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 p.1 #7 · Air travel anxiety questions | |
That’s nice of your wife to do that for you! :-)
As to the general anxiety about traveling alone — and, I presume, negotiating connections and so forth — the main advice I’d give is to give yourself lots of time at each connection point. Arrive quite early for your departure, don’t schedule your connections too close together, and make sure you’ve got plenty of time to retrieve luggage, get transportation, and so on at the end of the flight. You can negotiate all that stuff, but if you additionally feel serious time pressure it can get intense.
If it is an international itinerary, give yourself extra time for getting through border control. And right now there’s the potential for longer delays there if you are flying into the EU for the first time in a while as they are instituting some new procedures. (I’ll spare the details since you did not mention where you are flying.) It probably goes without saying, but also double-check that your passport is up to date and not going to expire in the next few months. You may not be able to use it if you have less than six months left until expiration, so renew early.
As to carting your gear…
I recommend using a camera backpack that is within the carry-on size guidelines, and then checking a second bag with your regular luggage. If you are bringing a tripod, you may have to put that in the checked luggage. I can get my smaller but still substantial tripod into my luggage by removing the center column and head. If I have space, I’ll bring the (expensive) head in my carryon luggage.
Since your camera pack is your overhead-bin bag (you’ll check personal luggage), you can bring one additional under-seat bag. In the US the size limits for that bag can be fairly generous — large enough that between it and your overhead bin carry-on bag, in all but the more extreme situations you should likely be able to keep all of your camera gear (possibly excepting the tripod) with you on the plane… and during transfers between flights.
As to how much gear you bring, consider not bringing “the kitchen sink.” When I went out to photograph today in my car, space/weight were not issues, so I had two cameras, a very large tripod, six lenses, and other stuff. I _might_ have used any/all of that gear, but I didn’t — some of it was “just in case.” But when flying I’m a lot more conservative about what I bring, both because I’m not interested in schlepping around extra tonnage and because I want to get it all into carry-on. So you might consider leaving behind some of the “I don’t know, but maybe I could use it” gear and keeping the “I know I’ll need this!” gear.
Do you really need that 200-600 for this particular workshop? That’s a big lens and bringing it may complicate things a bit. A 70-200 with a TC might be enough, especially if this is more geared to landscape? (Do check with your workshop leader. Is this really a still photography AND drone photography workshop? Possible, but unusual.)
As far as ensuring bin space on your flights, especially the connecting flights. there are a few things to think about. First, if you leave a lot of time for your transfer instead of trying to cut it too closely AND the transfer flight is not a stop on a multi-stop flight, you’ll be boarding with everyone else, so unless you are in the last boarding group it is pretty likely you’ll find space.
If you are _really_ concerned, it could make sense to pay for a higher ticket class — like business class — where there’s often more bin space per passenger. (That is likely to work on international flights, but less certain on domestic and short hops.) If you can qualify for one of the “status” leget vels on your airline, you may be able to board in an earlier group. If you can into the first group (e.g. “group 1”) you shouldn’t have to worry. If you are in the second group, try to get in the front part of the line, and you’ll likely be OK.
(I’ve never had to do it — I usually fly on an airline where I automatically get earlier boarding — but I think you may be able to pay extra for guaranteed earlier boarding on some flights? If so…)
Booking a seat closer to the front has its advantages for other reasons, but it may actually make it less likely that you’ll have bin space right above your seat. Unfortunately (but with some reasons) many passengers seated further back in the plane prefer to put their luggage in bins that are forward (sometimes WAY forward) of their seats, since they know that they’ll be able to retrieve them on the way out. So in my experience, forward bin space often fills quicker.
As to the anxiety, I understand. I think we all feel at least a bit nervous about how we’ll take care of our stuff when flying. The good news is that you’ll probably be just fine. (But just in case, do you have full photographers equipment insurance of the “inland marine” type — not just your renters or home owners policy? Think about it.)
Good luck!
bguiliano wrote:
Hi everyone,
Hopefully this is ok to post this question in this forum.
My wife booked a photo workshop for me this fall as a birthday gift. Which on the surface is an incredibly nice gift. However, I think like some other photographers, I suffer from major anxiety when traveling with my gear - most of it centered around making sure I can carry it on and not having enough overhead bin space.
I should also note that for most of my other photo trips domestically and internationally, my wife has accompanied me and taken care of a lot of the logistics about the travel portion of those trips -
I don't believe she is coming along on this one - so there is my first anxiety point of traveling alone for the first time in a lot of years - but the second thing I found out is that there are no direct flights to my location - looks like the best I can do is 1 stop each way. Also, the second leg of the trip in, first back home is on a smaller jet.
My questions is how do you all manage/deal with connection flights and your gear.
My major points of concern are making sure I can carry on my new bag (atlas adventure - I know its big but I've done some research and most people comment that they have no issue with that bag and air travel) - but I will have to get it looked at 4 times
Also, if it's a tight connection -what can you do to make sure you get overhead space on the connection filghts? Book a seat closer to the front? buy priority boarding ? etc?
from my research it looks like my bag should fit on either plane - so that might be a relief - but hopefully there is another photographer out there in these forums that has the same anxiety I have about these issues.
Thanks....Show more →
Edited on Jul 17, 2026 at 03:13 PM · View previous versions
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