My friend Scott recently posted on his Facebook page that he would be going on a trip somewhere with the family, and wondered what gear he should bring. Scott is what I would call a 'keen amateur' and has just bought a digital camera for the first time. I didn't plan on spending an hour replying to his post, but I get asked similar questions often. Here's what I wrote:
Ok, I'll give it a shot... first off, the one GLARING thing I see that's missing, is a camera body cap. Sounds very innocuous, but with that missing, all the dust from the air and your carpet are wafting onto your sensor. (I'm assuming here that the black camera is your digital camera, though maybe you're using the digital to take the picture). In any case, keep that camera covered all the time, and change lenses quickly. You'll be very frustrated when you come back and find dust spots all over your pristine skies. Then you'll spend days or even weeks getting rid of them on the computer. I know– it's happened in the past to me. Get a bulb to blow off the sensor regularly. Some Sensor Swabs (about $50/ pack) are useful too, but most dust can be blown off with a bulb. Price for a bulb ~ $15.
Do you have something, like a laptop, to backup your pics to each day? You may also want to backup the pics to DVD-RWs, that way you have them in two places if one fails. When I go to Maine each Fall, I put the pictures each day onto a portable HD, then onto a DVD-RW. I've never needed the DVDs but if the drive goes out on me, I'm OK. Price for a few DVD-RWs ~$25.
I'd leave one backup camera in your hotel room/ suitcase and not even get it out unless your main camera fails. No point bringing another camera on a hike when the chances are slim that you'll have camera failure. Pack lightly, though don't leave out the essentials.
If you're shooting in the daylight hours (8am-6pm) you may not want your tripod, but I'd STRONGLY encourage you to get up an hour before sunrise and stake out a place to shoot the sun coming up. Shoot a couple sunrises and sunsets and you won't want to shoot during the day, the light is so harsh and boring. Most great landscape pix are shot within an hour of sunrise or sunset. The quality of light is so much better. When I go to Maine, I spend most of the day (after shooting the sunrise) figuring out where the best sunset shot will be. Bring a compass and figure out where the sun rises and sets, then use that during the day to determine where the best locations are for future pix. Bring the tripod- it's bulky and unwieldy, but you'll have sharp pictures, and be glad you brought it. Price for getting up early- Free– and a little missed sleep, which you won't even notice once you see how beautiful the landscape is at that time.
Do you have something, like a laptop, to backup your pics to each day? You may also want to backup the pics to DVD-RWs, that way you have them in two places if one fails. When I go to Maine each Fall, I put the pictures each day onto a portable HD, then onto a DVD-RW. I've never needed the DVDs but if the drive goes out on me, I'm OK. Price for a few DVD-RWs ~$25.
I'd leave one backup camera in your hotel room/ suitcase and not even get it out unless your main camera fails. No point bringing another camera on a hike when the chances are slim that you'll have camera failure. Pack lightly, though don't leave out the essentials.
If you're shooting in the daylight hours (8am-6pm) you may not want your tripod, but I'd STRONGLY encourage you to get up an hour before sunrise and stake out a place to shoot the sun coming up. Shoot a couple sunrises and sunsets and you won't want to shoot during the day, the light is so harsh and boring. Most great landscape pix are shot within an hour of sunrise or sunset. The quality of light is so much better. When I go to Maine, I spend most of the day (after shooting the sunrise) figuring out where the best sunset shot will be. Bring a compass and figure out where the sun rises and sets, then use that during the day to determine where the best locations are for future pix. Bring the tripod- it's bulky and unwieldy, but you'll have sharp pictures, and be glad you brought it. Price for getting up early- Free– and a little missed sleep, which you won't even notice once you see how beautiful the landscape is at that time.
Make sure you have more than one memory card; get the biggest ones you can afford, at least 4GB should be ok for a day's shooting, depending on your shooting style. I do a lot of panoramas, some of which require 15-25 images for one shot, so I've been known to shoot 8-10GB in a day.
A 2X lens converter sounds good, but most (even my $300 Canon 1.4X) will degrade image quality a little, so I usually don't recommend them. Depending on the wildlife you're shooting, you may be able to patiently just walk closer to your subject. When I shot some bears out East last week, I was able to get within twenty feet (ok- these were small bears!). Deer and elk are usually easy to shoot if you move slowly and use your 80-200 zoom. Open the aperture all the way to throw the background out of focus.
A very useful accessory that a lot of landscape photographers use now is a bubble level that mounts to your hotshoe and helps you get straight horizons. Price ~$20. (http://www.adorama.com/TPBLS.html?searchinfo=bubble+level)
The graduated ND is pretty useful. You can get around it by shooting two images, one for the sky and one for the foreground, then combining in PS, but it's better to get one shot in-camera. My Singh-Ray ND filter cost $100. Lee makes good ones too. A filter holder would be handy too though you can get by without one.
When you get to where you're going, visit the visitor center and gift shops and see what locations are photogenic- what scenes are in all the postcards and posters? Look at the photography coffee table books from the area; read the captions to find out where they were taken, then visit those places.
Hope that helps Scott! Look forward to seeing what you come up with!
A 2X lens converter sounds good, but most (even my $300 Canon 1.4X) will degrade image quality a little, so I usually don't recommend them. Depending on the wildlife you're shooting, you may be able to patiently just walk closer to your subject. When I shot some bears out East last week, I was able to get within twenty feet (ok- these were small bears!). Deer and elk are usually easy to shoot if you move slowly and use your 80-200 zoom. Open the aperture all the way to throw the background out of focus.
A very useful accessory that a lot of landscape photographers use now is a bubble level that mounts to your hotshoe and helps you get straight horizons. Price ~$20. (http://www.adorama.com/TPBLS.html?searchinfo=bubble+level)
The graduated ND is pretty useful. You can get around it by shooting two images, one for the sky and one for the foreground, then combining in PS, but it's better to get one shot in-camera. My Singh-Ray ND filter cost $100. Lee makes good ones too. A filter holder would be handy too though you can get by without one.
When you get to where you're going, visit the visitor center and gift shops and see what locations are photogenic- what scenes are in all the postcards and posters? Look at the photography coffee table books from the area; read the captions to find out where they were taken, then visit those places.
Hope that helps Scott! Look forward to seeing what you come up with!
