Traveling is an exciting venture, and naturally, you’d want to take pictures of everything. Here’s how to keep your camera safe during your trip.

The world is full of beautiful places, from the photogenic scenery in the Swiss Alps to the vast plains of the Serengeti National Park. Even if you aren’t traveling to one of the most photogenic places in the world, it’s always a good idea to take your camera with you to document your adventures.

However, traveling with your camera is a risky business. Photography equipment can be ridiculously expensive as well as delicate, so there’s always the constant threat of damage or theft.

Just because it’s risky doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Here are eight helpful tips to make sure your camera is safe and sound when you travel.

1. Use a Padded Camera Bag or Case

When it comes to carrying your camera around, it’s best not to cheap out. A camera is an expensive piece of equipment that can easily be damaged, so you need to use a decent camera bag (or camera case).

When you’re on the hunt for a high-quality camera bag, there are some things to keep in mind. First, the material must be durable. Second, it’s best if it’s waterproof; weather can be unpredictable. Third, there needs to be a lot of padding or cushioning inside. And lasty, make sure the bag has an adjustable, strong shoulder strap, especially if your camera is heavy.

If you’re rushed for time and can’t find an acceptable camera bag before your next trip, we’ve got a quick tip for you. Wrap it up tightly in clothing, pillows, or a towel and place it in your suitcase in a snug position. This isn’t the best way to travel with your camera, but it works as a last resort.

2. Don’t Check Your Camera Bag at the Airport

When you’re flying somewhere with your camera gear, it’s best to keep it as close to you as possible. The absolute worst option would be to check your camera bag as luggage. You’ve seen how the handlers load and unload luggage, it’s bound to cause some serious damage to your precious equipment.

Luckily, most camera bags are small enough to tuck away into the overhead compartment or under a seat without and issue. However, before you do anything else, contact the airport or read through their rules and regulations about checking luggage.

3. Keep Your Equipment Organized

Before you even think about going out and taking photos of your travels abroad, make a list of all the equipment you have with you. You should already have a record of everything you own, but maybe you don’t plan on bringing everything out with you. If so, just check off the pieces you’ll be using for the trip.

A quick tip to organize your smaller pieces of camera gear is to use a caddy box or a tackle box. These boxes have different compartments in various sizes, making it easy to store and keep track of everything from extra batteries to spare memory cards.

4. Always Prepare for the Worst

No matter how hard you try to keep your camera safe, bad things happen, and it could end up stolen. Crime happens just about everywhere in the world, and you could be a target if you carry a lavish, shiny camera.

To avoid becoming the next target, make sure your camera bag doesn’t look too fancy and new. It’s better to go for a bag that looks ordinary. It’s also a good idea to cover up the brand of your camera with a sticker or some tape.

While it’s easy to replace a camera, it’s not so easy to replace all those memories that you captured. When you’re out and about, use multiple memory cards throughout the day, just in case something happens.

5. Don’t Travel Alone

Traveling alone can be scary, and you may become a target if you put yourself in a vulnerable situation. Thieves usually go for tourists who are alone and have expensive valuables with them, like a fancy camera!

Don’t walk around alone with a target on your back, either travel with a friend, another group of tourists, or find someone else who’s also taking photographs and tag along. You’ll be safer in a crowd, plus, you’ll have a friend who can keep an eye out for anyone suspicious.

6. Use a Safe Storage Place

It doesn’t matter if you stay in a fancy hotel or camp in the woods, you always need to store your camera and equipment in a safe place. Depending on where you’re staying, you might have access to a safe in your room, but these safes can sometimes be too small to fit in all your equipment.

If all else fails, consider handing your camera and your gear in at the front desk, so they can lock it away. If you do choose to do this, remember the previous tip about keeping a record of everything you have, you can never be too careful.

7. Clean Your Camera Regularly

Traveling is exciting, so you might find yourself completely forgetting to clean your camera regularly. If you’ve been to different places around the world, you’ll know that each place comes with its own set of problems.

For example, there’ll be plenty of dust and sand if you’re visiting a desert area, like Namibia. Traveling close to the sea means excess moisture, which can lead to fungus growth on your camera lens. Ideally, you should wipe your camera lens off every time you use it.

