Published by Maksim Tourou in Technics
A Packing Guide: For Flights
Photographer Travel: Packing for in flight
Traveling with gear can be nervewracking. Here are some tips, tricks and best practices to ensure that your experience runs as smooth as possible.
So, you are packing?
1. Don't check your gear! Always carry your gear on board. Take it in your bag or, something like the HOF TSA Approved small rolling carrier.
2. Even if an item is TSA approved, any flight attendant can ask you to have it gate checked.
3. To greatly prevent #2, always get the earliest seating possible. This will ensure that there is plenty of room in the overhead compartments. If there is no room left, they will ask you to gate check the item.
4. We usually opt to keep our main camera and lens in our carry on bag that we put under the seat.
5. Divide up your wires/ chargers/ batteries etc. into small pouches. This makes finding things much easier. Matching pouches are sold on the HOF website.
6. One of our top tips, rapid chargers! The night before a big trip, we have our rapid chargers all charging. We never leave home with less than 4. This ensures that we have power for the flight and for at least two days of travel if we cannot reach a plug. We have never regretted not taking them. 100% of the time, this has been useful.
7. Carry extras of any necessary cords and always have an extra camera battery charged.
Our Packing List
1. 4 Rapid Charges. 1 pocket stick version, 2 medium size, 1 large.
2. Two sets of headphones. (Just in case.)
3. Lens wipes, extra memory cards, cords, batteries, lens brush pen, flexible lens cap and chargers.
4. HOF Embroidered camera strap.
5. Passport Holder
6. Notebook and pen. ( Most countries have you fill out docs before landing. Flight attendants don't normally have extra pens. You could be stuck waiting until someone will loan you one or until you deplane, which can take a lot of time. Have a pen. Don't forget.
7. Camera body, 35mm, 24-105 mm. (This is what we use for quick field access in the rucksack. The rest of our lenses are packing in our rolling case carry on. If something happens, we could get through an entire trip with just those two lenses in our bag. They are our failsafe.
8. Extra hard drive.
