After a hard day's shoot, the last thing you really want to do is clean the camera kit. A long cold drink would be preferable. But cleaning is the most important thing you can do that will keep the kit running sweetly, unless you want to let yourself in for having to take things to pieces when they go wrong.

In the Australian outback last year, I was surprised at the amount of red desert dust that worked its way INSIDE my Nikon F100. As it transpired the seals are light but not dust proof, so cleaning it every day was a must. I once got three Nikons wet in an unexpected downpour in Brunei, causing them all to stop working one by one. A run back to the hotel, opening them up and a good blasting with a hairdryer thankfully got all three working again. I’ve been on a tiny Pacific island with a defective lens when all I could do was take the thing apart and fix it, although no camera repair shop would recommend this!

I have to admit I treat cameras and lenses in a way I'm almost ashamed of, as I constantly change from one camera to another. A soft newly washed handkerchief is always with me, a valuable camera accessory. All through a shooting day I often look at the front filter (always fitted) and give it a light wipe over with the handkerchief. The back elements are exposed, of course, and sometimes get marks on, if either put into the camera bag quickly or when I’m running to follow something I’m shooting. I have a favourite lightweight jacket with really big pockets I can literally drop a lens into when in a hurry, but this is probably worse!

None of this is good for cameras and lenses I know, but I am on location to take pictures and these get priority over all else - lunch, supper, even that long cold drink, I've learned to just keep shooting if things are right. It’s hard on the equipment but you must expect to have the odd repair bill now and again. I wouldn’t miss pictures because of this. Having said that, I do care for the kit in the best way possible in the circumstances and most of the time it carries on working. Travel photography, if treated as a profession, is certainly not the easy ride a lot of people believe it to be, for sure, but right now I wouldn’t do anything else!