If I had to take my entire experience of going to Okinawa to document the USO tour of actor James Arnold Taylor and boil it down to one word that word would be “Nice!”

Is that because the name of my blog is “Nice” and it sounds snappy and clever in an opening paragraph? Not entirely. The truth of the matter is the people we met in Okinawa, be they Okinawans, solders on the base, or the USO folks themselves, the one word that would describe them all best is “Nice.” Maybe it’s because I live in Los Angeles, or because I’m jaded from all the years in the entertainment business, but I don’t tend to run into people everywhere I go who want to go out of their way to make sure you I’m happy.  A big thanks goes out to them all, but especially to Betty, Brian, and Julia from the USO!

Whenever I’d watch some dopy reality show where people would cry when someone they’ve only known for a week got voted off it always seemed so phony to me, but after spending less than a week with these three we all got choked up saying goodbye at the airport. Now I get it.

You guys don’t care about that, though, do you? You want to read the list. Well, let me explain it first, Mr. Hotpants!

I am not a travel photographer, nor an adventure photographer. Most of my photography is of the Fine Art style. That’s what the people who hire me to shoot high end portraits are looking for, too. From time to time, however, clients will enlist me for more of a photojournalist style because they like my unusual (okay, odd) point of view. Regardless, these assignments almost never involve me being away from home for more than a day or two. What that means is I wasn’t totally prepared for the trip to Japan as far as what to bring. I had everything I needed to take the photos. What was missing were a few things I needed for comfort. So, in addition to what I had thought to be essentials for a photography trip here is a list of 5 items that will now get packed for any future photo adventures. If you are a seasoned traveler and already know all these things, how about you stop making fun of me and offer up some other items I missed in the comments below?

The Nice Top 5 Unexpected Essentials For a Successful Photography Trip:

1. Bring different size camera bags. The plan was to fly to Okinawa, then we would change planes in Tokyo’s Narita airport, but that was it. No time in Tokyo proper. I knew in Okinawa I’d want to have all my gear with me at all times in case something came up. However, we decided to extend the trip an extra three days on the way back and get some really good Tokyo fun times in. Three days. No obligations. Just me and James looking for trouble. After a week of 12 hour shooting days there was no way I was going to hang 25+ lbs of gear from my dislocated shoulder for three more days. Fortunately it turns out there are camera stores in Tokyo. Who would have guessed? So I bought a cool little camera bag that I couldn’t squeeze more than my camera with wide zoom and my bright 50mm lens into. That way I had no choice but to leave the accessories back in the hotel. Not that I don’t love getting a new camera bag at every available opportunity, it’s just next time I’ll be packing the little camera bag in the suitcase.

2. Bring a scarf. A scarf I say? Yes, a scarf. As I said above, we were just planning on going to Okinawa where the weather was even nicer than Southern California where we were coming from. Of course when we decided to stay in Tokyo it was a different forcast. In Tokyo it was below freezing. That meant that my neck was freezing. If your neck is freezing you are freezing. That’s the way it works. It took me two days to find a place that sold a scarf in Tokyo. Apparently the city is broken up into districts. Business district. Electronics district. Scarf district. Now I know. You say you don’t need to bring a scarf because you’re going to shoot a Hawaiian volcano? Well maybe you’re eating a bowl of mocoloco when kind hearted stranger sees you’re a photographer and he offers to take you up to the Keck Observatory where it never gets above freezing. Are you going to pass on this once in a lifetime treat because you have some deep seeded hatred for scarfs?  Scarfs don’t take up much space and don’t weigh a lot. If you don’t mind looking like a fool you can use a scarf to cover your head from the sun. Oh, you have a sun hat? What if say a koala stole your hat while you were out photographing Ayers Rock? Now who’s got a burnt scalp, eh? You can possibly use a scarf to replace a broken camera strap. I don’t know. I haven’t tried it. Might work. Look, I’m not going to spend all day trying to convince you to bring a scarf. Wait. I already did.

3. Bring a Netbook or Laptop with a webcam and decent video chat software. I actually had webcam equipped netbook with me for backing off the memory cards that I kept filling up. I had planned on using Google Video Chat to get my family fix while I was away. I used to love my wife with all my heart, but now she has to share it with our three month old baby. Getting to chat with them twice a day really made missing them tolerable. The only problem is I wanted to record the video chat to watch later when they had gone to sleep. No can do with Google Video Chat. And the video quality wasn’t the best anyhow. I’m now searching for a decent one that can record the video with a simple click of a button and looks nicer, too. Kinda like that fancy one you Mac boys have.

4. Bring snacks. Hunger has teeth and sometimes, at the most inconvenient of times, it would bite me right on the tuckus. A healthy food bar (not sugary junk that’s going to just make you fry out) easily fits in even the smallest of camera bags and can help keep your mind focused. Trust me; you don’t want hunger teeth marks on your tuckus when you come home to the wife.

5. Bring a map that is in both English and the native language of your destination. Let’s say you have a map that you bought, it’s written in English because you have to be able to read it to find the places you want to go, right? Well, now let’s pretend you get lost – I’m not saying I got lost, it’s just pretend – so you find a helpful citizen of the foreign land you’re in and you show them on the map where you want to go. Guess what? They can’t read the map because it’s written in English. Next thing you know, you’re crying like a baby who lost his mommy, snot dripping all over your brand new scarf, ruining your fancy new camera bag. People are staring at you with a mixture of concern and embarrassment, and for the first time in your life you see with absolute clarity a crippling disdain in the heart of mankind. I mean, we’re just pretending, but it could happen. I mean puddles of snot.

6. Bonus essential. Tissues. See above.

Nice!

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