to think about if you're gonna be in real detail.

rainy, watery conditions as your primary photography.

So I want to touch on if you choose to go the route of bringing a rollerbag that is packed with your camera gear because you don't want to have to lug 20, 30 pounds through airports. What I like to do, if if I notice that the trip I'm gonna go on starts and ends in the same place, meaning I'm flying into Mexico City and I'm flying out of Mexico City, I will bring that rollerbag, I will try to bring a second backpack, and then what I'll do is I'll actually put everything from that rollerbag.

Into my backpack for when I'm ready to leave the city to go out into nature, and then I will just store that rollerbag in the hotel until I'm back from the end of the trip. That's a nice way to do it. So that way you have the benefit of easy, hassle-free airport days, but then when you're ready to hit the ground, you convert it into your other backpack. And again, my mind is kind of going wild here and all the different recommendations, but I will give you one tip: is what I have done in the past with that scenario, is I have a proper

Backpacking backpack that's like 30-35 liters that does have a frame to it, but it compresses very, very flat. And what I do is I just put that in my checked bag, in my duffel on top, and you know it's only like an inch or two high. It's probably the size of the duffel, but it's only an inch or two high, so it fits in there. And I do check that. So again, I'm I'm freewheeling in the airport with my my roller bag, and it makes those travel days just that much better. And who doesn't want to make a travel day a little bit easier? Goodness gracious, right?

Okay, so now we're moving on how to pack considerations with actually packing one of these things. so again, you don't necessarily need a dedicated camera bag. There were many, many years where I just brought along like a school style backpack. ⁓ something if you're familiar with the sizing of backpacks or you go to an REI and you have questions, something like a 22 liter and smaller. And I would just put my couple of lenses, my two or three lenses, and my one camera body in there, and I would just pad it with like an extra t shirt or two. It might be

A jacket that I would potentially use in a plane or upon arrival, and that was fine, you know. ⁓ now my camera kit has grown. I have more stuff, I have a second body very often. I might have a very large lens or two large lenses, so that's not cutting it anymore. But if you're just starting out and you have just one camera body and like two or three lenses, there's nothing that says you have to have a proper camera bag. You can absolutely get away with this setup where it's just like a normal day hiking backpack or a school style.

You keep on saying school, I'm literally talking like like a middle school backpack that you would carry books in. And just put your lenses in there and make sure it's padded. Make sure everything is kind of tight. it's not wiggling around. There's not a lot of extra room, et cetera, et cetera. You want it to fit tightly and snug. This goes for all other types of camera packing. So whether you're thinking of the roller style, whether you're thinking of the Shimoda designs or the peak design, when you put your lenses in there, yes, some of these fancier, nicer ones might.

be a little bit more compartmentalized, like you have little dividers, so that lens doesn't move around much. But if you notice when you're putting it in there and on the ground you just kind of jiggle your backpack and these lenses are bouncing back to the little felt dividers, you really don't want a lot of movement. And even though a lens bumping up against a soft cloth or or felt type barrier between lens compartments isn't the worst thing in the world. If you're doing this for 5,000, 10,000 steps going through airports for a couple days, like

a lot of us do for far flung places, that's just gonna be kind of like death by a thousand cuts. So if you have smaller lenses that don't fit those little pouches and pockets inside your backpack, I do like to stuff my camera cleaning cloth, stuff an extra t-shirt, stuff a bandana or a buff or a jacket in there, because you really want it all lodged in pretty tightly.

And it's not the worst piece of advice to have a spare pair of clothes in your carry-on anyway. So, roll up a pair of jeans, kinda tightly fit it in there, get an extra t-shirt, and it works quite well.

One other thing I'm gonna mention, and this is something I'm probably gonna mention more than once per my previous warning, is that if you have big lenses, and big is very subjective, but I'm talking about a zoom telephoto lens, something that's

Three to four times the size of the camera body in terms of length. I recommend traveling with it, especially when you have big long haul travel, travel with it with the lens disconnected from the camera. truly the only time I've ever heard of people having issues with cameras breaking, with lens breaking, with with damage in general, is when the lens is actually snapped off from the coupling mechanism of the camera body. It's kind of the weakest point. And if you think, you know, going back to like 10th grade physics, that that

Fulcrum that almost I guess torque. Didn't think it was me saying the word torque in today's talk, but the torque of like that lens, if the tip of it is getting jostled and pushing, even though you might have a magnesium alloy or some like really nice camera body with like a good coupling clip, you know, that attaches the lens to the camera body, that could snap off, and you're in a world of hurt. You get into Botswana and you find you can't take a single shot with that camera body, and maybe the lens is even damaged too. So a good piece of advice.

a good thing to just bake into your habit of packing is disconnect your lens, and put the little cap on the body, put the little cap on the lens, and just don't tempt fate here because it's really the only time that I've ever heard issues happening and I've heard it more than once, heard it more than five times.

Okay, this is another pro tip here going through the list is be aware of international regulations on batteries.

If you've traveled before or traveled recently, you know that there's always some announcement about lithium batteries. like you gotta put them in your carry-on, you can't check them, et cetera, et cetera. know, the whole world doesn't agree on all standards. We, of course, know that with the metric system. Like people, countries have different ways of viewing things. And so I I recommend it's pretty rare, but there are some countries, particularly in Asia, I've seen this in India and China, where they will have some sort of statement on their carry-on.

