Useful Photography Tip

Useful Photography Tip #195: Golf Bags Are a Great Way to Store Light Stands on a Flight

Chris Gampat
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06/11/2019
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Last Updated on 06/11/2019 by Mark Beckenbach

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Photographers traveling on flights often will have trouble with lots of the gear that they’re carrying. Not only do you get thoroughly checked when bringing cameras, lenses and more but light modifiers can also be a pain. Let alone the cost of all that stuff can add up. But for some odd reason, golf bags fly for free (meaning no oversize charge) on most airlines. Golf bags are a great size for storing smaller light stands–which will make your life so much easier. Of course, you still need to check the bag, get it over there, and hope that the folks who work while handling all that stuff don’t break anything.

A few other tips when it comes to packing your gear that I’ve learned in my years of traveling:

  • Pack your camera and lenses neatly so that when you open it up, things inside are easily seen
  • Separate lots of things like microphones, lenses, cleaning accessories, etc.
  • Some airports won’t make you take your camera and lenses out

If you’re a photographer and you travel a lot with your cameras, lenses and all then you probably know and understand how difficult it can be. Even with TSA Pre-check, I’ve had a number of issues. Often what I do is really separate things. For starters, one bag has all my electronics while the other bag has all my clothing. I’m pretty strict about only having carry-ons as I’ve had gear lost for days while traveling abroad. I also tend to overpack just in case of being stranded or anything like that. As far as gear goes though, I wouldn’t put your lights in a golf bag, but your stands and a few other things like a softbox or umbrella will be absolutely fine.

Editor’s Note: This tip was provided to us by American Photographic Artists.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.