equipment recommendation - What do you take on a hike as a landscape photographer?

I have a trip to the lake district national park (UK) in a few weeks. I want to know from personal experiences what kit is essential and what can be done without on a landscape trip that involves some light hiking since I don't fancy lugging around everything. I'm not the best shape I could be!

I am a noob to landscapes, but have been shooting event photography professionally for a while and know my way around my kit. I wanted to try my hand in making professional quality landscape photography and am looking for kit tips.

What do you take on a hike as a landscape photographer?

Answer

This is difficult to answer because each one of us has different shooting styles, goals, and preferences.

Here is my big tip: Less is more

Hiking is much more enjoyable when your pack is as light as possible. Five extra pounds of unnecessary gear can turn a fun trip into a chore. You might consider 1-2 lenses that aren't that heavy, or you might even be a good candidate for a micro 4/3rds camera that could cut your weight needs in half.

One option that works well for me is to look at my historical shooting habits when determining what gear to bring with on a future trip. I use Lightroom to to do this, by filtering my library down to an event, then inspecting the Lens information such as the following:

In the above example, the 40mm f/2.8 STM lens appears to be one that I could have left at home if I wanted to pair down my kit. It only accounted for 3% of the shots during this timeframe! Taking it a step further, I would probably leave the 135mm and 1.4x teleconverter at home, and the 50mm lens at home as well. This still leaves two massive lenses, but you get the idea.

Beyond historical information that you might have, think about what the purpose of the trip is. If your main goal is photography, then what will you be doing with the photos? Are the photos intended for personal use and to capture memories, or is the intention to sell the photos professionally? If the main goal of the trip is to capture professional quality images to sell, then certainly bring any and all equipment necessary to achieve that, which may be the best lenses you have, and a very sturdy tripod for example with all of the necessary accessories. If the purpose of the trip is to "get away from the world" and into nature, then pair your kit down accordingly and only bring with the bare essentials to capture some memories and have fun.

The two biggest gear specific tips I can give you for landscape photography, are the following. Bring your ND filters, and bring a good tripod. These two items are essential and can make the most of the lenses and cameras that you do bring.

Overall, consider your intentions and the reasoning for the trip, then pair down your equipment using some of the ideas above. Hiking should not be a chore and you have a choice when it comes to photography equipment.