Policy that you cannot have more than so many spare batteries. It's a bummer. Like, I'm not writing these rules. I don't like that. I wish they didn't have that. and I don't necessarily change my behaviors. I'm not necessarily bringing like significantly fewer batteries, but I am cognizant of it. So I don't have like one big bag that's going through the X-ray that just has, 15 batteries in it. I don't bring 15 batteries, I bring like three or four. and that's usually, frankly, under the limit. But if you are a videographer with bigger batteries,

If you're bringing drones in places where you might have three spare batteries just for the drone, and then you have different batteries with the camera, it's worth just doing a Google search or a GPT search of the international regulations for those airlines or for those countries. It's usually more of a country thing versus an airline thing, just to know what sort of risk level are you getting yourself into with the additional number of batteries. And I want to give you a pro tip here on a piece of gear that I really really love. ⁓ Peter McKinnon is.

Is a great YouTuber, great photographer, and he has a little line of like camera accessories, they're mostly like bags and pouches, and he has this little battery case. and my friend turned me on to this, and I said, Do I really need to spend $30 or $40 on just a case that holds batteries? And I was a little bit skeptical, but I needed something and I needed something that would fit in my pocket and not clink batteries together, and so I just I went for it, and I gotta say, 100% worth it. Like it was one of the best little micro investments for a photography I've ever made. Just the Peter McKinnon.

And battery case. wonderful attention to detail. It's like a magnetic clip. It holds three batteries. And that way when I'm packing for a trip or even when I'm like shuffling stuff from one bag to the other, or going out maybe just on a little walk with only my camera, it's so easy just to grab all the spare batteries, put them my pocket. It even has little indicators that come with it to like show you whether a battery is charged or not. It's like a little decal. Again, small little things, they they seem a little bit silly until you use them.

It's been kind of like a mild game changer for me to be honest. So a little pro tip there on some gear.

Let's let's continue on camera batteries. one thing I really, really love, this goes into the how to pack section, but is you're probably gonna hear this again. Is I recommend buying a third-party or a separate battery charger for your camera batteries. ⁓ yes, just about every camera comes with its own battery charger, but from everything that I've ever seen, it can only charge one battery at a time. And they're kind of big, they're kind of clunky. But when you start looking on BH photo on Amazon, on

Adorama, all these camera companies, or you know, electronics retail companies, you'll find that there are many, many options that are quite affordable that will be like a two, three, four slot charger. You might find that the charger that comes with your camera is like a USB A, and you're like, Well gosh, I don't have anything else with USB A. Can I just get a USB C one? And yeah, they're they're out there. And I cannot tell you how immensely helpful it is when you are, let's say, in remote camps and you have to charge your battery.

In some sort of common area, or there's only one plug in the room and you need to charge your batteries overnight. You can put two, three, four batteries in these kind of aftermarket third-party chargers, and then boom, you know, eight hours later after you've slept, all three are charged, and you don't have to, come back from dinner early to put the second battery on and then you know go out for an afternoon or evening hike, and then remember, I gotta cycle the battery. Yeah, I've got to change the battery. So really, really great thing for not a lot of money. Once again, great investment, kind of a game changer.

Yeah.

And ultimately I've I've alluded to this, but I do want to emphasize that I pack everything in one bag, like all my camera gear goes into one bag that does go into the overhead compartment. I've developed a system over the years where I have a smaller little messenger style briefcase bag that goes under the seat in front of me. I do a lot of long haul travel where I need access to my headphones, I need access to the my my nalgene my bottle of water, I need access to my eye mask and little sleep pillows and all that sort of stuff, maybe my Kindle.

So that goes in front of me, but I do put my main camera bag in the overhead compartment and it's it's been just great and just safe. So thinking about that, taking one step further is okay, so this bag does need to be overhead bin compliant, but it's pretty easy to find that. And the great thing is all these bag manufacturers I've mentioned as well as many others, they get it too. They know that a lot of photographers travel and they need to be compliant with the dimensions, but it's worth just double checking when you're looking at the specs of these things, when you're researching, when you're about

to

buy them that they are either international or domestic compliant sizes. Quick asterisk there is that the regulations are different. Like international is a little little bit smaller for overhead. But again everything I just mentioned as far as those companies they all fit in the overhead compartment so it's just been really smooth sailing along those lines throughout the years.

Okay, let's move on to issues with airlines. let's talk about weight first. So here's the thing: is that every airline, even you know, if you're listening in the US or Canada, like even domestic, you know, they they pretty much all have a 17-pound weight limit in the overhead compartment.

how many people, stumbling down the aisle, struggling to put their bags in the overhead compartment next to you? how many of those folks do you think are at 16 and a half pounds? Like probably none of them.

So the reality is that we do get a little bit spooked because we might be with a travel company that advises on these things. We say, my gosh, my flight in Borneo, I have to be under 17 pounds. It's like, yeah, but remember, it's been like this even for the JFK to Atlanta flights or the Winnipeg to Minneapolis flights, like pretty much every flight has some sort of documented fine print about the weight limit. So the reason I'm saying this is not

that you have to keep it to 17 pounds or start to worry or freak out, but just be aware that it's it's pretty ubiquitous. And I see a lot of folks breaking that weight limit. So it's it's not like every single airline and every single person enforces it.

Ultimately, what I do is I'm very cognizant of how big my bag looks, how heavy it looks. If I'm struggling and I'm hunched over and this thing looks like it's 35 pounds, it might be, if it looks like it's 35 pounds, they they might spot check it. You know, if you know I've I've had this happen flying to Papua New Guinea and you know I've never had problems before, but then they spot checked it and and ⁓ fortunately I was able to get through it all right, but but nevertheless, it's something to think about. Make your bag make yourself look like the bag.

