TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

TRAVEL PHOTO BOOKS

Now I just leeeerve photography and even more so, I enjoy creating travel books to display on my coffee table and for the kids to keep as momentos of our family’s special times together.  Check out some of my creations on Pinterest.  I always use a company called Mixbook.  I never pay the full price, especially as I end up paying for shipping to Australia as well, so I subscribe and get one of their many emails advertising specials.  I have tried other companies but I am in love with their combination of themes, functionality and user friendliness, which I have not found with other companies.  The quality is great and the price is great when they have their regular specials.

 

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS

You can’t go past the experts in the travel industry. Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Photographybook is a great way to start learning the basics of travel photography. Everything I know about travel photography I learnt from a book!

EQUIPMENT

Now I know you are all wondering what camera I use.  Throughout this blog I have used a variety of cameras for the images, ranging from a point and shoot to a more specialised prosumer DSLR.  They have all done me well and all have their pros and cons especially when it comes to travel photography and having to lug your equipment around.  If you are chasing just a easy to use point and shoot then I can highly recommend Panasonic’s Lumix DMC range.  It takes great quality jpegs (drawback is that it does not shoot in RAW so it is difficult to the most out of your pictures in post production).

I know there’s always the temptation to get the latest and greatest upgrade out there, but it is always cheaper to get a super ceded model off Ebay.  I have bought all my gear off Ebay, and made sure I do my research re pricing and read all of the feedback for the seller before committing to buy or bid.  I have never had a bad experience (touch wood).  Remember at some stage your baby was the latest and greatest on the market and photographers out there took some pretty damn good pics with it.  Besides I always live by the mantra that it’s not the camera that takes good pictures, it’s the person behind the camera!  A living testimony to this mantra is the picture below I took with my very first basic point and shoot digital camera, bought when digital was starting to take off.  There were no filters or anything fancy, although I did ‘stitch’ several photos together in Photoshop and submitted it to a National photography competition and won a trip to Canberra as well as $4000 (that was over 10 years ago).

Whats in my photography bag

My workhorse over the years has been a Canon 30D with a wide (Tokina 16-50mm f2.8) and zoom lens (Canon IS 55-250mm) which I have taken overseas in the past.  However, since the advent of micro four thirds I have opted to leave these at home when going overseas.

My new baby is an Olympus E-M1, which is fantastic for overseas travel due to it’s light weight and unobtrusiveness.  There are a variety of lenses you can buy, but for travelling I go with a Tamron 14 – 150mm, f3.5 – 5.6 (28 – 300mm equivalent) as the wide and zoom range is so versatile without compromising sharpness.  I do find the 14mm end a little restrictive for landscapes so am currently investigating buying an Olympus 9 – 18mm f4.  I took this picture with the Olympus E-M1.whats in my photography bag

OK now that I have a new camera, I now had to rebuy all the accessories that go with it, or did I?

Filters – I can not live without these. Nothing makes up for them even if you have the best software on the market.  My kit has a UV filter for each lense (a very cheap insurance policy which always stays on your lense unless you are temporarily using another filter), a circular polariser, a variable range neutral density filter and a graduated filter. They don’t take up much room and rather than keep them in the individual containers they come in when travelling, I bought one of these filter cases.  No need to rush out and buy a whole heap more filters because your lens size is now diifferent on your new camera.  Just buy some step up or down rings off Ebay or do my totally revolutionary technique, hold my old filter (which is bigger than my lens) and hold it there by hand!

Whats in my photography bag

My broken UV filter which I had on an expensive lens when my camera bag strap broke.

Off Camera Flash – I try not to use the flash because I hate it.  I hate it for several reasons. One, I find it hard to get my head around the technical aspects of it.  Two, I have lugged it half way around the world, used it once and it weighed a tonne.  Three, natural light is much better to work with. One look at the subject and what you see is what you are going to get in terms of light.  I only use a bit of fill flash with my on camera flash in back lit situations or at night if required.

Lens Accessories – Buy some spare lens caps and even better, buy a  lens cap keeper so your cap never gets lost.  Bring several lense cleaning cloths.  Pack a shower cap – great for covering your camera in the rain!  Don’t forget the spare batteries.  When you are out all day and drain the first one, the second one is in your camera bag ready to go when the first runs out and the third is back at the hotel being charged.

Tripod – I have a Velbon PHD-31Q. It’s nice and compact but still a bit heavy to be putting in your carry on luggage if you’re tight for weight. I always pack it in my checked luggage.  If that goes missing, then it’s not the end of the world because you’ll still have your selfie stick for those silly family shots with your mobile phone!

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