Photography Gear
As a professional photographer for 15+ years, I have amassed a good amount of photography gear… but sometimes I don’t want to take it all with me on a family trip, especially if that means bringing an additional bag. If we are going to a place where we’ll spend most of our time on the beach building sandcastles, then I often leave my big camera at home and rely on my iPhone or GoPro. However, some big vacations require a big camera and accessories. Here are the items you’ll usually find in my camera bag.
This is my main camera body. I have always loved Nikon cameras, and I have have used the D600 and D700 in the past. This camera has a live view and touch screen (though I prefer using the viewfinder and buttons). One feature I love is the ability to link my iPhone to the camera via WiFi through the SnapBridge app, which lets me take family selfies without using the self-timer. Using the app, I can also send jpegs to my phone and post them to social media without having to download everything to my laptop first.
This is usually the only lens I bring on our family trips, because the 28-300mm range encompasses all of my other lenses. What it lacks in aperture (f3.5-f5.6) it makes up in space saved in my luggage. In addition, the D850 does great with high ISO settings, so even when the lighting isn’t stellar, this lens/body combo gets the job done. This lens also offers two vibration reduction settings. Most of the images on this website were taken using this lens or my iPhone.
This little action camera is a cost-effective alternative to a GoPro. Any time we go on a trip involving beaches or waterfalls, this camera goes in the bag. The kit I purchased included a waterproof housing and several attachments so you can clip it onto a snowboarding helmet or other items. We learned the hard way that the camera doesn’t alert you when you’re running out of video space on the memory card… it simply starts recording over the oldest files… which meant we lost a lot of video during our trip to Hawaii… oops…
On our trips, I bring a variety of memory cards with different capacities, and usually switch out cards every other day of travel. So if we take a 12 day trip (like when we went to Australia) I will bring 5-6 memory cards with me. They’re so small that it’s not a big deal to pack extra cards. I do this mainly to protect my images from loss… if a memory card got corrupted, or my camera fell in the ocean or got stolen, I’d much rather lose just 1 day’s worth of photos than the entire trip!
Unfortunately, the Sunpak tripod I use is no longer available for purchase, but it’s similar to this RetiCam Tabletop tripod. I like having a small, portable tripod to capture low-light scenes, but I don’t want to bring a full-size tripod with me., so this little guy fits the bill. If I’m in a location where the tripod needs to be higher, I just find a table or rock and then put the tripod on top!
On trips where we use the “one backpack per person + one carryon suitcase” rule, my camera backpack is the one I carry, usually filled with all of our electronics. I have an older version of the one pictured here, but it’s still holding up great after 10 years. I like the variety of pockets and the removable padded inserts, so I can divide up my gear as needed.
This handy device was indispensable during our trip to Iceland, where were living in a campervan for a week and had very limited access to electricity. The standard outlet allowed me to plug in my camera charger while we were driving (to recharge my extra battery) and the two USB ports gave us extra phone-charging stations. The device is small enough to fit in a side pocket of my camera bag (along with the extra camera battery and charger).
I purchased this cross-body camera strap at the start of 2020, and used it during our 3-day trip to NYC as well as our two long road trips in March and July. It was easy to adjust, kept my camera safely at my side, and was fairly comfortable even with my heavier 28-300mm lens attached to the camera. The rubber shoulder pad kept the strap from slipping, but it did get a little uncomfortable by the end of each day, so I might look into getting a thicker shoulder pad to add to the strap.
I purchased this sling-style camera harness recently, because I wanted something that would hold my camera closer to my body while hiking. I used it for our weekend trip to the Smoky Mountains, and liked how it freed up both of my hands when we were climbing on rocks! The weather cover and wrist strap are both easily removable, and the mechanism that attaches the camera to the harness is easy to slide in and out - but not so easy that it feels unstable. For hiking trips in the future, I will probably use this harness more than the Black Rapid strap. However, for city trips or simple walks in the woods, the Black Rapid strap will be more convenient.
Of course, in addition to all this gear, I bring along my iPhone X and all of the necessary cords & chargers. I use Google Photos to back up my iPhone pics while we’re traveling. I will also be getting a small external hard drive to back up photos during our upcoming trip to Europe, instead of bringing 15 memory cards with me! Do you have questions about gear? Email me below!