Travel Photography

I keep asking myself how to prepare myself when I need to travel overseas and interstate. I need to be well prepared as the opportunity might be limited. So I research a bit and here are the check list that I put together, for now.


Basic knowledge of the place you are visiting

Get yourself a map. It might be your best companion. Or perhaps you might want to get a local tour guide. Get to know the place a little bit so that you won't miss any special event. Today there is lots of tourism websites in the internet that offer you at least a basic information about the place that you're visiting.

What to Take in your Kit?

Packing for a trip is a camera bag is a very personal thing and each traveler will have their own preferences as they attempt to balance weight issues with functionality but here are the basic list that you can start with:

• Extra Batteries
• Recharger
• Power Adapter
• Cleaning Gear
• Filters
• Flash
• Memory Cards
• Camera Bag
• Tripod
• Point and Shoot

What to shoot ?

It's sound silly but I always don't know what to shoot when I was on the place and I always regret not to take some shots that you missed. So the question is what type of photo that I should consider while I'm traveling? It is quite simple actually, you just imagine what kind of photo you want to fill in your travel photo album and ask yourself:

• Who did you travel with?
• Where did you stay?
• What did you eat?
• Who did you meet? etc

Some possible shots that you might like to include in a photographic travel diary might include:

• Buildings
• Landscapes
• Local People (at work and play)
• Travel Companions
• Food and Drink
• Hotels
• Transportation
• Market places/Shops
• Street Scenes
• Local Written Language/Street signs
• Shots of yourself (alone and with others)

So just use my imaginations. But often I read that the true joy of traveling is not how you record your trip with your camera, video, etc, but it is how you experience the moment of 'being there'. And I think it's true, sometimes the drive to ‘capture’ every moment can become a distraction from the true joy of travel.