Travel filmography is a skill. If I had the opportunity to travel more I would. Traveling opens the door to many elements of inspiration.
From the sights and sounds to the experience of getting lost or meeting strangers that become your friends, traveling is invaluable to any artist.

Whenever I get the opportunity to travel, whether for work or pleasure I try to kill two birds with one stone.

This is why it is rare to see me anywhere without my camera. Somehow I manage to always make any travel experience into a filmmaking expedition.

Filming with your friends and going on a true filming adventure are two different scenarios. I have learned to shoot economically and make use of minimal equipment. Though this may mean my shots are not as grand as they could be if I had carried multiple lenses or a pocket dolly, but at least I still capture my experience while being a bearable traveler with my non-filmmaker folks.

Here are some of my travel filmography strategies:

Use Surroundings to Minimize Equipment

When I travel, I like using my surroundings as my stabilization/support mechanism. I carry the bare minimum because I know if I am bogged down with my weight in equipment, I will eventually be lazy after the 2^nd day and just not film at all. For my recent trip to India, all I had with me was a Canon 7D and 24-70 mm lens. For stabilization, I used ledges, counters, and tabletops. At the airport I even borrowed a luggage dolly and also used my own luggage to rig up some smooth moving shots.

Edit on the Go!

I treat my traveling videos as my own personal mini travel diary and quick fire challenge. I edited while I was traveling, using my trusty MacBook Pro and external hard drive. I edited it in hotels and during airport layovers. For this particular challenge, I had to use a piece of classical music as the guide and edit a story based on the change of the music.

I hope you enjoy!