China – In The Bag What Worked & What Didn’t
Written By Michael Reichmann–The Luminous Landscape
Every photographic trip is an education. One thing that I always learn is what equipment worked out, and what was either ineffective or redundant. Two weeks shooting several thousand frames in a foreign country under adverse conditions can tell me more about a given piece of gear than a year or more of occasional use at home.
Ideally I’d like to take my full equipment cupboard on every shoot, Working close to home and from my car I can almost do so, bringing a mixed bag, so to speak, with a variety of lenses and bodies so as to have whatever may be needed for a given situation. But the weight restrictions of flying, not to mention moving in and out of hotel rooms, planes, busses, boats and cars, means paring ones kit down to anticipated essentials.
Anticipated is the watchword. But when traveling to an unfamiliar location it can be hard to anticipate what may be needed, and invariably I bring more than I need.
Here then is what I used on my photographic expedition to China in late 2005; what worked, and what didn’t.