Make the most of your photography with a variety of bags
and accessories
By Ibarionex R. Perello
While the Roman
philosopher and politician may not have been a photographer,
his comment is applicable to those who travel with a camera.
Travel photography has a lot to do with luck. It can be a sudden
occurrence of light, action and setting that, when captured
by our cameras, marks a special moment in our travels and our
lives. Yet our success in capturing such a fleeting moment is
often decided well before taking a single step out the front
door.
Along with our cameras, there’s a wide selection of tools
and accessories that increase our chances of capturing outstanding
images. Be sure that you have all you need before arriving to
your destination and test products thoroughly before you leave
(especially a new camera), and you’ll be more than ready
to create beautiful and memorable photographs.
Taking
It With You
How you’re going to travel with your photographic gear
is one of the first things to decide. Don’t limit yourself
to a solitary bag; instead, take along more than one.
The first bag will house all your gear: cameras, lenses, filters,
batteries, memory cards, laptop, cables and flash units. Bags
such as the Tenba Pro Digital DC-15C,
Lowepro CompuTrekker AW and Tamrac Photo/Digital Computer Backpack
are capable of accommodating multiple cameras and a laptop.
With many pockets for accessories, these bags offer ample space
in addition to being viable as carry-on luggage. (Avoid checking
in your camera gear when possible to prevent theft or damage).
Such backpacks provide easy portability, especially when carrying
several pounds of gear.
If you don’t want to carry your bag and would prefer pulling
it along with you, the Porter Case
Softie 160, Tamrac Big Wheels Rolling Photo Backpack Model 697
and Lowepro Rolling Mini Trekker
AW each includes wheels and a collapsing handle for easy
transport, especially around a busy airport.
Remember, because of recent travel restrictions, certain tools
such as knives and multi-tools will be confiscated at security
checkpoints. Although they’re always key items for a photographer
to have, keep them in your checked baggage.
Because you don’t want to carry your complete inventory
on your back for the entire trip, take along a second, smaller
bag in your checked luggage. Bags such as the Adorama
Slinger, RoadWired Podzilla, Domke F-5XB or Kata C-56
accommodate a single camera and lens with some accessories.
So, whether it’s for a light walk or a night out, a smaller
bag provides the convenience and accessibility you need.
Protecting Your Photographs
Although memory cards are available in capacities as high as
8 GB, we recommend that you carry multiple cards of smaller
capacities. While memory cards are designed to be incredibly
reliable, they can fail. Using multiple cards eliminates the
likelihood of losing your images should a single card be damaged
or lost. Having two to three additional 512 MB or 1 GB cards
is suggested. The added advantage of using 512 to 640 MB cards
is that their complete contents can be burned to a CD-R.
Protect your media cards by enclosing them in a media card holder.
The Hoodman FlashPack H-FP4
and OSN Universal Digital Memory
Card Case accommodate multiple media cards and provide
protection against shock and dirt. Their pockets provide a secure
fit as well as a view of the stored card. This last feature
allows you to simply reverse a card to indicate that it has
been filled, eliminating the chance that you’ll accidentally
reformat or erase images from a card.
At the end of each day, back up your images. If you travel with
a laptop, simply download the files to your hard drive. You
also should burn a CD or DVD as a third backup. Such discs are
hard to damage, especially when stored in a protective case.
You even can mail them back home during your trip.
If you don’t own or prefer not to travel with a laptop,
you can still back up your images. The Kanguru
Media X-change 2.0, Delkin eFilm PicturePAD, SmartDisk FlashTrax
and LeadingSpect SuperDigiBin 2 are portable hard drives
that accept your camera’s memory card. Insert the card
and the device will download your images. Small enough to fit
into a coat pocket, these products have capacities as high as
80 GB, more than ample storage for almost any trip. When you
arrive home, simply connect the device to your computer and
download the folders to your hard drive.
You also can back up your images directly to recordable CDs
using the Apacer Disc Steno CP200,
MicroSolutions RoadStor or
EZDigiMagic DM220-S CD-R burner. Like the portable hard
drives, they accept media cards, but the images are recorded
to a CD-R instead of a hard drive.
On the chance that a memory card is corrupted or accidentally
erased, software such as Lexar’s
Image Rescue or FlashFixers
ImageRecall 2 may help to recover images. To reduce the
risk of accidents, avoid reformatting or erasing images from
your card until you’ve created a reliable backup.
Printing On Demand
The immediacy of digital is one of its joys. Moments after you
capture an image, you can see it displayed on your camera’s
LCD. You also can create prints even when you’re thousands
of miles from home.
The HiTi Photo Printer Transphotable,
the Canon CP-300 and the Olympus
P-10 Digital Photo Printer are compact, portable units
that use dye-sublimation technology to create 4x6-inch prints
in 130 seconds or less. The Transphotable printer accepts media
cards and includes a handheld LCD monitor, while the P-10 produces
quality prints from PictBridge-compatible cameras. The CP-300
is incredibly compact and comes with PictBridge technology.
These devices allow you to share your photographs with friends
and family by making custom postcards—before you’ve
returned home.
Keeping It Steady
There are few things worse than returning from a trip to find
that your images are soft and unsharp. Usually, the culprit
isn’t a bad lens or camera, but rather a camera that moved
slightly during exposure. Especially when shooting under difficult
lighting conditions, a tripod is a key tool, ensuring that you
get a sharp picture.
Don’t think you’ll be forced to carry a massive, heavy
hunk of metal for your entire trip. Instead, you can have a
lightweight and compact tripod that will sacrifice bulk, but
not stability.
The Slik Pro 813 CF, Manfrotto 444
Carbon One and Hakuba HG-504MX
tripods are carbon-fiber models that are lightweight and offer
the rigidity needed to keep your camera steady. Whether you
find yourself taking a photograph at sunset, a nightscape or
an interior shot in a landmark building, these tripods guarantee
a sharp image even when using a very slow shutter speed.
Under normal lighting conditions, a tripod will improve the
sharpness of your images and allow you to use smaller apertures
for maximum depth of field.
How about a tripod that can fit into a shirt pocket? The Giottos
Q-Pod and Sunpak 1001 D
mini-tripods can be placed on a table, wall or car hood and
provide the stability you need in a pinch. The
Pod from Adorama is a bean bag with a tripod screw that
also can serve as a stable camera platform, ideal when you’re
out to enjoy an evening, but happen to come upon a scene that
demands a tripod. Slip it out of your pocket, set it up and
shoot.
So, as you prepare for your next trip, you’ll discover
that a little pre-planning and organization will go a long way
toward ensuring that you return home with memorable images of
your adventures.
You also can back up your images directly to recordable CDs
using the 