I travel often for my clients and sometimes it involves overseas shoots. One of the main things for a photographer to consider and plan for is how to get their equipment through the airports and customs.

Preparing for my recent shoot in Shanghai, as well as the job preparation, my head was full with managing the care of my wife (who was in hospital with a back injury), 3 children under 5, and a full schedule of shoots.

I am used to doing all my own arrangements for travel and this is one occasion where it would have been wise to use a travel consultant early on in my preparations. There are some aspects about shooting in China that I hadn’t considered, which led to a very busy last few days getting everything finalized.

The easiest way to travel internationally with expensive camera gear is with a CARNET, a system where equipment is registered and signed in and out of the country. (The countries don’t want people  bringing in gear  and selling it withiout the applicable taxes), but unfortunately not all countries honour the system, and China is one of them. I was distracted in researching what was involved to take camera gear in and out of the country I neglected to pay attention to the Visa requirements.

In the 2 weeks before leaving, I had four visits to the Chinese consulate, trying to finalize the Business Visa I was applying for. Unfortunately, I learnt too late that the process is complicated and preferably started 2 months before the trip. Even my Chinese contacts didn’t understand the form I had to complete;

Chinese Business Visa Form

Basically, what I found out afterwards is, my client needs to approach the local foreign affairs department who need to make a case for this foreigner to come and do this job.

I ended up running out of time with cross-timezone negotiations, and frustrating consulate visits and ended up with the dilema of having this great job, but no Visa and the very real possibility of not being able to get into the country. I looked after the client by finding a suitable backup photographer, and luckily had the great help of expat Australian Photographer  Rodney Evans who is now based in Shanghai and runs a hire studio business.

Rodney suggested that getting a Visa in Hong Kong would be possible so then I took a big punt, I changed my schedule to have a 10 hour stopover in Hong Kong and hoped for the best. What a stress!!!! When I checked in my luggage in Melbourne, the staff there told me they could only book me in as far as Hong Kong (not Shanghai)  and had never herd of a visa being granted at Hong Kong. More Stress!!!

I arrived with all paperwork in order and had a long anxious wait in one of the airport lounges(I couldn’t bear to leave airport) waiting for news on my application. Thankfully, the risk paid off and I was let into the country, but some valuable lessons were learnt like how thinking “I know how to do this” can have me miss critical elements to having the job being successful.