Rae and I are at SFO right now, awaiting our red-eye flight to Boston. We are headed to Maine for a Labor Day weekend wedding at which we will be the photographers. For the past several years, I have endeavored to lighten our luggage on all our our travels. While I didn’t think it was a problem at the time, I seriously overpacked when I was studying in France during college. I brought way too many clothes packed into two suitcases and a garment bag. In addition, I had a backpack and a laptop with me in the City of Lights.
Since then, I have flipped to the other side of the equation. I am constantly looking for better ways to pare down my luggage load. This trip is a little different in that we are bringing a lot of photophores gear to Maine. Still,we are not checking in any luggage on our flights. Some of my photo gear and laptop are stored in a LowePro CompuTrekker AW backpack. The tripod, camera bodies, some lenses, and accessories are in a Pelican 1510 hard case. Rae is carrying all of the clothing in a soft bag that’s backpack sized.
Why travel so light is a question I have been asked before. While I get to save a few dollars avoiding the airline check-in baggage fees, the main reason is that I enjoy having everything with me at all times. There’s a certain sense of freedom and liberty when you don’t have to lug and drag tons of stuff with you everywhere. Rae and I still remember all the steps we ascended and descended in the Paris metro stations; it’s not a good memory to have! From that point forward, both of us have followed a minimalist approach to travel. Furthermore, I enjoy the challenge of reducing what I bring to the bare essentials.
We are about to board the airplane, so I’ll be signing off now. We have some new gear to test on this trip, which I will describe in a future post on this site or on the Autumn Gem site. Stay tuned!
tow.com 
That was an awesome advice! Thanks for sharing it. Yes indeed, travelling light would surely save a few bucks and would make you comfortable anywhere you would go to. You can also left your expensive things like SLR, laptops, etc. when travelling so that you would not regret if something happens in your trip. You might think that what would I use then if I would left those things? You see, those things are surely available in places that you will visit, best thing about it is that those things maybe available for rent in some shops.
I couldn’t agree more. I used to be a habitual over-packer of clothes. Recently I’ve started taking more brief photo-vacations to cities where friends reside. I’ve learned that…
a) I don’t need to bring my laptop on these trips (especially w/ a smartphone)
b) It’s worth it to pack half as many clothes and then do laundry mid-trip for $5