What lenses to take to travel ?

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I have been travelling since three weeks ago and I am currently in Macau – the eastern Los Vegas. The city is amazing at night, filled with casino lights.  The casinos, hotels and branded shops stood high across acres of lands. As we collect more and more camera gear and lenses, we wish to bring everything with us to travel in case we need them, but the more we bring the heavier our camera bag gets, so we should plan ahead on what lenses to take on our trips. The main question to ask is what do I expect to see/take during this trip.

Check out this post  to know more on which Nikon lens should you choose for the different occasions.

For this trip, I took four of the six lenses that I mainly use. Bringing four lenses is not exactly a “travel light” trip, but I have plans to do quite a bit of photography work mainly portrait work and travel photos.

Immediately I grabbed the 85mm f/1.4 and 70-200mm f/2.8 which I will also be using for music concerts. The 24mm f/1.4 also gets the pick because it is my favorite lens. I like how I can use it as a “travel light” lens for travel photos; under low light condition, it gives extra two stops of light and the shallow DoF and quality bokeh that it produces to create those stunning photos. The 24-70mm is an obvious choice as the work horse lens. So there you go, four lenses I picked for this trip using on the Nikon D700. Everything fitted in the Think Tank Retrospective 10 and a couple of pouches attached to the sides of the bag. In terms of light, I have only brought the SB-600 since I am anticipating to get a few SB-700 which I have actually just received a few days ago. I have already had a portrait session using the SB-700 as Master and Slave a couple of days ago, so more on that in the next blog post.

If the trip was purely for leisure without any plan of doing portrait work. I would only bring the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8; I might actually include the 24mm f/1.4 to cover for indoor low light situations and 20mm f/2.8 for landscape. Of cause the SB-700 is a must for me if I am shooting anything with people in it.

For casual portraits, bring the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 or the soon to be announce Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.8. The nifty fifty (50mm)  is a good addition for low light and portrait without adding on a lot of weight.

Nevertheless, the most important of all is to enjoy your travel with friends and family, worry less about what gear to bring.

Travel light and travel safe !

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