What Photography Gear to Bring to Bhutan
A series of topical notes about Photography in Bhutan. We will expand the topics over time. Subscribe to the updates blog to be informed of new updates.
What Photography Gear to Bring
What gear you bring to Bhutan is largely a product of your interests, skill level and wallet. You will get some great pictures with just about any equipment, so the first thing to bring is a ‘good eye’. This is a learned skill and really amounts to looking at what the camera is ‘seeing’ and composing the image.
It is really helpful to know your camera before you go travelling and certainly to bring a manual with you. One idea is to download a pdf of the manual to your laptop before you leave so it is available if you get stumped. This applies to all cameras as menus change and when things get confused its great to be able to sort it out.
An SLR is not essential and a good portable camera like the Canon G10 or G11 can produce great images. These sort of cameras have a good sensor, options to over or underexpose and to shoot Raw. The G10 for example can produce stunning macros (close up shots) as well.
A key thing to think about is batteries and back up. You will make thousands of images. It is easy to use two or three 8 GB cards in one day if using a full frame camera and using raw capture. More if you are using the video function on your SLR. That’s a lot of cards over two weeks, so think about how to back these up. It is fine to take a laptop and an additional drive or two. You can’t really edit on the back of a camera so a laptop (and software) is worthwhile for this as well. Three batteries are probably a minimum as you may have to wait a few days to recharge occasionally. I take a little inverter so that I can charge batteries in the car as I go.
A serious SLR user might think of taking extras such as a spare camera body or at least a pocket camera as a backup. You will have an opportunity to use any lens from ultra wide to ultra long but it is always a compromise as to how much you carry on the plane journey so that will probably be the main limiting factor. In Bhutan, unless trekking, weight is less of an issue. I would rather limit my clothes than my gear! You will use a tripod and it will help and your guide will probably offer to carry it for you. Unless you are on a specifically nature based tour a long heavy lens may not be worth the weight. If you use a neutral grad filter bring it. A new SLR user might think about a better than basic lens such as the Canon 24-105 f4 or two lens such as 24-70 and 70-200. On a crop sensor body a wider lens would also be helpful.
Think about how you will manage low light inside buildings or shadowed courtyards. If you understand flash well, especially fill flash, that is an option. If not or if you don’t like flash then consider a recent camera body that lets you use higher ISO without excessive noise, as well as at least one wide aperture prime lens. This also means you will not be obtrusive. See section on managing high contrast here.
If you are interested in multimedia think about how to capture sound. If you are using video on an SLR and are experienced you will know what you need. If not, consider that trying to pan on an SLR is next to impossible without extra gear. So you need to think in terms of editing a number of stable shots (tripod) to avoid the viewer getting ‘seasick’. The sound on an SLR is close to useless so an additional mike is essential at a minimum.
Please read the section on cultural sensitivity as well please so that your photography does not offend others.
Useful Links
Recording Audio with your DSLR by Juan Pons
