You’re a location shooter, you travel regularly, you love your off camera battery powered lights and you’re looking to figure out how to bring the most amount of gear in the least amount of bags. The bags you find are too long, too heavy, or too numerous and it’s going to cost you a fortune. You have this gear you’ve spent so much money on but it would almost cost less to just rent on location. What do you do? Compromise or pay. At least that’s what I’ve had to do for the longest time until one of my buddies and fellow Broncolor ambassador Dustin Snipes told me about this nifty little travel trick.
Some airlines have special luggage allowance for Media professionals.
Airline companies like American Airlines, Delta, and United have these nifty little luggage exceptions that allow you to check in oversized and overweight baggage at a fraction of the cost of normal luggage. Example: 
Different airlines have different policies, and some, like Air Canada which used to be my favourite airline despite their baggage dropping scandal), don’t (I asked…on twitter.) For some of these airlines, you may require to provide more than just a business card as proof you’re a media professional so I went ahead and printed out my own plastic ID card that now double up as luggage tags. Boom. Instant proof. 
Note: previous version of media pass contained a PPOC logo that I am no longer a part of. This is the latest upgraded version! The next challenge when travelling, is the number of bags and the size. Especially when travelling alone, you want to minimize the number of bags that you carry with you whenever possible. Although my Broncolor Move kits came with a sexy broncolor bag I didn’t want to lug around 2x bags for my flashes but I also didn’t want to need a monstrously that was painful to pull around. It had to be solid enough to be checked in and well built enough to sustain the abuse that I would put it through. Enter the Logistics Manager 30. A super deep )as opposed to long ( *cough* no dirty jokes here)) bag with ballistic zippers and light as a feather even at full capacity when being rolled on a flat surface. 
And what does it look like in real life? Well: this is me trying to fit inside my bag:
In conclusion: Yes, you’ll notice that I did not pack any sandbags or stands because that is universally available and super easy to get a hold of in any country no matter how exotic. Yes, a pelican case would be more secure, but they typically fit so little and weigh so much that at the end of the day they’re just not a practical case. Am I worried that the lights will break? Well, if they were anything but Broncolor’s I would probably be worried… but the build quality on these are amazing and you can pack them so that they’re nicely cushioned by all the cables around each head. My philosophy is that if you’ve spent thousands of dollars on great equipment, it’s hopefully to use it, not keep it at home in a pretty box. That’s it! If you guys have any other packing tips and tricks, please feel free to list them in the comments below! If you’re travelling, give me a shout out! SFO and Photokina are on the charts for the future 🙂 See my travel plans on my Von Wong app:
- iTunes: Click here to get the “Von Wong” app in the App store
- Android: Click here to get the “Von Wong” app in the play store