Is light and also this is where it gets into like the size of your bag. So these big mountaineering backpacks like I was talking about, it might be a little bit more comfortable because it's more padded, it's got more pockets and zippers. But if it's too big or if it looks bulging and gargantuan, it's just gonna potentially give you problems not only on those big international trips, but maybe even domestic trips. So just keep that in mind. Think small, look small, look lightweight, and you're gonna be cruising through each and every time. Also, concomitant to that is like what is your second bag look like?

If you're carrying two big bags that are both overhead compartment size, yeah, they might scrutinize one of those. So I go deliberately quite small with one. I definitely fit in overhead compartment, but it's overweight the vast majority of the time, but I do think light, I look light, and I'm very cognizant of it, cognizant of where I stand in line, and you know, you know, if I'm angling to the left ⁓ to make my bag look a little thinner, et cetera, et cetera.

I know this is weird and kind of skeezy, but this is just the reality because ⁓ I cannot have that bag go underneath. First and foremost, I haven't prepped that bag to go in with a bunch of other suitcases. Those folks that do check their camera equipment, they're they're using hard side pelican cases that could be dropped 20, 30 feet and probably do all right. I'm not packed for that. And then the the other thing, this is actually a really good tip, is that the whole bag is pretty much a lithium-ion battery.

Right? And you can't check those.

My remote control has a lithium-ion battery, my camera has a lithium-ion battery. ⁓ I have spare lithium batteries. So that is actually kind of my my my ending tip here on the dealing with airline section is that if I ever am approached and they say you have to check it, which frankly has only happened once or twice, I basically just say, ⁓ ma'am, sir, again, be very, very nice, kill them with kindness. You know, I'm a photographer. the vast majority of this bag are things with lithium batteries in it, and it's basically

one big lithium battery. So I just I can't check it. And they're like, okay, I get it. Gotcha.

Okay, let's move on to selecting accessories. And I'm really just kind of rambling and talking about the accessories that I think about. So let's start off with keeping your camera clean.

What do I bring as far as camera accessories for keeping things clean? Well, I bring a toothbrush, a lens pen, and a sturdy cleaning cloth.

The toothbrush is not the same one I brush my teeth with, but this is a great thing if you need to clean off dust and grime and debris from your camera body itself. Sometimes, you know, a small lens pen isn't stiff enough. It just doesn't do the trick. A lens cloth would just get too dirty, and then you're stuck with that for the remaining days to actually clean your lens. So a toothbrush I found does a really, really good job. I just use the free one that I get from my dentist. It just lives in my pack. I actually put a little bit of rope around the handle.

to remind myself that this is now a dirty toothbrush with grime, and who knows what on it. So do not use it for multi-purpose things. Use it to just clean your camera when you do have dusty, muddy conditions where your camera takes a little bit of a beating. It happens more than you think.

The lens pen

This is for kind of like fine detail cleaning of your camera body, but also heavy cleaning of your camera lens. Now you gotta be really, really careful. You don't want excess grime on the brush, like you don't wanna have dirt from the last trip or the previous day, and then you go wipe your lens off with it and scratch or put a little bit of dirt on it and rub it in. but I think it does really, really well for essentially removing the fine debris. So toothbrush for kind of like the big grime, and then lens pen for just the small stuff. And I like to pretend I'm dusting for dinosaurs, you know you.

You see paleontologist documentaries, they're just lightly, just touching it, just whisking it away, blowing with their mouth a little bit.

And just brushing away, because you don't wanna be abrasive with that. I would never use my toothbrush on a lens. ⁓ that's strictly for the camera body itself. But the lens pen you absolutely can. then the third layer of that is a good sturdy cleaning cloth. And specifically I'm talking about a lens cloth. And it's funny because there are I I personally have just a pile of lens cloths that I've gotten free from conventions or promotional materials,

Or they come with a filter that I purchased. so I have a lot of these, but there's there's actually just one that I use over and over again.

And it's actually a lens cloth that I got from a filter I purchased with Polar Pro. they're a great company if you want to check them out. And it's just a little bit sturdier, it's a little bit thicker, it's still just as soft, it's still just as pocketable, but it does a really good job because sometimes we use our lens cloths are more than just wiping stuff away from the lens or or or smoothing out a smudge. Sometimes it might be removing condensation or fog, or it might be drying your camera or your lens off if there's like a light shower. So I find that these

almost like chamois style lens cloth, like again a little bit thicker than these super small microfiber ones. Really is nice. So it's funny, I have so many free ones, ⁓ but there's there's one that I use each and every time. And then I even have buddies that truly buy on online like chamois microfiber cloths. They double not only to clean the lens, but also if you're wiping your camera off in excessive rain and moisture,

Being able to absorb moisture and wetness is really a great double purpose for this. So anyway, it's a it's a nice thing to kind of level up your lens cloth game just slightly.

Another accessory, speaking of filters, would be filters. Do I bring them all? Do I bring any of them? Well, I will start off by saying every single lens has a UV filter on it. So I don't have to worry about that. It always has it on it. I almost never remove the UV filter unless I'm putting another filter on and I'm just trying to get like the perfect shot. But the UV filter's on, so I'm not bringing a stack of UV filters, but I am often considering some others. A polarizer often lives in my kit just in case. You know, if if I'm seeing some really billow.

