Photo Safaris By Region AFRICA - Botswana Wildlife - Madagascar - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya ANTARCTICA - Ultimate Antarctica ASIA - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - India—Rajasthan & Puskar Fair - Japan's Winter Wildlife - Laos & Vietnam - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival EUROPE - Best of the Greek Isles - Eclectic Holland - Finland's Arctic Wildlife - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Tuscany - White Horses of France's Camargue NORTH AMERICA - Alaska Overland - Aurora Borealis—Fairbanks, Alaska - Bald Eagles of the Chilkat River, Alaska - Bosque del Apache & White Sands, New Mexico - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Summer - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Colorado Fall Colors - Denali National Park in Autumn - Exploring Lake Powell - Florida Birds—Best of the West - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Great Smoky Mountains - Horses & Icons of the Wild West - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Mexico's Colonial Heartland - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - Olympic National Park, Washington - Predatory Animals of North America - Springtime in Callaway Gardens, Georgia - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Washington's Palouse Country - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Yellowstone & Grand Tetons in Autumn - Nature & Digital Photography Seminars with John Shaw PACIFICA - Midway Atoll SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA - Galápagos - Patagonia's Mountain Landscapes - Ultimate Dolphins Wildlife Models Shoot - Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal Photo Safaris By Date JANUARY - Ultimate Wolves - Nature & Digital Photography Seminars with John Shaw, Dallas, TX & Raleigh, NC - Ultimate Yellowstone FEBRUARY - Japan's Winter Wildlife MARCH - Florida Birds—Best of the West - Nature & Digital Photography Seminars with John Shaw, Phoenix, AZ & Boston, MA - Midway Atoll - Aurora Borealis—Fairbanks, Alaska - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - White Horses of France's Camargue APRIL - Springtime in Callaway Gardens, Georgia - Galápagos - Finland's Arctic Wildlife - Patagonia's Mountain Landscapes - Eclectic Holland - Great Smoky Mountains - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Mexico's Colonial Heartland MAY - Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Ultimate Dolphins Wildlife Models Shoot - Best of the Greek Isles - Tuscany JUNE - Washington's Palouse Country - Predatory Animals of North America JULY - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Summer - Olympic National Park, Washington AUGUST - Washington's Palouse Country - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage SEPTEMBER - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Denali National Park in Autumn - Alaska Overland - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Madagascar - Yellowstone & Grand Tetons in Autumn - Botswana Wildlife - Colorado Fall Colors - Predatory Animals of North America - Horses & Icons of the Wild West - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival OCTOBER - Exploring Lake Powell - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - India—Rajasthan & Puskar Fair NOVEMBER - Laos & Vietnam - Ultimate Antarctica - Bald Eagles of the Chilkat River, Alaska DECEMBER - Bosque del Apache & White Sands, New Mexico

		Revised for 2002 - by Joe Van Os Air travel with camera gear has become a bit more complicated following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. While new federal regulations will take a number of years to be fully implemented, one thing is for sure: what we will come to remember as the good old days of air travel are past. Clearly there needs to be more rigid screening of passengers and baggage — checked and carry-on. These impending rules will undoubtedly have the greatest impact on those photographers who travel with a lot of gear. How much you are inconvenienced depends on how well you are able to adapt to the new changes in how we travel, the amount of gear you carry, as well as your attitude. It's no secret that nature photographers carry a pile of weighty gear — especially wildlife shooters with big lenses. Shortly before one of our tours, I frequently get calls from panicky clients who have just learned that their selected airline limits carry-ons to a single piece weighing no more than 6 kilos (about 13 pounds). This severely limits the amount of gear you can take on a plane with you. For long shoots you could almost carry 6 kilos of film alone! The question I am asked by these clients is, "How are you going to get your cameras on the plane?" These days, the new luggage game is one you may not be able to win, but there are steps you can take to make the new rules a bit less troublesome. In this article I will offer specific tips you can use to help get your valuable film and equipment safely to and from a photo shoot that involves air travel. Many of these steps I have used over my 20-plus years of photographing on the road. Others have been incorporated since September 11. One of the latest changes that will certainly affect photographers is the new federal carry-on baggage limit of one carry-on plus a smaller ancillary (personal) piece like a laptop, briefcase or purse. These federal regulations do not compel an airline to allow you two pieces. Specific airlines could decide to allow only one (as do