Video: Essential photo gear for travel landscape photography

 

 

Over at the B&H Event Space, photographer Mahesh Thapa delivered a presentation aimed at the traveling landscape photographer, 'Essential Gear for Travel Landscape Photography.' That said, the talk should interest any landscape photographer, as there's a lot of overlap between landscape and 'travel' landscape photography.

You may recognize Thapa's name, as we've featured a couple of videos from Sony Alpha Collective member Mahesh Thapa earlier this year, including this video about black and white landscape photography and this beginner's guide to pro photo printing that Thapa made for Adorama.

Diving into Thapa's newest video, what is some essential gear for travel landscape photography? Thapa shows us all his gear and how he packs it into his Mindshift Gear Rotation photo backpack. Inside his backpack are a couple of Sony mirrorless cameras, the Sony A7R IVa and Sony A7C, plus a pair of lenses, the Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM and the Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS. In addition to the ever-important camera and lens gear, Thapa has a Leofoto LS-255CEX Ranger Series carbon fiber tripod, which includes a built-in 15-degree leveling base, plus filters, an iPad Pro, a headlamp, shotgun mic and rain cover.

Now, it's no surprise that a Sony Alpha Collective member has Sony gear, but the important thing to note is Thapa's general type of gear rather than the specific brand and models. Landscape photographers will want an interchangeable lens camera. Ideally, a camera that offers a lot of megapixels, but that's not a strict requirement. Some extremely talented professional landscape photographers use cameras with Micro Four Thirds and APS-C-sized image sensors with under 30 megapixels. No matter a camera's megapixel count, you want a camera that delivers good image quality at low and high ISO settings, is somewhat lightweight and rugged and works with a wide variety of lenses.

As for lenses, Thapa has an ultra-wide-angle zoom and a standard zoom, offering a focal length range of 16mm to 105mm. That will cover many different situations. You may want lenses that reach even further, maybe like a 24-200mm, or its equivalent in Micro Four Thirds or APS-C. Regardless of your lens choice, you must have circular polarizing filters that fit your lenses, as it's one of only a few filters whose effects cannot be recreated digitally. You need a way to reduce reflections in your scene, especially when dealing with vegetation and water.

In the video above, Thapa talks about more than gear. He also discusses useful photography apps, composition tips, and how to use neutral density filters (another excellent filter to have in your kit). To see more from Mahesh Thapa, head to his website. For more B&H Event Space videos, click here.

(Via B&H)