Clouds and I'm getting an epic landscape shot. I'm thinking of places like deserts and canyons and mountains where the sky just gets this really beautiful blue and you can get some wispy clouds, and oftentimes with landscape photography, we need to embrace the clouds to get something else going on in the scene. Well, polarizers do really, really great for that. I've I've had buddies tell me that they love polarizers for reducing the reflection on green leaves. So again, landscape photography, a lot of green leaves around the world. But then their their primary purpose is really for reducing reflections.

And that could be reflections in windows. And you know, if you're like a street photographer or doing street photography, it could be reflections on the water. If you're on water voyages like Galapagos Islands, et cetera, et cetera. However, I will say I almost never really bring it for the water reflection thing, even though that's the primary purpose. It's really just to give me another level on landscape shots without having to process that deeper saturation of blues or without having to make the clouds pop. You technically can do that stuff. You can sort of mimic it.

In Lightroom and Camera Raw, but a polarizer, they're small, they're lightweight, and it can be a really quick way to really add a pep in your step and give you some more creativity when you're out photographing landscapes.

The next is an ND filter, neutral density. And this is one that I don't bring with me on every trip. I only bring it with me if I know that there's some sort of moving water that's gonna happen.

So the reason for this is when you have moving water like waterfalls or rivers in midday light,

You can't actually stop down your camera enough in many cases to not have it overly exposed or overly bright. Even if you're at ISO 100 or ISO 50 and F22, oftentimes the shutter speed you need, like a one-fourth of a second or one-tenth or one full a second, you just can't get dark enough. So these neutral density filters are fantastic for that. It just screws on or slips onto the tip of your lens and it just manually darkens your shot. So now you can actually get the shot that you want.

You

can go even way beyond like one second. You can do four second exposures, 10 second exposures. a really good hack here is instead of just buying one neutral density, you buy what's called a variable neutral density filter. And these things are really slick. They are essentially, from what I understand, they're they're two polarizing lenses stacked on top of one another such that they swivel and they twist. And when you twist one, it actually lightens and darkens the filter itself. So you're actually not just putting a standard specific.

known tint on your lens, you can actually adjust the tint. So you can go super dark or super light. And it's funny, I was just as I was writing this up and thinking about it, I realized in my previous episode when I was talking about videography, I mentioned that you need a graduated neutral density filter. That's not the case. It's variable neutral density filter.

Variable neutral density is what gives you that flexibility to have slow shutter speeds, but then also have flexibility in your aperture. Because again, if you're trying to limit light, remember if you're shooting at 1/10th or 120th of a second and you're at ISO 100, you can't get any lower, you might be forced to shoot on a massive aperture like F-22 when the creative in you actually wants to shoot at a very shallow depth of field. I was talking about in my previous episode about the nifty-50 lens, like shooting at F22.

F1.4, F one point eight.

So a variable neutral density filter is a really easy, it's a little bit more expensive than just a standard ND or standard neutral density, but it gives you that flexibility so you don't have to bring a set of neutral densities or just guess or have really any limitations. Now, I did broach the topic of graduated, so I'll just quickly explain that. I no longer bring those. Graduated is like half tinted, half clear. And back in the day, like not that long ago, prior to recent advents in Photoshop and Lightroom and Camera Raw, when you wanted to photograph a landscape.

Where like the sky was really bright, but the foreground was shadowy and shaded, you would put these graduated neutral densities so you put the tinted part on the sky, the clear part on the ground, so you're moderating and balancing the exposure. They still work, they're still a thing, but ⁓ Photoshop, Lightroom, Camera Raw, it just makes it so easy to do this yourself afterwards when you need it, not having to do this manual route, that I think it's a great system to do, and I just no longer bring a graduated.

but a neutral density or a variable neutral density is a really great thing to bring.

Next, I might bring a microphone if I'm doing video work. Not all the time, but that might be something in my pack. And I usually bring my lens hoods. So lens hoods are really designed primarily to limit sun glare or sun flare, like light flare. you might notice that if you point your lens even slightly in the direction of the sun, that you get these little beads or these little like green orbs in your shot because of the way that the sun is reflecting, refracting through the various lens elements.

Lens hoods are designed to minimize that. They don't completely extinguish it but minimize it. But the reality is I don't use them for that. I use them just to protect the tip of my lens. That way I can balance the tip of my lens on my lap or my backpack and not worry about the front of the lens actually touching that surface. The lens hood just gives me a little bit of space, a little bit of protection. I find that my lens stays a lot cleaner. I don't put my finger smudge on it. I find that it doesn't get as dusty. If there's a light mist or rain, it doesn't get wet as quick. So I do like

like lens hoods. I typically bring those for all my lenses.

it's a somewhat rare case when I don't bring a lens hood for a lens. So I do pack that. and fortunately they typically just screw right on the front of the lens, so it makes them very, very packable.

And I will say, just kind of going back and being hopefully very comprehensive here and very helpful, is I don't bring individual lens cases. Like there are a lot of them on the market. You can Google it, you can look on Amazon, and you'll find that there are all sorts of shapes and sizes, such that maybe you you would consider putting your lens in a small padded case to then put in your camera backpack. I don't do that. I think it's it's just excessive. I think it's clunky. I think it's one more thing that's gonna hold you up and slow you down. Not saying it doesn't increase the protection of your lenses.

I'm just telling you, I don't do that and I've never regretted it. When I'm packing stuff in a day pack like my age-old solution where I'm just putting everything in a school backpack, I might put a very heavy or expensive lens in a case just for that purpose. But again, I've shifted away from that now that I'm using dedicated camera bags.

