Hi and welcome to Episode 81 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Here is the answery bit
The five bits of travel photography gear I recommend for beginners are the following
- A camera and lens combo that is lightweight and portable
- A nice backpack with room for gear and other stuff
- A travel tripod
- A Neutral Density (ND) filter and holder
- The Photographers Ephemeris App
Right – let’s look at each of these in turn. I know, this is probably not what you were expecting, which in my eyes is a good thing. I see things a little bit differently.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
1 A camera and lens combo that is lightweight and portable
OK – this is two items. Let’s just call this added value! This is the fundamental gear that needs thinking about. I cannot tell you which camera and lens to buy, as there are so many variables.
Check out episode 7 – What Camera Should I Buy, where I go into this in detail. Well, a little bit of detail…
Basically, buy the best camera that you can afford.
What do I do?
For my travel photography, I use an Olympus EM5 Mk2 with an Olympus 12-40mm lens.
The camera body is much, much smaller than my Canon 6D, and the lens is a bit smaller than my 17-40mm lens, but the weight is not that different. Sure I could stick the 12-42mm lens on and that would make a big difference. In fact, for my next trip I am going to do just that and go properly small.
A smaller camera is helpful, but they are a little bit more fiddly and are still a weight to carry.
I do feel the benefit of going from the Canon to Olympus system in terms of things being generally smaller and lighter though which is helpful.
Different types of cameras.
In general terms, Micro Four Thirds cameras are smaller than cropped sensor cameras which are generally smaller than full frame cameras.
And all three formats have great-quality sensors and lenses.
I can recommend Micro Four Thirds cameras for travel, which is what I have ended up using, but there are so many variables and personal preferences.
Check out episode 8, Why Is Camera Sensor Size Important?
These days you will struggle to buy a rubbish camera from the main camera manufacturers – they are to me just different levels of amazing.
What about lenses?
And as for lenses, well I love using wide-angle lenses. When I used my Canon 6D my travel lens was the excellent 24-105mm lens, giving me a wide-angle to telephoto range. And that was all I used, all I needed. And only having one lens was so good in so many ways, not least being only having one lens to carry, and I never got a problem with dust getting into the sensor chamber as I never changed lenses.
With the Olympus, I use 12-40mm and 40-150mm lenses, which in full frame equivalent terms are 24mm-80mm and 80-300mm.
I am going to go back to the smaller 12-42 lens for my next trip and will see how I get on.
Choose the right camera, and pair it with the right lens, and if you feel that you can get away with just one lens then you do that.
You won’t get better photos necessarily with more gear.
Smaller and lighter is good, but also having the right gear and not too much gear is also important.
2 A backpack with room for gear and other stuff
I always carry my camera in my hand luggage. So I use my camera bag as my hand luggage. That is what I take on the plane. I use a Peak Design Everyday Backpack.
My Olympus gear fits nicely in the bottom half leaving the top half for non-photography-related stuff such as snacks, sunglasses, and the inevitable newspaper that I tell myself that I will read on holiday that I never get around to reading.
And those sweets that you buy at the airport that you didn’t really want but the sweets where you are going are just not the same. And I don’t eat sweets at home. Nor read the paper.
And a paperback. Must get one of them. Even though I have a Kindle.
Sorry.
A camera bag for travel photography in my opinion needs to be a lightweight backpack with side pockets I can put bottles of water in – you don’t want to put them in the bag with that precious gear.
3 A travel tripod
I have bought lots of tripods. They are very much a matter of personal preference. Go to a shop and try a few out. For travel, I use a 3 Legged Thing Corey tripod.
What are the things that you need to consider?
Well, cost, size and weight are important factors, the main things to consider. Light enough and small to travel with and carry for long periods of time.
And you need to be able to attach your tripod to your camera bag.
You also need to think about the tripod head.
But most of all the tripod you choose has to be sturdy and stable enough to hold your camera rock steady when the shutter is activated. If it doesn’t do this forget it.
