Who takes their laptop when travelling? For what? Just curious.

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>I don't take my laptop with me when I travel unless a client makes a request that will need the use of my laptop.</p>

<p> </p>

[jim_momary]

<p>Everywhere, everytime.<br>

1. Comm link to the outside world of email.<br>

2. Download and tweak photos. (Amateur here.)<br>

3. Gets maps and inffo about new area once I arrive. (Where to go, when, what to see, ties in with my vehicle and handheld GPSs, etc.)<br>

4. Wartch a DVD for a laugh.<br>

5. Use on-line translators for deciphering "them thar lingos'.<br>

6. Comm unit to let me talk to and program PLCs, remote sensors, dataloggers, monitors and other robotic equipment. (Yeah, pt geek and pt 'gineer.)<br>

Sigh, it's been that way since 2000. Sometimes I wish 'she' would stay home. :o)<br>

Jim</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>I don't take a laptop. I don't own a laptop. Many hotels have a computer where I can check emails. Otherwise it'll wait a few days. I don't email my family, I call them, or at minimum text them. I take about 30GB of cards. Thats comfortably enough for me on a 3 week trip which is the longest I do. I have enough things to carry and look after without a laptop. I don't have time to do substantial location research once I'm there- I do it at home. I do write ideas for things to shoot. I use paper and pen. </p>

[Karim Ghantous]

<p>So - it seems that those of you who aren't professionals don't feel weighed down by the thing. Still, I wonder about why it isn't a better idea to just take "30GB of cards," even though you can't preview or edit. But the netbook probably is a good compromise. Thanks to those who took the time to reply and to any future replies.</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>The thing I find amusing is the number of posts along the theme "travel light"- wondering whether they can possibly carry that extra lens or a backup body or whatever when half of these people are probably hauling a laptop and bits around. </p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>I Travel as light as possible, but no lighter. Besides, I may travel with a laptop, but I don't carry it all the time. It's there when I need it. The same goes for other equipment. I may pack a day bag, depending on the need, and leave everything else in the room or car.</p>

[alvinyap]

<p>I use a hyperdrive space when I'm out shooting for more than a day.</p>

<p>Alvin</p>

[richardl]

<p>I nearly always take the laptop along.<br>

Most of my shooting is Rugby, as the PRO of the club I tend to have to bang off emails to papers, write up reports for the club website and generally have to keep up with updates of the other league scores for the team on the way back from the away games on the bus. That along with showing the guys some of the shots on the way back down and doing up the slideshow for the website and resizing and cropping and writing reports for the newspapers passes away the often four or five hour journey.<br>

We don't have as many overnights as we used to have when in the lower divisions but it was a godsend to have it along in some of the places that we used to stay, just to get something done while trying to pass away the time.<br>

When the team is playing at home, I try to do as much of the work needed in the office in the clubhouse before I leave. more efficient use of time more than anything else and now it has just become a habit.<br>

Can be a pain to lug all the grear around though, tack on a monopod, a couple of lenses and a flash etc and some waterproofing for everything including myself and the weight doesn't be long adding up though.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>I bought a netbook for that exact reason last month; traveling light but having the opportunity to make some backup. A small 9inch asus 1gig ram 160gig HD all i need on the go, plus it have a camera, speaker and can surf the web, so i can stay in touch with my family via skype.. can travel without it anymore. Since i have only 2 lense, 4 card, a canon 5D and a Canon G9 in my bag, it doestn had much weight (i also leave it at the hotel safe while outside the hotel).</p>

[lovcom_photo]

<p>Depends upon where I go. If going to Europe, I keep that laptop home. There are too many internet cafes around there to have to lug around my own and worry about it getting nikked from the hotel room...it's just one more thing to worry about and lug around.</p>

<p>I generally take 1 dslr, 1 flash, 2-3 lenses, and 64gig of flash cards.</p>

<p>I can do my banking and travel/ticket plans on my iPhone.</p>

<p>Keep it light and simple!</p>

[dcstep]

<p>I travel with my laptop in my LowPro equipment bag. I download images in the evening to both the laptop and a backup standalone hard drive. I'll also process some images, assuming that I have time in the evenings. You don't need an internet connection to start processing your images. I DO let the social activities of travel dictate how much I work on the images, but I am usually anxious to look at some full sized jpegs to see if things turned out as well as I had hoped.</p>