There are two main reasons you need to always keep your camera clean; preventing little specks of dirt and dust from ruining your photographs, and granting your camera a longer lifespan by looking after it properly.

8. Plan Ahead for Different Weather Conditions

If you’re traveling to Japan, you could face a lot of snowfall. Perhaps you’re visiting Hawaii, which is well known for being wet and humid. You know that you need to clean your camera regularly, but are you prepared for the different weather conditions you could face?

Whether it’s snow, rain, sand, extreme humidity, or wind, you need to know how to keep your camera safe. Consider buying a rain cover for your camera. It won’t just protect it from the rain, but also from small grains of sand and dust.

If you’re out taking photos in harsh weather conditions, always bring a dry cloth with you in the event that your camera does get a little wet. The worst decision you could make would be to change lenses when you’re shooting outside in bad conditions. Rather, choose your lens and put it on before you go outside.

Traveling With Your Camera Can Be Easy, Safe, and Fun

Your camera is exceptionally important to you and probably very expensive, so is it possible to travel wherever you want and still keep your camera safe? Of course! With these eight tips, you can travel safely and forget about all the anxiety. Always take your camera along with you when you travel so you’ll be able to capture amazing photographs everywhere you go.

Documenting the beauty of your travels is a great way to remember the experiences. In today’s age of social media, posting pictures and sharing memories with your friends and family is important. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to get excellent shots.

We wanted to share with you our tips on how to get the best travel photos. Following these tips will start improving your photography game to best capture special moments.

8 Tips For Getting The Best Travel Photos

1. Choose Photogenic Destinations

One of the most important things for getting amazing travel photos while traveling is picking photogenic destinations. While popular destinations like Thailand, Mexico, and Hawaii have ample places to get some insane shots, finding up-and-coming destinations also come with fewer crowds.

These intriguing locations are less photographed and less overdone. Namibia is hands down one of the best places to photograph in the world.

2. Get Good Gear

With the quality of cameras in the new iPhones and Android phones, you don’t need a DSLR camera to get great shots. However, having a DSLR camera has some incredible advantages. Having the ability to manipulate travel photos with different settings is imperative to any aspiring photographer.

Image sharpness, focus points, bokeh, long exposure, and so many other components come into play with DSLR cameras. It makes it easier to get a beautiful shot. Camera equipment is not cheap these days. We suggest starting out with second-hand equipment. We have done it for years and saved thousands of dollars on high-end gear.

Curious about my gear? I use a Canon 5D MIV camera and depending on the setting, switch between these lenses: Canon 16-35mm F/2.8, Canon 24-70mm F/2.8, and Canon 70-200mm F/2.8. For aerial photography, I use a Mavic Pro drone. However, keep in mind no matter how much your gear costs it doesn’t always mean better photos.

3. Experiment With New Techniques

There’s no harm in being experimental with your photography. In fact, most professional photographers use trial and error to get new and innovative shots. So, how do you do that? A great way to learn is to go to a location near your home and find ways to get creative in capturing ordinary objects and scenery.

For example, trees, flowers, rocks, windows, cars, or people can all be used as subjects. Instead of taking regular pictures try to think outside the box. Take pictures fully zoomed in, find ways to create geometric shapes, or consider taking long exposure shots. This will enable you to think differently when taking a photo.

Get creative and don’t stop experimenting.

4. Shoot in RAW Format

Shooting in RAW format allows for manipulation of the photo in extraordinary ways. The difference between taking photos in JPEG format and RAW, is in JPEG the camera will snap a picture in RAW, and then process and compress the image automatically for you.

While in RAW mode, the camera stores all the information about the picture, allowing you to take control during post-processing (i.e. Lightroom/Photoshop). This allows more ability to correct the picture, whether is for overexposed shots or to edit out hoards of people from the photo.

Even if you don’t currently use software to post-process photos today, one day you might want to, so it is still worth holding on to RAW formatted travel photos. Also, technology is always changing and it will be possible to re-edit old photos to create better images.

