Traveling Simply | Photography

This week I packed my bags in preparation to do some traveling, embarking on a trip to Europe and making my way through Greece, Spain, France, and Italy.

Of course very high on that packing list of mine was some photography gear. Having never been to these countries, I’m excited at the prospect of capturing a slice of the world I’d never seen before.

For this trip, my gear is very simple: I’m bringing my Leica Q, and my iPhone 7 Plus.

That’s it.

I take great joy in the simplicity of this setup. There are no lenses to pack and no real accessories to speak of. The Leica has a spare battery and a charger, so those of course got brought along — but there’s nothing else.

Though I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures while traveling, I have never enjoyed taking along the various bits of gear required to get the perfect shot. It’s easy to pack so many lenses and options that it can feel overwhelming and cumbersome, not to mention the fact that in many situations a simple iPhone shot can suffice.

This goes back to the age-old debate over how to stay in the moment while also capturing it, and for me, I know that a heavy camera bag slung over my shoulder at all times is helpful with the latter, but detrimental to the former. I don’t want to be changing lenses instead of taking in my surroundings. I don’t want a camera in my hand keeping me from being with the people I’m with.

Since I value simplicity, I believe that the Leica/iPhone dual-camera setup (in its own a miraculous statement) is the best I’ve ever had.

The Leica is lightweight and essentially fiddle-proof. It has a single lens, and I’ll most likely use a single mode for the entirety of the trip to avoid fidgeting with details as much as possible. However, there are moments when I don’t want to bring even this along. A dinner, perhaps. While traveling on a train, with luggage in tow. An early morning at a café.

In these situations, now I have a perfectly capable camera in my pocket. This new iPhone, with the addition of the incredible ‘portrait mode’, is a device which is more than worthy to capture beautiful moments. The Depth Effect is instantaneous, and even in beta more than responsive enough for most situations. I’ll be using it quite often, happy with the quality of photos it gives back.

With these cameras, I’ve never been more excited to share the things I see while traveling — and I’ve never felt more present in the moment as I capture it.