What’s in my Travel Bag!

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Stephen

Saona Island Dominican RepublicIn the next little while we will soon be heading out on a family vacation! We will be cruising to the Southern Caribbean and visiting ports like Curacao and Aruba. Just thought I would share what I plan to take with me as a photographer on the trip and how it will be packed. This will be very close to my standard travel bag but there will be a few minor changes to my usual travel bag. As always I started planning gear to take well in advance of my trip and have made some little tweaks here and there. I use a program called Evernote to list my planned equipment then tweak it as I change my mind and make adjustments.

As usual to get to my destination all of my gear will be packed in my Think Tank Airport Airstream bag.

 

Gear listing:

  • Canon 5D MKIII with battery grip and hand strap
  • Canon EF 24-105mm F4 IS L
  • Canon 70-200 f4 IS L
  • Canon 1.4 II Tele Converter
  • Canon 8-15mm F4 L Fisheye
  • Canon EF 50mm F1.4
  • Canon EF 40mm F2.8 STM Pancake lens
  • Lensbaby Composer Pro with Sweet 35mm Optic
  • Lensbaby Edge 80 optic
  • Either Canon 430EX II or 580EX II
  • Canon ST-E2 Flash Transmitter
  • Rogue Gels
  • Rogue flash bender and softbox diffuser Still not decided on small or large
  • Stoffen Diffuser
  • CF Travel Tripod
  • Generic Chinese Remote Intervalometer
  • Gorilla pod Focus and Ball Head X
  • Op/tech Pro Utility Strap
  • Up strap
  • Black rapid strap
  • L bracket
  • AA Rechargable batteries
  • Small reflector 12″ Gold/Silver
  • Canon G1 X
  • 2 Flip Video Cameras
  • Manfrotto Led light and gels
  • Rode video Mic pro
  • Cold shoe bracket
  • Circular  polarizer 2 67mm and 77mm
  • Variable ND filter 77mm and 77 to 67mm step down ring
  • Canon G10, underwater housing and weights
  • Hoodman loupe
  • Op/Tech Rainsleeves
  • Hyperdrive with 500 GB
  • Acer 14″ laptop
  • 1 TB external drive
  • 4 x 16gb CF cards
  • 3 x 8GB CF Cards
  • 32 GB SD card
  • 4 Canon batteries and Charger
  • Focus Shifter
  • Gaffers tape on camera body and wrapped on tripod legs
  • Lowepro Flipside Sport 15L bag

So just a few comments on my gear selection. Because we are going to be on a cruise ship, there are a few things that I forgo. I really don’t need a long lens so I selected my lighter 70-200 F4 L IS and the Tele converter just in case I want a little extra reach. One lens I usual travel with that I am not taking this trip is my Canon EF17-40 F4 L lens. While I plan on doing some landscape type shots, last year I rented the Canon 8 –15mm and had a ball with it. This lens was added to my gear this past fall and I have played around with it and can correct a lot of the regular fisheye distortion in Lightroom or Photoshop. My 24 – 105 will be me walk around lens and if I really want a wide angle I will shoot with the 8 – 15mm @ 15mm and fix it is post.

Last year I only took the Gorilla Pod tripod with us. As this is virtually the same cruise we went on last year we will be stopping in Curacao again. Once again our stop is later in the day and we don’t leave until midnight local time. The waterfront’s historical buildings are lit up at night with coloured lights and last year I didn’t get back off the ship to shoot. My plan this year is to get off  and with a proper tripod I should be able to get some nice shots of the waterfront all lit up. I am also planning on trying some sky shots with the ship and the Milky Way in the sky. I will likely use the 40mm pancake for this purpose. I bring this lens because it is so small I can mount it on my camera body to travel with instead of a body cap so it doesn’t take up space in the bag.  I have been in touch with the Curacao Astronomy Club to see if they can suggest shooting locations near the Pier for me as well.

Another tip that I use before travelling is to research the area I am going to by visiting sites like 500px.com or Flickr.com. I search for the destinations I am about to head to and look at some of the images taken there. It gives me some hints on where and what to shoot.

