I recently returned from a two week trip around the British Isles. It was an amazing trip. We saw areas around London, Guernsey, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands and many other locations in between. We had so many stops it would be almost impossible to list them all. I would love to write blogs about all of the locations, but with things being so busy at my day job, I don’t really have time for that right now. Maybe later this fall/winter when I have more time in doors I can sit down and do some longer posts from the various locations. Leave a comment below if there is something you are most interested in hearing about. Hopefully my memory will not have faded by then. I think this post is going to be more of a gear overview and some insight into the photography aspects of the trip. I don’t usually write a lot of posts about gear, but this time it seems appropriate. While this was not actually a photography trip (it was a family vacation) I still did my best to get as much photography in as I could. Of course compromises were made since it was a vacation for everyone; I was not always able to optimize the photographic opportunities, but I did my best.
Kitchener Memorial above the cliffs on the Orkney Islands, Scotland.
While planning for the trip I REALLY struggled with what equipment to bring (or maybe harder yet, what NOT to bring.) With so much travel involved, small planes, large planes, ships, small boats, trains, cars, buses and etc, I knew I had to keep my kit as light and portable as possible. That immediately eliminated any thoughts of bringing things like tripods or larger lenses such as my 600mm F4. Knowing I was also going to be carrying whatever I brought around on my back most of the time, meant I also needed a good backpack and needed to keep the weight to a minimum.
In the end I settled on only bringing just two lenses and two camera bodies. I also purchased a new smaller backpack for the trip as well. Besides being smaller, the backpack was also built with security in mind, since I was concerned about the safety of my gear while traveling. In my kit I ended up with my Canon RF 24-105 L F4 lens, the Canon RF 100-500 L lens, my Canon R5 as my main camera body and a Canon R6 as my backup body. I also brought along 2 sets of spare batteries and multiple memory cards, both CF-Express and SD. I also had my Peak Designs Capture Clip attached to my backpack strap and plates on both cameras. Typically I like to shoot with a battery grip on my cameras, but I left them at home to save weight and space. This did mean I felt like I was having to change out batteries a lot faster than I am used to. The backpack I chose for the trip was a ThinkTank Backstory 13. I also had my GoPro Hero 8 Black with me, but I found I did not use it very often. I did do a test run of basically this exact kit when we did our Our Lake hike I talked about in my previous blog. So I did have some idea how everything was going to work.
An idea of the layout of my camera bag, with my two lenses, two bodies and accessories. I used the rain cover (blue pouch) as kind of a buffer between things.
My Peak Designs Capture clip attached the strap on my camera bag.
The idea of only having two lenses along did concern me. I was not sure if I would be able to do everything I wanted. My biggest concerns were being able to go wider than 24mm (I would have liked to have had my 16-35mm a few times) and I was also concerned about only having an F4 lens and not having something a little faster like most of my F2.8 lenses. This ended up being less of an issue for me, although there were a few times another stop of light would have been nice. I knew the Canon 24-105 was going to be a compromise, but when considering my options it also seemed like the most versatile choice. In the end, I was very happy with the lens. I had only purchased the lens this spring, so I had not had a lot of time to try it out. The 24-105 is a lens I like to use for video. I have the older EF version and have used that for many years on my DSLRs, but I wanted the RF version so I did not need to bring any extra adapters. I have not done a side by side comparison, but it seems to me the RF version is better than the old EF version so I think it was a good investment. I really only used my old EF 24-105 as a video lens as I mentioned, since I would normally choose a different lens for photography. I also picked up the Canon RF 100-500 this spring which I have mentioned in other posts. That lens was also purchased to try and have something that was the native RF mount and I also like the idea of having the extra 100mm’s over my old Canon 100-400mm version 2. I am still not sure I like the 100-500 as much as my old 100-400. I did occasionally have some focusing issues with the 100-500 lens. I am guessing most of that is just because of the slower aperture on it. I was still able to get some good shots, but I have not been blown away by the lens so far. But as I said, it does give me some extra reach and does not require any extra adapters, so I think it was still the right choice for this trip.
A puffin getting ready to take flight from the cliffs in the Shetland Islands, Scotland.
Overall I was happy with my backpack. It is on the smaller side, but that was intentional. I like that the main zipper compartment is on the inside (against your back) so I was less worried about security when we were in crowds. It is also nice when you need to take your pack off, you can lay it down in the dirt or wet and when you put your pack back on, the dirty side is not against your back. The pack comes with a rain cover, but we had unseasonably hot/dry weather most of the time, so I never needed to use it. The one day we did have significant rain, I still did not have any issues and I did not bother putting on the cover. I also enjoyed having my Peak Design Capture clip on it as well. It was very handy to sometimes be able to clip my camera on and have my hands free. I was a little self-conscious about having my camera so visible when we were in busier areas, so sometimes I did stop and put it back into my pack just to not draw attention. But when we were in more remote areas, I used it a lot. I did notice that if I wore my camera on my pack strap for extended periods of time, it did start to get kind of sore on that shoulder. I was able to adjust my straps and make sure I kept the weight balanced in my pack as much as possible and that did help.
Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
I used my Canon R5 more than 90% of the time. I really only used my Canon R6 when I was actively going back and forth between a wider shot and a longer telephoto composition. I left my 24-105 on my camera 90% of the time too. I only got out the 100-500 when I had some wildlife shots or if there was a subject like a lighthouse or something farther out I wanted to bring in closer. I was having some issues with my R6 that further reduced me wanting to use it. I was getting some memory card read issues and I kept having to reboot the camera until the error went away. This never happened while using the camera at home. And since being back I have not had it either (although I have not used it a lot since being home yet.) But it was consistently happening over there. I don’t know if it was a memory card or the camera itself. The camera has dual memory card slots and I was using cards in both slots, so that makes it a little harder to troubleshoot. My pictures/videos were all fine on the memory cards though, so that was good. I will have to do some more experimenting if I am able to recreate the problem. I am hoping maybe it was just a bad memory card, that would be easier to resolve than an issue with the camera itself.
Portrait of a highland cow in Scotland.
Hopefully that gives you a little overview of my setup and my thoughts about things. I certainly do not consider myself a “travel photographer,” but I was traveling and doing photography so I guess take my suggestions for what they are. This blog is already getting kind of long, so I guess I will end it here. If you have any questions about the gear I used or particular places we visited, feel free to reach out. And hopefully I will be posting more detailed blogs about the trip as I get more time. Check back to see those posts and hopefully some others now that we are getting into the fall months.
A bagpiper in front of Blarney Castle.