As spices complete a stew, a good travel photo does not just involve pushing the 'snap' button. Preparation, quality of the device, and various tools work together to produce quality travel photos when traveling to any of the best destinations around the world.
If salt must go into a stew to make a tasty dish, then the following travel kits should be in the bag of a tourist who intends to take good shots. These pieces of equipment, as well as other travel gear, are essentials for every traveler. A well-planned photography kit is invaluable during global travels; here's what to bring.
10 Camera Cleaning Kit
Clean every part of the camera regularly. Doing this improves not just the camera's lifespan but also the quality of the travel photos. Specks of dirt or dust on the camera lens will result in blurry photos irrespective of the angle or skill applied. It stretches editing time spent.
All of this trouble can be avoided by having a cleaning kit. A proper cleaning kit should have a lint-free cleaning pad and a lens cleaning solution.
A small lens pen can act as a quick replacement. It involves no solution, but quality ones will have a small brush on one end and a pad filled with carbon-cleaning compound at the other end.
9 Power Bank Or Spare Batteries
Finding a place to recharge the travel camera battery in a pressing time of need calls for a huge sigh of relief. But what if that doesn't happen? What if there's no place to charge when there's an urgent need to take that perfect travel photo of that scenic lake or destination travelers don't want to forget?
A power bank is essential to every traveler, yet it is quickly left behind. A dead battery means no travel photos to save for memories. A power bank or spare batteries for disposable cameras should be in every tourist's essential tool kit.
8 External Hard Drive
Travelers should be prepared for the inevitable. Rain, sun, or internet-free/no signal area, shouldn't hinder the photography experience.
It's good to always back up travel photos to a laptop or the cloud, but why not add an external hard drive for extra safety?
Anything can happen to that picture taken in that amazing city one may not have the time or opportunity to visit again. Travelers should develop an efficient organization system to ensure they 'always have a backup.'
7 A Collapsible Travel Camera Tripod
The instability of a camera reduces the quality of pictures; hence the value of a tripod cannot be overemphasized. If a traveler doesn't go with one, it's probably because of how heavy most of them are.
Therefore, travelers should plan to get something other than a collapsible camera tripod. It stabilizes the camera properly like a regular tripod and can be used to hold an external flash.
A camera tripod enables travelers to take quality travel photos at night, creating photographic effects such as increasing motion blur and making long exposure.
It would be next to impossible to capture the moving image of a waterfall without a tripod as it slows the camera's shutter speed to enable it to capture the motion of the water.
No one would want to miss this iconic sight of a waterfall. A collapsible travel tripod should always be kept in the essentials tool kit.
6 Portable Photography Lighting
A small flashlight is recommended when photographers need extra light to improve the quality of the travel photo. Portable photography lighting can also be used indoors, where adequate light is lacking.
Portable photography lighting may be used in other ways, like helping one identify those 'things' that take on another form in the dark, find a dropped object, move around more easily, and more.
5 An Intervalometer
Like the built-in timer in every camera, an intervalometer allows a camera to take several travel photos and determines how often and how long the photos are taken.
But unlike an inbuilt timer, pictures can be taken in intervals using an intervalometer.
The latest versions of cameras come with an inbuilt intervalometer. External intervalometers plugged into a camera are the next best option for cameras without an inbuilt one.
An intervalometer also improves the stability of a camera and prevents motion blur.
4 Travel Backpack/Travel Case
A travel backpack provides enough space to store the essentials mentioned above. There will still be extra space for a laptop, water bottle (tightly sealed), and other work-related equipment needed to have unique travel photos.
All essential equipment, like hand grip strap, collapsible tripod, intervalometer, etc., stored in one place reduces the risk of leaving an essential item behind.
A travel backpack shouldn't resemble a hiking bag. It should be portable.
3 Hand Grip Camera Strap
Unlike a neck strap, a hand grip camera strap is designed to fit into the hand of a traveler, making it possible to take perfect shots with improved ease and preventing the classic case of an aching wrist.
Some hand grip camera straps are adjustable to fit into any hand size, reducing the risk of a camera falling to the ground when capturing a travel photo.
2 Portable Travel Drones
Travel drones reduce the workload involved in travel photography drastically, especially if one is traveling solo. Drones provide a much better, if not perfect, view of the area and help one have a travel photo shoot of a large area in a short period.
Drones are collapsible and can easily fit into a travel backpack. What's more, they are fun to use!
Check local laws and ordinances before using a drone; having a drone confiscated during travel isn't fun!
1 Quality Travel Camera
Is it possible to have memorable tourism without a travel camera?
From the colorful plate of foreign cuisine to the steep climb of the sun behind one of the mountains of Kilimanjaro, a travel camera is needed to capture these unforgettable destinations.
A traveler should have much more travel gear when going on vacation, but these ten tools are a great place to start and build on. Every travel photo shoot would have its peculiarities, but there would hardly be an occasion where travelers do not need at least one of these ten tools.