<p>I take the laptop out of the LowPro and leave it in the hotel or cabin, but it's there in the evening.</p>

[joe_taylor5]

<p>I work in IS (Information Systems) basically I am on call 24/7 even vacation. I take a laptop with me all the time to access work, BECAUSE the pay lets me buy cameras and film. </p>

[tompickering]

<p>I travel with my laptop most of the time. I like the way I can dump the images off my camera and onto a backup store (DVD's usually) which I can keep in the room safe. I've had a camera stolen before and it's a right nuisance.</p>

[tomwatt]

<p>Me. Even on some camping trips.<br>

And when my Bristol Corsair is ready to sail sometime next summer, I expect to take it along there too.</p>

[cmitchell]

<p>I have to travel with a laptop since most of the time I'm traveling for work. I don't download to my work laptop because it's encrypted and anything I load on to it gets encrypted too. I quickly learned not to do that. I just save stuff on my Canon PowerShot SX10 IS which is what I carry on work travel.</p>

<p>On personal travel I will take my Canon Rebel xTi and a couple of lenses. For short trips of a couple of days, I don't take my netbook. Anything longer than a couple of days I will take the netbook and download at night in the hotel room so I can view my photos larger, cull them or upload them to Picasa, Facebook or PN. When I get home I'll transfer everything to my desktop computer where I do any post processing on things I want to save.</p>

[ericzb]

<p>Last time I travel I did not even bring my phone, totally being cut out from modern civilization (good or bad) for about 20 days. I like to interact with the locals and other travelers rather than staying at my own room and editing photos. I mean, I did not pay my money for that.<br>

I'm not working, so I can afford being cut out for 3 weeks. I do my research at home first and determine where should I go and when should I reach that place and flow the plan roughly. Sometimes I would stay at youth dorms and I would never fell lonely enough to watch a DVD at bed.</p>

[fredrik_steffen]

<p>I've never travelled with a laptop since I don't have one, nor do I see any advantages in having to carry one with me all the time. I usually refrain from taking too many pictures, instead I try to take my time (especially on vacations, why rush around?), make the picture really count. I don't need one to keep in touch with family/friends/school/work since there's computers everywhere nowadays. If I feel the need to communicate with someone via e-mail, finding a computer to use is the least of all issues.<br mce_bogus="1"></p>

[tom_harvey3]

<p>Last year while shooting the Southwest USA I travelled with a Netbook, but then realized that a large photo dump will bring the thing to its knees when trying to archive the day's shooting. Now I'm going to use the HP laptop for archiving and the Netbook for email, staying in touch with home, internet surfing and of course my daily PN fix.</p>

[newbie1]

<p>ALWAYS TAKE IT.<br>

If I am photographing out of town I will use it to preview my photos while I am there. Then, if I miss something or want a different shot, I will have caught it and can go back. I also have an 5 terebyte external hard drive I will sometimes take for extended trips; this I used to put all my photos on, which I back up with some DVD discs I have in a separate case.<br>

But, yes. It is vital in todays world. I also use the internet and I have SKYPE so I may take and receive video phone calls for free all over the world. It acts as my home phone, TV, news station, word processor, etc.<br>

I do have a desck top at home</p>

[bob_bill]

<p>12" lap top multitasks. 160 gb to shoot tethered, to down load images at the end of the day, to access the internet while traveling, to store and display my images, small enough to fit in Stealth reporter bag computer section for carry on. But must useful, with a DeLorme map program, as a gps to get me to the hotel or shoot. </p>

[gordon_lukesh1]

<p>My girlfriend and I carry at least one, if not two, laptops. We have traveled the world from Hawaii to the true middle of Siberia. But our B&W film photography "piggy-backs" off these trips as the reason for going is business of another sort (technical conferences). We carry M6 bodies and three lenses, but also a small Canon digital for "tourist shots". If you pull out a Leica with a 135 on Red Square, even these days, the guards look a little funny at you until you get the Canon out and now you are truly tourists.</p>

<p>If you get on Redbubble.com (it is free) and search Groups for Moscow and Theme Parks you will see our B&W. I have a nice shot of the thrill ride in Gorky Park that you could not have dragged me on!</p>