Photography Thailand Forum

[col4bin]

Hello all.  I am new here and I wanted to introduce myself.  My name is Frank and I live in Denver, Colorado, USA.  It has been a long time dream for me to travel to Thailand and that is finally going to happen.  I have spent a substantial amount of time in the SE Asia region working in Singapore but sadly that came to an end.  My wife and I will be taking a 16 day trip in April for our anniversary that will be a combination vacation and photo expedition.  I am not a professional photographer but hope to one day turn into something more than a passion.

I was hoping that someone could advise how realistic it is to travel around with a fair amount of photo gear in Thailand.  I have taken trips with all of my gear in the past however it can be quite burdensome at times.  Here is a link to my current kit (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=6717696&postcount=1462).  You will be able to tell that I am a loyal Canon user. 

Thanks in advance and I look forward to providing positive contributions to this forum.

[Marc Schultz]

Welcome Frank.

Bear in mind that May is one of the hottest times of the year in Thailand and the weather will be quite similar to what it was like in Singapore at that time. That means very strong heat and high humidity normally as well. Possibly even some rain if the weather this year is anything like what it was like last year. So the heavier your camera bag the more you are going to sweat and the faster you are going to tire from carrying the weight. When I used to travel with a heavy camera bag filled with gear I often would have a back full of sweat from the bag within just an hour or so. Not a very comfortable feeling.

Personally I would opt for some sort of LowePro slingshot type bag if you can. 2 Lenses, the 24-105mm and the 70-200mm and that would be about it. A second battery, plenty of memory cards, and maybe one fill in flash. Of course a good tripod as well.

You want to be mobile and light and be able to react quick to a fleeting moment. There are not always clean places to lay your a bit camera bag down either for gear changes. I used to travel with a big folded up plastic shopping bag in my camera bag to lay down on dirty surfaces when I needed to open my bag for a lens change. So if you have a sling shot bag which you can access without having to lay your gear down to get something out of the bag, then I would say that would be the best.

I hope that helps and happy shooting...

[col4bin]

Thanks.  I don't have a sling bag however I was planning to get something different before my trip.  I know the backpack will be hot.  I hike with the one I have now it can be rough at times.