Allison Anderson is a travel and lifestyle videographer and photographer with over one million subscribers on her YouTube channel and over 30 million video views. “I mostly travel the world, documenting my trips,” she says. “I shoot both photo and video, and I have some gear that is my ride or die that I always like to bring with me.” Watch and read below as she lets us peek inside her kit for travel photography.
Shop This Kit
Cameras: Alpha 1, Alpha 7S III
Lenses: 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master II, 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master II, 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master II, 14mm f/1.8 G Master, 35mm f/1.4 G Master
Accessories: ECM-M1 Shotgun Microphone
Cameras
I always like to travel with two bodies because I find it’s really convenient sometimes to have two different lenses on hand. So if I’m in a safari vehicle riding along, I don’t have to swap a lens if something jumps out right in front of me or if something’s in the distance, swapping for a telephoto. So I like to keep a wide angle and then maybe a telephoto on the other camera so I’m always ready to go.
Alpha 1 (Buy Now): My main camera body is the Alpha 1. I love this because it is a hybrid for both photo and video. You get those beautiful, high-resolution images, the high-burst shooting that is so helpful – especially when I’m shooting wildlife which is one of my favorite subjects to capture – and then you also get the video features like 4k, 120 video. So I can get those shots of a lion jumping and really slow them down to get that detail.
Photo by Allison Anderson. Alpha 1.
Alpha 7S III (Buy Now): And then my second camera body I always travel with is my Alpha 7S III. This camera is so good in low light. It practically sees in the dark with that 12-megapixel resolution, so anything I’m shooting at night, astrophotography, this is great for.
Lenses
24-70mm f/2.8 G Master II (Buy Now): This is what I call the all-arounder lens. This is the lens that if I could only travel with one – this would be it. Because you have the wide end with 24mm which is great for landscapes. I can do some interiors with it. I can even set it up and talk to the camera at 24mm. And then 70mm you start to isolate your subject, you get some compression. And so it’s really versatile.
16-35mm f/2.8 G Master II (Buy Now): This is my other lens that I love to travel with. This is my favorite lens to shoot on because it captures so much of the environment. If I’m shooting a landscape, you can see so much. If I’m shooting an interior, like I’m staying at a beautiful resort or hotel room, it really captures the room nicely. And it’s so lightweight – it’s not cumbersome at all in my bag.
70-200mm f/2.8 G Master II (Buy Now): Another lens I love to shoot with, it might even be my favorite lens to shoot with. This is the lens that I know is going to give me the ‘wow’ images. Whenever I shoot something with this, I’m so impressed with how it looks. It isolates subjects really beautifully. It renders colors really nicely. The autofocus is fantastic. And for what it is, it’s quite lightweight. I don’t get tired carrying this around and shooting with it. Sometimes if I’m shooting more wildlife-heavy stuff, I’ll also bring the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 G Master (Buy Now). I always like to have at least one telephoto.
14mm f/1.8 G Master (Buy Now): If I’m going on a trip where I’m going to be shooting at night, like astrophotography, I love this lens. This lens creates such beautiful images of the night sky and the wide angle captures so much of it. You just see all of the stars. It’s beautiful for shooting the northern lights, and that wide aperture allows you to capture really clean images as well.
35mm f/1.4 G Master (Buy Now): I don’t always travel with a prime, but if I do I love this lens. This is just such a beautiful walkaround lens to capture people and environments. It renders such beautiful images and the 1.4 aperture gives you such a beautiful blurry background and everything just looks so pretty with this lens. So if I room in my bag to bring this, I like to bring it.
Accessories
ECM-M1 Shotgun Microphone: Another piece of gear I always like to travel with is a good microphone. This is the best travel mic ever because it is SO tiny. I can palm it in my hand. It is ridiculous how small this thing is. It powers directly through my camera’s multi-interface hotshoe, so I don’t have to worry about charging it which is so huge. Especially for travel, because when I am jet lagged, and tired, and running around, and checking in and out of hotel rooms – it’s really easy to forget to charge things. It has multiple audio recording modes, so I can control where I want to be capturing sound around me. If I want to isolate something in front of me, or capture everything, 360, it’s so great to work with.
SmallRig Rotating Camera Mount: I have this on my Alpha 7S III. It’s so handy for capturing vertical content, because we have to shoot both these days for all the platforms. So I can have a shot set up on my tripod horizontally and then all I have to do is rotate my camera on this, and I don’t have to adjust my tripod at all – it just rotates for me.
Peak Design Straps: I have these on both of my cameras. They’re really handy because they just clip on and off really quickly and they’re easy to adjust.
Filters: I always have filters in my bag, specifically circular, polarizing filters. These are essential if you’re shooting any kind of water or anywhere that there’s glare. If you’re at the beach, you’re outside, which is where I usually am, they’re great at cutting the glare and give you a much more vivid, clear, saturated image.
Nanuk Hard Shell Case: When I can, I prefer to wheel my gear instead of carry it – which is not always feasible depending on where I’m traveling. But I do love a good hard shell case. This case is from Nanuk and I love it because it’s very protective, I can fit a lot of gear in it and I find that it’s really easy to work out of on a trip. So I usually pack a case and then I bring a backpack.
See more of Allison Anderson’s work on her Alpha Universe Profile, Instagram @photoallison and her YouTube Channel.
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