Travel Photography advice?

talyaophotos

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Hi everyone, I was wondering if I could possibly have the tips and advice of all of you. I am training to be a portrait/ events photographer, I was offered a job in travel photography (i guess?). Basically i was hired to be a trip photographer for a group of about 80 people going on a trip to Poland for 8 days. I'm super excited about this but I have a few questions. Any advice on:
1. Should I bring two cameras (I have a canon rebel xti and t5i)
2. What lens's should I bring?
3. My job is to capture mostly the people on the trip and their emotions but I also need to capture the sights, do any of you guys have any tips on how to best achieve that.
4. best ways to troubleshoot my camera if it freaks out when I'm trying to shoot in low light, snow, rain ect.
5. Tips in general?
Thanks in advance!!!
 
Are you being paid for this?

If so, you should prepare as if you were a professional.

1. Yes, two cameras.
2. A good selection of lenses.
2a. Also flash, tripod, extra cards, batteries, computer to upload, backup storage, notebook, weather sleeve, light meter, etc.
3. Watch the people, not what they are looking at.
4. Use second camera.
5. Practice first, then take lots of good images.
 
+1 to @Designer.

Do you know the trip itinerary? If so, I'd suggest researching where you will be going so you know what to take a picture of (e.g., buildings, statues, architecture). Make a list of what to photograph. It sounds silly, but I can't tell you the number of times I've been on a trip, got caught up in the moment, and never snapped a picture.

If you don't have the trip itinerary, get it.

Not sure what kind of trip this is, but with ~80 people, is there anyone in particular that you should make sure to capture (e.g., boss, patriarch, matriarch)? Again, if you don't know, you should try to find out.
 
You say "hired" so I will assume this is a paid commission.

THREE bodies is a minimum. You will need two at all times, and one spare in case (when) one of the other two break. Lenses should range from wide (~10mm) to medium tele (at least 200mm), and ideally all 2.8 or better. You should have at least two speedlights and TTL cables, and, as mentioned, a shed-load of batteries and memory cards. Not-so-immediately-apparent are things such as several international voltage converters, laptop & portable HDDs, making sure that your 'phone & data plan will work where ever you are going, a cleaing kit, "spare parts", camera condoms, multiple bags for your gear and appropriate clothing. You will also want a detailed itenerary in advance so that you can spend some time planning your shots before you even get there.
 
Besides what you bring there are other things to do.

Make certain all your batteries are charged and all your cards are reformatted in the camera.
Set the times and dates on all the camera bodies to be the same and the correct time at your destination
. (You have no idea how crucial this is when trying to figure out where you are and when)
Take 3x as many pictures as you think you need.
Set all cameras to record raw + medium jpeg. That will give you easy pictures to print for review without processing.


Number your SD cards and, when you remove them from the camera, set them aside to be safe. (I don't mind my cameras being stolen as long as I have insurance and the pictures from the trip.)
Have both a medium zoom and a long zoom on the two primary bodies and available to shoot. (I used 24-70 and 70-200 all the time; I kept a 50 1.7 for night-time.)
Charge batteries every night and have lots of extras.

3. My job is to capture mostly the people on the trip and their emotions but I also need to capture the sights, do any of you guys have any tips on how to best achieve that.
4. best ways to troubleshoot my camera if it freaks out when I'm trying to shoot in low light, snow, rain ect.

What bothers me about these two questions above is that you are clearly too inexperienced to do this.
My guess is that you don't know much of anything about shooting in non-ideal conditions or post-processing.
 
How about those new Fuji mirorrles camera. They are light yet offer very good quality of pictures.
 