Okay, camera straps. these things are pretty darn important. ⁓ I found myself actually not using camera straps as much these days because I found something else in place that I really, really like. So I'll come back to the straps in a second, but the camera clip from Peak Design, this is this is an accessory that doesn't just go in my camera bag each and every trip. It literally lives on my camera bag because it affixes to the strap, the backpack strap. And what it is is it fits with your typical kind of like Arca Swiss mounting plate. it comes

With this plate and just screws on to the little tripod hole at the bottom of your camera, and you can clip your camera right onto your backpack strap. And this has been just huge for me because now there isn't that unknown of like, is my camera gonna swing to the left or swing to the right if I'm going up stairs or if I'm trying to get on, you know, a horse or in a vehicle, is that camera gonna swing around my neck and hit a metal railing or like you know the pole of a safari vehicle? This camera clip is just so rock solid that camera is.

Is

not gonna move. So another pro tip in terms of gear, I'm not trying to get you to spend all your money, but it is a really, really, really helpful thing. The camera clip from Peak Design has been once again, another game changer for me in the gear world, but that doesn't mean I never use straps. So I do like camera straps. I find that if you're photographing in a scenario where you're shooting out of a vehicle or you're just really versatile and you're moving around a lot, I find that they can kind of get in the way. So something that I really like is

Once again the peak design camera strap system is it allows you to

Hook and unhook your camera strap really quickly and really safely. And I'm not gonna go into super big detail here about exactly how that works. You'll just have to look at it online. But the peak design camera system, you'll once you see it, you'll probably realize, gosh, every other photographer that I'm seeing on YouTube and on social media, they all have these little tiny like circular red tabs on where their camera strap would go. And that's because it's the peak design system.

it's kind of revolutionized how you can put a strap onto your camera and take it off very very quickly. You know, if I'm bringing my camera to the the dining area of a safari camp to download photos for the night, ⁓ yeah, I'm just gonna carry my camera. I'm not gonna bring a strap. I don't want it in the way, I don't want it tangling with the cords. So you'd be surprised how often I'm benefiting and wanting to take the strap off. And so having a quick release like that is really, really great.

Okay, so in terms of selecting accessories, we're moving on to spare batteries and memory cards. Gotta have that. I'm gonna mention that third-party battery charger again. This is an accessory I highly recommend. Finding a charger that has two, three, or four battery charging ports all at once is just phenomenal. Can't recommend that high enough. And of course, you gotta bring all the cords and cables. You know, ⁓ I bring some pretty beefy, high wattage

USB C cables, a couple of them. I like Anker A N K E R for the actual charging hubs. Those things work really great. They're hyper fast, they charge things faster than the little cheap or free hubs that you might get with your smartphone or with a certain device.

And then another one that might seem a little bit superfluous, but again, as a pro photographer, I find that you know seconds and minutes and hours really count in terms of how much time you're able to claw back each day to download your photos or to take more photos. And I do bring a memory card reader with me. Now you might be saying, Court, like my laptop has one. you could just plug the USB-C right in the camera and download. Do I really need another thing? And no, you you certainly don't. All those things are viable options. But I have found the company Prograde.

It makes a great high quality memory card reader that doesn't just work for SD cards, but if you do have compact Flash Express or one of these much faster memory cards, ⁓ almost assuredly your computer does not have that port, so you need to have

that memory card reader. But I found that in general, these external kind of third-party readers actually transfer stuff a bit faster than if you were just to go straight into the camera or just plug the SD card in the computer. And truly, like minutes count when every minute is absorbed each day on these photo trips. and I try to download my photos once a day or at least once every other day. And so having you know what would normally be an hour to go through this exercise turn into 20 or 30

minutes is actually really really valuable for me.

So external hard drives, this is not memory cards, but actual external hard drives that store your photos once you take them off your memory card and wipe your memory card, they are an accessory, but they're also kind of more of a computer item. So I'm gonna bundle this in my next section with whether you should bring a laptop on your trip or not.

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Okay, let's get back to it.

So next up, do you bring a laptop or not? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the weight and size limits of your kit, your suitcase. You know, sometimes some of these trips, frankly, they have like 25 pound weight limits for your clothes, for your toiletries, for your camera gear. and that's you know not necessarily ideal, but it is what it is, and you have to really be judicious of like, do I bring a four or five pound laptop with a charger, et cetera, et cetera. so that's kind of the first consideration.

But I will say that for pros, ⁓ backup of your photos is absolutely critical. So yes, I could bring extra memory cards.

I could go out and buy seven additional, one terabyte memory cards if I really needed to. Well, that'd be very expensive, of course, especially with today's ⁓ memory costs. I don't know if you've been seeing that, but wow, memory cards have really soared in price. It's startling and shocking. but nevertheless, you could do that, but you will still then only have one copy of your photos. And you know, as a pro, I really love my photos, but I also depend on them. And so I have at least two backups of all my photos at any time.

I've heard fellow pro photographers have three backups on external memory

And I gotta say, there's really no negotiating for me. Like I have to bring a laptop on all my trips because of that backup situation. But if you're a more casual photographer and you are okay with having just one copy of your photos, maybe you actually have some other way to backup your photos. The other question to ask for bringing a laptop, because trust me, I I would love to not have that extra five pounds in my bag, but you have to ask yourself, do you need it for like anything else?

