Your Photography Roadmap
Introduction
The Ultimate Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide shows you the story behind every shot I take — from misty forest tracks and reflective ponds to rolling hills, winding trails, and sunlit landscapes that change with the seasons. Photography, for me, is about capturing the atmosphere, observing subtle shifts in light, composing the scene, and turning fleeting moments into lasting images and videos.
Sometimes these journeys are shared with my wife Dorota and our Shih Tzu, Monty. Their presence adds warmth, spontaneity, and charm — Monty chasing leaves along a track, pausing in sunlight, or Dorota stopping beside a pond to admire reflections. These moments often inspire the shots I take, influencing composition, timing, and the story each image tells.
This guide will take you through cameras, drones, lenses, filters, and editing workflows, revealing how each piece of gear plays a role in capturing landscapes, candid moments, and dynamic scenes. You’ll see how I combine technical expertise, artistic decisions, and careful planning to create images that feel alive and immersive.
By following this Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide, you’ll discover not only the gear and software I use but also the thoughtful decisions, creative processes, and practical techniques that make each shot unique. From the choice of lens to the lighting conditions, from RAW processing to final colour grading, every step contributes to the story behind the image.
Whether you’re an aspiring photographer, a seasoned traveller, or simply curious about the behind-the-scenes of landscape photography, this guide provides a complete picture of how gear, technique, and workflow come together to produce stunning, story-driven content.
Nikon D7200: Capturing the Landscape
The Nikon D7200 is my workhorse for landscape photography and a core component of the Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide. It offers the flexibility to capture everything from wide panoramic vistas to intricate details, ensuring that every scene — whether a misty morning pond, sunlit hillside, or winding forest track — is perfectly preserved. Its dual SD card slots allow me to save RAW files for detailed post-processing and JPEGs for instant sharing, giving me the freedom to experiment while knowing nothing will be lost.
I use a variety of lenses to suit different conditions and creative goals:
- 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR (67mm filter): versatile zoom ideal for both distant landscapes and closer wildlife details, allowing me to capture sweeping hills or Monty exploring a track from afar.
- 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6 DX VR (72mm filter): ultra-wide for dramatic forest scenes, panoramic skies, and architectural elements in travel destinations.
- 35mm f/1.8: perfect for low-light conditions, early morning or dusk, and isolating subjects like Dorota pausing beside a pond.
- 40mm DX Micro f/2.8: captures close-up textures — dew on leaves, water ripples, or delicate flowers — bringing out details often missed by the naked eye.
Editing is an essential part of the Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide, and it begins in Adobe Lightroom. Here, I carefully adjust exposure, highlights, shadows, and colour balance, while fine-tuning saturation, dehazing, and local contrast to recreate the feeling of the original scene. For example, a foggy forest track might require subtle dehazing to bring out depth, while a sunlit pond needs careful local contrast adjustments to capture reflections without losing detail.
Next, Topaz Denoise AI removes noise while sharpening details like leaf veins, textures in water, or distant hills, maintaining clarity and realism. For creative enhancements, Luminar Neo allows selective adjustments — enhancing skies, highlighting reflections, and fine-tuning colours — giving each image a unique mood that reflects the moment I experienced.
Using this workflow, the Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide ensures that every photograph not only documents a scene but also conveys the atmosphere, light, and emotion, whether it’s a quiet forest path, a vibrant pond, or a dramatic hillside at sunrise. This approach bridges the technical and the creative, making the Nikon D7200 a central tool in producing images that tell a story.
Curious about our Nikon camera, lenses, and filters? Visit our Nikon Gear page.
Interested in how we edit these images? See our Editing Workflow page.
DJI Mini 3 Pro: Seeing the World from Above
Flying above a mist-covered pond, a sunlit hillside, or a winding forest track, the DJI Mini 3 Pro allows me to capture aerial perspectives that beautifully complement the ground-based Nikon shots. From above, forest paths, lakes, and rolling hills reveal patterns, textures, and forms that are invisible from the ground, adding a unique dimension to the story behind each landscape.
I capture RAW images for maximum editing flexibility and MP4 videos, including vertical 9:16 clips specifically designed for social media. Using ND and CPL filters, I carefully manage light and contrast to ensure each shot retains the natural mood of the scene. Timing is crucial — whether it’s the golden light of early morning or the soft, diffused glow of a cloudy afternoon, each flight is planned to capture the perfect atmosphere.
Once back in the studio, images are carefully processed to enhance colour, detail, and clarity using my standard editing tools, while videos are refined for cinematic landscape sequences or vertical social clips. This workflow, which balances technical precision with creative storytelling, is detailed fully on the dedicated Travel Photography Gear-Workflow page.
Each drone flight tells a story — Monty running along a forest path, Dorota pausing beside a sunlit pond, or fog lifting over a still lake at dawn. These moments are captured with attention to detail, storytelling, and creative editing, ensuring the narrative and emotion of each scene are preserved.
This aerial approach is an essential component of the Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide, demonstrating how combining ground-based and drone photography can elevate storytelling. By carefully planning each shot, selecting the right filters, and applying a consistent editing workflow, I create images and videos that not only document landscapes but also convey the atmosphere, light, and emotion of the moment.
