Tips for Shooting on Location

In this video, I go behind the scenes on a shoot, showing how I travel with camera gear before heading back to the studio to go over some pro tips for traveling and shooting on location.

Although I love working from my studio, I often find myself working in either rental studios or locations around Europe. This involves a lot of travel, stress, packing, and the careful selection of gear. In this video, I look at how to pack for customs, how to check Carnet protocols, and how to manage your kit when staying away. Then, I head back to my studio, where I go over scenarios for photographers who are starting out and shooting on location and how to take enough gear without breaking the bank.

Shooting on location can produce really interesting images, but it comes at a cost. You can't take everything with you, but you need to make sure you have mitigated all of the risks, while still being humanly able to carry it to your location. If it were up to me, I would have the entire content of my studio taken in trucks with a crew to rebuild my little world everywhere I go. However, few clients have the budget to allow me to do this, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help relieve the stress of technical disasters without the need for a Hollywood-sized crew. 

What are your go-to tricks for shooting on location?

Scott Choucino's picture

Food Photographer from the UK. Not at all tech savvy and knows very little about gear news and rumours.

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3 Comments

Scott, you have described my life in this video. My clients prefer to shoot in their Test Kitchens, Conference Rooms or go on a trip to another city, so I may rent a studio for a few days. I will figure out what the basic gear is required to do my work and make sure I have sufficient backup. It really is all about preparation and anticipating any problems that might happen. Keep up the great work and continued success.

It’s so annoying when they want to work this way haha

Great article, Scott! Found it very informative. Actually reminded me to buy those locks for my flight to the UK next month, thanks!