Lenses to take on trips: Sometimes I wonder if posing this question is more to brag about the trip the poser will go on than to get real advice. Am I too jaded?

Urnst Loc: Brownsville, Texas

Sometimes I wonder if posing this question is more to brag about the trip the poser will go on than to get real advice. Am I too jaded?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

It's possible.
Also possible: People are unsure because they don't know their equipment and how it performs.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If they more clearly phrased the question, we'd have a clearer and more jaded view of why.

Which camera is more likely to impress the other passengers on the cruise?

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I'm inclined to agree with Longshadow on this one. A corollary to this is posting the camera and lens with which one took a posted photograph.
--Bob

Urnst wrote:

Sometimes I wonder if posing this question is more to brag about the trip the poser will go on than to get real advice. Am I too jaded?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Photography is an odd art form in that it requires gear. UHH has both artistic members and "gear head" members. I think the gear hogs outnumber the art hogs. If their joy comes from gear discussions, that's OK.

User ID

Urnst wrote:

Sometimes I wonder if posing this question is more to brag about the trip the poser will go on than to get real advice. Am I too jaded?

Nope. Youre absolutely 200% right on. Gear must fit the user, not at all the destination. Whatever works in Podunk works in Paris.

The most charitable read I can take on those idiotic destination queries is this:
"I know nothing about my destination, verrrry little about photography, and am hopelessly unselective about subjects. What should I do ?"

As I do not suffer fools lightly, I offer no advice to foolish queries.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

# Help ! Ive fallen and cant get up !
• Where are you ?
# On the floor.
• Dont move. We will be right there.
# How will you find me ?
• Dead.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Urnst wrote:

Sometimes I wonder if posing this question is more to brag about the trip the poser will go on than to get real advice. Am I too jaded?

In some ways, maybe too jaded. There may be some that use such a subject for bragging. But I hope and think most of us are here to help. I have advised as what I would take to a specific place based on my knowledge of the place even if I have not been there. Kind of hard to brag about a trip one has never made. I prefer to think about what I took to a place and what I would take to somewhere else based off that knowledge.

And things change. What was true for Scotland in 1975 is not necessarily true now. There is a bridge now where there was a ferry (and in more than one place). Where there was an old bridge, it still stands. But the new road and new bridge are what is used now. And what was just an inn and innkeeper's house are now several buildings and a RV "holiday" area. And things like the Colorado arch, Darwin's arch, and the sea arch in Aruba are no more. Any advice for shooting those three arches is worthless.

So when I get ready to shoot Scotland this time, it will not be like 1975. It will be for shooting for 2022. No bragging about it - it is just a trip.

User ID

wdross wrote:

In some ways, maybe too jaded. There may be some t... (show quote)

Shoot whatever catches your eye using whatever gear you happen to have at hand. Results will vary widely, mainly proportional to common sense applied.

For those who need to be spoon fed, or intravenously fed, this is the best Paris, Bamaco, Sydney, Saigon and Tokyo kit:

18-105 on Sony 6600. Learn to use CiZ and to stitch panos. That is all.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I've never felt it necessary to ask which lenses to bring on any given trip. I know what each lens of mine does well or not so well, and I usually have a fairly good idea what kind of photography I want to do on the trip. And perhaps most importantly, how much camera gear I want to bring along.

User ID

Longshadow wrote:

It's possible.
Also possible: People are unsure because they don't know their equipment and how it performs.

In that case the "advice" from the herd wont do them any good :-(

BArthur3

There's a reverse side to this: I always doubt the value of suggestions given for which lenses/cameras to take on a trip but I'm always at least curious about the findings, the "ahas" of gear taken on a trip. There are postings in response to the questions about what was used and I find value in those.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

User ID wrote:

In that case the "advice" from the herd wont do them any good :-(

Yup.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

BArthur3 wrote:

There's a reverse side to this: I always doubt the value of suggestions given for which lenses/cameras to take on a trip but I'm always at least curious about the findings, the "ahas" of gear taken on a trip. There are postings in response to the questions about what was used and I find value in those.

That's because suggestions are always based on what the suggester would use.
Don't know if the requestor may shoot the same way as the suggester or not.
I'll guess not.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

rook2c4 wrote:

I've never felt it necessary to ask which lenses to bring on any given trip. I know what each lens of mine does well or not so well, and I usually have a fairly good idea what kind of photography I want to do on the trip. And perhaps most importantly, how much camera gear I want to bring along.

And if per chance I don't bring a particular piece of equipment,
oh well.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Longshadow wrote:

It's possible.
Also possible: People are unsure because they don't know their equipment and how it performs.