The Travel Photographer’s Gear Guide

Do you have plans to travel but are unsure what gear to take with you? This experienced travel photographer shares his list of gear that he brings on every trip.

In this recent video from CreativeLive, John Greengo shares wisdom from his experience traveling as a photographer. He does a great job of keeping his pack as light as possible, while still covering the essentials for any situation. Starting with the backpack, he discusses what size of pack you need and why. He then covers his camera gear, which includes two cameras, four lenses, and a tripod. Lastly, he talks about some of the other items you might consider for travel such as a quality water bottle, gaffer tape, and emergency supplies.

One thing I appreciated about this video was that Greengo gives specific scenarios of why you need each item on hand. For example, he keeps a smaller pouch with a backup camera and lens with him because in his experience several museums won’t allow his larger pack. He also had quality examples of the situations where he would need each lens he chose. This is a great video to watch for anyone who is preparing for an upcoming trip.

John Greengo’s Essential Gear for Travel

Levi Keplar's picture

Levi Keplar is a wedding and portrait photographer and educator. He currently owns and operates his studio, Katie & Levi Photography, with his wife and is based in the Wichita, Kansas area. He has a passion for both the technical and the business sides of photography and helping others to grow in those areas as well.

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5 Comments

For me, it's always the "other" things I find most interesting / useful - the choice of camera gear is often quite predictable IMHO.
Very curious on the choice of "not plastic" water bottle.... care to elaborate please??

Donno his reasons but I personally use an aluminum waterbottle all the time (Klean Kanteen) because I think the water tastes better and mainly, they are very hard to break and cause a leak. If you drop it or bang it into something you just get a buckle in it. They often got a large opening too that is useful if you need to put something in the water or fill it up in a stream for example.

I travel with almost the identical set up accept that I use a Fuji X-Pro 2 and an X-T10 as a back-up. The one difference that I think is notable is that I travel with the 35mm f/2 WR (weather resistant) in place of the 35mm f/1.4 in case I come across (and I always do) inclement weather and this gives me an option to shoot outside if it rains.

I'm a Fuji shooter as well. I shoot with the X-T2 and 3 primes (35mm f/2, Rokinon 12mm, 56mm 1.2) and also the X100T. I like to take everything to my destination, but only ever take one camera and lens with every outing.

Funny that in most of the bts footage he is using Canon gear :)
Interesting video though.