How to Have Peace of Mind as a Travel Photographer

Focus on getting the shot, see what I did there?

But seriously, travel photography isn’t the endless vacation that non-photographers think it is. You’re up and gone long before sunrise and you probably miss the evening meals more often than not. You will spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting for people to move out of the shot, waiting for the light to get just right, or waiting for the composition to be perfect.

So you don’t want to compound the problem with everything else that you have to think of on a photography trip. Take care of these things before you leave, after you return, and while on the trip for peace of mind as a travel photographer.

Check and Clean all Equipment

This is before, during and after the trip. Before and after, clean all of your gear and lenses. Take a blower to everything to knock off loose dust. Wipe everything down with a soft brush, followed by a lint-free cloth. Use lens wipes on all glass and also give the outside of the camera a good cleaning. Use your blower and brush if needed on the camera sensor. Use a bit of lens solution or isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab to clean the viewfinder, contacts and any other hard to reach places.

Keep all of your batteries charged and ready to go. Check the charge on each one occasionally, while at home. Keep a log of how many shots you get per charge so you know when a battery is losing power and needs replacing. After making absolutely sure that you have all images backed up to at least three places, format your cards in the camera. Take a test shot with each one to make sure it is still writable, then erase the test shot.

On the trip, take a truncated version of your cleaning kit. Do a quick cleaning when you get back every day from your shoot. Check for smudges on lenses and dust on the sensor. Wipe everything down, put all lens caps and covers back in place and store the gear properly. Make sure batteries are all charged. Speaking of which, make sure you take plenty of batteries and data cards. Out in the wilderness is no time to be frugal with these critical items. Always take more than you think you will need. And then take more.

While you are out shooting, keep packets of lens wipes in your pocket along with a soft brush. If the weather is a concern, borrow a hotel towel to give everything a wipe after you shoot. Always point your camera down and protect it from the wind while changing lenses. There is plenty of weatherproofing gear on the market, but I just keep zippered plastic bags in my pocket from sandwich size to gallon-sized. My gear is weather-resistant, but there’s no point taking chances.

Manage your data

Data storage is cheap. There is no excuse for risking your images to save a few bucks on storage devices. Keep more formatted data cards than you will possibly need. Keep them in a protective case and devise a scheme for keeping up with used vs ready. I simply have them in the case face up and turn them over when I put a full one back in.

If you can travel with a laptop, download and back up all of your shots every night. There are 2Tb SDD external drives on the market that will fit in your shirt pocket. If you can’t back up daily, spread your shots out over multiple cards. Even though 64Gb and larger cards are inexpensive, I use a lot of smaller cards when I can’t back up. The few seconds it takes to swap out a card will pay huge benefits if one gets lost or damaged. Putting an entire week’s shoot on one huge card is the definition of all your eggs in one basket. Don’t do it.

As soon as you get home, download all the cards to your computer. Before doing anything else to the cards or the images, back everything up to at least two other places. I put everything onto my laptop, then copy all originals to two external drives. Both those and my laptop will get backed up to the cloud every night. When I process, I only work on the files on the laptop. Protect your assets.

Being a travel photographer is hard, but rewarding work. There are so many technical aspects you have to keep in mind all day while shooting. Worrying about your equipment shouldn’t be one of them. Prepare before, during and after the trip for complete peace of mind as a travel photographer.

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