In 2006, I went to Southeast Asia for 2 1/2 months, spending time in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, and Burma.  Before my trip, I carefully researched equipment, only choosing to bring what I thought was truly necessary.  I kept looking at the photographer Karl Grobl’s web site and his pack list to compare it with mine (see what he brings around the world here: http://www.karlgrobl.com/EquipmentReviews/index.htm.  He is a really great resource so check it out.

On that trip I brought 2 DSLR’s, a long lens, a regular lens, a wide lens, carbon fiber tripod with ballhead (5 pounds), 12″ Powerbook (5 pounds), 2 portable hard drives (around a pound), 300mm F4 lens with 1.7x tele (3 pounds), and a flash.

While I would say the laptop and hard drives were necessary because flash cards in 2006 were too expensive to hoard, only about 5% of my photos were from the tripod, none of them spectacular.  As for the 300mm lens, this is the only photo I got with it:

Yes it is a Cheetah.  And yes anyone with a long lens and the Singapore zoo can get this photo.  Every time I moved to another town or country, I swore at myself for packing so much gear.

Fast forward to 2010: flash cards are cheap, I have the Nikon D3 that allows me to shoot in REALLY low light hand held, and I have learned how to get by with a lot less on trips.

Click photo for a high res version

Here is everything tech and camera related that is coming with me.  In 2006 I brought two 80 GB hard drives, this time I’m bringing 80 GB of CF cards.  Every night, I am going to download the very best photos onto a 4 GB flash card and keep it hidden in my leg stash (this is where that second flash card slot on the D3 comes in handy).  This way, if I am robbed of my cameras and backpack, at least I will have the best photos and my passport.

If you look closely, you can see that my iPhone (on the left) has a cracked screen.  I dropped it two weeks ago and I’m hoping the new one comes out before I leave.

Here is everything from above packed.

This is what I will be carrying when I travel from city to city.  All of my clothes and other camera gear fit inside the Granite Gear Vapor Day 32 Liter backpack.

If you would like to see my comprehensive pack list, you can download the spreadsheet here: http://joshgerritsen.com/blog/photos/Josh’s Pack List

Last week, I was in Honolulu, Hawaii with my girlfriend taking a tropical vacation.  I was born in Hawaii and lived there until I was six years old.  I returned in 2001 with my family for a week, but this was my first time experiencing it as an adult.  I have vowed to never take my big camera on vacation again, and for this trip I used my Canon S90 and my girlfriend’s Lumix TS1 underwater camera.

Here are my favorite photos from the trip, one of which was shot by my girlfriend.

The view from our hotel room

Coconut trees at the Polynesian Cultural Center

Mountain on the way back from the North Shore, photo by Marya

On the path towards Manoa Falls

Trees on the path to Manoa Falls

Path to Manoa Falls

View from Diamond Head of Waikiki

Air bubbles from divers

Air bubbles from divers

Marya swimming in Hanauma Bay with Fivefinger shoes

Tropical fish in Hawaii

After photographing Saturday night, I joined my friends out to dinner in Lower Manhattan.  Here’s a shot I took at 6400 ISO at F2.8 at 1/8th second.

Last week, I photographed the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company giving a grant to the Wanaque Fire Department in Haskell, New Jersey.  They received new radios as well as a new thermal imaging camera.

Fire Chief Lee Smith thanking the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company

Fire Chief Lee Smith checking out the new thermal imaging camera in his left hand.  The older camera is in his right hand.

I photographed the NYIT Engineering Contraption/Robot competition at their Old Westbury campus a few weeks ago.  Each team of three students had to design a robot that would autonomously move from one side of the table to the other and pump or carry water back to it’s starting point.

Out of all the teams, only one succeeded with no intervention.  Afterwards, all of the teams did the course again while controlling their robots via bluetooth and laptop computers.

I wish I took a course like this in college!