Johan Ronsse photography

A small report on: travelling with photo gear, what I carry, what I learned the last trip.

I used to only have smaller lenses (35mm and 50mm) so I would just put my camera in a backpack and stash one of the lenses in the side pockets. If something would break (probably a lens) it would be “bad” but not “that bad”. Now that I own a bigger (and more expensive) lens (24-70mm) I had to figure out a way to travel with it safely.

We went to Barcelona, using Ryanair. Checking in anything that could break is a big no-no so I had to put my gear in my hand luggage. We actually travelled hand luggage only (using a trolley that barely fit the baggage restrictions).

I took my (black) ThinkThank retrospective 20 bag with me for carrying my camera comfortably. In it I planned to carry a Cactus trigger set, a Nikon SB700 flash, the D7000, a 35mm F1.8 and the 24-70 lens (F2.8).

I took all these things with me but ended up never using the flash. I took it out of my bag the 2nd day because I noticed I hadn’t used it the first day. Unless you are travelling specifically for making photos (Making Light-style) it just doesn’t make sense to to set up the flash for most situations.

The ThinkThank bag I use is specifically designed to not look like a photo bag. I like to be a little inconspicuous. However, if you are swinging around a long lens you will attract attention anyway. Barcelona has a reputation for pickpockets so I would always be very cautious (to the point of paranoia) about my stuff.

The bag was a bit too heavy for walking around a full day so I might consider getting a smaller camera bag for travel. One that can comfortably fit the camera and something else but not a camera and 2 zoom lenses/flashes like the ThinkThank bag.

Even if you would only carry the D7000 with the 24-70 lens it would still be heavy. I switched out the standard Nikon strap for a RS-7 strap last month and I am very very happy with it. You can basically let your camera “hang” by your side. With the 24-70 attached I would always hold it in my hand but with a small lens (35mm) you can actually just “let it hang” and walk.

(One thing to note about the BlackRapid strap is that you should always regularly check if the “ring” that attaches the strap is still securely fastened)

Regarding lenses, I can report that the 24-70 is an ideal travel lens. What I missed sometimes was some extra range, e.g. at some point there were a lot of parrots in the trees but 70mm (105mm on crop) couldn’t frame these comfortably.

Some thoughts on that – a 70-200 VR lens would be the solution, but that baby is over €2K and would add a lot of bag weight for a few photos. You would have to switch lenses in busy places (no!). A 18-200mm lens would probably do the trick if you don’t care too much about image quality, but I care a great deal about that so that’s another no (TBH I’ve never tried these super range lenses but most review samples look pretty bad).

If you have any feedback or tips about this post or this #project365 in general, shout out!