Hey Everyone! Hope your week has been as good as mine. Last week I told you about my big trip for the year going to South Dakota. During this trip there will be lots of great opportunities for great photography. From Landscape, Astro/Night, Travel and Street. But most of the shooting will be Landscape type of photography. I need to take a kit that is capable but also light weight. Well as much lightweight as I can be using full frame camera gear. Clothes wise I need to be able to layer depending on what the temps will be but also be as lightweight as possible. Taking only a 4 day supply of clothes we will be doing laundry while we are there to keep the amount of clothes down. Don't mind wearing pants or outer shirts more than once. I've got this to a pretty good system and have a spread sheet that helps me keep track on what I need and what I pack. I will also have to backup files and maybe do some quick editing so some sort of computing device I will need to bring with me. So let's start with computing.

Computing- The last big trip I took to Utah I took an iPad mini for my computing needs. I was able to backup files and do some small editing. Since that trip I have got a iPad Pro with M1 chip which is very capable and have used it on many outings and club trips. I'm not much of a laptop guy. My main computer is a Mac Mini with a couple of 27 inch screens. I have recently upgraded my laptop that was so old it wouldn't run Lightroom. A fellow member of my photography club upgraded her laptop and I bought her old one so if I had to run a Photography Club meeting I could. ( All of the electronics from the meeting room hook into a Laptop) So I think that I will bring that laptop on the trip. I got a great deal on it and don't have much money invested in the system. It is a 13 inch MacBook Pro and works for what I need. It's as lightweight as my iPad Pro and if something happened to it I wouldn't be as upset as I would my iPad. So the MacBook Pro and backup Solid State Drives to backup SD cards and to do some editing. Now lets talk about camera gear.

Camera Gear- My main camera for the trip will be my trusty Sony A7III. A long in the tooth camera but still gives me great images. It was released in 2018 but a great camera. It has dual card slots and everything else I need for still photography. Lenses that I will be taking with me are the Sony 20-70mm f/4, Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and lastly a Sony 20mm f/1.8. The 20-70mm will be on the camera most of the time it's a fantastic lens and very sharp, the 100-400mm will be used for Wildlife and isolation landscape shots. It is by far the bulkiest of my camera kit but an outstandingly sharp lens. The 20mm will be used for astro/night  photography. Thats my main kit but I will have a backup camera with me a Canon G7XII point and shoot a very capable camera that I can shoot in manual and RAW format images and also have filters to shoot waterfalls and such. Film, I haven't quite decided on a film camera yet. As film will not be my main focus I still like playing with it. A small camera will be the best bet. I'm leaning toward a plastic point and shoot Olympus Supertrip 35mm. It's very lightweight, compact, takes Okay photo's and has a flash. I will only take a few rolls of film with me maybe taking one photo at each place we go to. And of course I will have my phone with me taking shots everywhere we go to include food shots of meals we eat. I usually send a photo of my main meal of the day and send to my wife so she sees that I'm eating right. I will have a tripod with me on this trip mainly for sunrise, sunset and Astro/Night photography. I have two to choose from. Both are carbon fiber . I have a travel sized that I've used for years when I was shooting Crop sensor cameras and a larger one I just got after I went back to full frame camera's . The smaller one will probably win out because the largest lens I'll be using with a tripod will most likely be my 20mm. It will be dependent on room left in my checked bag with my clothes in it. If I have the room the larger one will go but if room is scarce then the smaller one will work.

Bags and other stuff- My main camera bag will be the Shimoda Action X 30L bag. This bag will carry my Sony Landscaping kit Camera, 3 lenses. and be my carry on , on  the plane, I have a Vanguard ALTA Rise 33 camera bag. This camera bag will hold my 13 inch laptop and small cameras accessaries this bag will be my personal bag on the plane. My checked bag will be an Eddie Bower roller Expedition bag that will hold clothes, tripod and some other stuff. Inside this bag I will have packing cubes to separate and keep everything in order. And of course I can't take a trip without my trusty fanny pack. I'll be wearing this daily it holds my phone wallet and can even hold a small camera like my point and shoot.  I will have apple air tags in all of the bags to keep track of them, especially in the airports.

Well that's pretty much for the gear that I will take on my trip. I'm so looking forward to this trip. I think part of the fun of the trip is the planning of it. At the time of this writing of this blog I am still months away but am gearing up and getting ready. So until next week. Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link