many foreign airlines). This disparity, plus very low carry-on weight limits imposed by some airlines (particularly when using foreign airlines for international travel) are the most problematic. Let me pose the photo travel dilemma in the form of a scenario. You are going on safari in the Republic of South Africa. You're traveling in economy class on United Airlines from Los Angeles to Chicago. At Chicago you transfer to Lufthansa, United's Star Alliance partner, and fly economy class to Frankfurt, Germany. From Frankfurt you fly Lufthansa to Johannesburg. United Airlines (and federal regulations) allows two carry-on bags on your flight from Los Angeles to Chicago in economy class, but Lufthansa allows only one bag (weighing about 15 pounds) from Chicago onward. Like the storm clouds on the horizon, you can anticipate a hassle developing as you land at O'Hare Airport. An easy (but expensive) solution to this problem is to purchase business class tickets. This will allow you to carry two bags on Lufthansa instead of one. Most airlines rarely challenge their business class passengers regarding the weight of carry-on bags as long as they are not huge and don't look like they weigh a ton when you carry them. Whenever possible, I book my entire flight on United Airlines, my most frequently used airline, to maintain their preferred customer mileage status. I also use a United Airlines MasterCard to charge virtually everything I can to pile up miles for upgrades. I only use my mileage program points to upgrade from economy to business class, saving me the cost of business class tickets. I never use my accrued miles for free tickets — only for upgrades. Using an airline like United that has many international partners with reciprocal mileage agreements allows you to upgrade your tickets to many places around the world. These days, because of the number of long lenses and auxiliary gear I regularly take with me on a trip, I am frequently constrained to dealing with the carry-on dilemma by checking some of my cameras and long lenses in the planes luggage hold. Then, I carry on my basic photo gear in my camera backpack and my film in a standard-sized cloth briefcase made of ballistic nylon (like my backpack). The new federal security mandate will eventually have all checked bags x-rayed by the new model CTX-5500 explosive detection machine. Although it will be years before the number of the high-tech scanners needed for all US airports can be manufactured, random screenings of baggage on domestic flights and a higher frequency of scans on international flights using these machines will take place. The CTX-5500, like the older CTX-5000 models still in use, has the ability to destroy ANY film, so I always keep my film with me. Never, never, never put your film in your checked luggage. For those cameras and lenses that I must place in the cargo hold, I either wrap them well with clothing or bubble plastic and place them in my hard-sided suitcase, or I use a large Pelican (brand) case with wheels. The Pelican case is pretty durable and can hold all of my longest lenses, several bodies, flash units, Quantum (brand) batteries, filters and miscellaneous gadgets. I also stuff my Domke long lens bags inside it for later use. Any other available space inside is filled with clothing to lessen vibration and movement of the gear. However, this case's outward appearance screams "steal me!" To deter would-be thieves, I put this case into a large duffel bag, or a custom canvas shell made by a sailmaker, to cover it up. It's not a perfect solution, but it disguises it enough so that someone making a fast assessment to steal baggage from an airport vehicle, belt or luggage carousel, might miss it. I've done this on countless flights and have been very lucky, so far — no loss or damage. I lock it with two heavy-duty padlocks. One is inadequate. A few years ago Seattle-based photographer Kevin Schafer was robbed of his camera gear from out of one of the very (Pelican) cases I have described above. Placing the uncovered case as checked luggage with British Airways in Nairobi, Kenya, Kevin lost a number of bodies and big lenses. His one padlock on the case was picked and the case contents were emptied. The thieves then put the case back into the luggage system where it continued along its way — empty — to the USA. Kevin points out that it shows a big breach in British Airways' security system. If the thieves can extract camera gear from the case, they are certainly capable of adding materials (like explosives) as well. I doubt security has changed much in the Nairobi airport following September 11. Many third world countries cannot afford the price of the new technology and will continue to rely on the preparedness of their security teams. Though Kevin's stolen items totaled thousands of dollars in losses, he received only $400 in compensation from the airline. Fortunately, he had supplemental all-risk camera insurance on his homeowners policy. Airlines compensate only by baggage weight when items are lost or stolen on international flights they do not compensate based on the value of the items. This policy holds true even on flights between Canada and the US. To maximize the inadequate reimbursement you'll receive, your best bet is to claim that each piece of your missing luggage weighs 70 pounds in the event of loss. After talking with Kevin about the theft of his gear, I telephoned United Airlines and used the same United/Lufthansa — South Africa safari scenario