In recent weeks I have been on several photography day trips and in this blog I will talk about my essentials, everything I put inside my bag to have a successful day of photography. I am a photographer who does street, travel photography and documenting everything on YouTube. I do that for a living so I have needs in terms of gear and equipment that are specific to this activity but I think this can serve as a good inspiration for you to build your perfect photography day-trip carry that fits your needs.

The Bag

Before getting into the gear, just a quick mention about the bag. I am using an old Minolta shoulder/sling bag which is probably not on the market anymore, but for me this kind of bags are a lot more useful than backpacks. I can quickly access anything inside, whether it is a filter, my Osmo Pocket 3 or my phone to check direction or where is the next coffee spot. Backpacks are also good depending on your use case but for street photography or small town photography kind of trips sling bags are far superior in my opinion.

The Camera

Ok so what is inside the bag. Fist you need a camera to take photographs and in this example I will talk about my Sony a7CII that I recently acquired. The a7IV used to be my workhorse for photos and videos but the a7CII is just everything I love about the a7IV in a smaller and lighter package. Do I absolutely have to take nice 4k cinematic Broll, no but I like it and I want to be able to switch between photo and video very easy without compromising on quality.

The lens

As for the lens, I shoot full frame and I love it but I don’t like big heavy lenses. I started collecting some light and compact lenses and one of my goto as of the last 6 months is the Sony Zeiss 35mm f2,8. I like this lens and the focal length. I don’t own any of them but the Sony G prime lens, there is the 24, 40 and 50mm, are also very good picks. I am giving examples for the Sony system but I know that not everyone is using Sony. After years of trial and error I have some kind of threshold that I don’t want to go over when it comes to the weight of the lens I bring on a photography day trip or multiple days photo trip and it is about 300gr. Over that it starts to be too massive and front heavy which will be uncomfortable to carry a whole day. So if you are using any other brand you can use this weight recommendation to build your perfect one day of photography setup.

Filters

Following up a little bit on what I said earlier about video. To keep my shutter speed in check for the 180degree rule and cinematic motion blur I am using a ND filter. I am not too picky about depth of field when it comes to my Broll so I don’t bother with variable ND, a standard 4 stops or ND16 filter does the job and they are quite cheap so you can get multiple of them for all your filter thread instead of having Frankenstein setup with plenty of step up ring. One big advantage of the Sony Zeiss 35mm and I believe that the G prime lenses I mention before also have that, is the small lens hood on which you can screw any sort of filter. I don’t use the hood for my photography so I can keep it within reach and I just have to screw it on when I shoot video. It is a lot faster and safer to screw the hood compared to the filter only. I love this little feature and to be honest if I am using a lens that cannot do that I would compromise, maybe forget the 180 rule or use exclusively my Osmo Pocket 3 for Broll.

Camera Strap

About camera straps, for me the best solution is opting for one of this nice minimal neck strap. You can use them as they are intended to, around your neck. But you can also use them as wrist strap. Here I have to shoot out my fellow photographer and YouTuber James Popsys, maybe he is not the inventor of this trick but I learned it from him. You can use this trick to turn your neck strap into a comfortable and safe wrist strap. To get off of it, it is also very simple, let it hang down, pull the main loop and you’re out. Having a neck strap is a lot more versatile and easier when you will reach out for your phone or anything else, you can just let the camera hang around your neck and you have both hands free.

DJI Osmo Pocket 3

Now the new star in my photography video making setup is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. I won’t be too long on it because I think you have already heard of it and seen many footage coming out of it. Image quality is awesome, you get gimbal stabilised footage, great in lowlight and very intuitive to use. It can serve two purposes, having a more POV perspective but also the quality is so good that it can take stunning Broll. On board mics are decent but you can also pair one DJI mic to it so you have very nice and clear audio on location, all wirelessly. The only regret I have is not getting this one sooner.

Accessories for the Osmo Pocket 3

As for the accessories for my Osmo pocket 3 I keep it very simple. I don’t take the grip extender nor the battery handle. I have a mobile battery that can serve to charge any of my device so this has a better weight to output ratio let say. I don’t bother with the 180degree rule on my Osmo I think it would go against the whole purpose of this camera so I don’t brink any filter. The only things I take are one DJI mic and this base tripod thing I got from Amazon for very cheap. You can place the Osmo anywhere and it is more stable than without anything. You don’t have to screw anything unlike the official DJI tripod. You have to use either the grip extender or the battery handle because the Osmo also doesn’t have the screw which is a bit stupid to be honest.

A good mobile battery

Now talking about the other accessories that may seem dispensable but absolutely essential. It took me years before getting one of these mobile battery and again it is one of these purchase that once you make it you just can’t believe how stubborn you were not getting that sooner. I bought this Anker 10’000 Milihamp mobile battery. I won’t pretend I know anything about the technicality of all that but basically It’s a lot of capacity letting you charge fully an iPhone 15 twice they say. The charging speed is also great when paired with the right cables. Before I was always stressing about extra batteries for my camera, GoPro and what about my phone. Having a mobile battery is a lot more versatile because you can charge any device out of it. And I hear you saying that it is not instant you have to wait for the device to charge and that’s true but you will inevitably take breaks, for lunch for a coffee or something so you can charge your device at this time. I always try to have my devices ready at 100% before going on a photography day trip but as long as you have at least your mobile battery at 100% you’re good to go. If you forgot to charge one of your device you can quickly charge it on the way to the location so yeah it’s a great addition to the kit removing a lot of the stress related to all battery matters.

Fast Charging Cables

But a good battery would be a bit useless if paired with slow cables. I recently got two of these Anker fast charging cables. I don’t know the exact numbers but I can see it on my Osmo pocket 3 screen, it is able of fast charging. Again, not a fun expense to do so always put to the next day until you forget about it but it is almost life changing. I think they were less than 5 dollars each and everything goes so much faster. When charging at home before leaving and with the mobile battery on location. The cost performance of such expense is so high that if you don’t have fast charing cables or a mobile battery I urge you to get one asap.

Worth mentioning

So for the less mandatory things I have a 2, 3 things to mention. First is sunscreen, I am making this video in summer so it is part of the essentials for this season because I don’t want to look like a lobster after my photography daytrip.

AirPods, I typically try to avoid listening to anything when I am taking photos but I like to listen to music of watch something on YouTube when in the train or bus going to the location or when I have a longer break for lunch. The one moment I would decide to use my AirPods when taking photos is when I have a little down, feeling tired or suddenly uninspired. It lets me escape for a while not feeling too negative until the next positive wave of energy and inspiration hits me.

Last thing, not totally necessary but if I have more than an hour of commuting to the location I like to read. I have a Kindle so it is more comfortable than reading on the kindle app on the phone. But if I feel like I want my bag to be a tad lighter or if there’s no space this is the first thing that stay home.

Conclusion

Ok so it goes without saying that I take my phone wallet and keys with me too. I organize my bag to so that my camera fits into the bag but I actually take my camera out of the bag straight away because I want it to be ready to take pictures from the start to the end of the day, even on the train or bus my camera is out just in case. If suddenly the weather changes and it starts pouring rain I still have enough room to put the camera safe into the bag and I think that concludes this blog