Often times when out shooting with other photographers I hear them say, \u201cI wish I had brought my grad ND filter.\u201d\u00a0 Or maybe they didn\u2019t have the lens they needed.\u00a0 \u201cWhere is it?\u201d I ask.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s back in my hotel room,\u201d is their response.\u00a0 \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you bring it with you?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t think I would need it,\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s too heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Truth to tell, I don\u2019t understand the rationale of selecting the gear you think you might need when going out on a shoot.\u00a0 Why not take it all?\u00a0 I suppose if you have 20 lenses (I exaggerate) you can\u2019t take them all with you.\u00a0 But a normal complement of gear that gives you the flexibility you need isn\u2019t that hard to pack and carry.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s a normal complement of gear?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I carry and my rationale for including and excluding what I bring.\u00a0 I have my camera body of course, a Canon 1Ds Mark III.\u00a0 And my Gitzo tripod with a Really Right Stuff ball head.\u00a0 As for lenses I have an assortment of four lenses that cover the range from 17mm to 200mm.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a lot of overlap, the most being the 24-70 and the 24-105.\u00a0 I carry them both because the 24-70 is fast with superb optics and the 24-105 is image stabilized which makes it good for hand-held shooting.\u00a0 That makes up all the heavy stuff.\u00a0 Oh, I do have a 1.4X tele-extender\u00a0 for the 70-200 to give it a little extra reach.\u00a0 The rest of the gear is extra batteries (3 all together), remote release, extra memory cards, 2 Lee grad ND filters and the adapters to mount them, 3 Singh-Ray polarizers, lens cleaning cloths, a rain cover for camera and lens and that\u2019s about it.\u00a0 Oh, don\u2019t forget the multi-tool.\u00a0 That puppy comes in handy in the most unusual circumstances.<\/p>\n
I have a really nice ThinkTank camera bag.\u00a0 I prefer the backpack style.\u00a0 Keep it simple.\u00a0 So with everything loaded up the total weight comes to about 40#. Now that\u2019s not light so the backpack is very important.\u00a0 It has to be comfortable, not too heavy and well padded.\u00a0 And the ThinkTank Street Walker is so comfortable I can wear it for hours.\u00a0 If you care to check it out here\u2019s the link.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.thinktankphoto.com\/products\/streetwalker-harddrive-backpack.aspx?code=WS-427<\/a><\/p>\n So I never find myself in the situation where the one piece of gear I need is back in the hotel room.\u00a0 And consequently, I never miss a shot \u2013 at least not for that reason.<\/p>\n Seriously, if you\u2019re in the habit of saying to yourself,\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll just take what I need,\u201d consider the old Boy Scout motto \u2013 Be Prepared.\u00a0 You never know what strange and wonderful light you may encounter and you want to be ready for the unexpected.<\/p>\n Join me on an upcoming workshop.\u00a0 Click here for more details.<\/a><\/p>\n