With my trip to Russia rapidly approaching and me going nuts planning the whole thing, I spend a lot of thinking power trying to figure out the biggest dilemma so far – should I take my laptop with me or not?
There are pros and cons to both answers and so far they are pretty equal. What I lack is a few really good reasons to have my laptop with me.
I won’t be doing much computer work during my vacation (my will power has already been tested before). I will have problems with Internet connectivity anyway. And I don’t have a good bag to carry both my digital camera and laptop. Having two bags with me (apart from that huge one with the rest of my non-digital stuff) absolutely sucks.
On the other hand, I’ll have plenty of free time (lots of several hour long plane trips). I could use my laptop to backup photos from the flash cards, and post-process them when I’d have time. Post-processing pictures from two weeks of travelling will require a lot of time and effort, and it would be good to split it in several sessions, rather than do it all at once when I come back.
Although this is still an unsolved dilemma, so far it looks like I won’t be taking my laptop with me, unless I find a good reason to do otherwise. Or until I find a good bag that’ll fit both my camera and laptop. (Hint: something along the lines of Lowepro Computrekker AW or its Plus edition)
I use the lazy rule… if you don’t see a neeed for it, don’t do it. :)
more correctly it should be “don’t do it unless you have to”
vacation is a time for relaxing and spending time with loved ones..i think the main reason why you’re going is to get connected with long time family members you have not seen for awhile and spend time with your son and wife with totality, i mean away from the computer world and work. utilizing a free time is not the question on how to use it, you get away coz you want to have some free time with you and the family so i think you better go bare handed with some technology that is not mainly needed in your trip. just a suggestion Ned :)
Thank you all. It looks like the part of me which was rejecting all good reasons for taking laptop with me, was right. I’ll think some more, but so far, I guess, I’ll go just with my camera bag (not having a laptop with me will allow me to bring more lenses).