“Hey, how’d you do that?”
I get asked this question a lot from friends, family and travelers who want to know more about the camera apps and processing tricks I use to capture, edit and share iPhone photographs.
I’m enamored with every aspect of mobile photography - the creative apps, the shoot-and-share convenience, the pocket size ease - and it’s changing the way I shoot, edit and deliver images, both personally and professionally, on a daily basis.
Here’s the truth. Anyone can take a beautiful photograph. The advanced technology in today’s cameras, even the most basic point-and-shoot, makes it easier than ever. And with a few artsy apps and a creative eye, even an iPhone can deliver gallery worthy images. Seriously.
But what if you want to do more than make a pretty picture? What if you want to slow down the experience of preserving a moment, a place? Or distill the creative process of photography down to its essence?
Enter the Leica M9.
As a journalist specializing in travel, I pack and unpack for dozens of trips a year. As a result, I’ve learned a thing or two about packing smarter, packing less, and traveling with travel technology.
Clothes are easy: Two pants. Two shoes. Four shirts. Something dressy. Fleece for cold. Layers for hot. Outerwear for wet. Quick-dry everything. A wrap for the airplane.
Toiletries, too, are a no-brainer: Travel-sized liquids refilled or still packed from the last trip. Nothing over 3-ounces. Nothing sharp. Done.
But when it comes to gadgets, things get more complicated. Cords. Cables. Batteries. Back-ups. Hard drives. iPod. Smartphone. Laptop. Memory cards. More memory cards. It’s too easy, and so frustrating, to head off without the essential bits that make the gizmos go.
Nearly every traveling photographer I know lusts after the ‘perfect’ camera bag. I am, perhaps, the biggest romantic of them all. No matter how many alternatives fill my closets and clutter my office shelves, the dream of finding that ‘perfect’ multi-purpose bag remains alluring.
Problem is, I ask a lot of a camera bag, especially for air travel. It needs to provide travel-tough protection, be carry-on sized and not only transport a full arsenal of camera bodies, lenses and digital accessories, but a laptop too.
Enter the Lowepro Stealth Reporter D650 AW.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