1. Should I bring two cameras (I have a canon rebel xti and t5i)
2. What lens's should I bring?
  • Two bodies, at least. Three just in case, being the third a back up plan, in case any of the other two have any trouble.
  • Ultra wide lenses for sure (for large group shots, landscapes and architeture) around 10-14mm on APS-C. That's going to be the most important lens, in my view, once wide angle lenses can do storytelling (read this thread & watch this video), what is important for travel and group work. You should keep one body with a wide angle lens all the time.
  • Fast primes at normal to short-tele range (for people shots, individual portraits, emotions, fine details, and nice bokeh details) around 35mm f/1.8 (for people, street photography, some landmarks, low light shots), 50mm f/1.8 (for individual portraits, and street photography, low light shots) + a macro lens, around 85-90-105mm range (for portraints, for macro pictures of air-tkts, train tkts, maps, people holding somting, puting their hands together, and any other close up shot, for creative work). You should keep the second body with a 50mm f/1.8 and alternate with the 35mm f/1.8 and the macro lens when needed. A macro lens around 85-90-105mm in an APS-C sensor will be tele-photo enough, so you could skip a tele-photo zoom.
3. My job is to capture mostly the people on the trip and their emotions but I also need to capture the sights, do any of you guys have any tips on how to best achieve that.
  • As said before: storytelling technique: read this thread & watch this video
  • Be ready to do landscapes shots as well (specially at twinlight, dusk, sunset, and at night as well)
  • To shoot in the airport/train station (people boarding, inside the plane/train etc).
  • To shoot the major landmarks.
  • To shoot things in the local languages, and general street photography.
  • Shoot in RAW + JPG (RAW for your later editing, JPG just as a back up
  • Get many SD cards of at least 32 GB with you. MANY! And a laptop with an external HD, to stores those properly, at least once a day. Have a backup done dayly (laptop + external HD)
  • Get a travel bag to safely store your gear.
  • Do equipment insurance, to avoid lose them in the field. Be careful not to be stolen at tourist destinations.
4. best ways to troubleshoot my camera if it freaks out when I'm trying to shoot in low light, snow, rain ect.
  • Have a back-up camera (two bodies to go, and a third as a back up, with you can).
 
Thank you everyone for all of your advice! To clarify:
1. no I'm not being paid, but its worthwhile for me to treat this as if I am getting paid.
(@tirediron I only have 2 camera bodies so I hope that those will be enough. I can look into trying to get a third but I'm not too sure how likely it is. )
2. I have a variety of lens' (18-55, 50mm, 55-250, 10-22mm and 75-300mm) so i guess i will bring all as well as my speedlites, extra batteries and memory (I have over 100GB of storage waiting for this trip)
If I go to a store and ask for "camera condoms" they will know what I'm talking about?
@waday @tirediron thanks I'll definitely make a shoot list. We're going to be visiting the different camps in Poland mainly so its going be an emotional trip. I took this trip last year so i'll use my old shots as reference i guess, as well as get a detailed itinerary.
@The_Traveler Thank you for your advice I'll definitely keep those things in mind while preparing and shooting.
To clarify this is a totally new style of photography for me. I usually am doing more "posed" photoshoots usually in a studio or outdoors and events thank G-D i've been lucky enough to have pretty good lighting in all the places that I've shot so far. I do know how to post-process my photos but I won't have much time since they need all the photos within 24hours of my return, plus they want some of the photos while I'm in Poland so I need to shoot with minimal need to edit the low light photos. (Ex if last years trip is any indication we go to Treblinka at night actually- I have to ask what they are expecting me to shoot there but there really isn't much light anywhere)
Thanks everyone!
 
@ruifo @mcap1972 Thanks but unfortunately i don't have much of a budget to get too much new equipment. I do have a camera backpack and a messenger bag thats coming with me. Thanks for the advice I will keep everything in mind and look at the links before i go!

I really appreciate this everyone, Thank you!
 
but I won't have much time since they need all the photos within 24hours of my return, plus they want some of the photos while I'm in Poland so I need to shoot with minimal need to edit the low light photos. (Ex if last years trip is any indication we go to Treblinka at night actually- I have to ask what they are expecting me to shoot there but there really isn't much light anywhere)
Thanks everyone!

Asking for all photos within 24 hours of return is fairly unreasonable unless they are publishing a magazine on a schedule.
That being said, just give them the jpegs and tell them you will edit the few they choose.
Eight days of shooting both scenes and people could means up to 2 or 3000 photos. That's a huge job to sort and cull that many unless you have really fast workflow.
 
What is the final use for the images? Just social media, or for a publication, future trip promotions (marketing), combination of different uses?
Generally the group shots and evening events where speed lights are really needed along with shots of all the different people are things that people on the trip generally don't do.
I agree the turn around time is very short for not being paid.
 
hi, so I am a she. I paid very minimally for the trip and they are insuring the equipment. They are using the pictures for a lot of things: marketing, yearbook for the group, social media, blog posts ect.
@Dave442 sorry can you please clarify what you mean with the speed lights. You kind of lost me.

So I'm asking all of you whats a normal turn around time for these shots? I know that its extremely short. It could be that they will expand it, i do understand why they have the crunch. I figure that i will work on the plane and bus from place to place.
Thanks
 
Depends on your own workaround time. I'd say at least a couple of weeks after the trip, if you really have the time for it. Do you foresee competing priorites after the trip?
 

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