Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review:Four thirds (17.3x13mm) sensor 16.1 million effective pixels with 4608x3456-pixel output Weather...
Category: Travel Tools
Attitude
It would be hard to understate how important a photographer’s attitude is when traveling. As a tool, attitude will often get you better pictures than a thousand-dollar camera upgrade. By attitude, I mean confidence and hutzpah, kindness and understanding, reason and sensibility, thoughtfulness and readiness. Bundle it all together, and you hopefully reach the zone [...]
U.S. Post Office Shoulder Pad
Domke, now owned by Tiffen, makes my favorite shoulder pad for heavy camera bags. The U.S. Post Office Shoulder pad, by Domke, is inexpensive and a great shoulder saver when toting camera bags on your travels. (See Figure 1.) This pad comes with Velcro straps that overlap your existing camera bag’s strap. You don’t need [...]
Upstrap Camera Strap
While up in Maine teaching a photography workshop, I was sitting at a picnic table chatting with one of the world’s greatest photographers, whose work I admire very much. He was sitting with a digital SLR with a telephoto lens on his shoulder, and no matter how he turned, reached, sat up, or sat down, [...]
Sensor Wipes
I’m somewhat aghast at how many options there are to clean the inside of cameras. Gone are the days when a photographer breathed into the camera body or onto the lens, stuck a finger into the corner of a T-shirt to make a cloth poker, and wiped away. Now photographers have an assortment of excellent [...]
Retractable Lens Brush
A retractable lens brush, or lens pen, goes hand in hand with a blower bulb. A lens brush was the first cleaning tool I ever bought, and I probably purchased it with my first camera long ago. I’ve replaced it since and always keep one in the side pocket of each of my camera bags [...]
Bulb Blower
The traveling photographer needs to be as self-contained as possible. What I mean is that you need to anticipate problems and be prepared for them with what you have on your person or in your carry bags. One of the greatest difficulties digital photographers face when traveling is keeping their equipment clean. There are a [...]
CD and DVD Backups
Let’s get retro, not with film, but with a current technology that is quickly being replaced by newer and better methods of data storage—the compact disc or CD. Whether you are photographing for work or pleasure while you are traveling, the possibility of data loss is very real. The data that can get lost is [...]
Journal
Do keep a journal. Everyone thinks it might be a nice idea, but too few people do it. I’m not referring to a text-sharing website where you might keep friends up to date, and a journal isn’t going to be replaced by metadata (information captured in the picture file like date and camera type) either. [...]
Personal Organizer
If you don’t want to use cloths to help pack and protect photo gear on your travels, then you can use a spare toiletries kit. Maybe you bought a new one for your trip, or you have an extra lying around. Like camera bags, toiletries kits have several compartments and zippered sections, and are somewhat [...]
Socks
I suppose I couldn’t write a tutorial with an irreverent theme without eventually reaching the subject of undergarments, specifically the lowly yet necessary sock. Quite simply, when you are traveling for photography, there are two things you’ll always need: protection for your photo gear and protection for your feet. Put the two together and you [...]
