A weekend of cleaning, labeling and sorting. It’s hard to look at a table full of goodies and pick your favorites. What lenses do I want to take? Long, wide, specialty (Fisheye, Lensbaby, Pinhole)? Filters? ND, Grad ND, Polarizers. Bag? Standard, Slingback, Backpack, Holster? Cables and Chargers – one of each or be redundant? One body? Two or Three? Supports? Tripod, Monopod, GorillaPod? How many Bananas to bring for the GorillaPod?
What do you take to photograph Balloons?
My first recommendation to someone photographing something new is to use the resources that are available to you. You know flickr will let you see most EXIF data, right? Why not find someone who has photographed your event and poke around in their EXIF? That will give you a good cross section of what you’re going to be put up against. Not only can you see focal length you get to put two and two together on apertures and ASA/ISO values. Soak in all of this data and you’ll get an idea on what types of lenses you’ll want to bring to get what shots.
So far without browsing EXIF’s I think I am bringing my Tripod, two bodies, 70-200mm 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 50 1.4 and the 10-22 EF-S. Polarizer and ND Grads. All in my Slingback case. Add to that my photo vest and I should have plenty of room. 2x Hyperdrive Space units are a must, I really think I’m going to come away from this trip with some hard drives busting at the seams.
Data protection? The Hyperdrives and my laptop HDD will suffice – I also always take myself a DVD mailer and some blank discs just in case something happens to my Hyperdrives *AND* my Laptop on the way home.
One other thought, I am NOT checking my photo gear or any chargers or cables that are essential (and cannot be purchased with a quick trip to Wal-Mart). I will be bringing all of these cables with me with carry-on luggage. Think like a TSA agent. Someone comes through the checkpoint with a bag full of cables and electronic doo-dads. You’ll most likely get your bag pulled for a TSA agent to go through it personally. Hey, I don’t blame them. I can only imagine what my bag looks like on an X-Ray monitor. Do the agent and yourself a favor. Bundle everything in neat little coils. Invest in some Velcro straps, label everything! The Agent may not know what your camera battery charger is. Label it ‘Camera Battery Charger’. Have a weird cable? Get a label that is meant to wrap around a cable and label it ‘Camera Video Cable’. Think like someone who may not know anything about what your gear is and make it easier on both of you. If you just shove everything into your bag, no cable management and no labels, imagine the questioning and the delay in both of the agent’s and your time sorting through the mess!
For great tips for the traveling photographer be sure to check out (and Bookmark) the Flying with Fish weblog at http://flyingwithfish.blogspot.com/. Steven Frischling is the guy you want to follow when traveling anywhere with photograph gear. Heck, even if you’re not a photographer, keep an eye on Fish, he’s always on top of everything airline travel related.