5. Capture Unique Moments

While traveling, it is great to take unique and interesting pictures. Immerse yourself in a place to get shots of local people and cultures. Be sure to talk to them and ask if you can take a photo, in many instances, people are more than willing to pose for a shot. You might even be pleasantly surprised with an invitation to drink local wine or eat a home-cooked meal.

In many places, we have visited the people who help tell a country’s story. Wildlife photography can also capture impressive raw moments. Whether it is bird watching, your best friend’s dog chasing a ball, underwater photography of marine life, or cheetah killing prey in the Etosha National Park, each moment cannot be replicated and can make your photography stand out.

6. Spend The Time

When we first started traveling, we would create excel spreadsheets with dozens of places to visit while on holiday. Ten days in Italy would be packed with stops at Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Venice, and Tuscany. Sure, it’s possible to pack it all in and visit as many places as possible, but I can guarantee you that your photos will suffer.

Photography takes time. Recently, we visited Tukad Cepung waterfall in Bali, Indonesia. This is one of our favorite waterfalls in Bali. It also is a tight space and with a group of only 10 people, it could feel crowded. Getting the right shot takes time. Most people show up, spend 15 minutes and leave for their next destination. We were there for nearly two hours. Waiting for people to not be in the shot, the right lighting, and playing with different angles takes time.

Sure, you might have to cut out places to visit on your holiday, but your picture game will get stronger!

7. Photograph in Manual Mode

If there is one thing you take home from this article it would be this. Learning how to shoot in manual gives full control over the camera. There are times when the lighting is perfect, and auto mode might get it right, but most of the time, that is not the case.

To properly adjust for lighting, especially in unideal situations, understanding how to shoot in manual can be the difference from getting no shot to getting THE shot. It is virtually impossible to get good shots of astrophotography without using manual settings. Also, some of my favorite shots have been while using long exposure settings to create a dreamy look.

8. Wake Up Early

This is no secret for photographers. The best travel photos usually are captured at sunrise or just after the first light. With perfect soft lighting, sometimes you will have famous places all to yourself. Traveling with tours can be difficult to get this done, but for independent travelers, this is one of the best ways to immediately boost your photography.

Visiting bucket list destinations, such as exotic islands in the Philippines are getting more and more popular with tourists. Showing up before all the crowds arrive allows you to capture intimate moments with the best lighting of the day.

It’s time to go out and practice. The more time you spend focusing on these details and learning how to take better travel photos, the better the outcome will be. If there are other suggestions you think worked for you, we would love to hear about them.

Festivals are our way of celebrating the strangest things in a group of like-minded individuals. However, when we say ‘strange’, some festivals certainly go some way towards tipping the crazy-scale towards ‘insanity’. Festivals such as…

5. New Years Party, Thailand

It goes without saying that across the world, no matter where you go, New Years is a pretty crazy time by all accounts. However, we’re willing to bet to bet that no matter how wild and badass your attempt to recreate The Hangover is every year, it can never ever compare to the insanity that takes place in Thailand. So what do they do? They whip out the Super Soakers and have an epic water fight. Seriously. And everybody plays. The cities shut down for the day, super-hot babes in bikinis roam the streets, and some villains even decide to cheat by bringing out Mother Nature’s own watergun: the Elephant.

Well, that settles where we’re heading this year at least.

4. El Colacho, Castrillo de Murcia (Spain)

If we said ‘El Colacho’ to you, what would suspect this festival was about? Food? Because that Colacho stuff sure does sound tasty. What would you then say if we told you that this festival, held in the Spanish town of Castrillo de Murcia, involved grown men dressed as the Devil…jumping over rows and rows of babies? Nope, don’t bother calling child services. We already have, and they’re completely cool with this shit.

However, we should probably fulfil our legal obligations by this point, and say that you probably shouldn’t do this with yours or any of your neighbour’s babies. Although we guess that if you needed to be told that by a comedy website, you’re probably not reading this and are already staging an assault on the local kindergarten as we speak. Good luck crazy man!

3. The Festival of Colors

No, that’s not the national holiday in whatever freaky universe My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is set in. It’s an annual celebration held in India to celebrate…erm…colors, we guess. And how do they do this? In the insanest way you can imagine: by buying colored powders and throwing them in people’s faces! And eyes!

