How to travel with professional photography equipment?


1- Book a flight with good allowed luggage weight, In Bahrain I choose Gulf Air, so we (my assistant and I) gets 60KG + 12 KG onboard.

Gulf Air Baggage allowance information: http://www.gulfair.com/English/info/Baggage/Pages/Baggage_Allowances.aspx

2- Prepare a list containing all the equipment you are taking with you with their serial number. Before you travel arrive early at the airport and approach the customs office. You have to tell them that you are taking all of these equipment with you and getting back with them. They will ask you to open the bags so they can check the equipment. They will issue a temporary export certificate for you. So whenever you are back to the country you just show them the certificate and all good.

3- You have to buy good equipment bags, I choose Pelican with foam inserts. The foam is very easy to cut to any custom shape you need and its very professional and safe.



4- Make sure that all the lenses and the cameras with you onboard, dont put them with the checked bags, because you will need all the allowed baggage weight for the other equipment.




5- The allowed onboard bags weight is 6KG, but nobody will weigh your bags so I was able to get with maybe 10+kg for every bag I checked.

6- The most tricky Item to take is the Beauty dish if you need it, I decided to take it with me also onboard, I am lucky that my Broncolor comes with a very suitable bag. Don't think of checking it in the plane because it will be damaged and putting it in a bag will not be feasible, it will take a huge space.

In short:

Travelling with equipment from Bahrain to any other GCC country is easier than what you think. The only important part is the customs part, otherwise its all straight forward.

Some results of my Dubai shoot:

Model Annie Nayyar, Styling by Khatoon Nasralla







Thank you for reading please follow me:

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Comments

  1. nekodesign21 March 2018 at 02:53

    Hi Bader, thanks for this very useful article. I am very surprised that the airline allowed you to take the Broncolor trolley in the cabin as it is a lot bigger than the standard authorised. May I ask you which pelican model you're exactly using? thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous21 March 2018 at 10:02

    Hii,

    and I am surprised that someone is still reading hahahha.

    Ok you got it wrong, I took only the Broncolor beauty dish with me and the cameras.

    I used the Pelican cases for the Move 1200L and I put them with the Luggage

    These are what I have:

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/569089-REG/iM2950_Storm_Trak_Case_with_Padded

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/200016-REG/Pelican_1610_020_110_1610_Case_with_Foam.html

    But I recommend you check what is the latest models cause these are from 2014

    I hope this answer all your enquiries.

    Keep in touch instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bader_photo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nekodesign21 March 2018 at 11:26

      Thanks for the reply :D Yeah I am just looking to buy a Broncolor Move 1200L and as I am going to Mongolia I am making a bit of research on how to travel with the lighting kit.

      Thanks
      Sidar

      Delete

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