6 Disney Trip Photography Essentials
Want to take amazing pictures on your next Disney vacation? Don’t miss these 6 essential camera accessories to pack in your bag before you go.
Photography isn’t a vacation chore to me, it’s one of my favorite parts.
Photography is how I “play” and I know going into a fun vacation adventure that I’ll be coming out the other end with gorgeous pictures that I use to decorate our home all year long.
I debated long and hard whether or not to drag my full DSLR into the parks with us. In the end, it really just wasn’t an option not to.
Here are the items I decided I needed to round out my camera bag for this first-in-a-lifetime trip.
Essential Photography Items for a Disney Trip:
If you want to photograph your next family vacation at Disney, these camera accessories and tools will make the task so much easier so you can still enjoy the time with your family.
1. Black Rapid cross-body strap:
Even though my Canon Rebel was relatively small and light compared to other DSLRs, it can still be very painful on my neck to drag it around all day.
This amazing cross body camera strap is soft and cushioned and light. It fits great across my chest and makes shooting from the hip (literally!) a breeze. It has been an essential accessory for keeping my camera quick-to-grab during busy family tours of the parks.
2. A rented lens:
I’m 100% a prime lens shooter. This is great for portraits and food photography, my two favorites, but awful for documenting a vacation.
After a TON of research and lots of chatting with a professional photographer friend of mine, I finally decided to rent the Canon 24 – 105mm f/4 lens for 10 days for our trip. I think it will be perfect for what I want to capture but at $900+ there was No Way I could justify buying it.
It’s also not something I’d use too terribly often so renting it will be just perfect. I went with BorrowLenses.com but there are several rental companies online if you’re interested.
You can read about my favorite lens for vacation here.
You know on vacation you’re going to take A Lot Of Pictures. If you shoot in RAW it also means Huge files.
A single memory card is not going to be able to keep up and you don’t want to worry about dragging a laptop along just so you can unload photos each night.
With more advice from my pro photog friend, I ordered 2 16GB SDHC memory cards, class 10 for my Canon T1i.
If your camera is newer or more professional than mine, those may not be your best option. Be sure to do your research.
My friend’s advice was to get several smaller cards vs. one large one so you can swap out a fresh card for each day of your trip and keep the others safely stored at the hotel.
4. A Lens Pen:
Actively using your camera on vacation means it is likely going to get dirty. Dust and dirt, maybe even sand, potentially food or drink splatters, a whole world of things could get your lens dirty.
A lens pen is a simple camera-safe, affordable tool to polish and clean the external glass of your lens to keep your pictures crisp and clear.
5. Camera bag carry-on:
I already have a fantastic camera bag/purse I’ve been using. It is perfectly padded, has tons of pockets, and works great for a carry-on piece while traveling.
If you don’t have a secure place to store your gear in transit, now would be the time to consider getting something. There are tons of options out there!
Kelly Moore, Epiphanie, Jo Totes are the big purse makers but Amazon has lots of backpack options as well. I looked at Timbuk2, Lowepro, and Crumpler bags before finally selecting my purse.
6. Buy a Disney Photo Pass CD ahead of time:
If you really want to make sure that YOU are in the photos, Disney also has their PhotoPass program.
There are photographers stationed all over the parks who will take your family photo and put them in a gallery for you to view and order from post-vacation.
Their CD is available with printing rights to all the images they take. (I’ve heard of some families having up to 600 images in their gallery! It’s all about how much you think you’ll take advantage of the program.)
If you’re even a little interested in this option, shop ahead of time at this link here.