above. I asked if there was some form of supplemental insurance I could purchase from them. I wanted to insure $20,000 worth of camera gear for damage or loss if I checked it as baggage at the ticket counter from Los Angeles, arriving at Johannesburg. The agent I spoke with did not know if insurance for camera gear was available, so I was left on hold to enjoy 15 stirring minutes of United Airlines theme music followed by a polite "no" and "if you check it, it's at your own risk" reply. It was suggested by the agent that I try United's International Air Freight so I called them with the same question. After 15 more rousing minutes of the United Airlines theme music (George Gershwin is probably rolling over in his grave), I was told I could ship my gear as air freight and that the insurance would cost $3.50 per hundred dollars insurance valuation — or $700 total. The shipping would be $7.94 per pound and as the full case weighs about 50 pounds the total would be $397. There would be an additional $25 Federal Aviation security fee and a $10 fee for United to type the airway bill. A commercial export declaration form from US Customs must be obtained, by me, from the US Customs Office and a $50 charge would be levied if United helps me to fill it out. There's a blizzard of additional paperwork requiring five copies of each page — AND ALL OF THIS IS FOR ONE WAY, ONLY!!! Furthermore, my gear may or may not travel with me on my scheduled flights and, even if it did, I would have to go and clear this freight through the quagmire of the South African customs facility as it wouldn't be delivered with the checked baggage. I would also have to pay the import fees and the inevitable bribes, and even then there is a good chance I would not be able to get the gear for days (or longer). In short, by using this method it would have been far easier to PURCHASE BUSINESS CLASS TICKETS. In the field, my friend Wayne Lynch usually carries his camera gear in a mid-sized LowePro Photo Trekker backpack. Before flying, he packs the full backpack into a well-padded, soft-sided, rectangular, rolling carry-on case of a size the manufacturer claims is "airlines approved." This additional case and padding is used to protect his gear in the event he is forced to relinquish his "airlines approved" carry-on bag by airline employees at the gate. While this system is certainly far more protective than simply surrendering the photo backpack, it is still vulnerable to getting bashed broadside by the corner of a heavy suitcase or, worse, a mechanic's steel toolbox. If it does get bashed and his gear is broken, he has minimal recourse for the loss. This is why I prefer the added protection of the hard case — but it is far from foolproof. Some photographers wear their photo vest onto the plane — jammed as-can-be with film and lenses. By doing this these days, they stand out like a commando at the gate and may be subjected to additional scrutiny. It's a virtual certainty that if they are also carrying on an overweight pack, or more bags than their limit on flights limited to one piece, they'll be stopped. The vest offers next to no protection for equipment placed in the overhead bin and the pockets can easily pop open, spilling lenses and other fragile items. They're also a good pickpocket target. For all domestic and some international travel, my carry-on bag of choice is a LowePro Pro Trekker photo backpack. It is long and thin, without side pockets, and can get through the bag excluder templates that now reject oversized carry-on bags. US airlines have been steadily installing these excluders on all of their X-ray machines that screen carry-ons and it resembles shoving your gear through a big mail slot. This particular model of LowePro bag is larger than most airlines carry-on bag dimensions, but I have never been forbidden to take it onto a plane, even on the many flights I have made after September 11. I can cram about 35 pounds of gear in this pack, including a chunky 300mm f/2.8 lens. The LowePro bag that does conform to most airlines size requirements is the Photo Trekker. I would highly recommend this bag for most travelers. On domestic shoots, some of our Photo Safaris leaders and clients are now shipping film via FedEx to our shoot's hotel. FedEx does not routinely x-ray packages shipped through their system. (This was corroborated during my recent visit to the FedEx distribution center in Seattle.) While this type of shipping is a good idea in the States, do not attempt to ship film to international destinations — it can create colossal customs headaches! Domestically, there could be a potential problem if your shipment does not arrive in time for the shoot, or (more likely) if the hotel misplaces it. As insurance, carry enough film with you for at least two days of shooting until your film box is located, or you can have more shipped to you from home or a camera store. Here are some other tips that I normally use when traveling by air: *  Future FAA regulations for US airports will almost certainly require your carry-on film to be x-rayed, like they are in Europe. These machines are widely acknowledged to be film safe even with the film being repeatedly run through them. This has definitely been my experience, as my film is regularly x-rayed and Ive never suffered film damage from any machine, anywhere. If you are still worried about X-ray damage to your film, particularly if your trip will involve visiting several airports and repeated security screenings, consider