Curious about our drone and filters? Visit our DJI Mini 3 Pro Gear page.
Want to see how we edit aerial photos and videos? Check out our Editing Workflow page.
DJI Pocket 2: Capturing Spontaneous Moments
The DJI Pocket 2 is perfect for capturing candid, spontaneous scenes during our walks. Dorota and Monty sometimes create moments too fleeting to set up larger gear — Monty chasing a falling leaf or Dorota stopping at the edge of a pond.
It records photos and MP4 video, including vertical 9:16 clips for social media. ND and CPL filters control light, and the wide-angle lens ensures no detail is missed.
For handheld and spontaneous footage, videos are edited to bring out their energy and narrative, with vertical clips refined for social platforms and longer or panoramic sequences polished for cinematic impact. This workflow transforms fleeting moments into polished stories while preserving the authentic atmosphere of the scene, complementing the broader Travel Photography Gear-Workflow detailed on the dedicated page.
The Pocket 2 records high-resolution photos and MP4 video, including vertical 9:16 clips designed specifically for social media sharing. ND and CPL filters help control light and contrast in varying conditions, while the wide-angle lens ensures every detail of the scene is captured, from the smallest leaf to the sweeping background landscapes.
In many ways, the Pocket 2 completes the Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide, demonstrating how small, portable gear can capture moments that larger setups might miss, all while seamlessly integrating into the broader workflow of ground-based and aerial photography.de.
Curious about our handheld camera and gear? Visit our DJI Pocket 2 Gear page.
Interested in how we edit these photos and videos? See our Editing Workflow page.
Samsung Galaxy S21: Capturing Life on the Go
Sometimes, the perfect shot appears when my main gear isn’t at hand. The Samsung Galaxy S21 allows me to quickly capture unexpected, fleeting scenes — Monty pausing in a sunlit patch of forest, reflections dancing on a pond, or Dorota walking along a winding trail. These spontaneous moments often occur when there isn’t time to set up the Nikon or Pocket 2, but they are just as valuable for storytelling.
By focusing on composition, timing, and perspective, even these quick smartphone captures fit seamlessly into my broader workflow. I treat each shot thoughtfully, paying attention to framing, lighting, and the natural mood of the scene. Later, these images are edited to match the style and feel of my other photography, ensuring consistency across my gallery and social media.
Although compact, the Samsung Galaxy S21 is a versatile tool that complements the Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide perfectly. It captures fleeting moments that might otherwise be missed, enriching the overall narrative of a journey and allowing me to maintain a complete visual record of landscapes, walks, and life with Dorota and Monty.
Editing Workflow: Bringing Stories to Life
Capturing an image or video is just the start. The Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide is about transforming raw files into polished stories, bringing out the mood, detail, and emotion in every shot — from misty forest tracks to sunlit ponds and panoramic hillsides.
I begin in Adobe Lightroom, balancing exposure, colour, and contrast while recovering subtle details. Topaz Denoise AI reduces noise without losing sharpness, keeping textures like leaf veins and water ripples crisp. Luminar Neo lets me enhance light, contrast, and colour selectively, giving each image its unique mood.
For video, CapCut polishes short social media clips with transitions, overlays, and music, while DaVinci Resolve handles longer drone or handheld footage with cinematic colour grading and stabilisation. Music completes the story, matching pace and emotion, whether on social platforms or YouTube.
Every edit — from subtle adjustments to final audio — shapes images and videos that tell more than a scene. They tell the story of light, landscape, and life.
Curious about our full editing workflow? Visit our Editing Workflow page.
Next Steps
Every camera, lens, filter, and piece of software plays a vital role in telling the story behind each image and video. From forest tracks and reflective ponds to rolling hills, winding trails, and spontaneous moments with Dorota and Monty, the goal is always the same: to capture the moment authentically and bring it to life.
The Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide is designed to provide insight into the tools and processes that make this possible. Each piece of gear, whether it’s the Nikon D7200 for landscape shots, the DJI Mini 3 Pro for aerial perspectives, or the DJI Pocket 2 for candid moments, contributes to creating images and videos that are both technically precise and emotionally engaging.
To explore the full range of equipment, learn practical tips, and understand the step-by-step processes that bring these shots to life, visit our dedicated pages:
- [Nikon Gear →] for lenses, filters, and shooting tips
- [DJI Mini 3 Pro Gear →] for aerial photography and drone workflow
- [DJI Pocket 2 Gear →] for handheld, spontaneous moments
- [Editing Workflow →] for detailed software guidance, editing examples, and practical tips
By following this Travel Photography Gear-Workflow Best Guide, you’ll gain a complete picture of how gear, technique, and creative editing combine to produce images and videos that tell compelling stories of light, landscape, and life. Whether you’re an aspiring photographer, a seasoned traveller, or someone who simply enjoys seeing the world through a lens, these pages offer the insight and inspiration to elevate your photography and video projects. Gear and Workflow Best Guide, you’ll gain insight into how I combine gear, technique, and creativity to produce images and videos that truly tell a story.