Our Ship in Curacao 2012

You might notice that I have 3 different camera straps listed. There is a reason for this and it will be the topic of a future blog post. In short I use a strap system that I have devised. I use quick releases on my camera bodies as I don’t like having a strap blowing around when shooting on a tripod. In addition I don’t like advertising my camera brand so I don’t use the manufacturer’s supplied straps. I also use a little gaffers tape to cover up the brand and model of camera I have. Each strap has a different purpose. One for every day use on the ship (Up Strap), one for walking around the ports (Black Rapid) and one specifically for the Curacao stop when a tripod plate will be mounted on my camera for most of the day (OP/Tech).

Other than the flip cameras I have decided not to take my dedicated video camera and plan to shoot all videos with my 5D. For this I have the rechargeable LED light, a focus shifter, an external microphone and a cold shoe bracket that hold both devices. In addition I will have my LCW Variable ND filter so that I can shoot video wide open on my lenses and still control exposure in bright sunlight to get depth of field.

The Lensbabys may come out of the bag, but I do like the selective focus effects I can get from them and because they are relatively small at the very least the Sweet 35 will make the trip.

Circular Polarizer’s are a necessity as being on a ship there is lots of water around and they are great for killing reflections and glare.

With a group of 14 of us on this trip I am sure we will be taking a number of group photos. The flash will come in handy and the Canon remote will allow me to get it off the camera to shoot. I really like the Rogue Flash Benders as they allow me to soften the light and because the fold flat take no room in the bag. Gels are there to be able to  balance the light and not make flash exposures look like flash exposures. Still not sure if I am going to take the smaller lighter 480EX II or the larger more powerful 580 EX II yet. Once the final bag is packed I can make that decision.

The Canon G1 X will be my pocket camera on board and the G10 is our families dedicated underwater camera for beaches and snorkelling trips.

Geotagging images will be accomplished using 2 things. The app GPS4Cam on my Android phone and a Garmin handheld GPS unit.

As I am paranoid about backups I try not to format my cards if I can avoid it before coming home. At the end of the day I backup my cards to both my Hyperdrive with a 500 GB hard drive in it (this is a small device with a LCD screen to view images and has a card reader built into it) and my laptop and an external 1 TB hard drive. The laptop also has Adobe Lightroom on it and using USB 3 I can create a catalogue for editing and posting pictures and then import that catalogue with images changes back into my main Lightroom Catalogue at home when we return. I recently heard a story of someone who lost their camera on a cruise with non backed up images of them. And to tell a little embarrassing secret, I lost my wife’s point and shoot on our the last night of our first cruise with some of our images on it. The camera was never recovered!

I’ll likely have 1 or two spare lens caps with me as well and the Op/Tech rain sleeves are great to have. While walking around the ports or the ship gear that I need for the shoot will be inside my Lowepro Flipside Sport that will be packed in my main luggage and then pulled out for day trips.

It sounds like a lot of gear and it is. I am very envious of Nikon shooters for one reason. They have a great Nikkor 28-300 VR lens that works both on Full Frame and Crop Sensor bodies. To me this would be the ideal travel lens and being able to get one would allow me to drop a couple of lenses from my travel bag. Canon has one as well but it is very large, heavy, almost 4lbs and white like other L lenses so it is not inconspicuous. It is also really expensive as well!  I really wish Canon would look at something like the Nikkor for their line! There are some third party vendors out there with the same range but reviews are hit and miss on them!

So this is my load out for my upcoming vacation. With this gear I should be able to get some great shots both around the ship and in the various ports we will visit! As always things will get tweaked a little as the time draws closer and I actually start packing my bag, but I am pretty confident it will stay fairly close to this.

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My Two Favourite Camera Bags

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Stephen

Being a photographer, camera bags are like shoes to my wife! I must have close to 10 different bags now and they are all suitable for different projects but no one bag does everything perfectly! I do have a couple of bags now that do most of everything that I need especially when it comes to travelling with my gear.

Airport-AirStream-Rolling-Camera-Bag-4A few years ago we were travelling on a family vacation to Hawaii! I had my tripod attached to the outside of my Lowe Pro Vertex 300 Backpack. After we checked our bags the airline counter attendant asked me to put my backpack, that I was wearing on the scale. The bag came in at 37 Lbs. I was informed I could not carry the bag on unless I could reduce the weight to 25 Lbs! She then offered to check the bag. Asking if they would cover the 8,000.00 of camera gear in the bag if it was lost, she got her answer. The tripod immediately went in one of the checked bags and we started to divide up gear that I had. The Mrs.’s carry on got my 70-200 F2.8 L lens, my 580 EX Speedlight went in my sons bag and my rechargeable batteries and a my Canon Video camera went in my daughter’s bag. Finally the bag was light enough that I could carry it on board. Of course as soon as we got through security and at the gate, everything came out of the various bags and put back into the Lowe Pro and I was never bothered again.

