Some years back, I sold almost everything to set off around the world with a big backpack, a small budget and the best camera for travel given my circumstances. As a 23-year-old graduate, I had a full-time job that I enjoyed but I wasn’t ready to just settle down and live life waiting for my annual leave to come around again. If money hadn’t been a problem, I’d have taken a Canon 5D, a decent tripod, some Lee filters and enough lenses to cover any situation. Unfortunately, cash was an issue.You can’t eat or sleep under a Canon 5D, which meant I left home with my very well-used Canon 600D, two second-hand lenses and an unbranded tripod which can only be described as an ‘Amazon Special’. It was the best travel camera setup I could afford on the budget available to me.
I travelled through Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Northern America, Fiji and New Zealand before landing in Sydney with just enough money to buy clothes for a job interview and look for work. In this post, I’ll share some of the lessons I learned while trying to travel and photograph the world on a budget.
The first lesson I learnt the hard way was to research my location beforehand. I had been looking forward to photographing Machu Picchu since leaving home, and the day had finally arrived when I would get to do just that. I was weak from food poisoning and altitude sickness over the past few weeks, but lugging all my gear onto my back for the third day in a row finally seemed worth it. I carried my tripod everywhere in Peru and cursed it more times than I used it, but getting a sharp long-exposure of Machu Picchu was worth it, right? Wrong. My tripod was taken off me at the gate, a recent rule to protect the ground and grass inside the site. I’m not sure what was worse, the fact that I had carried my tripod for three days or that a quick Google search could have saved me all that trouble.
It was hard, but I had to learn to avoid becoming frustrated with what I could and couldn’t afford. When travelling, there will always be someone with the latest camera, best lenses and gear, using it just for happy snaps or selfies. If you’re on a budget, then stick to it, and work with what you’ve got and can afford. The best camera for travel doesn’t always mean the best results.
Expensive kit and backpacking don’t always go hand in hand either. It’s not an easy life for a camera. I broke one lens completely, chipped my other, smashed filters to pieces and scratched my screen – maybe not opting for a Canon 5D was a good idea after all.
Respect the kit you can afford. It doesn’t cost you anything and you’ll need it to last. I got into a brilliant habit of cleaning everything I had daily, backing up my files and keeping my bag organised at the start of my trip. Sadly, I fell out of this habit and paid the price with shots ruined by filthy lenses, flat batteries and sheer unorganisation. They say that the best camera in the world is the one you have with you, so look after it well.
However, it’s important to know when it is time to upgrade. My ‘Amazon Special’ tripod didn’t stand up too well with my 15-85mm lens. I knew it was time to upgrade when it literally fell over, shattering my UV Filter to pieces and chipping my lens. I had known it wasn’t up to the job for a while, but it took an incident like that to make me finally buy a new one. There’s a fine balance between making do with what you have and forking out for new kit, and it’s hard to get right.
There are many ways to benefit yourself and grow as a photographer for free. I try to learn a new shooting technique or post-processing method as often as I can, then go and try it out with what I have. You’ll have a lot of downtime when travelling, so using free wifi to watch YouTube tutorials instead of TV shows is really beneficial.
The next is courage, never be afraid to talk to someone about photography when travelling, as you never know where it may lead. Just before Christmas, I was in New Zealand about to head out whale watching, but with only a 15-85mm I’d have to be on top of the whales to get a decent shot. I got talking to a Dutch traveller after seeing his Canon 550D and he pulled out a 200mm zoom from his backpack and then handed it over. He lent me his lens for the whale-watching trip, all because I’d sat down and spoken to him at breakfast.
Having the courage to ask to take people’s photographs has gotten me some good results for free. I used to shy away from this and mind my own business, but it was thinking about all the shots I had already missed that changed this.
Good manners and a smile cost nothing, they’ll get you a long way if you want to take somebody’s portrait. I have a really nice, natural-looking portrait of two Fijians laughing and smiling on a boat. If I had gone in and snapped them like wild animals they’d of been offended, but I asked nicely and showed them the shots afterwards which had them laughing and smiling even more.
Everyone’s budget is different; all of my kit only came to a total of around £550. This meant, however, that I could afford to travel the world with a low-end camera, rather than staying at home with a high-end camera – I’ll let you decide if the results were worth it and prove it was the best camera for travel in my particular case.
Sam Scrimshaw – At 23, it’s hard not to have a passion for photography when you’re the first generation to experience Facebook, Instagram, and smartphones, sharing images online. After university, I landed a job at a Land Rover tuning company based in Leeds, where my role involved retouching a lot of other photographer’s work. Through doing this as well as shooting more and more myself, I learnt post-processing, a good workflow and composition. After leaving home to travel the world, I was been shooting and learning every day. When I eventually do make it back to the UK I am hoping to make the leap from amateur to professional and see where it takes me.