Packing light

2 weeks to go till the big trip, and I think I finally have the kit bag together. I'm going to be living out of a bag for 6 weeks, which means that there is no way I can take the usual suite of gear. I have been picking over how to pack as light as possible, but still cover all bases. So below is the kit that made the shortlist. A tripod is pretty much essential, given that there will be some incredible landscape opportunities, and fingers crossed for catching some long exposures at sunrise.

The Gear:

1. Nikon D7100 DSLR Camera

2. Sigma 18-200mm DC Macro

3. Nikon 35mm F1.8 Lens

4. 3 x 16Gb Memory Cards

5. Spare Battery

6. 62mm to 77mm lens filter adapter

7. Hoya Circular Polarising Filter

8. Hoya 5 Stop ND Filter

9. Hoya 10 Stop ND Filter

10. Ultralight Tripod

I think the lens choices were hardest. Boiling it down to two was pretty tricky, but in the end I decided on an 18-200mm superzoom, which will need to cover most of the grunt work. Its very sharp wide open at 17mm which makes it great for landscapes, and the telephoto range will be great for any wildlife images. I'm also packing a 35mm prime which I used extensively before in Vietnam. The f1.8 aperture on the 35mm makes it lightning fast, its also super light weight and the quality is excellent.

Taken on my Sigma 17-200mm

Taken with my Nikon 35mm F1.8 Prime

A couple of ND filters will also be handy for the waterfalls I'll be visiting, and a spare battery and memory cards are always a must.

The Locations:

First off, these are not my pictures, I found them whilst doing some of my scouting and research. These spots are my #1 "must take a picture here" for each country.

New Zealand - Mirror Lake - Photo Credit: New Zealand Consulting

Peru - Machu Picchu - Photo Credit: National Geographic

New York - Times Square - Photo Credit: TravelandLeasure.com

Iceland - Seljalandsfoss - Photo Credit: Arran Bee

Anyway, super excited for this trip now It's going to be good to be so good getting away from work for a while. May go radio silent for a little bit, then will check back in with "hopefully" some great shots!

All the best

David