My 2026 “Short Trip” Photography And Editing Kit

My photography kit when I travel a week or less.  What’s pictured here is listed below. 
(click to enlarge)

Springtime is normally travel time for my wife and I. We typically travel most often in April/May and September/October—the shoulder seasons. There are fewer people traveling as these are not the times for family vacations.  Less traffic, less congestion, shorter lines and fewer people overall.  As a bonus, the weather is usually mild. Additionally, the typically higher prices of summer are not an issue.

We haven’t yet traveled this year.  As I have previously written, my wife suffered two serious medical issues last fall.  She has been unable to travel.  Thankfully, she continues to recover—slowly but surely—and it’s time for both of us to test the waters, so to speak, and get out of the house and on the road.  We’re both ‘road trip’ kind of people.  We do have a week long road trip planned for the near future but that is another post.

Traveling always brings up the question, “What photo gear do I take and what editing process would work best?”  Thinking about this, I believe the best way for me to answer these two questions is to break down the travel into two time periods.  If our travel will be a week or less, my choice will be absolutely minimal.  If our travel is more than a week, say two to three weeks, or the trip is primarily about photography, then that demands a different more encompassing choice of gear.

For trips that are a week or less and photography is not the primary objective, here is what I plan to take with me, keeping in mind my intention of going small and lightweight but remaining versatile.  See the photo at the top of this post.

This kit is the plan:

OM-3 body

Fujifilm X100VI (or Ricoh GRIIIx)

OM 12-100mm f/4 Pro lens

72mm & 49mm polarizing filters for the OM & Fujifilm/Ricoh respectively

2 spare 128gb SDXC UHSII memory cards (can be used in either camera, if necessary)

Spare battery for each camera

Lens cleaning cloths; Lens wipes

Bellroy Venture 9L Sling Bag (but I'm still looking for something that works better)

A charging cable and USB wall charger that I use for my other devices but can charge these

That’s it.  In my previous experience, this combination has served me very well.  It is not too big, heavy and is not intrusive or too uncomfortable to carry all day, if necessary.  In the past, this combination covered 99% of everything I encountered that I wanted to photograph.

As for backing up my images…

Short Trip image file importing and backing up is done with this kit. (click to enlarge)

For backing up as well as editing my image files, I will take:

iPad Pro M4 13” (Lightroom Mobile & PS for iPad for editing and Adobe Cloud Sync)

Apple Pencil Pro

Samsung T7 2TB Rugged SSD USB drive (backup image files each day)

UGreen Revodok Pro USB-C Hub (w/power delivery [PD] port)

Apple SDXC card reader

One note of caution.  The first time I took the setup, I didn't first test it.  That was a mistake as when using a hub, I couldn't get both the SSD and card reader to work at the same time.  It turned out that the iPad did not have enough power to initialize both at once.  So, it is important that the hub have the ability to deliver power through it.  The iPad, without additional power, cannot operate the hub, card reader and the SSD drive simultaneously.  The fix is to connect the hub’s power delivery (PD) port to a USB wall charger like one you would use for a tablet, phone or other electronic device.  Once it has the extra 'juice,' all works seamlessly.

My short trip editing will also be done on the same platform.  I find Lightroom Mobile 'mostly'
sufficient for quick editing but it has some shortcomings such as the inability to accept
plug-ins as well as it is missing some features from the desktop version.  But it is satisfactory
for routine editing on-the-go. (click to enlarge)

If the trip is a ‘photography’ trip, either solo or with friends, then I would certainly take either my full Fujifilm kit (or my full Micro4/3 kit) along with a tripod and other necessities.  Those kits would consist of two cameras and lenses to cover everything from approximately 14mm, full frame field of view (FFFV) to 450mm FFFV.

If travel is longer than a week but not a ‘photography’ trip but I think I may engage in more than casual photography (making hundreds if not thousands of exposures), I would, again, take either my full OM/Olympus kit or my full Fujifilm kit.

For editing on these two longer trips, instead of using my iPad, I would take my new MacBook Pro M5, the WD external HDD which contains all of my Lightroom image files as well as two external SSD drives for backup. That way, each evening I could keyword and upload all of the days photos directly to my Lightroom Library, edit selective images if desirable and not have to worry about doing it all when returning home. Believe me, if I have a couple of thousand images from dozens of locations, each needing keywording then filing, doing that incrementally each evening is much better than trying to remember everything and doing it after returning home.

I’ve taken many of each of these kinds of (road) trips in the past.   What I am advising here has worked very well for me in the past.

If any of you have a short term and long term travel kits, leave a comment and let the rest of us know what has worked for you.  It’s always nice to see what others have chosen and we can learn from each other.  I'm always pleasantly surprised by others' creativity when it comes to photography and travel.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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