By Phin Upham
Your DSLR is only as good as the equipment you carry with you. When you’re at home, you have the advantage of arranging a travel day where you can carry only what you need. When you’re travelling abroad, things get a little trickier. You have to worry about how much weight you’ll carry in a given day, where you’ll go and the kind of photos you’re likely to take. You can solve some of these issues by reading up on your destination and planning ahead (such as anticipating when you might want to focus on scenic landscapes). Determining which equipment is essential means you can pack lighter and shoot the photos you want without issue.
The Basics
Most of what you need is all about the kind of lens you take. If you plan to view a lot of scenery on your trip, which is usually the case when you’re backpacking or visiting an historic locale, you’ll probably want to take a nice wide-angel lens. If you plan to see lots of things from far away, like temples, you’ll want a good zoom lens so you can capture details.
Another concept to keep in mind is focal lengths. If you plan to shoot at night, or you want very specific shots with good depth of field, focal length becomes extremely important. Gaps in focal length can affect the type of shots you take and make it much harder to get the effect you want.
A tripod is a luxury: nice but not needed. Why? Most DSLRs have setups that allow you to shoot at night without one. That’s assuming the night or dark place isn’t pitch black. Even then, a good flash will do better than a tripod will.
About the Author: Phin Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Phin Upham website or LinkedIn page.