With our departure for our Investigative Photography Expedition to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China looming I thought it pertinent to pen a recommended packing list.
The Xinjiang region of China at this time of year doesn’t have the extremes of heat/cold or humidity of the other regions I have recently visited, but it does have regions of high altitude which can be quite cool as well as large expanses of desert which provide their own climate challenges.
As with all the photography expeditions we run, we always develop a recommended packing list which we give to participants upon booking which is based on our own experiences of undertaking these trips ourselves.
Recommend Packing List – Clothing
Having the right clothing is a step in the right direction to ensure your trip remains enjoyable, not having the right clothing can totally ruin your photography expedition experience!!! Being wet and cold and unable to warm up is no fun in anyone’s book.
I highly recommend layering clothing. I personally have all my layers independent of each other. For example my gore-tex jacket doesn’t have any insulation, its purely a water/wind proof breathable layer that I can don/remove depending on weather conditions. Underneath I wear my middle layer warm jacket and under that a polo shirt and thermal undergarments as required.
China in Spring isn’t know for its freezing weather but that said it can be quite cold prior to sunrise and some regions such as Lake Kanas, and higher altitude mounts, the weather can be quite chilly.
A standard undergarment with a good warm mid layer with a gore-tex outer shell is more than adequate for all conditions that will be encountered in this region of China.
If you do like to be snuggly warm then bringing a heavier middle layer is recommended.
Minimum Recommended Clothing and Personal Items
- Waterproof and wind proof Jacket (Gore-Tex or equivalent)
- Waterproof and wind proof Pants (Gore-Tex or equivalent)
- A sturdy pair of trekking boots (Gore-Tex or equivalent – Personally I prefer leather boots with Vibram soles like my Tiber NGX Boot)
- A second pair of shoes in case your trekking boots get wet
- Trekking pants (2+ pairs)
- Merino wool base layers (2+ sets)
- Warm wind proof jacket – Polar-Plus, Polar Tech or equivalent
- Warm hat or beanie
- Sunscreen/ Sunglasses / Sunhat
- Gloves suitable for use with camera equipment (see my review of the Freehands Photographers Gloves here)
- Warm socks (there is nothing worse than cold feet, woollen socks will keep your feet warm even if they get wet).
Recommended Packing List – Camera Equipment
Camera equipment is a personal preference. You can bring whatever equipment your heart desires. It really depends on your destination output. The weather conditions are far from extreme so using non-weatherproof cameras is fine though I wouldn’t recommend lugging around a 8×10 film camera or a wet plate camera setup unles you plan on shooting from within 100m of where we park the 4WD.
Personally, I pack my two trusty 35mm Canon Digital SLR camera bodies and a range of camera lens focal lengths from wide angle at 17mm up to a telephoto of 300mm given the landscape, wildlife, cultural and macro opportunities in China are so diverse. Also given the cultural aspects we will be shooting, I’m also packing my 50mm and 85mm primes which are perfect for portraits.
It is strongly recommended that you travel with a 2nd camera body as a back-up in the unlikely event of a camera failure. Personally I have two different cameras with two different specialities a Canon 5D Mk3 which isn’t weather sealed but has a nice 22.3 mega pixels which I prefer for my landscapes and people shots, and a Canon 1D Mk IV with its 16 mega pixels, 1.3 crop sensor, weather sealing and 10fps is great for wild life and for extreme weather conditions. During the China Expedition there will be little time for Camera repairs let alone to actually find a service centre so travelling with two camera bodies is just common sense.
It is more than likely that at least at some point that we will be photographing inclement weather so I highly recommend people bring rain covers for all camera equipment and bags. We won’t be near salt water on this trip, but preventing water ingress at all times is good practice.
I always recommend people bring plenty of spare camera batteries. Batteries can loose their charge dramatically in cooler weather conditions. I always pack 2 batteries for my 1D MarkIV and 4 batteries for the 5D Mark 3.
Also given that we will be out in the field for extended periods, batteries tend to get drained quite quickly using live view for compositing and Image Stabilizing on the longer focal length lenses ( and also the exorbitant amount of ‘chimping’ that occurs at these magic locations)
Given that I will also be taking a 580 EX II flash so I’ll be packing a set of 8 NiMh rechargeable AA batteries.
On this occasion I am also packing my GoPro Hero Black edition so I have an additional set of batteries, chargers, cables, mounts, and the worlds worst invention, MicroSD cards, to capture some video footage.
Minimum Recommended Camera Equipment
- 35mm Digital SLR Camera Body
- a second 35mm Camera Body
- a Wide Angle Lens
- a Standard Lens
- a Telephoto Lens
- a good Tripod
- Graduated Neutral Density Filters ( 2 stop Soft Graduated Neutral Density Filter from Formatt Hitech, LEE or Sing Ray of the 4″ (100mm) variety)
- Sensor and Lens Cleaning Equipment
- Sufficient Digital Storage and back-up for your shooting needs. (Bringing two external Hard Disk Drives is also a good idea kept in two different pieces of luggage when travelling)
- Rain Covers for your camera equipment and camera bag/s.
- a good cloth for wiping down your gear after shooting in the rain
Power
The power voltage in China is 220-240 volts (U.S/Canada are 110-120 Volts). Electrical sockets (outlets) in China are of the Australia standard electrical socket type, but some hotels will have 110v sockets and will support other socket types, but its best to ensure you have the correct adapters on hand.
If your appliance’s plug doesn’t match the shape of this socket, you will need a travel plug adapter in order to plug in. Travel plug adapters simply change the shape of your appliance’s plug to match whatever type of
socket you need to plug into, but it won’t do voltage conversion. So please ensure your equipment is auto 110v/220v switching.
A good idea is to bring one travel power adapter and bring a 4 socket power board with your native socket type to plug in your battery charger(s), laptop, phone charger etc. This also comes in handy with shared rooms as you’ll only need one power socket on the wall to charge/run all your equipment rather than jostling with your room mate to get access to a power socket.
For a few extra little things you can pack that might be of use that are above and beyond the recommended packing list, see my recent post 10 items to pack in your camera bag for your next photography expedition