How to make a honeymoon less fun in Ireland
We spent our honeymoon in Ireland. On this fun and recreational trip to celebrate my marriage I carried way too much gear. A Nikon D3, three F/2.8 zoom lenses, and a couple of fast primes–an 85mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.4. I carried this massive load of equipment while walking and biking everywhere, including to the Aran Islands.
This is where my mind and body began to feel the error of my ways. The hills on the Aran Islands weren’t so bad, but it was unexpectedly hot and I simply couldn’t keep up. She was always waiting for me at the top of each staircase, hill, and path.
I was thinking like I was on assignment and required to capture the shot regardless of the light or proximity to my subjects. It’s a frame of mind that kept me prisoner to the cycle of expansive specialized equipment to cover any possible assignment that might come my way. It made me hate working as a photographer for a long time but it is what I thought I needed to do to stay in the game. Even on my honeymoon.
What I would do differently next time
If I did this trip again today, some 15 years later, I would bring a single camera and lens. It would likely be a rangefinder with a compact 50mm or 35mm lens. That or something like the FujiFilm GFX100RF, X100VI, or Leica Q3 43. Ideally, it would be one of the -D series Leica rangefinders, the ones without an LCD screen.
Carrying less gear would have completely changed my mindset and allowed me to find images by way of being much more present and aware of my environment. I would certainly come home with better images. Maybe not more images, but definitely better images. And we both would have had a lot more fun. Instead I was fighting the weather, my own fitness, and the mindset that was perfectly unsuited for this kind of trip.