Personal Items
Try to pack light, as we will not have room in the van for more than one piece of luggage plus camera bags for each of us. Most airlines are now charging for more than one piece of checked baggage.
Two pairs of shoes: One sturdy pair for in the field that you can get wet and muddy. One pair for evenings.
Light weight rain jacket and rain pants. You don’t have to go all out here, but if we have some wet weather and it is not raining too hard we can still go out and get some good photos. I really suggest a rain jacket if nothing else. We have worn cut open Hefty bags as skirts and they work great when we did not have rain pants. The rain gear will keep you dry when walking in tall, wet grass. There’s, however, a good chance that we won’t need the rain gear. We have made numerous spring trips to Tuscany and so far we have had great weather on each trip.
Small umbrella for rain and shade. I use an umbrella often to block the sun from hitting the front element of my lens. Black is best.
Sweater or light jacket for possible chill on early morning shoots. A light layer underneath a rain jacket can be surprisingly warm.
Hat for sun and rain protection.
Camera Equipment
At a minimum I suggest that you bring with you a digital SLR or mirrorless rangefinder body and one general-purpose high quality zoom lens. Please call or email me about suggestions on equipment if you don’t know what to bring or purchase.
Camera manual/paper version, or download it to your laptop.
Camera batteries, at least 2.
Camera battery charger and converter for European plug in. (I will have an inverter so that we can charge in the van if needed).
CF or SD cards, 2 or 3 cards, 4 gb, 8gb or 16gb. Some people like to avoid using large cards, 8 gb and above, in case the card fails. If a smaller card failed you would lose a lot less data.
Compact Flash card reader if shooting digital and bringing a laptop.
Laptop or a stand-alone data storage device such as the Sanho Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA2. I have the 250 gb model and use it as secondary backup other than my laptop. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/887227-REG/Sanho_shdcsudma2250_250GB_HyperDrive_COLORSPACE_UDMA2.html. It is also a backup for downloading if my laptop happens to fail or get stolen.
Computer Software: Photoshop CS2 or above, or Lightroom, or Aperture.(If traveling with a laptop).
Portable hard drives, for backing up from your laptop. Redundancy is prudent.
Manual dust blower, Giottos Rocket Air Blower is a good one, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/259157-REG/Giottos_AA1900_Rocket_Air_Blower.html
Lens cleaning tissue and fluid.
Sturdy tripod with head. If you want to spend the money, the carbon fiber tripods are a pleasure to carry around and use. Expensive, but should last you a lifetime. Try to keep the tripod minus the head weight to below 3.5 lbs. You will get better images overall if you travel with and “USE” a tripod.
Plan to pack your tripod in your checked luggage when flying. Remove the head and wrap it in some garments and make sure that the tripod legs will fit in you checked luggage. When I bought my latest Gitzo tripod, I was somewhat limited by the long dimensions of my luggage.
Quick release mechanism for the tripod and corresponding plates for the camera body and or lens. It is a good idea to get “Arca Swiss” compatible plates.
Camera Bag. I greatly prefer backpack camera bags. Much less stress on the body versus an over the shoulder model. I like the LowePro products as well as F-Stop. I am currently using an F-Stop Guru and love it. http://fstopgear.com/product/mountain/guru. I don’t carry my laptop in the field so it is nice to also have a slim cover with a strap for your laptop when you are not carrying it in your camera bag. It does make for a heavy package when you fly. I always “Carry On” my camera and computer equipment. The airlines are getting stricter about your carry on luggage. Restrict your carry on to your camera bag and your laptop. Check with the your airline. I pack my tripod with the head removed in my luggage. Lithium batteries are not allowed in your “checked luggage” so you must have them in your carry on.
Circular polarizing filter. Buy the largest one that you will need and then use step down rings to adapt to the smaller front elements.
Cable release.
Double axis spirit level for camera hot shoe/used for shooting panoramas.
Trash compactor bag for sitting on or kneeling in the field.