The Tropics

I have been incredibly fortunate to have explored a number of tropical islands. Many were visited on my own sailboat when my wife Robin and I lived aboard and travelled through the Caribbean and South Pacific for over a decade. While traveling on your own boat affords special access and time to explore it also has lots of logistic challenges and responsibilities. We have often asked if it would make more sense to get on a plane and see the tropics. I would not trade our sailing experiences for anything however the vast majority of the places we visited can be accessed via plane and local transportation.

The single bit of advice for travel photography to the tropics is to pick the least touristy destinations and make efforts to stay in reasonably remote locations. It is a pretty connected, accessible world and even remote places like French Polynesia’s Tuamotus islands can be visited via established air line routes and local accommodation. Lonely Planet guidebooks and the internet can give the information needed.

People often ask what our favourite locations are. Definitely the Pacific over the Caribbean although we have very fond memories of the Caribbean. The basic reasons are significantly more people in the Caribbean which affects the experience plus the South Pacific’s unique Polynesian, Melanesian, Micronesian cultures. For favourite islands in the South Pacific we prefer remote places like the Tuamotus, Marquesas and remote parts of island chains like the Ha’apai Group of Tonga and all of the Vanuatu chain.

For photo equipment, the lighter and more compact the better. Because I have often been on my own floating home I could carry bigger, heavier cameras like a Mamiya 6 X 7 film camera and 3 lenses. However the more I carry around heavy gear ( I currently lug around 2 full frame DSLR bodies and 2 lenses) the less fun I have. Traveling in the tropics is hot, sweaty, hard work at times. So, the best cost benefit would be a high quality micro four thirds camera like the Olympus digital. My OM-D takes lovely pictures as long as I don’t want display prints much bigger than 16 x 20 inches.