Travelling with photography equipment | Gap Year & Round the World Travel - Lonely Planet Forum

ONLINE

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 00:12:30 +0000

Hey there,

I'm going to be going on a pretty long trip of the USA and and Central & South America from January to July, staying in places such as New York and San Francisco right through to Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, etc. I'm going to be staying in hostels, travelling mostly by bus with 1 travel companion, and I want to carry a bit of photography equipment with me; a Canon DSLR, 2 lenses, a GoPro and maybe a tripod, so I have a few questions to ask anybody who's done the same.

What is the best way to carry this equipment inconspicuously without drawing attention to myself as a tourist with some gadgets?

What is the best way of securing safe backups of my photos as I go along? I was thinking about buying flickr pro or google drive or something of the sort and uploading my files as I go along in cybercafes.

Any advice and do's / don'ts for photography in central and south america?

Thanks, Ll. Llwyd

ONLINE

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 01:17:36 +0000

I've done multiple trips with camera equipment, and am currently in South America with my computer, DSLR and two lenses. Here's some advice:
- Carry your gear in a regular daybag, not a flashy photo gear bag. It's best not to advertise that you're carrying gear.
- Switch your branded strap for a plain or non-branded one.
- Take your camera out only when you are using it, taking note of your surroundings. Put it fully away when you're done.

I'm using a photo site (SmugMug) to upload and simultaneously back up photos when I can, with optional RAW backup for extra money. I also back up to both an external hard drive, and a small flash drive (just the most recent and best) that I carry in a sock that's sewed into my trousers. If I leave my camera and/or computer in a hostel when I'm out, the backup hard drive comes with me, and vice versa. If you don't have a computer with you, just using the hard drive should be fine, pending space constraints.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.

ONLINE

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 14:43:38 +0000

Also, if you have a very expensive DSLR or lenses, I would suggest customizing them a bit. What I mean by that is that you should make them look as cheap and damaged and unattractive as possible. What I do every time is I cover the brand name on the camera with black electric tape and remove the branded strap (as has been suggested). To add to that, I usually take some brown plastic or paper tape and wrap parts of the camera and/or lens in it to make it look damaged. Another idea to make it look cheaper is to put some childish stickers on it and get creative ! This should keep your camera intact while making it look old and broken, and no thief is going to risk getting caught just to steal a camera that has no brand and looks like it's falling apart.
Hope this helps !

Edited by: Ethylique

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.

Pro tip