If you really want to know about what travel photography gear that you need to bring when taking the whole family for holiday than I hope my story will inspire you as well. Hi lovely people my name is Bima and thank you for visiting my photography blog, here in this site I will share my wedding portfolio that belong to my primary job till life inspiration about travel, food, and what I did for become a husband and father due to my 4 kids.
I was starting my photography career back in 2009 following my university graduation and being focus on my destination wedding photography niche take me and my wife got awesome experience that I could share both for bride and groom to be and surely the photography madness. Become an ordinary Indonesian guy who focus on this special niche push me to know not only about photography but also how to enjoy my life for being a lifetime traveler. I might be stay in a 5 star luxury resort called Lux* Maldives for shooting wedding but the day after it, I might sleep on the Burger King restaurant for 18 hours just waiting for my next flight.
One good thing about this journey is,
I truly enjoy for what I’m doing now!
No matter who I am than I’m still trying my best to be a lovely husband and friendly father due to my 4 kids so cooking for their breakfast till accompany the whole family for holiday is belong to my happiness. Surely I’m not the best person in this planet to talk about travel photography gear but all I want is just sharing about what I usually do for taking my family in a holiday but still trying to make some cash so I can afford for their education, living, and surely some wedding anniversary surprise for my beautiful wife.
9 Travel Photography Gear That You (REALLY) Need
When you ready my blog that I want you to catch kind of information that you personally wanna know so I don’t wanna talk more about some ridiculous things and want to stick into the main topic, and that’s all about my personal travel photography gear that I always bring in my holiday.
1 – Mirrorless Camera
Mirrorless camera is one great tools to capture all beautiful moments, culture, food, and some street art. I know that you might have some high-end pricy camera but being so wise in travel preparation is cool decision that you could make. DSLR will definitely too heavy but when I suggest you to buy some mirrorless camera than it talks about simplicity and light traveling method. You might see some of friends or family who use mirrorless camera but let me share to you few cameras that works superb due to my expertise as a photographer.
Canon EOS M Collection
I love the M collection from Canon even from 2014 till now I still keep and use my Canon EOS M 1st generation that you can buy for less than $300 and still come with outstanding result at the end. The proof is, this tiny camera is still good for simply taking a family we-fie till taking some cool landscape when I travel with family especially for outdoor area.
I was taking this jetski photo with my Canon EOS M when go to Maldives for pre wedding shots, photo result was so nice, sharp, and come with great colour even here I wanna make my photo have more dramatic ambiance than I edit this photo by using my Maldives Unveiled LR Presets.
Fujifilm X-A7 with 15-45mm Fujinon Lens
I love Fujifilm so much and this company brings too many features on their camera that seems to be over spec just for travel photography gear, but remember! if you are a person who love upgrading technology and crazy about features than Fujifilm will belong to your best pal so true.
I was going to Singapore few months ago and one good friend of mine lend me his Fujifilm camera just to give me impression how the Fuji system works look a like and my first opinion is this camera was absolutely incredible for any needs. Taking this long range of local apartment in Singapore was my first impression of using Fujifilm system. All the raw files already come with sharp image, good clarity, and the machine was helping me to shoot in fast.
If you wondering to have such incredible mirrorless camera than I personally suggest you to consider about Canon EOS M and Fujifilm X-A7 but just in case you need another references than this lists below will answering your questions:
- Sony a6000 with 16-50mm power zoom lens
- Nikon 1 J5 with 10-30mm, and
- LUMIX GX85 bundled with 12-32mm and 45-150mm Lens
2 – Multifunction Gym Bag
You might be asking me why choosing gym bag for traveling and the answer is SIMPLICITY. This kind of bag was design to carry light luggage which is mean this bag will encourage you to travel in light too, in other case gym bag will be able to carry few things and the most important thing is they used to have few pockets.
In general, if you can find multifunction bag that could be set to carry on the hand and in the same time they got an apparel that will able to set as backpack than you must consider about it. So down here I will recommend you with several multifunction gym bag that could be your travel bag.
Under Armour Undeniable Duffle 4.0 Gym Bag
Best thing about this Under Armour Duffle 4.0 is they coming with 30 various solid colours so you can choose which colour that belong to your favourite. There is front pocket that you can use for keeping passport and boarding pass and when you open that bag than there is quite space to cover your clothes, under wear, towel, charger set and surely your electronic gadget such as camera and some accessories
Speedo Unisex 35 Litre
As a light backpack you could bet on this incredible well design bag to bring your luggage. It’s not that big but you can bring your clothes, electronic gadgets like laptop, camera, and some mineral bottle too. With plenty of colours than you also can choose the most favourite one for your own. As one of the best seller backpack worldwide you may check its current price and review on Amazon.