Now I'm doing presentations, I'm getting

On email, I'm still working while I'm on trips, but if this is your vacation, ⁓ you might really ask yourself: do you truly need to be checking email on your laptop or can you do it on your phone? Or frankly, can can you just avoid doing it at all? Because get out there and enjoy where you're at. ⁓ But you could just buy extra memory cards. A lot of cameras, especially more on the pro end these days, they will have two memory card slots, and you can program your camera to actually have duplicate photos or have the same photo go on both memory cards to give you that backup.

And that's great slick solution.

So that that is indeed an option. I can tell you, pros will always bring a laptop. It is the, you know, the gold standard is the best way to download your photos and secure them. It's also a great way to review your photos. I can't tell you how many times that I've shot on a new camera or a new system or a place I've never been, and I go to check my photos on the night of day one or day two and find out I had my settings all wrong. Like I didn't program something right, my autofocus was a little bit off, I couldn't tell on the back of the screen, but I could certainly tell on my laptop. So review.

your photos is really good and it's hard to do that without some sort of backup. It's hard to do that without you know technically you could do ⁓ an iPad but you have limited storage on that so once again I do bring a laptop and I do bring two external hard drives.

I put redundant copies on both hard drive. I will edit on one. So I'll actually like when I want to go through my photos and start to make some changes, start to cull I will actually edit from one hard drive and then keep the other just as total raw files so that once I'm completely done with all my photo editing, which you know will take weeks from that point on, that way I at least have a backup if if anything really happens. But knocking on wood, I actually haven't had to tap into that backup very often. it's the only time I've ever had to tap into it has been my own.

mistake when I just didn't download something right and like ⁓ how am I missing these 30 photos? that's right I did that weird thing so you know backups are great and you know laptops are a must for me.

Okay, next up, how to evaluate whether you need a tripod or not.

So, quick caveat here, I'm in the camp of using a tripod only if you really, really need to. there are photographers, very respected, that I respect, that will say you should use a tripod if you can use a tripod. Meaning, like, if you're able to bring a tripod, if you're able to set it up, you should always be using one. And I get it, like it's it stabilizes, it helps, it's it is a good thing in most ways. I find it to be quite limiting. I can't be as versatile and flexible. I know very high-level pro photographers that will agree.

With me on that, is that even with hardcore landscape photography, being able to move around willy-nilly with the freedom of not having to collapse your tripod or or or pull the legs in and reposition, you know, take the ball ahead and angle it to the left, to the right, it's just clunky. but that doesn't mean I don't like tripods. I I absolutely love them. I do bring them on many a trip.

But simply put.

The question you should be asking yourself is do you plan on doing any long exposures? And long exposures would be things like low light. You're photographing a lot of sunrises and sunsets and blue hour and dawn and dusk shots. You're photographing moving water, like I talked about with the ND filters. You're doing night photography. That could be again blue hour being the beginning of night photography, all the way to astro, northern lights photography, or indoor photography. If you're a pro and you're photographing accommodations. These are all cases where you simply must have a tripod.

But frankly, for anything beyond that, I'm not using a tripod. So if I know for a fact I'm not gonna be out or there's there isn't anything that I'm trying to get in those low light situations,

Then I might leave the tripod at home. But if I'm doing any of those of the list, again, low light, moving water, nighttime, indoor photography, I will bring a tripod. And again, another little product shout out. Peak Design makes, I think, the lightest, most durable, most high-quality travel tripod on the market. It is their carbon fiber travel tripod. It is like the size of the interior cardboard of a paper towel roll. It's like, it is tiny, it is sturdy,

It is for the most part a full-size tripod and it's extraordinary. So that that you know, again, if you can if you can make that investment, it removes the barrier to entry a little bit of like, do I really need to lug this big thing around? Sometimes with these small travel tripods, it makes it just a little bit of an easier situation, an easier decision.

People often ask me about whether they should bring a monopod. And you know, I'm on the fence, I don't have a monopod, I've never brought one. They are really great if you're gonna be sitting in one place at quite some time and you need to balance your bigger, heavier camera on something. So you're not just hand holding it the whole time, but they're not a replacement for a tripod because they they do not have perfect stabilization. Like you can't take a one-second exposure with a monopod. I've heard that a monopod basically gives you one stop-ish of stabilization,

Meaning that you can shoot at 1/50th of a second with a monopod and it'll give you sort of the same effect as shooting at 100th of a second. It gives you one stop of light or doubling your shutter speed. But again, I really only think it's worthwhile if you're like, for instance, if you're in Alaska, you're on the Bear Coast, and you're sitting on the side of a river and you're just waiting for brown bears, grizzly bears to walk by. That's a great scenario for a monopod because you don't need perfect stability, but it's really nice to be able to brace your camera on something for what could be long hours or long.

days holding a camera. So there are situations, it's not something I bring, but I can I can definitely see select situations around the world where you just need something to hold your camera, give your back a break.

Okay, final section here, but it is a big one. It's protecting and maintaining gear while traveling. And so let's talk about priority number one. It's cleaning your gear. I kind of already mentioned this, but I'll mention it quickly again. Toothbrush for the body and the big stuff, a lens pen for the fine details on your camera, or maybe even clearing off stuff on your lens, and then a good lens cloth for the lens itself. I make sure that every single day I'm out the field, I put that lens cloth in my pocket. My chapstick and my lens cloth live in my pocket. When I come back to the hotel to

The lodge to the camp, whatever, and emptying in my pockets, that lens cloth just stays right there because it goes in my pocket the next morning. So always have that with you. I will say a new one here. There are these things called like lens blowers, they're like little bulbs, they kind of look like little rocket ships. And some people bring those, they they are basically like a siphon that pushes a fine stream of air over your lens. And when you think about it, it's kind of like a touchless car wash, you know, like it's probably the safest, but it's also like a touchless car wash in that it doesn't

Always work super well. They're also kind of big because it's a bulb. It looks kind of like if you've ever seen a siphon for an aquarium pump, it's that size. I used to carry one, I don't anymore. It's just kind of big, too big and too bulky, and it's not a fail-safe situation. Like if something's really stuck on there, I still have to use this other stuff anyway.

