Assuming the flight arrives on schedule, this time next week I should be somewhere between Johannesburg and Swaziland, making my way to Hlane Royal National Park, for the first stop on a 2 week photography trip that is taking in 5 different lodges in 4 game parks/reserves. To say I am looking forward to it would be quite an understatement.

Naturally, the primary aim of the trip is photography, and as always happens before a trip, my mind is now turning over what I need and how will I carry it.

Thankfully, after several such trips in recent years, I am happy that if any 1 item is to break, I have enough redundancy to keep shooting. I am also happy that I have enough equipment to capture the images I have in mind, from macro bugs to the milky way, without carrying enough gear to stock a small camera shop.

One minor complication with this trip, is the fact that for several days we will be without electricity. Naturally, with 2 DSLR’s, tablets, kindles and other electronics to keep charged, this was a minor problem, looking for a simple solution.

Rhinos at Waterberg Plateau, D3200, 70-200mm f/4, 1/400 sec at f/4.0

Rather than multiple batteries (I do carry a couple of spares anyway) or USB powerbanks, I have gone for a cheap 12V inverter. This simple device plugs into the car cigarette lighter, and provides 2 USB ports and a standard UK 3 pin plug socket with 240V output. At 300W maximum rated output, it’s not going to power a kettle or iron, but for charging multiple small batteries and devices through a 4 way adaptor it will hopefully be invaluable.

I ordered this Inverter from Amazon, and will report back on its success or otherwise on my return – BESTEK® 300w power inverter

Another aspect of the trip that is under consideration, and is always in a constant state of refinement and development, is that of workflow – downloading, backing up and managing images whilst away from my main workstation. On a 2 week Safari, even on a very slow day I may well shoot 2-300 images, which on the Nikon D7100 I use as my primary camera is in the region of 12-16GB of data per day. Extrapolate for 2 cameras and 13 days of shooting, and it is easy to see there will be many thousands of images to handle.

Given the multitude of variables and techniques, backup and workflow is going to be the subject of several blog posts in the not too distant future.