Preparing and Packing For Your Photo Holiday

In today’s post, I want to list out my best practices for packing your clothes and travelling with your camera gear.

Packing Your Clothes

I prefer soft-sided roller bags to use as our checked baggage. They travel well through the airports and are easier to pack in our vehicles while we are on our tour.

Make sure you have something recognizable on your bag. Something like a colorful ribbon on the handle will help you easily spot your bag on the carousel. You should also make sure that you have a tag with your name, address, and phone number on your bag. This will come in handy if your bag does not make it to your destination.

How to fit all the clothes in your bag – Rolling your clothes in your suitcase will generally save space. This is because it squeezes the air from between folds and means that most of the available space is used. If done correctly, rolling can also ensure fewer wrinkles in your clothes. The best way to fit everything into one bag is: Fill every inch of space. For example, footwear should be stuffed with socks. Then lay your shoes together heel to toe at the bottom of your suitcase in a plastic shopping bag to protect clothes from dirt. How exactly you arrange everything in your suitcase is a matter of personal preference.

A further suggestion when packing your clothes – pack an extra day's worth of clothing into your backpack if you can. Even just a change of underwear and socks. If your bag does not show up with you at your destination, at least you have one extra day's worth of clothes with you upon arrival for your trip.

Medication and Medical Devices.

ALWAYS pack your medication and medical devices in your carry-on bags.

Identification and Credit Cards

A backup for all your identification is good practice. Take photos of your passport, driver's license, and your travel insurance cards. Store these on your smartphone so that you travel with hard copies and electronic copies of this information.

When traveling to a foreign land, it is always a good practice to contact your credit card company and inform them of your travel dates and location.

Flying to Your Destination.

It is always a best practice to download your airline's smartphone app. These apps always get up-to-date information for gate changes and delays before you get an email or hear the announcement in an airport. Having these apps on our phones has often helped us navigate faster through airports when original gates and flight changes occurred.

Having these apps on your smartphone will also allow you to easily confirm your booking 24 hours before your flight.

Travelling With Batteries

It’s becoming a discussion I hear more and more. “What’s happening with the rules of travelling with batteries?”

The truth of the matter is updates are coming out all the time. I would suggest you check before you travel. But a good rule is to just pack all your batteries in your carry-on or camera bag as I mentioned in the previous section. Different countries have different rules, so preparing for the worst scenario is a prudent course of action.

If you’re travelling with spare batteries in addition to the ones inside your devices, and we all do… consider placing each battery in its own protective case, plastic bag, or package, or place tape across the battery's contacts to isolate terminals. Isolating terminals prevents hazards due to short-circuiting.

Here is what I do. I keep the original boxes with the plastic covers and bags that the batteries came in. I put my spare batteries in there. If I have lost them, and let’s face it, we all do. I wrap each battery in a small plastic bag and secure them with elastic bands.

If you must carry a battery-powered device in any baggage, please package it so it won’t accidentally turn on during the flight. If there is an on-off switch or a safety switch, tape it in the "off" position.

Check out your country's Department of Transportation’s spare battery tips page for more information on safely packing spare batteries.

Battery Chargers – You can pack battery chargers in carry-on and checked bags. If the charger has an electrical cord, be sure to wrap it tightly around the charger.

Don’t pack regular batteries in a rechargeable battery charger. Non-rechargeable batteries are not designed for recharging and become hazardous if placed in a battery charger.

Sure, some of this may feel like overkill, but there is nothing worse than having to pull out all your camera gear at the airport and get delayed when you're trying to catch a plane when you could have spent 15 minutes at home wrapping up your gear before you left for your trip. It’s just my opinion, folks. But I’ve been delayed at airports in Asia and Africa enough that I have learned my lesson.

Keeping Your Camera Gear Safe

Air travel can be a stressful process at the best of times. When adding expensive camera gear into the mix, it amplifies the stress levels. I have taken well over 300 flights with photography gear. Here is what I have learned about travelling with camera gear.

You should always carry all your camera on the plane with you, with a few exceptions. Cameras, lenses, filters, remotes, spare batteries, memory cards, a travel tripod, and a battery charger should be the camera gear that you want to take on the plane with you. You should also carry your laptop, external hard drives, and all your cables. I use a backpack and a laptop bag for my two personal bags that I take on the plane. I also pack one extra day’s clothing in my carry-on. It’s always a smart decision to have one pair of clean clothes in case the airline misplaces your checked bag.

My flash gear, extra chargers, reflectors, larger tripod, and gimbal heads will be packed in my check-in bags. Worst case scenario, your checked bags do not show up right away. You can still hit the ground running with what you took with you on the plane.

You should walk up to security by being prepared for an inspection of your camera bags. When I say, ‘be prepared,’ I am referring to having everything structured. Cables are tied together in a separate pouch, cameras and lenses sit in separate sections in an orderly fashion. Keep your carry-on bag tidy, and pack small accessories and cables into zippered pouches so that they can easily be removed and inspected. I’d also shy away from wrapping lenses up individually in cases because it only means they will all have to be opened if security requires a closer look.

If your bag does go through the initial scan and they call you for a secondary inspection, the agent may want to remove any number of the items in the bag. It’s important to remember that not everyone appreciates the cost of cameras and lenses. We will often ask if they mind if I remove the gear in a polite manner. If they refuse, just explain the costs and ask them to be careful.

If you do run into any difficulties in security, the most important thing is that you remain calm. They are just doing their job of making sure you are safe on your flight. It doesn’t do anyone any good to get upset or abrasive.

Travelling With A Tripod

If you are travelling with a smaller travel tripod, generally, you will not have a problem attaching that to your backpack. If you are travelling with a larger, sturdy tripod, it's probably smart to pack that into your checked bag.

I hope this post helps you prepare for your adventure.