This one is more about protecting your gear, and this is just a simple thing, but it is ultra, ultra important. Maybe one of the most important things I'll talk about here is not letting dust into your sensor. So I do clean my camera's sensor every couple of trips, or if I do see dirt on photos, like small little microscopic dirt, but I don't do this on trip. I don't bring a sensor cleaning kit with me. But I will say, I'm going on a little bit of a tangent here, but if you have never cleaned your sensor, it's it's about time you

Do

so, A. ⁓ and B, don't be afraid of it. I used to take my camera into camera shops and I'd pay $50, $60, $70 to clean the sensor officially one time. But I got over the fear and I purchased a sensor cleaning kit online, and the kit is $50 and it comes with 10 sensor cleaning kits. It comes with a solution, it comes with the swabs, anything you need, and you can do that 10 times. So it's it's immense cost savings. You have to get over the fear that you're gonna scratch your sensor and

And don't take that lightly, but I've never had a problem. It's very, very simple. It's very easy. They give you instructions. The company that makes these, the companies, plural that make these, know that you're worried. And they have YouTube videos in some cases showing it to you. You could just YouTube it anyway. Even people that are not associated with those sensor cleaning companies will show you how to do it. And it is a really, really great thing. But I don't do that on trips just to give you a heads up.

But the key thing is when you're changing lenses is to be ultra careful that you don't have dust sitting around the ring of the lens. Hence, you know, a light cloth or the lens pen or the toothbrush just to do that fine detail adjustment. Remember, dust for dinosaurs, blow a little bit, dust for dinosaurs, do it again.

Because that dust could, by gravity, fall into your sensor or fall into the interior of your camera, and then that's that's not a great thing. but also when you actually have your lens off, for the most part, there's usually a little bit of protective mechanism in the camera body, but for the most part, that sensor is open to the atmosphere. So do not change your lens when you're driving in a Safari vehicle, do not change your lens when it's raining, do not change your lens when there's a of dust kicked up. if you absolutely have to do so, because life or death, ⁓ the perfect photo.

depends on it. Just know that the faster you do it, the cleaner, the smoother you do it, the less jarring, the better, because you do not want to get microscopic particles of dust in your camera's sensors. That's kind of like the holy grail of no no's when it comes to nature photography. So be quick. Try to do it when you're not in windy conditions or adverse conditions. But if you have to do it in those times, just be cognizant and safe and maybe clean your sensor when you get back home.

So let's talk about just general protection, like from bumps and scratches and all that. I'll be honest, I'm pretty rough on my gear, but miraculously, they they don't get dings, they don't get scratches. I retain a lot of resale value on all my gear. But at the end of the day, I'm realizing as a professional, like these are tools, right? Now I know that if you're not a pro, you may not be able to literally and metaphorically afford to treat these quite so rough. but nevertheless, they're for the most part, they're pretty darn sturdy. You know, a couple little ⁓ you know, chips of paint of wear and tear isn't gonna completely

And just realize that you want to be gentle, but you don't necessarily need to treat them like a Fabergé egg.

The main thing is I try to not let lenses at the camera body clink with other hard surfaces. So that goes with the interior of camera bags. That goes especially if you're like photographing on railings or from inside vehicles, being very cognizant of your camera if you're bracing it on a window or on a railing of a vehicle, that you you try your best to buffer it, like give it a little bit of padding. One trick that I've I've heard from many listeners that they love this one, they've never heard it, but they love it, is to just tie a bandana, an old t-shirt, or like a buff, you know, like the thing you put around your neck.

Or your face, a little buff on the end of your lens if you're bracing it on a hard railing, just to minimize the rattle, the bump. Because if you do again, it's it's the thousand cuts thing, death by a thousand cuts. If you if you're doing this for a 14-day safari and every time you're taking a photo, you're putting this in a railing, and the safari vehicle is rumbling a little bit before it comes to a complete stop, you're just gonna get minor little dings, little scratches that could add up to a little bit more than you want over time.

Another thing I'm gonna mention again, don't have larger lenses attached to your camera body during travel. This definitely goes for the big travel when you're a little bit frenetic and moving around airports, but it also goes for just like day-to-day moving around in buses and cars and whatnot. ⁓ I think it's probably less of an issue when you're dealing with like a hike. I'm not saying that you have to detach it for a single hike. I think that would actually just be too cumbersome. you'd be dealing with changing lenses too often. But for any sort of big travel, especially where you're a little

bit out of control of what happens to your bag. You know, it's in an overhead compartment and heaven forbid it it gets jammed in there with another bag or gosh it falls down from the overhead. Just remember that the most vulnerable part of the camera system, the whole camera system, is that attachment point. So yeah, try to remove that during big travel or or sort of strenuous travel days.

And then pad, pad, pad your gear. that could be like a nursery rhyme or something. ⁓ don't have things jiggling around. the best way to ⁓ maintain your gear is to prevent issues in the first place.