I started searching for a new bag to use for travelling. As I typically carry a fair bit of gear I use one bag for transport to the final destination and another bag packed in the suitcase empty for day use wherever we are.I had heard a fair bit about Think Tank Bags and especially their Airport series so I took a very close look at them.

Airport-AirStream-Rolling-Camera-Bag-6I ended up choosing the Think Tank Airport Airstream as my main travel bag. You see the bag itself is not overly large however I was amazed at what I could pack into the bag! The exterior dimensions of the  bag are 14” Wide, 8” Deep and 17.5” High. It weighs in at 10 lbs with the dividers. There are a pair of roller wheels on the bottom and a handle. In addition there is a tripod holder on side of the bag, a small accessory pocket on the front side and an elastic pocket on the front designed for their Artificial Intelligence laptop bag or just a laptop itself. One of the nicest features of the bag are 3 built in TSA approved locks. One to lock the bag closed in case of gate checking it on a smaller aircraft. A built in cable lock that allows locking the bag to a table, desk, car etc. and another lock that allows locking of another item or bag(like the artificial intelligence) to this bag. The size of the bag meets all International and Domestic carry on size allowances and I have found that I can get it in the overhead bin of any aircraft I have travelled with it on.

The bag itself can accommodate up to a 400MM lens! My typical load out when I travel is one camera body, my 70-200 F4 IS lens, my 24 – 105 L lens, 430 EX II Flash, a 17 – 40 F4 L lens, 50mm F1.4 as well as my L bracket, wireless flash triggers, Rogue Diffuser, Sto Fen Diffuser, Lensbaby Composer and Sweet 35 optic, 1.4 Teleconverter, Vari ND Filter, Circular Polarizer, Sensor Loupe, Hoodman Loupe, memory cards, AA and AAA rechargeable Batteries, spare Canon batteries, lens pen, Op\Tech Rain Sleeves, remote triggers and lens cleaning cloths. All of this actually fits quite nicely in the bag. Then I put my laptop or Asus Android Tablet in the Artificial Intelligence bag and slide it into the front pocket.

While with all of this gear loaded in the bag it weighs well over the weight limit of most airlines, it’s small size doesn’t even get it a second glance.

Another option with this bag is that you can get an optional set of half height dividers. These free up 2” from the top of the bag down so that a laptop up to 15” can be stored inside the bag on top of your photo gear. I would like to see this bag have been offered with either the full height or the half height dividers and not be forced to purchase the second set. I have not yet purchased the half height dividers but will likely do so soon.

I have used this bag on several trips now and find that it is great for travelling! One of the disadvantages of this bag is that it is strictly a roller bag. It can’t be converted to a backpack style bag, however my laptop is usually in another backpack that I carry on board so I have no need for it to convert to a backpack. Think Tank does offer the Airport Takeoff bag that does feature hidden backpack straps but this bag is  not as deep as the Airstream and is a little taller. If you are looking at a bag that can convert, I would suggest also looking at that bag.

My Day Bag

18-2297-IMG1_LRG

While my Airport Airstream bag is great if I am working out of a car or going to a location and working there, it isn’t great if I will be mobile and moving around. I have two bags that I usually pack with clothes and carry in my suitcase but one in particular has quickly become my favourite for day use. In the past I used a Kata 3N1 30 bag that is a sling/backpack style bag with enough room to carry my camera body with my 70-200 F28L or my 100-400 F4.5-5.6 L mounted on the body, 2 to 3 additional lenses, a flash and a variety of accessories (filters, batteries, light modifiers). However this summer I found a slightly smaller bag that has been my recent travelling companion.

I heard a little about the Lowepro Flipside Sport Bags on a podcast and so I decided to check it out. I went to the local camera store and had a look at the 2 models that were offered, the 10 litre and the 15 litre. After looking at the bag I decided on the 15L size. This bag will hold a camera body (with grip attached) with up to a 300MM F2.8 lens attached, 1-3 additional lenses, accessories and tripod or monopod on the outside. The bag exterior size is 10” wide, 9.1” deep and 16.9” high and weighs just 2.5 lbs. There is a side pocket that is designed to hold a water bottle, but I usually use it to hold spare batteries and accessories. The bag also features a built in rain cover, a built in tripod carrying system and a couple of hooks to hang other items from if needed.

