Photography is a favorite hobby of ours! It helps give some color and vibrance to Two Roaming Souls!
Although Jake does most of the photo work, it is something we both love and are passionate about. It allows us to save our favorite moments from traveling around the world, and also create visually detailed guides.
Camera gear can get very expensive quickly, so our philosophy has always been to find the best budget-friendly photography gear. Things that get the job done without breaking the bank.
Our Favorite Camera Gear
Camera: Sony A6000
The Sony Alpha 6000 is a powerhouse when it comes to an affordable do-it-all camera. It’s lightweight and compact enough to take with us everywhere. Experienced photographers will find all the settings to master their craft. For beginners, the intelligent “auto” mode is all you need to start capturing amazing photographs right out of the box.
We use the Sony a6000 for almost all our nature photography, portraits, and video. It takes clear high-resolution photos in nearly all environments. Even though smartphone cameras have gotten much better, in our opinion, there is still no substitute for a real camera.
I used the standard Sony 15-50mm kit lens for many years. But eventually, I upgraded to this better telephoto lens to help capture more landscape shots.
If budget wasn’t a factor, I would upgrade to the Sony A7 iii.
Pro Tip: Wanna know how we capture awesome photos of ourselves (like the one above)? We use an App like Camrote to connect remotely to our Sony Camera (plus a tripod). No more running back and forth to press the shutter. We can see what the camera sees right on our phone, change settings, and snap the perfect photo (or ya know, try again when the first ones comes out awkward).
Our Tripods
Full-Size Tripod: TYCKA Rangers Travel Tripod
While we love mini tripods, there is no replacement for the strength and convenience of a full-size tripod. Our full-size travel tripod is this TYCKA Rangers Travel Tripod. We love this affordable tripod because it is super sturdy and very easy to set up.
It’s a perfect budget-friendly travel tripod that does pretty much everything we need it to (it’s just not that lightweight).
If budget wasn’t a factor I would buy the Peak Design Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod.
Mini Tripod: Xenvo Squidgrip Mini Tripod
A mini travel tripod is a great piece of gear to carry around in your kit. They help ensure you always have a tripod with you. Mini tripods are usually better suited to smartphones, but some are sturdy enough to use with small to medium digital cameras.
But their biggest limitation is height. If you can’t find something to put in on, then you end up with photos/videos taken from a low angle (which isn’t always a bad thing).
We used to use the Joby Gorillapod 1K (our review). It is a very versatile mini tripod that is adaptable to many circumstances. But with several Joby tripods, we’ve found that eventually the joints crack and ball head gets loose.
So we have moved on to testing out a new travel tripod: Xenvo Squidgrip Mini Tripod.
So far we like it and it seems like it might be the solution to the problem with Joby Tripods. But time will tell.
Drone: DJI Mini 3 Pro
Flying a drone adds a whole new dimension to our photography. In my experience, they are better for videos than photos. So we mostly use it for our Youtube videos and social media.
Currently, we have the DJI Mini 3 Pro Drone, and love how quiet and intelligent it is.
Our first drone was the DJI Mavic Mini, which is still a great entry-level drone that’s super affordable.