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What’s inside my bag and camera gear when traveling

What goes into my bag and camera gear when traveling?
What goes into my bag and camera gear when traveling?

One of the most important travel companion
One of the most important travel companion
Jackie, a friend from young start up FlipTrip emailed me last month asking me if I want to contribute to her upcoming post on five travel essentials. I said yes and sent her the photo with some descriptions. Now, I think it’s time for me to show you guys what’s in my bag and camera gear when traveling.

I’m a very peripatetic photographer, blogger and writer. In a month, I go around the country and it all depends: it can be an Airbnb shoot (I’m an Airbnb photographer and shoot listings) somewhere, a book project, a magazine assignment, a blogger invite or a leisurely trip when I get free plane tickets. And most of the time, I carry these things in my bag.

I’m an opportunist, id est, I look for opportunities in the places I visit, be it a heritage house or interesting architecture that I can feature in my TenZeroFour blog that focuses on architecture and interiors, or something I can post in this travel blog, or I can pitch with publications in the future. And thus, other than the notebook computer, I have my carbon fiber tripod and camera gear always on hand.

Things that go into my bag:

Row 1:
1) Wireless mouse – no wires, the better
2) Camera battery charger
3) Omni bounce flash diffuser – who knows, some friends or people do message me to have private portrait photography
4) Canon 50mm lens – portraits, food photography
5) 70-200mm supertelephoto zoom lens – hard to reach details in structures

Row 2:
6) Samsung notebook computer – my workhorse and really have to lug this everywhere. Kind of heavy and I’m looking to have a lighter, thinner workstation soon
7) Magazine or book – reading materials for those waiting times and the Ipad Mini’s battery is drained
8) Lagu beach towel or malong – depends what’s not in the laundry bag. These two are so versatile that it can work as a blanket, towel, pillow, cover
9) Notebook computer charger

Row 3:
10) Notepad – writing ideas is still the best. Long bus trips enables me to think and there are ideas that pop up worth noting down
11) Notebook and a pen – this is where I write details. Names of people, places and food. Ingredients. Impressions of a place. A blogger should have this one to refer to when doing the posts. Even if I have backlogs, even years back, I can still write about it because of the notes I took.
12) Plastic envelope – where I keep important documents or receipts that I need to liquidate
13) Portable hard drive – 2×2 terabytes of RAW and PSD files that carries 2/3 of my stock photography from 2005 to the present. I get emails or calls from magazines or clients asking for images and these are earning opportunities that I can’t let pass
14) Toiletries: shampoo – from a hotel
15) earphones for those moments I want to listen to music while on the road or on long bus rides or inside the plane
16) tissues – multi purpose wipes from spilt food or drinks, emergency toilet runs, or to wrap something important temporarily

Row 4:
17) Pocket wifi – for emergency purposes. I usually use my 3G phone as a hotspot and when battery is critical, this is the back up
18) Toiletries bag
19-20) Medecines – paracetamol and loperamide are very important
21) Toiletries: floss
22) Hand sanitizer – quite important especially if one has to eat with the hands
23) Alcohol – quite important, multi purpose use
24) Ipad mini – I can’t go without this one
25) Folding umbrella – for the rains, I can’t or let my gear get wet

Row 5:
26) Mobile phone – must bring everywhere
27) Dual charger that I use to charge my mobile phone and Ipad Mini at the same time
28) Portable digital scale – I need to know that what I’m carrying is within the baggage limits during flights
29) Batteries – for emergencies like flash or wireless mouse
30) Soap and USB
31-36) Toiletries
37) Rosary
38) Carabiner – for multipurpose use

Well that’s it. Not shown: carbon fiber tripod, DSLR with ultra wide lens which I used to photograph this one. And condoms. Separately shown, multi-outlet adaptor for those instances when I’m stuck in an inn or pension house and it has only one outlet to charge my camera battery, laptop, mobile phone and Ipad mini.

How do I put all these things with my clothes? I use a 45 liter North Face backpack and a messenger camera bag. Tripod has it’s own case that I carry separately.

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