Gear & field notes
Field notes: what's in my bag on a travel day
Less gear, more autonomy: how I work between the tropics, altitude and the cold south.
Rebeca Peña5 min read
Travelling while photographing forces you to decide what to leave at home. I'd rather carry little and walk all day than carry everything and end up sitting there guarding my bag.
What's always there
- Spare batteries and memory cards, always in a different pocket from the camera.
- A microfibre cloth: humidity in the tropics and drizzle in the mountains fog everything up.
- A light waterproof bag to stash the camera when the weather turns.
- Water, insect repellent and a warm or waterproof layer depending on the destination.
Differences by destination
In Costa Rica the enemy is humidity: the camera moves from air conditioning to heat and fogs up. In the Andes it's altitude and cold: batteries last less and it helps to keep them close to your body. In southern Chile the rain comes sideways, so the gear stays packed until the moment I shoot.