Some essentials for my photography trips
This is by no means a complete list as I haven’t included some obvious ones like a good camera bag & tripod but more so some that may not be on everyone’s mind when packing for a trip.
I never go on a trip without these
Batteries, batteries & more batteries
You can never have too many fully charged batteries, particularly when your camping off grid. I have 10 genuine canon LPE6 & LPE6N batteries, plus 2 jupio batteries (which I have found to go flat a lot quicker then the genuine canon batteries). I always have 3 or 4 spare fully charged batteries in my camera bag & each evening ill charge up any flat batteries so I always have plenty of fully charged spares. I have a third party USB battery charger that I can charge from my powerbanks & from my large battery that runs my fridge/freezer which I keep charged with solar panels. I also take one of my genuine canon chargers so if I do go somewhere with power I can use that as well.
Laptop, external hard drive & card reader
Every evening I back up all the photos I took that day to my external hard drive, although if im off grid I may do this every second evening or when I think ive taken some really good photos as im unable to charge my laptop when off grid. Its always nice to know that if something was to go wrong with your card or worse still you lose your camera etc then at least you still have copies of all your images.
Second camera body
My camera gear regularly gets wet, from rain, waves, waterfall spray, there’s rarely a trip that it doesn’t get a wash at least once. My camera bodies (Canon 5DS & 5DsR) & lenses (Zeiss Milvus 21mm & Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 L) are fully weather sealed but this doesn’t mean over time water wont get inside the camera & do damage. The first time I encountered this was when I was photographing waterfalls in the Blue Mountains with showers on & off throughout the day. Next day the camera wouldn’t turn on, I spent a hour or so with the utes air con on high drying out the camera & luckily that did the job & never had a problem with it for the rest of the trip. Second time this happened was when I was out at the Flinders Ranges photographing a storm, again luckily after drying out it came good & I was able to keep taking photos. I did notice there were some issues like not being able to turn the camera off so I would have to take the battery out to turn it off. I ended up sending it to canon for them to have a look at it once I got home. At this point I decided I really need a spare camera body, I couldn’t find a Canon 5DsR anywhere so ended up with a Canon 5Ds. Having a second camera body also means a lot less swapping over lenses which is nice. I have also bought a rain cover for my camera, while it does a good job of keeping it dry its quite annoying to access the buttons & I ended up having to cut the plastic part out to see the live view screen as it kept on fogging up. If your camera/lens does get wet don’t leave it in your camera bag over night or anywhere enclosed, leave it out so it can dry.
The camera had recovered in time for this sunset. Razorback Lookout – Flinders Ranges NP, SA
Paper towels
Theres nothing more frustrating to go over your images & notice water droplets ruining your photos. The best way I found to deal with water getting on the lens is to have some paper towels, it soaks it all up & doesn’t leave any marks. When I was at Uluru photographing the waterfalls & cascades there was a constant drizzle, not wanting to wait till the drizzle stopped as by then the waterfalls may have turned to a trickle I shoved a heap of paper towels in my pockets & used them to constantly clean the lens everytime I took a shot. Most images didn’t end up with any water drops on them although a couple were a bit foggy, probably from not switching over the paper towels often enough. So wether your at the beach, a waterfall or in the outback its always a good idea to have a roll of paper towels.
Kantju Gorge – Uluru, NT
Remote shutter switch
I have two Canon RS-80N3 remote switch’s that plugs into the camera by a cable, I decided against one of the battery controlled ones as theres always the chance of the battery dying at the worst possible time. Some say theres no need for them at all as cameras have inbuilt delayed shutters that allow you to choose how many seconds after pressing the shutter button the camera takes the shot, therefore you can take photos with no blur from pressing the cameras shutter without a remote switch. Though i much prefer to be able to take a photo as soon as I press press the shutter, particularly when theres movement in the image like waves so I always use a remote switch when taking landscapes.
Groyne – Port Fairy, Vic
Polarizing filter
The only type of filter I own is a Zeiss circular polarizing filter & is a must have when photographing rainforests & waterfalls to reduce glare from foliage, rocks & water. In saying that I still like the look of some that are taken without one like the one below.
Without a Polarizing filter. Triplet Falls – Great Otways NP, Vic
With a Polarizing filter. New England NP, NSW
Emergency communication & a detailed paper map
Im amazed how many people still get caught out on hikes or 4wd trips with no Emergency communication. I have a Personal Locater Beacon that stays in my camera bag, it takes up hardly any space, very affordable & if anything serious happens all I have to do is extend the antenna & press a button. I also have a satellite phone with a spare battery, I can charge the batteries from my camping battery that runs my fridge/freezer. The satellite phone doesn’t only mean I can notify emergency services if anything goes wrong but I can explain the situation to them. I can also call someone for non-life threatening emergency’s like spare parts for the ute etc. Its also very handy for getting weather/road closure updates as well. Satellite phones & plans are more expensive then Personal locator beacons but are much more practical especially if you travel through remote areas fairly regularly. So I would say a PLB is essential for anyone doing long hikes or a remote trip & a satellite phone is a very good option.
Theres quite a few detailed GPS navigation maps available now although personally I just use a good quality detailed paper map, there’s no battery that will die on you or a computer glitch that can go wrong. I would say a detailed paper map is essential, even if you have a GPS navigation so you have something to fall back on if something goes wrong with it. A good GPS navigation would be very handy but I haven’t needed one so far. Its quite surprising some of the remote dirt roads that are on google maps but NEVER rely on google maps when on remote dirt roads.
Not somewhere you want to get stuck in a emergency without any ways of communication. Noccundra, QLD