Travel to the coast for the weekend or the southern hemisphere for a month or more, this can have massive potential for your photography and or your pocket. With pre planned photographic holidays costing in excess of £2000 for a six day jaunt that's where Gold Star Travels can help. Gold Star Travels can help to reduce the total cost of flights, hotels and car rentals savings of upto 60% can be made. OK you don't have a tour guide but do you really want to be told where and when the tour party should be on any given day. Part of the fun should be exploring and finding those hidden gems. When you go on a tour the tour has been planned and most of the time the guides take regular tours to the same places. So any photos you might take could be similar to those taken by previous tours. There would also be no spontaneity or originality in your shots. The good thing about Gold Star Travels is that what you can possibly save, you could spend on more equipment either to take with you or purchase while abroad, that is if you are willing to buy abroad don't forget if you purchase any equipment you may have to pay duty when coming back into you home country. There is also the question about the guarantee is it still valid in my home country this is a bit of a grey area but worth checking with the shop where you are purchasing. Having said that there are still bargains to be had you need to make the most of the opportunity and take the decision for your situation. One major point you need to make sure of before travelling is... is my equipment insured? Your normal house insurance may not cover you while abroad, it is worth checking as you might need to get photographic insurance a quick search on Google will come up with insurance companies in your home counrty.
What equipment should I take is a common question. The simple answer is what are you going on holiday to try to capture. For example if going on safari you are going to need a long telephoto lens this will make sure you keep your distance from some potentially dangerous wild animals this will help you to get close up while keeping your distance. A 24-70mm can be used for a multitude of situation they are also convenient and normally light weight so as not to add too much to you baggage allowance and cover virtually any situation you may come across. If you don't already own a battery grip this could save time and trouble especially in those isolated spots. Most battery grips now a days will take normal batteries of course, you'll need to check your grips instructions. Because when traveling weight will play a crucial part of since you are limited by the airlines. Make sure your camera bag is airline friendly and that you can carry it onto the plane, the last thing you want is to check in you camera bag, get to your destination to find you camera bag is somewhere else in the world. Make sure to pack an international travel plug adapter so that you can charge batteries use your laptop or just charge the ipod. Since most of us don't have small laptops it may be worth taking a portable hard drive or one which has a viewer such as Multimedia Storage Viewers these can be quite expensive though. A circular polarizing filter can be handy when shooting skies and helping reduce reflections on glass or water. These are light weight so won't add too much to your final bag weight. Don't forget a light tripod such as a gorilla-pod you need this for sharp images when shooting in low light such as dawn or dusk or even after dark. It may be worth using the bath scales to check your bags weight. Check your limits on the air carriers web sites as you don't want to pay excess baggage as it can be quite expensive.
One of the main things to remember is pack only what you need. Read up on the location you are traveling to check out how to access hard to reach places what time is best suited to photographing. Google earth before you go is great for checking out routes and finding good viewpoints Once at your destination check out the local postcards they often show the normal tourist locations but often have locations of much lesser known places.
Goldstartravels.co.uk finds cheap flights, hotels and car rentals all from one site savings of upto 60% can be made.
House swapping is now becoming more popular it's agood way to stay somewhere cheap, if you have a house in a good location.
Gold Star Travel Can be found here http://goldstartravels.co.uk/
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