What Gear Am I Taking On Our Road Trip And Why?

Along Colorado Route 550 between Ouray and Silverton. Aspens backlit by the high altitude sun. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 61mm; 1/400th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

As I mentioned in my last post, my wife and I are getting ready to embark on one of our extended road trips.  One of the reasons we love the "journey" rather than just flying to a destination is flexibility.  We can adopt, change or otherwise go to places we may discover along the way rather than being locked into a single destination.  In our view the journey is probably as, if not more important than, the destination.  

We enjoy what I would call "no stress" travel which, to us, means we don't have to be anywhere on any specified day or at any specific time.  We like to discover as we go which means we may stay in a place for multiple days, only drive 50 miles to another area we find interesting or drive 500 miles.  We never know until that day arrives where we will spend the night.  The only time I make advanced reservations is if we are traveling to a heavily visited or touristy area such as Yellowstone National Park, etc.  Then we must make reservations months in advance.

Another reason is that we can take whatever "stuff" we feel as though we need as room in our "road trip" vehicle is spacious.  However, that doesn't mean we will take more than we need but we often do.  

In the past, as far as photo gear is concerned, I've always found I had taken much too much.  After returning home on our three to four week journeys, it is always the same.  I use the same camera and just a couple of lenses for the entire trip.  I tell myself, "Next time, I won't take so much."  Then I do.  Of course, I do.  I want to be prepared for any photographic eventuality that I may encounter.  FOMO—Fear of Missing Out.  Not this time.  It changes with this road trip.

Before deciding what gear I'll take, I have to decide what the trip is all about.  Our trips can be mostly about going places for me to photograph or they can be about just getting away, visiting new places, wandering, and enjoying seeing things, meeting people and making the most of the experience.  So a decision has to be made.  Is photography primary or secondary?

For this trip, I've decided photography will be secondary.  Although I don't have a specific itinerary, I know the general direction and areas we will visit.  There are only two things that I have specifically planned.  Consequently, I don't think for the most part we will be in the right places at the right times for the light to be optimum for photographing the what I hope to encounter along our way.  It just doesn't look like "fine art" dazzling images are in the cards for this trip.  But that is okay.  Next spring we go to Yellowstone, Jackson Hole and the Tetons for a couple of weeks and I should be in a position to make some good images there.  Patience.

As for photo gear, what am I taking?  As I mentioned, changes are in store from past habits and I will take a minimum of gear.  The plan is to take a camera body (with a backup stashed away and only brought out if my primary camera malfunctions or is stolen), two zoom lenses covering very wide to moderate telephoto and a fast prime for low light or interior subjects.  Also, I will take a couple of filters and some cleaning accessories.

Here is what I plan to take with me:

Olympus E-M1 Mark II (primary body)

Panasonic G9 (just acquired from a friend and will be my backup body, if needed; I have no experience with this camera so I won't press it into service unless I have an opportunity to get to know it and test it a bit)

Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens )this lens normally stays on this camera almost all of the time)

Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 lens (I sold my Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8 a while ago as this Panasonic lens allows me to easily screw ND and Polarizing filters on it where the Oly lens did not)

Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens (indoors/low light situations)

72mm 6X ND, 10X ND and Polarizing filters (+ appropriate step down/up ring to fit the 8-18mm lens)

4 extra Olympus batteries and battery charger (also the battery charger for the G9)

576gb of SDXC UHSII memory cards and (backup) card reader (laptop has built-in card reader as does my Western Digital My Passport Wireless Pro portable hard drive but your screwed if you have a single card reader and you lose it or it malfunctions)

Several lens cloths, several packets of Zeiss Lens Cleaning Wipes and a Giottos Rocket Blower

Finally, my 25 year old Gitzo Traveler medium sized carbon fiber tripod with my equally old Markins ball head

All this fits in an old Domke military green canvas messenger bag that I've had for about 25 years.  It is relatively small, lightweight and doesn't attract attention.

That is about it.  As I said, I plan to travel very light.  Am I covering all circumstances I may encounter?  From all of my past experiences I would say probably not but what I am taking will cover over 90% of what I photograph.  If I miss something, so be it.  I'll just burn the sight into my memory instead.  No worries.  No stress.

Now for the other stuff I have to take.

Unfortunately, I am kind of forced to take my laptop, although I really want to only use my 12" iPad Pro as I explained in a previous post from last year.  I would like to use the iPad to synchronize my images each day with Adobe's Cloud and my master Lightroom catalog at home.  If I didn't plan on creating some posts for this blog, that is what I would do.  However, for blogging, I cannot figure out a way to successfully use Blogger with the iPad (or any ISO device).  Creating and writing a post works just fine.  However, when trying to edit a post, the operating system (or browser) will not allow me to scroll through the text.  It displays the initial screen and that's all.  I've looked and looked and searched but cannot find a solution (that actually works) to not being able to scroll through Blogger content for editing.  I've tried several different browsers with no luck as well.  If any of you have found that solution, I would really, REALLY appreciate passing it along.  I've tried all suggestions I've seen on the web and nothing seems to work.  Ridiculous!  Leaving the laptop and all of its support accessories behind is a huge weight and bulk savings.  (If I can't solve this, when it is time to replace my laptop, I may purchase a 2-in-1 convertible or lightweight notebook Windows 10 laptop/tablet (powerful but small, lightweight and minimal bulk) so I can edit Blogger and also directly install Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, upload and edit my images as well as sync with the cloud if necessary.)

UPDATE: I updated my iPad to IOS 13 and miracle of miracles happened!  I can now scroll through my entire blog text on Blogger.  The Apple gods must have heard my cries for change!  Now I can travel and blog without having to take my laptop and all of its accessories with me.

Along with my laptop computer, which has Lightroom Classic and Photoshop installed, I take my small Wacom tablet and two additional USB 3.0 1TB backup hard drives—an SSD drive and the WD My Passport Wireless Pro mentioned above.  The WD backup drive will never be kept with the computer or other drive so I elminate the danger of all data being lost if stolen.  With this system, I don't need to erase the images from my memory cards as well.  This will give me four copies of my images.  Three is usually enough for me to be happy.

Also, when I am traveling, I set up a new "mobile" catalog in Lightroom.  I set it up exactly the way my main catalog is constructed (I file by geographic location).  Each evening, I import the day's images into my laptop and simultaneously import a second copy of the images to a backup SSD drive.  I then add the images to the second, wireless backup drive.  I file the images in the same manner as I would at home and keyword them as well.  When I return home, I just "Import From Another Catalog" and all of my images move nicely into my Master Catalog, keeping the filing system, collections, edits, flags, stars and keywords.  Everything is pretty much done incrementally each evening rather than all at once back home.  My memory may no longer be good enough to remember everything about all the images I had made over the course of a multi-week road trip when I return home so I file, import and keyword each day.  I've come to really like how this works for me.

That is about it.  I'm anxious to hit the road.  I've always loved traveling, especially road trips and this one is no different.  I'll be blogging from the road so you can keep up with our adventures, no matter how boring they may be!  LOL

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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