Travel and Photography | My Camera Equipment When Traveling

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Once Upon a Time at Dal Lake Kashmir

First of all I’m not a rich man, and actually I’m not a travel photographer, I think the right words to use is I’m a photographer who like to travel. I don’t make money selling my travel photography pictures. A camera for me is just a tool to visually record my journey while traveling, I’ve no intention at the moment to sell my pictures but if someone wanted to buy my photographs, I’ve no problem selling it but I did not take the photograph to make money on the first place.

Now you know that my camera is just an instrument to record my journey visually. If I were to make money selling my photography, I will get the best gear that I can get my hands on and travel with a heavy backpack with all kind of lenses to cover most situation. I don’t have much photography gear, all I’ve with me when traveling is just one camera body of Canon 5D Mark II, 50 mm f/1.4 and 24 mm f/2.8 prime lens. That’s all I’ve , one camera body with two sets of fixed focal lens or “Prime Lens” and they are not the higher end model or L lens for Canon.

To be honest with you those lenses is not the most practical piece of equipment to travel with for casual traveler especially for those of you who have a limited time or for those of you who travel with travel agency, traveling with a fixed focal length will make you miss a lot of great shots. I can travel with those lens because I’m not in a hurry, I can take my time, changing lens from 24 mm to 50 mm depending on the situation. I can spend three to five hours inside Hagia Sophia in Istanbul looking for the right angle and changing focal length depending on what interest me. You don’t have the luxury of times if you are on travel agency, because they have set a maximum time on each location.

So to those of you who are in travel agency, then I will suggest you to get a Zoom Lens like 24-70 mm or preferably 24-105 mm (Canon) or 24-120 mm (Nikon) or any Zoom Lens that will cater from wide angle to short telephoto. With that one single zoom lens, you don’t have to worry about changing lens, If you think that  24 mm are too wide, then just zoom it out, it will save you time and the possibility of missing moment will be greatly reduced.

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Once Upon a Time in Sonamarg Kashmir

I’m not a rich man, even though I’ve the amount of money to buy a new lens, I will prefer to get a new ticket for the next destination, having USD 2000 in my hand will definitely get me a new lens but then I don’t have extra money to travel, so I’ve to let go my desire to buy a new lens and use that money to buy another ticket to see the world with the photography equipment that I already have.

I’ve been to Istanbul twice with that lens, to Kashmir and to Nepal with those piece of camera equipment. Yes they are some limitation with that lens, for an instance I can’t pull the mountain afar to get it closer to me, I wish I’ve 70-200 mm with me so that when I want to take a trekkers against the mountain, I can pull the mountain closer to the trekkers and make the mountain look big in the background, I know the limitation but then I’m already satisfied by being there inhaling the mountain fresh air.

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Photograph of Me With Tamang Women at Langtang Valley | Nepal | Photo By Ahmad Shukri

I think the feeling  to be in a foreign country gives me much more greater personal satisfactions than the feeling of owning a spanking brand new lens but going nowhere. I will keep on traveling with that piece of equipment until they no longer can serve me well.

* My next piece of lens if I’ve some extra money after getting a new tickets is a Canon 35 mm f/1.4. Talking about minimalism.