VIRB

Honestly I don't really bother on what to pack every time I get to travel, since the only things that I need was some clothing and my compact Sony digital camera. Now that I've got a dslr and takes every single vacation as a photography trip, it's important to plan on what to pack since I wouldn't want to put the whole trip into a total ruin. I don't really bring my laptop for my trips since I have three CF cards, and I only use RAW if there's an opportunity to shoot landscape scenes. Here's the list:

1. Cameras - My Olympus Evolt for my main snaps and my Sony W1 compact flash for candids and general snaps.


2. 7 Million Dollar Home - I invested in a Crumpler camera bag which has a total of 5 compartments suitable for a single camera and a total of four lenses. It also has a three large pockets for my smaller accessories. The pocket underneath the flap cover can place documents as large as an A4 sized paper. There's an additional 2 snug pockets which can hold your writing stuff and even a medium sized Maglite torchlight.


3. Lens (including hoods) - Lucky for me I have only 3 lenses to care about (excluding filter lenses). I got a Zuiko 14-45mm and a 40-150mm zoom. My latest tele lens is a Sigma DC 55-200mm which I use for my sports photos. Depending on my photo agenda for my trip, I don't really bring all my lenses along since it will be a burden to carry. The risk factor of losing your belongings is always there too. For this trip I'll just bring my staple 14-45mm wide lens and my fast Sigma DC lens. I guess I won't be using any close-up filter lens.


4. Storage - I will be having 3 CF cards at 1GB each for my Evolt. A standard 3264x2448 (SHQ/JPEG) image will take approximately 159 slots in the card, so I'll have around 477 shots for the whole trip. An all RAW shoot on a single card will give me 72 shots so I'll be limiting my RAW shoots. As for my Sony compact, I'll have a 128 mb and an additional 256 mb memory sticks.


5. Tripod - Honestly in my humble opinion, the tool that you shouldn't leave home without. Without a tripod is pointless to achieve that beautiful ambient low light landscape shoot you've been dying to take, unless you're going to take photos in the blinding mid afternoon. Save those for after lunch candids. As Joe McNally quoted in one of his books
   
   :"Now I must warn you, you will sometimes find landscape photographers out there at dawn some mornings shooting the same thing you are, and they're hand-holding their cameras. They don't know it yet, but once they open their photos in Photoshop, they are going to have the blurriest, best-lit, out of focus shots you've ever seen. Now, what u can do to help these poor hapless souls? Quietly, take your tripod and beat them to death. Hey, it's what Joe McNally would do.(kidding. kind of)"
   


6. Blower - This is probably one of the most useful gadget to have around. Outdoor shooting usually gives the lens a speckle of dust or grime, so the blower (and probably the lint cloth) saves the glass surface from scratches and fingerprints. Blowing with your mouth is a bad idea since you don't want to end up spitting on your precious lens. In addition to practical lens care use, I got a UV filter attached too.


7. Battery and charger- Normally I only need a single battery pack for my Evolt since it's lifespan is exceptional. It can last for the whole day of frequent shooting, so I'll just need to recharge it whenever I'm back at the hotel or hostel.

Guess that sums up for the list of things that I need. So far I don't really have any problems with it, but if you feel that there's anything that I need to add just drop me a comment!