Gear up!

For every photographer out there who likes to go out and capture moments far from home, they got their own primary gear for photographing everything around them; It helps them to arrange what is needed for that particular trip. Their gear is primarily depends on what kind of trip they gonna have and what kind of pictures they want to capture.

Choosing a correct equipment for your trip is sometimes become a confusing task to do just because you cannot bring everything with you all the time. But on the other hand, it helps you train your intuition on which item is necessary and which item is not; Luckily, it also train your creativity as you can experiment with the limited gear you bring with you to create an exact picture that you want.

Out of the items needed to make a great photograph while on journey, there are some items that is essential to bring with you, and how they works:

Camera

I actually didn't want to mention this as this is the most obvious thing you have to bring with you, no camera = no picture; It's simple logic. Just don't forget about your battery, memory card, and of course lenses and you will be alright.

Bag

When you're out somewhere, it's impossible for you to carry all your equipment by hand; Therefore you need a bag. I prefer a specialized camera bag as they are easier to use and all of them has a special compartment for storing your equipment. Some of them even have more storage space than you can imagine; You can bring your personal belonging like a book, clothes, pen, hat, etc. Sometimes, camera bag also has a special storage space for your laptop; it depends on the size of your bag whether you can store your laptop in there or not.

Tripod

Making still images is usually not hard, but when you are in a lo-light environment this can affect you so much at taking pictures. When you only get a little amount of light, the picture you take will become underexposed, but if you rise the ISO the picture will get some noise and if you slow down the shutter speed the image can get blurry because of you hands movement. The best thing to have in a condition like this is a tripod. With tripod you can take a perfectly still images while you use a slower shutter speed or even a long exposure. Pick a sturdy and stable tripod and you can overcome any low-light obstacle and even get a beautiful photograph that can only be taken with a long exposure mode.

Reflector

This one is semi-optional, but if you have it then take it with you. Reflector is a versatile tool, especially with a different kind of reflector offered nowadays. With this one, you can play a lot with light and eventually come up with a perfect lighting you can imagine. Making deep shadow, enhance highlight, gives golden light, and many more you can do with just a set of reflectors; It's like you edit your picture in real life and give them effects that you can't normally do.

There are some non-obligatory tools that maybe can help you to take a better pictures. If you have them, then you should consider whether to bring them or save some storage for another "must" item if you have a limited space. 

External Flash

When you want to take a picture in a absence of light situation, flash will give you the ability to shoot them. With flash, you can take a picture in a dimly-lit space and make them look like it's not even a dark place to begin with. But an External Flash is not solely made for that purpose; There are many things you can do with them like avoid heavy shadow on a harsh light, avoid back-light, shooting indoors event, and even adding colors to your picture with colored gel. 

Many beginners doesn't have it because they don't see the need for it yet and try to compensate it with their internal flash (though the quality differs). But they will see the utility of it after some time doing photography.

External Microphone

Some people use their camera's internal microphone to record a video, but some others prefer using an external microphone to record them. External microphone's quality is usually better than the internal one, but that also depends on what external microphone do you use. High end microphones are sure to be great, even mid end microphones are still good to use. Microphone is not an essential equipment for photographer, but it's a must have for advanced videographer or even vlogger as they tend to shoot themselves talking through the entire video in which in this case an external microphone would help a lot.

These are my primary list of things that I always bring with me to shoot pictures, but some of them are not always used; That's entirely relied on what you want to shoot and what kind of image you want to produce that determines what tools you need to have with you on location.

Be sure to bring the right tools when you pack up in the tavern!