GEAR TO HELP MANAGE YOUR ADVENTURE TRAVEL PHOTOS

I going to be carrying two digital still cameras, an HD video camera and my laptop on my upcoming trip to Mongolia.  You never know what you are going to see, if your fly fishing is going to result in the fish of your life and you may only get there once in your life.  One still camera is a waterproof “point and shoot” and the other is a digital SLR.  My video camera is also waterproof.  All three cameras are different makes and require different accessories .   I tell you this because it has a direct bearing on the first piece of gear I’m going to suggest.  I’m going to make a major assumption:  You take a notebook, tablet, or laptop with you.    

At home it is hard enough to keep all the different camera USB connection cords under control.  On the road, camping and riding on public transportation, they get even wilder and harder to keep track of!  So why should I take three with me?   I don’t.   I take a card reader.  Each night, or every few days at the most, I take the SD cards out and copy the images to my computer.   All my SD cards are at least 4 gig so I don’t have to clear the cards every time I copy the images.  Now I have the images in a second location.  And when I have WiFi I can e-mail photo’s to friends or post them on social media sites.

With a card reader I don’t have to worry about taking up space on my SD card.  That translates into taking a lot of pictures.  Electrons are much cheaper than film!  I take a lot of pictures.  Yes, many turn out to not being what I had hoped they would be.  But the longer you have your camera on and the more pictures you take the faster your batteries are going to run down.  After a month on the road the last thing I want to happen is have the trip photo opportunity and have no battery life left.  If USB connection cords are a pain to take on a trip, all the different battery chargers are even more of a problem.   The easy solution is universal battery charger.  And most, besides recharging camera batteries, will also work on the rechargeable AA batteries for you flashlight or GPS.

Since most of my trips involve camping or being “off the grid” there is one more thing I take with me, a power inverter.  I just plug it into the “lighter”/power outlet of my vehicle, connect the universal charger or my computer and I’m ready for what is around the next bend in the road or over the next hill!