Whilst I didn’t book on a secluded island, I still for some reason had in my mind that the resort was going to be idyllic, quiet and peaceful and have some nice photos.  I was completely wrong. For this trip I bought my Leica MP, 5 rolls of of Fiji Acros 100, 5 rolls of Kodak Ektachrome slide film, my Fuji X-T3 with 18-55mm, Olympus TG-5 and Insta 360X.  That was overkill and in hindsight staying with the millions of others, I could have just taken my Fiji X100.

Learned one big lesson on this trip and that is to always bring your sensor cleaning kit. Few days in I noticed a massive blotch on my sensor, didn’t have my blower with me, so proceeded to blow on it, and in the process get more shit on it.  So basically couldn’t really use it after that. Lucky for me I had 3 other alternatives but really. I wouldn’t usually bring that much gear on a beach holiday but I wanted to use some film and the Oympus TG-5 and Insta360 are mainly for underwater and/or video.

The sunsets are ok, depends what part of the island you are on how good it will be.  Where we were at the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa, wasn’t great, there’s a few spots but because there’s so many people there, and the fact there’s jus not that many places for that money shot, it’s not a great destination for photography.  If you’re wondering what to take, a 24-70mm FF equivalent will be plenty or even a little point and shoot will do the trick. There’s not much here that’s worth bringing all the big guns down for.

At a lot of resorts in Fiji you’re going to be away from any town, so make sure, as I found out the hard way above, that you take all your accessories, like spare batteries, battery chargers, SD Cards, lens and sensor cleaning shit and that type of shit because unless you’re in one of the larger cities (unlikely), you’re not going to see any camera shops or shops that sell that shit anywhere near you. And even in the larger towns, finding a camera shop is a mission.