Preparing for your next great photography adventure and how to come home with the best possible shots

 

 

Many photographers dream about a big photography adventure. Either a trip to an exotic land or a once-in-a-lifetime experience has to be near the top of the list for most shutterbugs. CNET's Andrew Hoyle took an "epic photography adventure" last summer to Iceland and he's written an article covering how to go about making your own way to the faraway land of your choice.

When traveling, you might not want to take all of your gear. I traveled to Iceland myself this past March, and when I made my way there I had to make the difficult decision to leave some of my heavier lenses behind. There are airline restrictions, of course, but the bigger issue is the practicality of lugging gear around while hiking. Perhaps you don't even want to take a full-size DSLR camera at all, and should instead opt for a compact camera or maybe a mirrorless system. Hoyle himself chose a Canon 6D with 50mm f/2.5 macro, 24-105mm f/4, 16-35mm and 70-200mm lenses. 

If you're going to a remote place such as Iceland, you'll want to invest in a lot of extra batteries and memory cards. A high-quality photo backpack (such as the Mindshift UltraLight 36L) with a rain cover are both must-have items. You don't want to risk losing your images, so bring along a way to back up your files too.

 

A shot from my recent trip to Iceland. I knew I would want to get images like this so I brought along my 14-24mm lens and filters for it along despite their taking up a lot of space in my backpack.

Regarding actually capturing images, do as much research as you can about the places you want to visit on your trip. There's no substitute for actually being there, but you can learn a lot and save yourself time and trouble by doing your homework. I went through numerous photo guidebooks before my trip and I was able to make a general shooting plan before arriving. Some of my favorite shots were captured between places I had highlighted, so you never know. As Hoyle says, you can research locations by checking location data on websites such as Flickr and 500px as well. 

Hoyle has many more pieces of advice for you as you prepare for your next great photography adventure and to help you make the most of your shooting opportunities, so be sure to read his article here. 

(Seen via CNET)