Travel Photography Tips | Choosing The Right Lens

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Travel Photographer | Dal Lake | Kashmir

To be honest with you, actually there is no such things as the right lense, one size does not fits all. Talking about travel photography, most people travel for a different reason, some travel just to record their memories, some travel like they are doing unofficial unpaid assignment for National Geographic magazines where they carry tons of equipment. Personally for me, I like to travel light and if you asked me what lense I carry during my visit to Kashmir and Istanbul recently, I just carry with me two prime lenses which is Canon 24mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4, why just two lens, the honest answer is, that’s all I can afford at the moment.

ANyway I do travel a lot and I know what kind of lens that are suitable for my kind of traveling which is more about people and places, more towards environmental photography, people and it’s environment, I don’t need those 70-200mm when I’m traveling but there was a times where 70-200mm comes in handy especially when you planning to captured some festival or cultural performance and really wanted to get that tight shot of the performer, then you need that 70-200mm because most of the times you are not allowed to get really closed to the area where they perform the show. Some example like Hemis Festival in Ladakh and Kecak Dance in Bali, if you want to get close up portrait of the performer, you need that 200mm range.

So the best alternative if you don’t want to carry heavy lens like 70-200mm is to get a good quality zoom lens such as 24mm-105mm f/4 (Canon) or 24-120mm f/4 (Nikon) if you are using Full Frame camera body. If you are using non full frame body, then having 18-200mm range will be good enough for most situation, it will cover everything except if you are taking a trip to Serengeti Tanzania and wanted that close up shot of a lion, then you need at lest 300mm lens to take with you.

This lens, 24-105mm, 24-120mm and 18-200mm lens is a great walk around lenses, by having this lens you don’t need to change lense to captured most subject, you can cover wide shot and get a little bit close up of your subject, the problem with this type of zoom lens is that they are not “fast” enough, I mean they don’t have large aperture like f/2.8 and most of the times it can be a problem to get a nice shot inside a building where the light is very low, yes off-course you can increase your camera ISO but then, you will get some noise, those are the things that you need to consider when using those lenses. One alternative is to carry also 50mm f1/4 or 24mm f/2.8 (24mm/f/1.4 will be too expensive), so when you get inside a temple or mosque and wanted to get a nice shot inside without increasing your camera ISO, this lens will come in handy and they are not big enough to carry.

The other thing that you need to consider is your personal interest, do you like to shoot landscape more than people and it’s environment, if you like to shoot landscape, then you need to consider to carry a tripod with you and you need also UWA or Ultra Wide Angle Lens like 10-20mm or 16-35mm f/2.8, 17-40mm f/4 or 14-24mm f/2.8, actually for landscape photography, you really don’t need that large aperture like f/2.8 because most of the times you will be shooting on tripod using small aperture like f/22 or f/8, so having a large aperture lens is not necessary.

So if you are casual travel photographer which have nothing particular in your mind, just wanted to shoot some landscapes, some portrait and some close up, then I would suggest you to carry just one lens with you which is something that will cover the range of 18-200mm, for Canon user I would suggest you to carry Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens compared to 24-70mm f/2.8 which is more expensive but at 70mm, they will not give you a very good close up, so for Nikon full frame user, I would suggest you to take  24-120mm f/4G ED VR.

Ideally if you are serious about travel photography and wanted to sell some of your picture to stock agency or magazines, then I recommended that you carry three lenses which is either one of these; 16-35mm, 17-40mm, 14-24mm (10-20mm for Non Full Frame) or similar range, 24-70mm f/2.8 and also 70-200m f/2.8 lens, normally for professional travel photographer, having this three lenses will cover most of their shooting situation plus one extra camera body.

I think most visitors who come to visit my blog are not “Professional Photographers” otherwise, why bother reading this, you will be busy shooting outdoors, most visitors to my site are just passionate photographers who like some kind of recommendation before they make the final purchase, so one more time, if you only need to take just one lens with you, I highly recommended you to take either 24-120mm or 24-105mm (18-200mm/18-135mm non full frame user) range and trust me, it will cover most of the situations for casual traveler.

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