3 – Back Up Memory Card
I personally use Sony and Sandisk memory card, these two company offering great product that will keep your photos and videos safely and when you asking about durability than this is one cool thing that you couldn’t doubt anymore. So let share some of references due to some card that I personally use both for traveling and wedding photo projects,
4 – Gorilla Pod
When we travel abroad it’s quite common that we need to shoot for special need and when the light goes low and we approaching the maximum ISO to get the best light than we must reduce our shutter speed. Somebody with stesdy hand will don’t have problem at all but if you’re not that person than Gorilla pod is the best gear that you can bring for accompany your photography needs, through this simple gear could tie your camera at any surface and make a still photo in low speed.
Here you can make a bulb effect in the night, shoot for milky way, till you can make a selfie photo for your self. Yesterday I just finish my previous story that telling about Joby Gorilla Pod, I think you might read it to choose which one is the best for your travel. I owned a professional tripod and used to bring it when I have a photo session but if I go for holiday than Gorilla Pod is still best for this part.
5 – Umbrella
This simple and forgetable tools is way important especially when you travel with kids and visiting tropical country like Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia or you go to some countries which has high rain index. When I went to Singapore last month, it was hard rain in Tanjung Katong even I still find my t-shirt getting sweat because of the rain, but having a simple umbrella for traveling is good decision that you could make. I know that some of you don’t wanna bring it because it looks heavy but trust me if you travel to such area that come with rainy season that this gear is still rely to carry on.
6 – Bath Travel Bag
This bath travel bag is a simple gear and the one thing that I never forget for travel both alone and with family. For covering the whole family member (we are 6 person now) I only bring one bath travel kit that consist of toothpaste, shampoo, soap gel, hair cap, cutton bath, both for me and wife and surely for my kids.
7 – Light Drone
Having such light drone is cool for present travel experience especially for you who love to make an awesome video footage or creating travel vlog for your audience. Back few years ago drone is pricy gear that only use for professional job but during this time drone is become smaller and lighter so now everyone can make a high moving video by using this drone. Down here I will suggest you with some drones that rely to bring on during your traveling.
DJI Mavic Mini – my better recommendation!
This Mavic mini will provide you with 12MP aerial photos and 2.7K HD videos and it’s way enough to get nice and fine video quality to make some vlog or aerial photos. For money that you spend on this gear than everything will looks worth it such the flying time that average between 23 minutes, 1080 video, 1,5 mile control range, and one thing that I can’t forget that this drone is only 250 gram. Due to this weight, once you’re done with your session than you can flip it and put it on the pouch and keep it on your bag.
DJI Spark
Another competitor that I will suggest you to buy is DJI Spark Portable, with average price than DJI Mini the most thing that make this cool aerial gear look different is, you can not flip this Spark just like Mavic Mini had. So when you buy this Spark than you will get the built in bag and you can simply put all the drone and apparels right inside it. Final decision is yours even I already wrote above that I personally suggest you to but the Mavic mini
8 – Compact Microphone
Once I develop my Youtube Channel for photography than I always bring this compact microphone no matter where I go, in fact I don’t buy such pricy mic but as long as it help me to reduce outdoor noise and provide me with fine audio than it’s done. A week ago I was writing about my personal experience for using and not using a microphone and you can bet for the audio result for sure. There are various cool and cheap mic that you can buy, from the Rode, Movo, Boya, till Comica so just read my review on the link above.
9 – Water Bottle
Last cool thing that you must remember to bring when having such wonderful journey is water bottle, if you go with family than this kind of thing is really important especially for your kids. You may already know that mineral water used to be free in some destination and you can fill it on a public building and restaurant so you must take this lovely chance. Nalgene Tritan is one awesome water bottle that you can but on Amazon and it comes with several colours that might be your favourite one too.
Lets keep in touch in this blog and I will updating my photography and travel story in this blog. Keepin’ enjoy with what you do now because this world is so beautiful to explore. Always pay attention to your travel trash and put it on the bin before you go and last if you still have some recommendation about travel photography gear than kindly drop me a comment below.