lead-lined bags. Good ones are available for about $50 each and are made with neoprene for durability. Larger bags can hold up to 100 rolls of 35mm film that have been removed from their plastic canisters. Don't make waves about X-rays at the security checkpoint. These days it is a pointless endeavor. *  Using American-based airlines for international travel will allow one more personal-size carry-on piece and additional weight than most foreign-based carriers. Presumably, the US-based airlines luggage holding areas in foreign airports are now much more secure than ever before and there is less chance of luggage theft or pilferage. Using US airlines will also help our domestic economy as well. *  When flying internationally from the US solely on foreign-based airlines (like Lufthansa) where the foreign airlines carry-on restrictions in economy class are one bag instead of two like most US-based airlines, do not bring carry-ons to the airline check-in desk. Leave them with a friend, spouse or travel companion to guard while you check in if possible. This is the first location where an airline employee could deny your second carry-on if you are carrying one for your film. In the US, you will have no problem getting a carry-on and a briefcase through the security checkpoint and to the gate of a foreign-based airline. All travelers go through the same screening checkpoints, and which airline you are using is normally not differentiated. It could be more problematic on your return flight from a foreign country, but the denial of a second smaller bag containing film rarely happens if you keep a low profile before and during boarding. For me, if I am asked to check part of my camera gear, Im not averse to begging! To this day I have never had my camera gear placed in the hold if confronted at the gate, by explaining what it is and by being very polite. *  Although all airlines can enforce carry-on weight restrictions, most do not. Avoid British Airways and Quantas whenever possible. These are among the most troublesome airlines in the world regarding carry-on bags and their weight. Fly to Australia or England on a US-based airline. Watch out for "code share" flights where American Airlines' international flights are actually operated by British Airways. Please email me if you experience enforced weight restriction problems with other airlines so I can update this list. *  Avoid east and west coast Shuttle business flights in the USA. These carriers normally restrict domestic carry-ons to one piece. Shuttle by United is a good example of this. *  By all means get an airline mileage-accumulating credit card for the airline that you fly the most. This can be a very productive way of garnering miles for upgrades. *  By concentrating travel on one major airline, preferred status mileage program members board early and get first crack at the empty overhead bins. There is less of a chance you will be hassled about oversized or overweight backpacks if you are among the airline's best customers. *  Purchase all-risk camera insurance on your homeowners or business insurance policy. This makes good sense no matter where you go or how you travel there. *  Ship your tripod and ball head with your clothing in your suitcase or duffel bag — it's one less high-profile (and dangerous-looking) piece of equipment to deal with in the security line. A great rugged suitcase for this is a Delsey (brand) hard-sided, 30-inch "Club" model. *  Remember that trying to get excessive and overweight baggage onto a small plane like a Cessna is not the same as attempting to get an overweight camera bag and stuffed suitcases onto a Boeing 747. There are very real safety issues regarding the weight of the small plane's payload that require adhering to strict regulations and limitations. *  In this age of shipping various pieces of camera gear as part of checked baggage within the hold of the plane, your equipment will be subjected to more jarring and vibration. Small screws can loosen and back out; parts can detach or get lost. Checking your camera gear carefully upon arrival before your shoot will save you from many problems. Bring a set of jewelers screwdrivers with you (in your checked bag) to tighten up any screws that require it. Also, have your cameras checked by a repair professional regularly, depending on the frequency that you travel. Although some of the rules for flying with photo equipment have changed, the pleasures of traveling and photographing nature have not. As usual, if you strive to take good care of your cameras and lenses in the field, it also makes sense to take good care of them as they get transported to your destination. In some cases you may need to rethink the amount of gear you will use, particularly if checking some pieces within your baggage is not a viable option for you. New small-sized image-stabilized telephoto zoom lenses may be your answer. Remember, if your gear is not with you personally, no matter how well it is shipped in baggage, it is at greater risk of delay, damage or loss. That being said, with the emerging air travel regulations, there still may be times when youll decide to ship some photo gear, like a long lens, in checked baggage. How, and how, well you pack it will make all the difference in the way it fares. See the companion article Flying with Photo Gear After September 11 for more details.

	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383   Fax: (206) 463-5484    Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.