BootsnAll Travel Community

So I'm kind of a tech geek. I paid good money for my Canon Digital Rebel, the 100-300 lens, the big flash and the tripod. I want to take 'em all with me. Hell, I even want to take a laptop and an iPod along. And maybe my camcorder too. But I'm afraid that my back and my feet won't agree.

So I have a few questions for all you road warriors:

- can you post a pic with you in your fully-equipped glory? its one thing to read about it, but i think i'll get a much better idea of what it'd be like with a picture.

- in the absense of a photo, what was the most awkward thing to carry and how did you get around it? a tripod? multiple cameras? what was the heaviest (in terms of photop/computer equipment)

- where do you store your full-res pics? especially if you don't carry a laptop?

- is an iPod photo useful to share pics? can i go from my camera to iPod directly? with the usb cable?

I appreciate the help.

As far as traveling with loads of good camera gear: I did it in Alaska in July and was happy I had it - photographing wildlife well requires a nice long lens on an SLR. (Here are my Alaska photos by the way) - However I took same gear to South America, and never once touched the long lens. I did use my Rebel with the 18-55, but not as much as my point and shoot digital. My point is, make sure you're gear matches your goals. It is frustrating to lug extra stuff around.

I carry my gear in an M-Rock camera backpack and find it rides very nicely. I did a moderate day hike in Hatcher Pass without any problems. The bag holds the Rebel with the 18-55 lens, my 70-200 lens, big flash, mini-tripod, chargers, and my P&S digital just fine.

My heaviest piece of gear is definitely the 70-200 zoom, it's a bit of a beast. I've never travelled with as much stuff as you are interested in taking, so I can't speak to that. Some laptops are heavy, yet some of the new mini-ones are pretty tiny and light. The most awkward thing was a full size tripod, so I didn't take it. Between my mini-pod and creative use of walls and trees, I got along just fine.

I've yet to be successful posting photos from the road. mostly because I haven't really tried and don't want to spend my travel time fiddling with computers too much. But with a laptop in a decent city, you should be able to find a wireless point to join the internet - voila. In less urban areas, you'll probably need to find an internet cafe that will let you plug your camera into their computer for upload - a daunting prospect at best. Many cafes limit what you can do to protect themselves from viruses, etc.

I carry four memory cards totalling 2GB, and my trips of late have been short enough that I don't fill them up. Besides a laptop, another good storage option is to have CDs burned at a photo shop. They are small, travel well, and are fairly reliable. Have two sets made if you're the paranoid type. Can be pricey, but probably worth it. Or simply carry a wad of memory cards. And I'm definitely a fan of carrying four 512MB versus one 2GB card -- if that one card dies on you, you are SOL, my friend.

In short, technology and gear are great, but it's easy to go overboard. My feeling is that the goal is the photograph. I take just enough gear and technology to capture good photos, but no more.

Best of luck with your travels.

Depends on the type of travel you want to do also. An expedition to Alaska might mean you have more time and space, a trek through India will mean you are hot, sweaty and hate lugging all that gear.

When travelling in Asia you will see photo opportunities around every corner and the last thing I want to be is one of those guys with the massive camera bag, who is too weighed down to be mobile. I see these guys once in a while, out looking for shots, and actually they'd be much better off with one camera, one zoom lens and leaving all the other junk at home. Actually in some parts of the world you don't want to walk down the street with a big bag of camera gear. Disguise it a bit, by using another bag with a sarong on top.

As far as downloading goes uou might get a 250Gb Iomega portable hard drive.

quote:

Originally posted by Nick:
When travelling in Asia you will see photo opportunities around every corner and the last thing I want to be is one of those guys with the massive camera bag, who is too weighed down to be mobile.

The other downside to being weighed down/overly concerned with getting THE shot is you forget to watch what's going on with your own eyes and not the camera lens. Sometimes the feeling that you *need* to use all that gear you brought and get the BEST shot all the time can cause you to miss out on things, I've seen it happen, and got caught up in it myself. I know a lot of people travel with their SLR and a point-and-shoot, or don't always carry ALL the SLR gear - that way you can go out and enjoy yourself, but have your camera to capture those shots you just can't miss, but you also have the option to go on a photomission with all your gear if you have the time.

Not really helpful for your question, but something to think about

Not to mention the weight and safety. With all that stuff you will be REALLY paranoid while travelling.

Tho my photos aren't professional and taken just with a Canon point & shoot, they're probably one of the most important things I'll come out of this trip with. So I bought a laptop where I can download the images (for other uses as well) and 2 external drives - one is a laptop drive that has the operating system installed, so in the unlikely event the computer crashes, I could theoretically open up the laptop, switch the drives, and keep working.(if the laptop crashes for anything else, then that's another matter..).

I also make a backup copy to the external drive. The laptop always is in the daypack, and the drive(s) in the backpack. Losing one or the other won't be a major problem (afterall, everything is REplaceable, but memories arent).

What ends up happening tho is I am lugging a ton of computer crap. (a roll up network cable, a wireless mouse, an extra battery, the docking station so I can connect my cdrom, and the two drives). As a whole, it probably weights as much as everything else I'm packing.

How long is your travel? WHERE are you travelling? ..things to take into consideration.