John Shaw Nature & Digital Photography Workshops Click here for locations and dates
				Mexico's Colonial Heartland March 17–24, 2007
				Horses and Icons of the Wild West August 26–September 1, 2007
				Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya September 7–21, 2007
				Australia Wildlife November 1–20, 2007

As I write these words I’m sitting in a Boeing 757 at about 35,000 feet. I’m on my way to the start of another Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris tour. I’ve packed carefully for this trip as we’ll be experiencing some extremes in weather while photographing a variety of subject matter. Besides my camera equipment, which really doesn’t vary that much from trip to trip, I’ve got with me my “road warrior” kit—all the extra items (techno and otherwise) that I carry. When we all switched to digital cameras there was a lot of talk about how much easier travel would be, as we no longer had to deal with film and x-rays. Ha! I’m carrying just as much stuff, although now it is different stuff than before. Here’s a list of all the non-photo equipment and the rationale as to why I have it with me.

Small computer. I happen to carry a small(ish) Sony computer. This isn’t the tiniest laptop around; it’s sort of mid-sized, but certainly small compared to those 17-inch behemoths I see. Mine has a 13-inch screen (diagonal), runs a 1.7 GHz mobile chip, has an 80 GB hard drive, and is loaded with 1GB RAM. Not the fastest machine, nor the largest drive available. This laptop’s almost two years old now and is just fine for my purposes, although I wish I could add more RAM. I can write (the keyboard is almost full-size so I don’t really have any problems touch-typing), can get e-mail anywhere in the world on my web mail account, and can use it to download images I’ve shot with my digital cameras.

Speaking of the web, anywhere I can connect—and wireless Internet connections are becoming ubiquitous—I can access my web site and post secure pages for my agencies or clients. It’s very easy to make a web page gallery in Photoshop by clicking File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery. I can save this gallery to the web-authoring program I use, connect to the Internet, and publish the gallery pages. If I’m really efficient I can have an image up the same day I shot it (take the picture, run Photoshop that evening at my hotel, add IPTC caption information, connect to the Internet, and publish the new pages).

External hard drives. I carry two 100 GB and two 80 GB drives. These are external laptop drives and power directly off the USB2 port of my laptop. This gives me a total of 360 GB, plus the space available on my laptop, for roughly 400 GB in all.

	I carry hard drives, large and small.

Why so much storage? I make two copies of all images I shoot on a trip, and keep a third copy of the best shots on the computer. These hard drives are always stored in different locations while I’m on the road. I’ve made one of the 80 GB drives a bootable clone of my laptop, so that in the unlikely event the computer dies I can be back up and running in short order. If I desperately need additional storage space I can always overwrite this particular drive.

Two sets of USB2 connecting cords for the hard drives. Carry only one, lose it or damage it, and all that drive space is useless. Paranoid? You bet, when it comes to my images.

	Sandisk and Delkin card readers.

Two flash card readers. One is a Delkin 32-bit cardbus reader which I leave in the laptop’s PC slot. This is by far the quickest means to download images if you’re using a laptop. I also have with me—just in case—a USB2 reader which I leave in my luggage. It’s always there as a backup, or in case a tour client needs it.

Two three-outlet AC jacks. Too many hotel rooms have only one AC outlet, or at least only one that is readily accessible. Of course, this is inevitably the same outlet that the floor lamp and TV are plugged into. One three-outlet jack allows me to plug in the chargers for my camera batteries and my cell phone, and run my laptop off AC, all simultaneously. With the second one I can plug that lamp back in so I can see what I’m doing. Now if I could only figure out how to carry a few 100 watt light bulbs to replace those dim hotel room 40 watt bulbs!

	Various electrical adapters.

Two AC adapter plugs for my destination country or countries. To be honest, I just leave one set of the adapters I most commonly need in my suitcase and then augment this with a second set for specific locations.

Speaking of AC connections, I’m thankful that all my electronics take the same style of AC cord. The same cord that I need for my camera battery charger will also fit the laptop’s transformer. This is another “what could possibly go wrong” consideration.

My cell phone and AC charger. I take this even when traveling out of the US where I can no longer make calls. Why? It has the best (that is, the loudest) alarm clock I own and as long as there is a cell signal, it automatically adjusts to worldwide time zone changes as I travel. I have an extended life battery for it and need to charge the phone about once a week, if I’m using it as an alarm clock only (but I do carry the charger cord at all times).

You might notice that I don’t carry any voltage transformers. All my electrical items—camera battery charger, laptop, cell phone—will automatically select anything from 100 to 220 volts. This is a small but helpful consideration.

	A few miscellaneous items I always carry.

A small highlighter for maps. I like to mark the routes we take on tour.

A 512 MB thumb drive which I use to transfer files. I have this only because it was given to me. When connected to the USB port of my computer it is recognized as just another drive, as is any flashcard in a card reader. Here’s a use for those 512 MB or smaller cards we all seem to have.

Some additional gear kept in a case in my luggage:

• When I use flash it is most often with a Better Beamer flash extender, so a second one is tucked away.
• A small bottle of hand sanitizer.
• A box of alcohol wipes to clean equipment, if necessary, and to augment the hand sanitizer.
• Several jewelers’ screwdrivers of different sizes, two Allen wrenches that fit my Arca-style quick release plates, and the metric wrench that came with my Gitzo tripod (to tighten the center plate ring).
• A Swiss Army knife and Leatherman tool (just in passing, these make nice gifts for local drivers or guides).
• A short roll of tape (useful to fix all sorts of things).
• A tube of super glue.
• Two heavy-duty trash compacter bags (sturdier that regular garbage bags; good for wet shoes, etc.)
• Some general travel accessories: eye shades (ever been north of the Arctic Circle and have to sleep in a room with sheer curtains?), ear plugs, extra reading glasses, etc.
• Head lamp.

	Headlamp

My camera manual. Yes, even though I’ve used the same Nikon D2x camera since the first day it became available, I always carry the manual and continue to discover new features and settings. And let me close with a plea: please carry the manual for your specific camera. I can’t count the times while on tour that I’ve been asked, “how do I set…?” for a feature on a camera I’ve never used or even held before. Trust me, the answer can be found in the manual.

Announcement: John's latest book, John Shaw's Photoshop Guide, has recently been updated and expanded. This is an eBook on CD, with step-by-step instructions on producing

	John Shaw

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