Remember, put extra t-shirts or bandanas or cloths around lenses to minimize their jostling and rattling.

One pro tip that I have, because I now do travel with my camera bag as a backpack, is that

The way all the camera gear fits in the bag for travel is different than how I want it to look on my day-to-day field trips, like trips into the field to photograph. I'll say that again. The way it fits and looks and is sorted and is compartmentalized for the big travel days, airplane days, is different than my daily access days. So what I actually do, I've gotten into the habit of this,

is on the night that I arrive, or on the day that I arrive, I spend

⁓ A little bit of time reorganizing my camera bag so that I can access things a little bit better. Remember for travel, we're just all trying to get it in there. You're not gonna be taking out your Zoom telephoto lens at Heathrow Airport. But when you're in location, you need quicker access. So you might have devised a perfect system for your camera kit to give you just the access you need, as well as being very travel friendly.

But I've noticed that as my gear increases in size, I need to have a bit of a compartmentalization for travel. And then when the day-to-day happens, it's different. So the reason I'm saying all this is if you do have a camera bag that has those little cloth felt dividers, they're usually like velcro's in, is I actually bring a couple spare of those. And I might just put in the bottom of my camera bag somewhere out of the way. Because oftentimes what I'll do is when I'm in the field, when I'm ready to take photos, go out day to day, is I will have things again look a little bit differently. In addition, I might not

have my two camera bodies in my bag very often on a trip. In fact, one of my camera bodies is almost always in my hand. So I don't need everything to look quite the same That also means that things can jostle around a little bit more. So just remember it's constantly thinking about not jostling. How do you keep things tight, compact, and not moving around in your bag. You might have to reorganize. You might have to bring a couple extra dividers. You might have to do what I do and reset your bag once you arrive.

One other thing that I bring, and this is for just everything, you know, protection, convenience, being able to shoot in adverse conditions, is I do bring a spare lightweight dry bag. These are dry bags you can find at any outdoor store, loads of websites carry them. And I find like either the 8, 13, or 20 liter fits most camera and lens setups. And it's essentially a bag that is made out of kind of a waterproof material. You put your camera in there in adverse conditions, the top rolls down three times and clips, and it's basically waterproof to a

submersible level. I don't plan on my camera going overboard. I that would honestly almost never happen. That's not why I'm saying this. I bring this dry bag for the times that I'm around waterfalls, the times that I'm in a zodiac bouncing around and little bit of splash comes. So what I do is I bring this let's just say 13 liter dry bag. It's super lightweight. It packs down to almost nothing. I have it in my camera bag at almost all times. It is a way that if I'm on boats and I'm getting some splash

I don't have to put my camera away. I can just clip this little bag right around my camera. It resists splash. If I'm walking around a waterfall, I just slink the bag around my camera and lens. I clip it at the top. I don't roll it down all the time. But it does avoid all that incidental splash or mist from waterfalls or from boats, or even if it's like a light mist or rain out there, and I need to protect my camera a little bit more So yeah, these lightweight dry bags are just

I do bring them on every trip and again I'm not necessarily prepping the camera for full water submersion. It's just a nice waterproof barrier for incidental splash.

The final thing, kind of ending on a a a weird random note here, but I have in the last few years

purchased and use what's called a hot shoe protector. Okay, so the hot shoe is the little thing on top of your camera that looks like you could attach a flash to it. It's usually like a little metal bracket and clip. And so what I understand and I've fortunately never had this happen to verify it, but if if that gets wet, the rest of the camera, oftentimes water sealed, oftentimes water resistant, especially the you know kind of good pro-level ones. But what I've heard is that if

That little sensor gets wet, that is the most vulnerable place on your camera for any sort of malfunction. So even though the camera might be rated for a certain amount of water resistance, if you get that wet on the top of your camera, so if you're thinking if you're photographing a mist or rain or anything like that routinely, it's gonna get wet because it's on the top of your camera.

I've just been a little bit conscious of that. And so you can go online and it's it's gonna be very specific to your camera making model, but you can buy these little clips that just slot into that. and it's a little protector. It's just something so that no longer is exposed to the elements, it's not exposed to rain. I realize that many camera manufacturers actually have this as part of your camera setup. Like it comes with this little protector. I love Canon, I love everything about them, but they don't come with that. And you know, Canon, if you're listening, that'd be a great thing to.

include,

They're not expensive, ⁓ but again, I'm not gonna change camera systems just for that, because you can buy these very easily online. and they do give me a little bit of peace of mind for a vulnerable part of our cameras.

And there we go. We have reached the end.

Lot was covered today, how pros travel with camera gear safely and effectively. Before you go, I want to turn you on to a couple other photo resources. One is my YouTube channel. You can just search Court Whelan on YouTube and you'll find a growing library of videos, tutorials, camera raw, Lightroom tutorials, on location photo tutorials that I'm doing around the world to help you elevate your photography. So go check it out, just youtube.com/ @courtwhelan or just click the link in the show notes. Also, I

I have an email newsletter if you would like to sign up and hear from me, mostly on photography things, but sometimes some cool conservation tidbits and some travel stories. it's just courtwhelan.com And remember,

Whelan is W-H-E-L-A-N. Kind of sounds like it should be pronounced Whelan, but ⁓ for whatever reason I pronounce it Whelan So yeah, courtwhelan.com You can sign up for my my blog, any newsletter, and I'm coming out with a lot more photo content, and I'd love to have you follow along. So thanks again. Thanks for following along this. Thanks for listening and looking forward to talking to you next time.