Top 10 Tips for Packing Your Polar Photography Equipment

According to Neill Drake — who leads photo workshops on Oceanwide Expeditions voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic — the value of your experience in Antarctica or the Arctic doesn’t hinge on the quality or quantity of your photos when you get home, and ten good photos will always be better than one hundred mediocre ones.”

In the blog linked below, Drake offers 10 detailed suggestions for a polar photography packing list.

“For starters, I’m a huge believer in ‘less is more,’ especially when it comes to polar photography,” says Drake. “It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset that you need to have every piece of gear available for every possible situation.

“Too much gear can become extremely cumbersome; reducing it down to the bare essentials will considerably improve your trip in many aspects.

“In the spirit of having the best experience possible, the most important thing is striking a good balance between time spent taking photos and time spent without your camera – existing fully in the moment.

“I’ve seen it too many times with my own eyes: Some guests live their entire trip through the viewfinder of their camera.

“On my first trip, I believe I took somewhere around 6,000 photos and more than five hours of videos. I don’t actually remember a lot of what I saw with my own eyes. My second trip, I brought one camera with one lens and took less than 300 photos the entire trip. I enjoyed my second polar expedition much more than my first.

“I also found I came home with much better photos. Each photo was carefully thought out beforehand. I was studying the light, the lines, and the behaviors of the wildlife to get the right shot. It showed both in the quality of my photos and the quality of my experience.

“Click onto this link for my 10 detailed suggestions for a polar photography packing list.”