Should you take your expensive DSLR camera to another country? I have been mulling over this question for the past few months, and you may have as well.

I own a DSLR camera, and when I travel to the Dominican Republic and Brazil this year, I will take my beloved camera in order to take the best pictures possible while abroad. I have heard of countless tales of people being robbed from friends, and if you search through forums on popular travel websites, you can read firsthand accounts of people losing their expensive belongings to thieves. But no stories will deter me.

When you travel to a new country with expensive items, you undoubtedly will worry about the safety of them, but I will take my camera abroad, and even if I lose it or it is stolen from me, there is one reason why I cannot leave it behind.

The best defense for taking your camera simply is the fact that unless you regularly visit the places you travel to, when will you ever return? You should treat each trip as if it was your last, and so, you should capture your experiences with your best possible camera. Sometimes, the risk is worth taking in order to preserve your memories with clarity and vibrancy.

The concern of losing something you paid hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dollars for is an appropriate one to have, but you only have one life to experience and capture, so make sure you can in the best way possible.

Possessions and commodities come and go. The camera you think is so precious will one day be obsolete or inferior, so use it. Photographers, including myself, did not spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on a camera and its equipment with the sole intention of showing it off; we buy a camera with the sole intention of using it, so travel abroad, and use the thing you paid good money for.