Travel-Ready Camera and Lenses

• As a traveling photographer, consider two factors that studio-based photographers can discount: ruggedness and bulk. A traveling photographer's equipment needs to withstand the bumps and knocks of the real world, including being checked, being roughly handled in the field and being exposed to varied weather. At the same time, it needs to be small enough to be carried and to be packed. One example of is to use professional zoom lenses instead of primes, letting you cover more focal lengths with less glass. Some traveling photographers also eschew the largest flagship professional digital single-lens reflex camera bodies, instead carrying, the consumer-sized body that still has professional internals and a hardened, weather-sealed case.
  
  

Backup Equipment

• Although any professional photographer will have backup equipment, travel photographers need backup even more than a studio shooter. If you are on the top of a mountain and you drop your camera, there will not be a camera store to sell you a replacement down the street. Be prepared to make some compromises for size and weight. For instance, in an emergency you can still make a picture with a small consumer body with a small consumer lens. Carrying two of these as a dual backup could be smaller and lighter than carrying a single extra pro system.
  
  

Data Backup Regime

• When you travel, your risk of data loss is much higher than it is in your studio. Flash media cards can easily break or fail when exposed to real world conditions and it is easy to lose them while you are traveling. You could also have your equipment stolen. With this in mind, get your images off your cards as quickly as possible. One way to do this is to burn them to DVDs and mail the DVDs back to your office daily. Another way is to save them to a cloud-based storage service. In either case, even if something happens to you or to your equipment, the images will be safe.
  
  

Travel Bags and Clothing

• As a traveling photographer, you need to take your equipment with you wherever you go. If you have a large budget, pack your equipment in hard cases with foam padding inside and check them under the plane. If, like most traveling photographers, you are constrained by budget, carry on as much equipment as you can. Since most domestic airlines allow both a carry-on and a backpack, you can bring a lot of equipment on the plane with you. In addition, look into a travel vest with a lot of pockets. Not only can this make it easier for you to shoot in the field but, in an emergency, you can stuff equipment into your vest when you fly. Since some airlines limit the weight of your carry-on baggage but not of your worn clothing, this technique can also save you a great deal of money and inconvenience.