FUJIFILM X-T1 (14mm, f/8, 1/350 sec, ISO200)
This blog is about photography and traveling. Two things that perfectly fit together. And there is another thing both have in common. There is one big question:
What to bring?
This is true for your your personal belongings and it is also true for your camera gear. The more experienced you get the more effective you become in traveling light and consequently the more you can enjoy the trip.
To pack your luggage can be a frustrating experience so the most important thing is to remember to relax! Unless you are going to an remote island, some hidden village in the rainforest or Antartica you should be able to get everything you might have forgotten at home at your destination. Or on the way to your destination. Airports are a good place to get some of the stuff you might have forgotten i.e. travel adapters.
There are only a very view things you must not forget. I know only three: passport, driving license (if you want to hire a car) and credit cards. I once managed to get into and out of Switzerland without a passport but I recommend to have it with you. It will make it a lot easier.
Beside above mentioned things everything can be bought abroad. So this is the important thing to remember when you pack your luggage. I have to remember this to my wife because she always freaks out when we go on vacation. And there is one more thing: It doesn’t matter how far you fly away. If you have forgotten to pack your favorite shirt there is no difference if you just take a short flight to another city or if you go over the ocean. The shirt will not be with you. I mention this because I also freaked out before our first long distance trip to Canada. It was the first time we spent a vacation overseas and we were very nervous when we packed our stuff.
I will put this into three sections: 1. what you need for your flight(s) 2. at your destination 3. for your photography. Here is the first part:
1. During your flight(s):
If you travel far there will be at least one long haul flight. Those flights are unpleasant and I’m not going to tell you that I enjoy 14 hours flights (I’m not the captain) but there are a couple of things that really help to make them less exhausting.
If you go on long distance flights on a regular base you might already have one but I recommend them even if you fly long distance only one our two times a year: A solid noise cancelation headphone like the Bose QC15 or QC25. These are amazing devices and it will not only help to make the onboard movies much more enjoyable it will also help to reduce the chance to get a headache from the constant hum of the jet engines. Some airplanes are louder than others but even in a a very quiet A380 these phones make a lot of a difference. I would not fly without them again.
I even leave them on when sleeping. It’s more comfortable than wearing earplugs. The Bose are a little pricy but the work and to me they are a true must have for long flights.
Get a good sleeping mask! Don’t rely on the cheap one the give you on the airplane. They are as useless as the cheap headphones they provide you to watch the movies. A good sleeping mask is filled with hundreds of small pellets and completely follows the form of your face. When you put them on all is black. There is no comparison with the thin, uncomfortable eye masks you get on board.
Compression stockings. I started to use them a couple of years ago and they do make a lot of a difference. I only use very light compression stockings that I bought from the sock company where I get my normal socks. They are no high end compression stocking that you hardly can put on but my feet feel a lot different than without them. They also help to prevent a thrombosis which can become a very serious issue.
Last but not least: Get a good sleeping pill. Some people enter the plane and before they plane take off they are already sleeping peacefully no matter the time of the day. I never was one of them. Even on long distance flights I hardly slept. To take off late night helped a little but mostly I was watching movies all the time. No more! Recently I started to take a pill that helps me to sleep. I take it right before they serve the meal. It’s very effective and on a trip to Hongkong I was watching only two films on a 12,5 hours flight.
to be continued…