When luggage goes missing, the equipment inside often becomes impossible to replace. According to travel photographer Laura BC, the small items you pack around your gear determine whether a ruined travel day turns into a lost shoot. She starts her list of essentials with the simplest tool: an Apple AirTag. She advises buying at least two, one for checked bags and one hidden inside the camera bag. A visible tracker signals a thief exactly what to take, and she found her own bag after it was pulled from the carousel and set aside at a distant location.
Keep Electronics Accessible
Everything valuable should travel in the cabin, she argues. Most people toss chargers into checked luggage to save weight, but a lost MacBook Pro charger in a big city is manageable. On a small island in Thailand or the Philippines, going without one for days leaves you without maps, ride apps, or a way to book transport. Her camera gear fits into a Brevitē backpack that holds a Sony a7R V, a Sony a7C II, two lenses, a drone, and batteries while mimicking a school bag. This discretion matters to a woman traveling alone with expensive equipment, though she still reaches for her larger WANDRD bag when necessary.
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She notes that power banks have become one of the most tightly regulated items in a carry-on. The FAA already bans spare lithium batteries in checked bags, and airlines are adding more restrictions. China’s Civil Aviation Administration began banning uncertified power banks on domestic flights starting June 28. Southwest requires passengers to keep power banks visible while using them, while Emirates prohibits using them onboard entirely. Each carrier sets its own capacity limits, usually measured in watt-hours printed on the case. When traveling with cameras, drones, and phones, check the battery policy for every carrier on your itinerary, including connection airports.
Preparation Before You Leave
She advises buying a CCC-certified power bank no matter where you are headed. She learned this lesson firsthand during a transfer in Shanghai while traveling between Europe and Bali. Security pulled uncertified models from the line and dropped them in the bin, even though passengers never left the terminal. A dead phone in an unfamiliar airport creates a vulnerability, so she lands with data already running instead of hunting for a local SIM card at the airport. Her travel adapter charges several cameras, a GoPro, and a phone simultaneously, which proves useful during long layovers when she edits between flights.
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Her storage setup pairs a 4 TB SSD for editing with a sturdier hard drive for a second copy. She fills this second drive every day rather than waiting until the end of the trip. For audio, she relies on a pair of Bose QuietComfort headphones rather than the flimsy earbuds airlines provide. The FAA’s lithium battery rules only cover the checked bags, which means travelers must stay alert to local regulations like the 3C certification in China. If a trip requires changing plans, having the right power bank and an immediate backup of files prevents a single missed connection from destroying the entire project.