The opening to the bag is on the inside (strap side) of the bag and the system is designed to be used with the waist belt. When wearing the waist belt you remove the shoulder straps, spin the bag around and can access the interior without needing to take the bag off. A couple of things I like about the interior opening is the fact that my gear is more secure when I am carrying the bag on my back and when I do need to get into the bag, especially in dirty or dusty conditions, the part of the bag that is on the ground is not the part that goes over my shoulders and only the outside of the bag gets dirty.

All of the gear inside the bag is stored in a padded camera box. There are additional flaps that can cover the gear in really bad weather and the entire camera box can come right out of the bag and it can then be used as a regular backpack.

The back of the bag is well vented and I have found that even in hot conditions where I am carrying the bag and all sweaty the bag does a good job of wicking moisture away and is well ventilated.

While I wish the bag was a little taller (the waist strap does sit fairly high on it) I have been able to adjust the bag so that I can easily carry it comfortably.

While I really likely this bag I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase a 20L version of this bag if Lowepro brought one out! Update (March 27, 2013) Lowepro has brought out a 20L version of the bag. Haven’t seen it in stores yet but will be sure to as soon as it is out!

18-2297-IMG4L

While these two bags have met pretty much all of my travel needs over the last few trips, I find that there are still use my other bags depending on the shoot I am doing. I love my Kata 3N1 30 bag and my Lowepro Vertex300 also is used for some shoots. However I will continue to look for any other new bag that fits my needs as they come out.

Is there a camera bag that you can’t do without? Please share your favourites with our readers in the comments below!

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Quick Tip – Electronic Camera Manuals

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Stephen

Just a quick tip for my readers here. When I get a new piece of gear I usually familiarize myself with it as much as possible before trying to use it on a shoot. But occasionally I may have to refer to the manual to look up something. Virtually every manufacturer puts out a PDF version of their products manual now a days so I download these and put them on every device I may have with me in the field in case I need them for a reference.

I usually use Dropbox for this purpose as it is installed on my PC and I just save the files in a folder under my Dropbox called manuals. I have the Dropbox app installed on each of my devices (mobile phones, media players and tablets) and download the manuals to the device. Using Dropbox is usually a little easier for dong this as I just have to download and save the PDF  file once to my folder. I don’t have to worry about uploading it to another site as it is synced to the cloud automatically. You could use other cloud storage services and some even offer the same functionality. I even copy the PDF to my older Sony E-Reader in case that is the device I have with me.

If you don’t yet have a Dropbox account follow the sign up using the link below and both you and I will get an additional 500 Mb of free space.

http://db.tt/Rz3VAiH

Other services you can also use include:

Pogoplug, Using this link gets you 7GB instead of the regular 5 GB of space

Another service I like is Sugarsync. The link below also gets you an additional 500Mb of Cloud Storage.

https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=907xn2ham8fg&utm_source=website&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=referral&shareEvent=3570034

One of the other benefits of these services is that their Smartphone and Tablet apps can also be used to backup your devices’ photos automatically to your cloud storage. Pick one or use all three as I feel you can never have enough free online storage!

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My Experience–The Camera Store’s Photographer of the Game

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Stephen

stephen StampsFor years I had entered The Camera Store’s Photographer of the Game contest without fail. Being a big Stampeders fan I would love to be able to shoot my favourite team from the sidelines. We have had seasons tickets for about 15 years down in row two behind the opposing teams bench and I have been able to get some great photos from there, but being down at field level would allow me get the angles and move around which is something I can’t do from my seats!

This year my daughter and I also volunteered to shoot three of games for The Camera Store’s Tailgater of the game contest and we were scheduled to shoot the last home game of the season on Friday October 26th. The day before the game I got an email from Evelyn at The Camera Store saying that the Stampeders had a spot for a Photographer of the Game and would I be interested in being at field level to shoot the game. I answered immediately saying I would love it!

I got a follow up question asking if I needed any equipment to shoot the game and I thought about what I had. My Canon 100-400 L lens is great but since it was a night game I figured it would be a little too slow for shooting. I asked about borrowing a 300 MM F2.8 lens and was told they had a Sigma 120-300 F2.8 I could use.

