Last week my wife and I escaped from the Hoth-like winter weather in Saskatchewan with an all-inclusive vacation to Cancun, Mexico. For something that is supposed to be a relaxing experience, I always find preparing for a vaction to be stressfull. Whether it's flying to another country or a road trip to another city, I often feel overwhelmed leading up to travel day. There's planning an itinerary, making packing lists, prepping things for the housesitter, making sure I have the right currency, and what feels like a million other little things. Additionally, of course there's always the question of what photography equipment to bring.
Way back when I sold photography equipment, I would watch people buy the biggest bag they could to carry every piece of glass that they could while on vacation. I'm not talking about working photographers, but everyday hobbyists and enthusiasts. I understand it, I did it too (why did I once feel the need to bring a 100mm macro lens on a trip that was going basically be a week long pubcrawl? You tell me!). When you spend that much on all that gear, you want to make use of it and be ready for any scenario. However, over the years I've become much more picky about what I take with me. So on this trip I took my OM1 body, 12-40mm 2.8, and 56mm 1.4. Something for general purpose use, and then something more specifically for taking portraits of my wife. I also took a Neewer inflatable tube light that my wife gave me for Christmas. I'm happy to say that they all got use, even though, in reality I definitly could have gotten away with not bringing the 56mm 1.4. However I wanted to take it because it is just a really nice small lens, that I know I don't use often enough, and I think it's the hidden jem of the m43 lineup.
When I look back at what I shot over this trip, part of me really feels like my desire to get a 17mm 1.8 and for my EM5-mkII has been reinforced. Either that or to get a small point and shoot with a large sensor. Something small and relatively pocketable but higher quality than my phone. I did not shoot nearly as much as I hoped I would while we were out and about. I found myself not taking my camera out during some of our walks often enough, because I didn't want to be holding a larger camera while walking though the local markets. Not that I comletely felt like I was going to get robbed just for taking my camera out, but I also have enough sense that it's not out of the realm of possibility that I could become a target in ANY crowded city when holding a larger mirrorless camera. All that being said, I was pretty happy with a few photos I took with my phone while we were out and about. It is a Google Pixel 7, and can produce some pretty darned nice images. It's a good lesson that we all need to be reminded about sometimes, we shouldn't always be so picky about what equipment we have, and just use what's available to us. I always find that if I go somewhere with my mirrorless camera, I use my phone less. Probably because there's still a part of me that is a camera snob that looks down on phone cameras. When in reality I just need to take some damn photos with whatever I have available which was one one of the lessons driven home by some of my vacation reading (Find Your Frame: A Street Photography Masterclass by Craig Whitehead).
That's not to say I didn't take anything with my mirrorless, just not as much as I thought I would...and I think that's ok. I had it in my head before leaving, that I was going to do a ton of shooting, but I found myself more just relaxing around the resort, swimming, I read a couple books, caught up on some much needed sleep, and just kind of took in the sights. There was a time in my life where I shot photos of everything, everywhere I went to the point where I felt like I was viewing the world moreso through a screen or a lens and not taking it in for myself. I think overshooting also made the quality of my photos suffer as well. I was filling a memory card with files that didn't really mean anything to me, and were just destined to be deleted. I think that actively cutting back on the number of photos I took on a vacation made me enjoy myself more and also improved the quality of the images in the long run. I feel like, especially in the age of social media, there's this artificial pressure that we put on ourselves to photograph and record everything we do and to be the one to get the best vacation photos to share and show off. Sometimes what's best is to just put down the lens, take it in for yourself. If you feel like snapping a shot then do it, but stop and take in the world around you first.
For all the extra thought and concern I put into what kind of gear I brought with me I feel like I didn't shoot alot or as much as I wanted, but I am happy with the images that I did get. Maybe that's part of the lesson here. Don't think too much about what you are photographing with and focus on actually taking some photos.
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