Hawaii Travel Diary – Day 0: What’s in my bag?
Everything’s ready for my upcoming trip to Hawaii.
Needles to say I’m excited. Well, actually I’m more than excited, since this is going to be one of the best trips in my entire life (and surely the best trip so far).
I’ll be leaving in 12h and I just finished preparing all my photography gear (there’s time for packing clothing right?).
I’ve had many doubts about what to carry, so I just decided to bring EVERYTHING.
Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff, but once you are in the opposite side of the world, you wanna be prepared.
I’ll store everything (except for the laptop) inside the usual backpack I use for visiting cities, the Lowepro Photo Hatchback 22L AW.
Here’s what I’ll bring (from top left to down right):
STORAGE:
SD cards: space for pictures is never enough. 2x64Gb cards + one 32Gb card.
External HDD: 360Gb + 750Gb. It’s always a good idea to have several copies of the same stuff.
128Gb USB key: just in case.
DEVICES:
Laptop: Sony VAIO with SDD drive. Since I’ll stay away 2 weeks, it’s crucial to start selecting and editing some pictures directly on site.
iPad: A good companion for a >20h flight. I’ll be watching TV series or playing games 😀
Kindle paperwhite: I love reading while flying.
Nexus 5: of course we are just nothing without our smartphone (and Instagram) 😛
BATTERIES:
I need juice. More. More.
External 4500mAh battery: very useful especially for recharing smartphones. You don’t wanna have a discharged phone in the middle of the forest (or anywhere actually).
Camera batteries: 3 batteries for each camera. You just CANNOT run out of batteries.
Battery grip: 2 batteries on a camera are better than one, plus it’s very handy to shoot on portrait mode.
CAMERAS:
Olympus OM-D E-M1: it’s my new camera, and this trip is one of the main reasons why I got it. It’s weather sealed, it has an incredible on-sensor stabilization system and it looks awesome. This will be my main camera for this trip.
Panasonic Lumix GM1: my tiny little baby is surely coming with me. It’s my favorite choice for visiting cities, cause you really pass unnoticed. Very good for street photography. Actually, all the images you see on my website have been taken with it. In this trip it’ll be my second camera.
LENSES:
Oh, I love lenses. It was a long process, but I finally feel (almost) complete.
In my opinion, lenses are probably more important than cameras. I’d prefer having a great lens on a faitly-good camera than a fairly-good lens on a awesome camera. Lenses are what mostly affect a picture. As always, is better to be prepared for every situation.
Samyang 7.5mm Fisheye: a lens I really abused of some months ago (as you probably saw from my pics). Great for interiors and to create immersive effects.
Olympus 9-18mm f/4-5.6: it’s my newest lens (an amazing Christmas gift). Perfect for landscapes and for preserving the linearity of architecture.
Panasonic 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6: it’s the kit lens of the GM1. A very good all-around lens.
Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8: it’s the kit lens of the E-M1. Don’t make yourself fool by the “kit” word; this is an incredible lens. It’ll be the best companion of the OM-D E-M1.
Panasonic 45-150mm f/4-5.6: a tele-lens is always useful, especially when you’re shooting landscapes (or stalking someone).
Panasonic 20mm f/1.7: one of my favorite lenses; very good for street photography with a loveable bokeh.
Olympus 45mm f/1.8: Great portait lenses and sometimes useful for landscapes.
TRIPOD:
Sirui T-005x: it’s my favorite tripod for city travels. Light and tiny, you can pack it inside a small backpack. The downside is that it’s not as sturdy as a big tripod.
Culmann Magnesit Copter CB2.7: it’s not in this picture, but it’s a super small magnesium tripod with a ball head. You can put it in your pocket, and it can be useful in some situations.
ACCESSORIES:
They’re so much that you risk to forget some.
Remote shutter: your best friend for long exposures or bulb shots.
Polarizer filter: very useful to reduce (or increase) reflections (good for shots from a plane window, for brighting the shadows of a forest or decreasing the water reflections). It also makes the sky more blue.
Variable ND filter: silky water effect? moving clouds effect? long exposures in bright sunlight? that’s what you need.
Small Flash: I rarely use it, but I’ll bring it just in case.
Air blower: please, just please, don’t use your fingers to remove the little things on your lens! An air blower is the first choice to remove dust from the lens or from the sensor (be careful).
Lens pen cleaner: Another good way to remove dust from a lens. (not in this pic cause I’ve ordered it from BH and I’ll receive it directly at Hawaii).
Lens wipes: one use lens wipes are useful to clean fingerprints or other stuff that doesn’t go away with the air blower or the lens pen cleaner. Respect your gear, don’t use your clothes to do this!
OTHERS:
Business cards: they just make you look cool 😀
Passport: otherwise I’ll get stucked here in Italy.
Flip-flops: I hate using them but they looked nice for this pic 😛
Sidenote: I’m not being paid (sadly) to do any advertising, so everything you see here is what I really like, and it took a long time (and money) to select it and get it.
I’ll try to write something everyday, so you will have some insight view of what I’ll do in Hawaii! Tomorrow it’ll be a travel day, so I’ll get back to you guys if I’ll find some Wi-Fi.
See you from the other side of the world,
Alessandro
