One Lens Travel Photography

In the summer of 2024, my wife and I took our two boys (at the time, age four and 10) to London and Italy (Milan, Verona, Venice). For my camera kit, I took the Sony A7CII and two compact Sony lenses, the 24mm F/2.8 G and 40mm F/2.5 G, the lightest and most compact camera kit I have ever brought on a family vacation to date.

Spoiler alert, it was an eye-opening experience that will influence how I plan my kit for travel going forward.

All previous trips have involved me lugging full-size Sony mirrorless cameras, often times with multiple GMs prime and/or zooms. Granted, over the years, I have learned my lesson that less is more. It was just this trip in particular that I really wanted to travel light.

For this trip, in hindsight, I only needed one lens and that was the 40mm. 80% of my shots were taken with it and the shots with the 24mm were not as interesting to my eyes. That means a couple things for me. One is that I clearly found some synergy with the 40mm. The second is that I’m wasn’t very adept at using wider focal lengths. This is still the case today, but I’m trying.

The main takeaway with using the the Sony A7CII and the two G lenses for travel is that it all fit in a small sling bag and was easy to take out. Once in hand, I was able to frame a shot very quickly. This is important because traveling with two kids, especially one that is four, challenges you to see the opportunity and act quickly.

And, more to the point, this kit allowed me to enjoy the overall traveling experience with my family. I was more in the moment while being able to capture shots that are meaningful to me.

However, this blog is really intended to be about the lens and the focal length and less about the overall kit. While the camera did add a lot to the shooting experience, the lenses, specifically the 40mm, made a bigger impact. As such, I did end up selling the camera for a full-size camera. It was mainly around the fact that I do more non-travel photography than travel photography, and I wanted something that didn’t have as many limitations, such as a low-resolution EVF, max shutter speed of 1/4000th or feeling unbalanced with bigger lenses, but I disgress.

This is to say that the experience with the small prime lens changed my perspective on travel photography a lot more than I expected. It felt natural and in-sync with how I experienced London and Italy. It was a do-it-all focal length for me that was able to capture close-ups, medium distance environmental shots, and larger landscape shots. It didn’t feel too wide and distance adjustments with my feet were typically a few steps forward or back.

Despite my praise of the 40mm focal length, the true epiphany I had with using this lens isn’t so much about the perspective, but more to do with addition by subtraction. By eliminating my choices, I was forced to work with what I had. There was no longer a need to think about what lens I should use, but rather a need to assess the scene and know what I had to do to capture it. Granted, I didn’t have to work that hard. 40mm seemed to complement the locations we were immersed in and with what I envisioned capturing. Ironically, I’ve sold the Sony 40mm F/2.5 G, but in my world, it’s not uncommon to reacquire the same or similar gear, so don’t think of it as me abandoning it. Certainly, I’m not abandoning the focal length; quite the contrary, which I’ll explain later.

Hindsight has told me that I could have just gone with only the 40mm lens because the data shows that most of the shots I took were at that focal length. As mentioned earlier, it also has to do with my skill—or lackthereof—with the 24mm. I strongly believe that if I only brought the 24mm, I would conclude the same: that being forced to one choice would be a net positive. Would I have had to work harder to get certain shots? Yes, probably, but the challenge, in hindsight, excites me.

What this means for me going forward is that I’ll only be taking one lens when going out to shoot photos. The one that will be affixed to my camera. I’ll still likely be transporting more than one lens, but I won’t be swapping lenses mid-walk nor will I be carrying multiple choices with me. I no longer will fret over what lenses to pack in my camera bag for a trip; I see too many posts in forums or Reddit in which people get analysis paralysis. I used to be that way, too! I always ends up the same: you end up using one lens the majority of the time. What the trip to London/Italy showed me was that I’m a lot more resourceful than I gave myself credit for. Unless the trip calls for a specific scenario that requires a certain lens, I won’t be packing large, heavy primes or zooms or an army of lenses to cover every conceivable scenario. I don’t need to be a specialist when traveling with family. Just capture what’s there in the moment.

Truth be told, I’m a gear head and love trying out new cameras and lenses (and focal lengths). So, I’ll always have options, but I’ll be limiting those options to when traveling. Does this mean I’ll only take primes? No, I like zooms, too, but going back to my earlier point about appreciating a lightweight, compact kit matters.

I may post a blog about our trip two years ago to Japan in which I took the Sony 24-70mm GM II lens with my then Sony A1. That was also a lot of fun, and as you’d imagine, very versatile. However, that combination lacked a certain panache; something you can get when building a relationship with a fixed focal length. I have one with the 40mm now and really appreciate it. I’ll definitely be using it again in the future.

I think that’s what I’m trying to convey here. I found something that conquered a challenge I’ve always had with family travel. This summer, we’ll be traveling to Japan again and I already have a kit in mind that I’ll be taking with me. Stay tuned…