Thursday afternoon I went to The Camera Store so that I could pick up the lens and shoot it a bit with my camera so that I could get comfortable with it. While there I saw Evelyn and thanked her again for the opportunity. She was with Peter and Julian and the last couple of pieces of advice that I got from Peter was to watch out and not get run over and to not tick the other photographers off! Good Advice!

I spent the rest of Thursday getting ready for the big game. It was supposed to be cold Friday night so I made sure I had my winter pants, jacket, boots and gloves together. I then made sure that all 8 of my Canon battery packs were charges, formatted and prepped my CF cards and started getting my gear together. I also remembered that there was a class on kelbytraining.com by former Sports Illustrated photographer Dave Black (who really impressed me at this fall’s Photoshop World) and Scott Kelby about shooting Football. While I have shot several sports, getting advice from an SI photographer couldn’t hurt. The class reinforced what I knew already, shoot wide open, AI Servo mode and try to keep the shutter speed up at about 1/1000th of a second. I did learn a little about where to stand for certain plays and how to get specific shots that I may have wanted. Mace Dance

Friday Morning I did some test shots of birds in flight with the Sigma 120-300MM Lens on my Canon 7D to get a feel for the performance of the lens as well as the weight of the combo.

Friday at 4 PM. I checked in with the Stamps office to shoot my Tailgater of the Game assignment and although it was cold and snowy and not a lot of Tailgaters were out that early I got enough shots to submit back to the Stampeders office. As I said earlier this is the 3rd game I have done this assignment and I have loads of fun doing it and met a lot of great Stampeders fans in the process!

At 5:30 PM, I turned my camera into the Stampeders office and then met with one of the Stampeders Outrider’s Photographers who got me my sideline pass and took me out into the stadium to tell me the rules about where I could (and couldn’t) stand to shoot during the game. I was then on my own!

I had decided to put the Sigma on my 7D with a monopod and carry my 5D Mark III on a sling strap with my Canon 70-200 F 2.8 L lens as my second camera. In my bag I also had a 1.4 Teleconverter and a wider 24-105 lens. Spare batteries and spare CF cards were all inside my sweatpants pockets under my snow pants staying warm in case I needed them. I was ready to shoot.

I went out onto the field and shot a little bit of the teams warming up just to get a feel for shooting in the cold.

I also spoke to a couple of the other photographers there and we talked a little about shooting the game and techniques. I was given a few more tips on what to look out for and assured them I would try to stay out of their way! Then it was game time!

I moved over to shoot the Stamps coming out of their dressing room and after the National Anthem and coin toss I was thinking here we go!

Being a Stamps fan it was difficult not to cheer on the home side from field level when they started out flying! I ended up with some great shots of the action of the game and it was a whole different prospective down at field level than in my regular seats!

Quick SixAt field level you could hear the hits, the players talking and all of the sounds of the game and the speed of play seems to be a little faster than watching it from the stands. I kept concentrating on getting the shots that I wanted, making sure my camera settings were still good for the conditions and keeping an eye open so that I wasn’t run over by a large defensive lineman!

Watching the video on shooting football paid off as soon after the Stamps got into the red zone, I moved into the end zone and was able to capture some of Corey Mace’s touchdown dance after he received his TD pass!

One scary moment during the game was when Stamps receiver Moe Price caught a pass and after being knocked out of bounds and slid head first into the BC Lions propane heater. This happened right beside where I was standing near the Lions bench and for a time was a looking pretty bad. Luckily, Price got up and walked away a little shaken but OK!

Before I knew it we were at the end of the 4th quarter and the game was just about over. I had forgotten all about the cold for the last 3 hours and wished the game was going to continue. I made sure to catch some of the Stamps as they signed jerseys for the fans that were selected for Fan Appreciation Day and then it was all over!

For a football fan (and especially a Stampeders fan) and a photographer, being down on the sidelines gave me opportunities to get some great shots during the game! It was a whole different prospective from watching (or even trying to shoot the game) from the stands. Being able to move up and down the sidelines and get better angles of the field made for better shots than almost everything I had shot before. I think I have been spoiled and would love to shoot from that vantage point again!

I would like to thank The Camera Store and the Calgary Stampeders Football Club for the incredible opportunity I had! Hopefully they will allow some other lucky photographers to get the same experience I had sometime in future seasons!

 

Jason Armstead Run BackDrew TateNik LewisRombey Bryant

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