However, one massive problem the celebrants have is that tradition states that they’re supposed to use colored powders made predominantly from herbs and spices. But, needless to say if you’ve ever had the misfortune to walk around Walmart nearer a big public holiday, local vendors of these powders massively inflate their prices, leading people to buy much cheaper powders made from much more dangerous stuff such as aluminium bromide, lead oxide, and copper sulphate. Hey, did we mention that this stuff goes in your eyes? Don’t celebrate this. Please.

2. Cheese Rolling, Gloucestershire (England)

We always knew secretly that the English had something wrong with them. We mean, what sort of twisted country thinks coffee is disgusting and Monty Python’s Flying Circus makes sense? Well, funny you should ask that, because it’s the exact same country which made an annual festival out of some people rolling cheese down a hill. And that’s not all. The objective of the competition is for people to race the cheese downhill, which is about as hilarious and painful as it sounds.

We’re not the only ones to think this either. The local government recently tried to ban the festivities citing, strangely enough, the high-probability of injury and the very low-probability that someone will break their goddamn neck just for the purposes of racing a ball of congealed cow effluent down a hillside. No doubt if that ever happened though, these nutcases would think it was a worthwhile injury.

1. La Tominata, Bunol (Spain)

OK, so it’s a festival held in Spain with a delicious-sounding name. You’re probably a bit more hesitant to guess at what it is now thanks to that whole ‘Crazy-Devil-jumping-over-babies’ thing we talked about above. But, don’t worry, because this does involve food, more specifically tomatoes. La Tomatina is the name given to a massive annual food fight fought between over fifty thousand people in the city of Bunol, where the only weapons are tomatoes and the only prayers made are those about not finding out you have a sudden allergy to a certain type of vegetable (or fruit depending on how anally retentive you are).

Despite looking like an excuse to writhe around half-naked in piles of rotting juice, or to put it another way, re-enact 300, the festival does actually have some meaning. It is rumoured to have originally started when a group of local townspeople did what many of us do: get pissed off with the government. But, unlike us, they didn’t sign an online petition or change their profile picture on whatever the oldy-timey equivalent of Facebook was. No, they simply hunted the government men down and pelted them with tons of over-ripe tomatoes. If only democracy was that simple today, we’d all be so much more happier.

1 – Being Robbed – Don’t dress like a vacationer. The goal is to abstain from wearing new and additionally costly things of dress, particularly footwear and clothes by popular brands. Likewise maintain a strategic distance from embellishments, for example, caps, and clothes with visit administrator logos on.

2 – Upset Stomachs – Check that the faucet water is protected before you travel, however, remember that different nations may treat water with elective synthetic concoctions that could at present reason upset in the youthful, bold or delicate. When purchasing filtered water, consistently ensure the top is as yet appended to the ring. Numerous voyagers stay away from servings of mixed greens abroad, and a few people find that meat and fish dishes are bound to give them a terrible stomach. Vegan dishes and trustworthy diners are the most secure alternative in numerous spots.

3 – Losing Significant Documents – Always make duplicates of international ID, tickets, inn data, travel protection reports, driving permit and so on in the event that any of your effects get taken. Ensure you keep them separate from the genuine reports, numerous voyagers filter their things and email them to a believed companion or relative so they can be effectively recovered.

4 – Injuries – Be extra mindful of your surroundings as wellbeing and security necessities are frequently not as stringent abroad as they are in the UK. Tricky poolsides, free overhang railings, and walkways needing fix would all be able to get an uninformed visitor out and lead to genuine wounds.

5 – Road Mishaps – Always wear a helmet even if you are riding around on a scooter, regardless of whether the nearby laws state you don’t need to. Numerous voyagers are lethally harmed each year from ignoring such a significant security issue. Likewise, know about the guidelines of the street at your goal, you should realize them just as you do the UK Highway Code!

6 – Dodgy Tour Guides – Only ever go on a trip, visit or partake in activity from a legitimate supplier. Ask at the neighborhood traveler office, or at inn gathering. Numerous retreats and travel offices have their own agenda to look over. Offensive suppliers might not have your security as a need, and they may need protection spread should the most exceedingly awful occur.