And forget how it looks and all that stuff and concentrate on its only purpose – to hold your camera so firmly when the shutter activates there is no movement of the camera.
This is the only way to get tack-sharp photos in all lighting conditions.
I use a tripod for 95% of the photos I take.
My current travel tripod of choice is the 3 Legged Thing Corey tripod with a ball head. It works well with my Olympus camera.
And I use a Manfrotto Pixi, and also a Platypod – ones for another time.
4 A Neutral Density filter
What is a Neutral Density filter, or ND for short? A neutral density filter reduces the amount of light that gets to the camera sensor. Think of it as sunglasses for your camera!
Neutral density filters reduce the amount of light that gets through to the sensor in stops. So a 2-stop neutral density filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by two stops.
What is the point of this? What does this mean?
Well with an ND filter, you can use a slower shutter speed. Why would you want to do this? Well, I absolutely love doing this to blur the water, be it the sea or a river, or a waterfall.
I use a Lee Big Stopper, which reduces the amount of light getting through to the sensor by a whopping 10 stops.
This means that an exposure with a shutter speed of 1/60th second without the filter is a massive 15 seconds with the filter.
Now this is not for everyone but I love making the sea super flat. And the same for rivers. Super cool.
10 stops are massive, opening up the creative possibilities available to you and giving you new things to try in broad daylight!
5 The Photographers Ephemeris App
Check out episode 70, What Phone Apps Do Photographers Use? These Are The 7 I Use The Most when I talk about this app. But very quickly, I use this App on my iPhone so I know where the sun is going to rise and set, and everything in-between. I use it to plan every sunrise and sunset when I don’t know exactly where the sun will be.
I also use it to plan my architectural photography work and the timing of shoots.
It costs a tenner but that is I believe a one-off payment that is well worth making.
And it does lots more stuff which I have not explored yet.
6 What do I do?
I use the stuff that I have spoken about – this episode is based on what I do let me summarise here.
- My camera and lens – Olympus EM5 and Olympus 12-40mm lens
- Camera bag – Peak Design Everyday Backpack
- Tripod – 3 Legged Thing Corey with ball head
- ND Filter – Lee Big Stopper
- Photographers Ephemeris App
7 The talky bit
Photography is not all about gear. Sure gear is important, you need gear to take photos. But getting out there and taking photos, practising, learning, practising, learning, that is what photography is all about. Photography is drawing with light, taking photos, not shopping for gear.
You won’t learn anything buying gear and looking at buying more gear, which trust me I used to do.
Get the best gear that you can for sure. But once you have got that gear read the manuals and practise with it until you can literally use it all with your eyes closed.
And only once you have exhausted the capabilities and possibilities of that gear should you look to buy any more gear.
No one knows which camera or lens I used for any of my photos. No one knows that I have more than one camera system. And quite rightly no one cares. So don’t get too hung up on the gear, please.
And when you do buy more gear it should be stuff that lets you do something new that you cannot do at the moment, or help you take better photos, or makes things easier for you.
If a new piece of gear does not do one of those three then do not buy it.
Unless it is a spare/ backup piece of gear.
These are the five things that I value most for my travel photography that I wanted to share with you in a podcast episode.
One line summary
These are the five bits of photography gear I recommend beginners get, which give you the tools to get started and not get overwhelmed by gear and get to do some cool stuff straight away.
Next episode
Photography Explained Podcast Episode 82 – Do You Want To Know What Skills You Need To Be A Travel Photographer?
Shout out
This episode shout-out is to @patflynn, who gave me permission to start this podcast, and also told me how to actually do it. He coached me in episode 1132 of the AskPat 2.0 podcast. Check him out and you will see what I mean. Thanks, Pat, you gave me some advice and I took it and acted on it.
I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Brought to you by
This episode was brought to you by Alta Rica Coffee (slot awaiting sponsor………)
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
