Packing Tips for Photographers

From the November, 2008 issue of Scuba Diving Magazine.

Photographers get hit hard with airline overweight fees. Here are five tips and five photo bags to help ease the pain.

Text and Photography by Stephen Frink and Barbara Doernbach

It used to be so easy to get to distant dive locations with virtually any amount of camera gear needed to do the job. Load up a dive bag, a clothing bag, maybe a big roller case for topside cameras to go on the airplane with you--then stuff the rest in a giant hard case. Some shooters had different strategies, maybe an Igloo cooler with the lid duct-taped down to make it look like a cargo of dead fish rather than live cameras, hoping to avoid theft. But the common feeling was that overweight was an after-thought, and if we got charged at all, it would be maybe $50. But as Mr. Dylan once sang, "the times they are a-changin'," and as fuel costs force airlines' bottom lines deeper into the red, they pass some of those costs along to their passengers in the form of baggage fees. Underwater photographers get hit especially hard, so for shooters feeling the pinch, here are five tips for packing, planning and navigating baggage restrictions on your next dive trip.

Full article here at : Scuba Diving Magazine - Packing Tips for Photographers