Hitting the road with your camera?
It's not quite as simple as throwing your camera over your shoulder and hopping in the car...
If you want to have the best experience, the most productive experience, and the most comfortable experience, you'll need a few items in your camera bag.
There's tons of choice when it comes to the top travel photography accessories, but in my book, the items I've listed below are absolute must-haves!
Top Travel Accessories for Photographers: Camera Bag
You can't exactly get a lot of traveling done if you don't have a bag that can accommodate all your personal items and your photography gear...
The f-stop Sukha Expedition Bag is an impressive piece of gear that will get your stuff from Point A to Point B safe and sound - all in one bag, too!
This bag holds a whopping 70 liters of gear, so even if you're hitting the road for a couple of months, you can fit everything you need in this big rig.
What makes this such a great travel bag is that you can get it with an Internal Camera Unit (as shown above), that helps you organize your gear to maximize the space in the bag.
Not only that, but the ICU is heavily padded to keep everything safe, and with all sorts of cubbies and dividers, there's no end to the possibilities you have for storing your photography gear.
Better still, f-stop has ensured it'll be a comfortable carrying experience even if this sucker is loaded to the brim. That's thanks to big, cushy shoulder straps and a waist belt that helps transfer the weight of the bag to your hips.
This is a bag you have to see to believe. But take my word for it - it's a fantastic companion for any photographer that's traveling!
Top Travel Photography Accessories for Photographers: Battery Backup
When you're traveling, you don't want to be tied to outlets the whole time, which is why a battery backup is an essential item.
I use the RAVPower 32000mAh battery pack because it offers a faster recharging time than comparable battery packs and has days and days of power for your phone, tablet, and other small electronics.
The three iSmart 2.0 USB ports charge three devices at the same time in case you're in a group and everyone's phones are dying.
It comes with a lifetime warranty, two micro USB charging cables, and a carrying pouch as well.
Top Travel Accessories for Photographers: The Right Clothing
Obviously, the time of year and the locations to which you're traveling will influence the kind and type of clothing you bring with you on your trip.
Since it's winter (and since I have a quick trip to Mammoth, California coming up), I'll focus on my go-to recommendations for winter clothing.
I'm a Columbia guy head to toe when I'm out shooting in the winter.
Up top, I keep ultra warm with my Columbia Heatzone TurboDown II jacket. Seriously, this thing keeps me warm even in frigid conditions thanks to the reflective heat technology on the inside of the jacket (something called 3D Thermal Reflective Omni-Heat).
The jacket's waterproof shell is a nice touch when it's spitting rain or snowing, and it's breathable too, so I stay warm without getting too warm.
My base layer of choice is the Titanium Omni-Heat 3D knit crewneck shirt and knit pants.
Again, it can be cold as can be out, but thanks to these bad boys, I experience no heat loss and I'm toasty warm.
They're incredibly soft against the skin, too, which I appreciate because I've tried other base layers in the past that felt itchy and scratchy, and I did not like that one bit!
Lastly, to keep my feet warm, I wear the Columbia Bugaboot Plus IV.
These suckers are waterproof, have a thermal-reflective lining, and 200 grams of insulation. That means that even when I'm trudging through the snow, my feet are nice and toasty warm.
Columbia even integrated a significant amount of insulation under the footbed, again to keep the cold out and the heat in.
The seams on the boot's exterior are sealed and waterproof, and the boot is breathable. In other words, Columbia has thought of everything to keep your feet warm and dry.
Top Travel Accessories for Photographers: Battery Chargers
When you're traveling the last thing you want is to run out of juice for your camera.
I shoot with a Nikon D850 and a Sony a6300, so I picked up a dual battery charger for each. Because why spend the time charging one battery when you can charge two, right?!
I bought the RAVPower 2100 mAh charger for my D850 (it's compatible with tons of other Nikon cameras) and it's been a rock-solid performer. I liked it so much I bought the RAVPower 1100 mAh dual charger for my a6300 too!
Top Travel Accessories for Photographers: Travel Microphone
You never know when you might want to get some good B-roll or just ambient sounds of nature and your surroundings, and to do that, you'll need a high-quality microphone.
After all, why shoot gorgeous 4K video on your camera and then have terrible-sounding audio?!
I'm a big fan of the little mic shown above - the Rode VideoMic GO.
It's a small mic that packs a big punch with directional audio that's super clear and crisp. This thing is compact and lightweight so you can easily add it to your camera bag too!
Top Travel Accessories for Photographers: Video Editor
If you've got a camera that shoots high-quality video and a microphone to pick up awesome audio, you need a video editor that you can use on the road to put it all together.
I've been using Kizoa for a while now, and it's been an impressive addition to my videography workflow.
It's cloud-based, so it's easy to use when you're traveling and back at the hotel for the night.
Better still, they have a free iOS app so you can get your editing done in the car, on the train, or on the plane to your next destination.
In fact, with this handy app, you can create amazing videos in just a few minutes. You can add as many photos and videos as you like, as well as special effects, different fonts, 3D effects, slides, fades, and more.