| 7 Essential Items I always carry in my camera bag |
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Neelima Vallangi is a travel photographer and blogger. (The Wandering Soul's Wander Tales..). She has trekked extensively across the mountain ranges in India, including the Himalayas. At a young age her photos have appeared in the Getty Collection. Neelima’s photography blog will feature twice a month on the Indiahikes website. Being prepared is the key to making striking images on any outdoor shoot. When an opportunity presents itself, it would kill you if you are not able to shoot just because you forgot some essential piece of equipment back home. Here is a list of six essential items that I don’t ever leave behind. 1. Extra batteries and memory cards While carrying a bulky tripod on a trek is not a wise choice, going without one isn’t a good choice either. There are a lot of light weight tripods in the market. These tripods are lightweight and quite small as well. They might not be as sturdy as they should be but they do serve the purpose to a large extent. They usually come for prices of 800 to 1000 rupees. 3. A wide angle lens It doesn’t make sense to carry a lot of lenses on a trek. A wide angle lens usually suffices. If shooting landscapes is your primary concern, don’t bother carrying a telephoto lens as it adds a lot of weight to your backpack. Again for portraits, I feel a wide angle does justice for it also shows the scene around along with the person. Only excuse is if you are particular about shooting some avifauna, even then think before packing that extra lens. 4. Filters As we have discussed in the earlier posts, filters can do a whole lot of good in outdoor photography. Depending on your interests, you can carry either one of them or all – a circular polarizer, a neutral density filter and a graduated neutral density filter. I carry all three of them on most occasions. Whatever happens I’d never leave without a CPL and a Grad ND. . 5. Comfortable gloves for night photography The nights get really cold during treks and while it might not seem that important at first, having a really good pair of gloves is very important if you want to be able to stay out of the tent and shoot. With the kind of low temperatures and cold winds we are faced with on treks, staying out even for a minute without gloves is next to impossible. And if we do not wear the right gloves operating the camera becomes impossible as well. Get comfortable first and then shoot to your heart’s content. After all how many times do you get to see such spectacular stars or moonlit nights? Many photographers use gloves which have a small slit on the index finger or something like these - http://www.amazon.com/Glacier-Glove-Premium-Neoprene-Fishing/dp/B002N0PV8G 6. An Umbrella Now this is not something that you want to carry always but it becomes essential during monsoons. If you intend to shoot in rain, an umbrella is an easy choice to protect the camera from getting wet and still be able to shoot.
7. Remote Shutter release If you are as much of a fan of night skies as I am, you definitely need to carry a remote shutter release. The maximum time the shutter can be open in D-SLRs is 30 seconds and at times you need exposures of more than 30 seconds to get what you want. While there is a bulb mode in the camera, if you hold the button down with your hand, the camera shake totally ruins the image even with the tripod and IS on. In such cases a remote shutter release becomes essential. I always pack these items on any shoot. They do add to the weight of the backpack but I compensate by carrying less of clothes and stuff. What are the essential items in your camera bag?
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