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Inside Ian's Gear Bag

I'm gonna open my bag, I'll show you my still set up. So I've got obviously you've got a laptop. Always have laptop in the field. They usually have to. These days, if I'm doing motion, I have a PC laptop as well. Um, for the most part, if I'm trying to keep really pared down, I use a Mac book pro or something along those lines. That's jazz it up. Ah, you do wanna be able to review footage? Potentially. You might want to look at it at a higher quality in the motion. An industry that has been called dailies. You might want to do a version of that for yourself, where you're just reviewing at the end of the day seeing what you're getting, getting a sense of the content. Unlike still photos, we could go through, do a quick edit, do a poll, rank your images and say, Okay, I got 20 images today. Motion clips very hard to get a sense of what you're getting. You think you got a lot. You spend all day out there, then you watch the footage and shook a little on. This didn't really work out so wel...

l. So you really want to think about, um you will really want think about you know what you're going to use to power that depending on the quality if you're shooting on a DSLR, For the most part, I think you're gonna all be good. With one laptop set up, you probably want one good hard drive a highly recommend something large. You have plenty of room You have to worry about deleting. Usually bring the four terabytes. Bring lots of those. Um, these are also great. I big advocate of these, I use different systems that use different brands. Be honest, these G tec as well. Um, for our big systems, they're all more or less the same. It depends on price point and comfort level. These things have worked really well in the field for me, so I've been really happy with that. But I would say on a still shoot, this is what I brought for. This still shoot for North Cascades. I also shot motion clips while I was up there, so I brought my hard drive. I've got my laptop. Um, I've got ah, basic tripod. I'm gonna show you my backpack set up. So this is pretty standard for me. Usually about the tripod buckled onto the side. Here, I'll talk you through that insect. I wouldn't go any bigger than this. There is bigger. I've never had a problem pushing this under the seat in front of May, which is like my main paranoia. He's making sure I can get it under the seat in front of me or in the overhead, because I got the lithium ions and my camera equipment and everything else in here. So, you know, size on this thing is really, really important. It's not too large. I will stuff it to the IMF degree, for sure. I mean, there will not be a square inch that's not used, but this is something really like. This is an F stop brand backpack. I also like it because it doesn't look or scream without the tripod on there. It doesn't scream photo gear. You know, My tripod usually checked anyway, so I'm going through an airport or I just need to move around. I want to keep my gear on my back. It doesn't say photographer. I try to keep a lower profile, depending on where I'm shooting. That could be really important. It's got plenty of room. So, like in North Cascades, I kept my down jacket in case like a storm blew in or gets cold, as it often does in the mountains. I can stuff that in here. I've got zipper keep business cards and peripheral screwdrivers and things like that in there. I keep my filters in the top and my filter set up. So for this one, I only had a 77 millimeter diameter ring. So I have just one ring here, Um, which attaches to the front of my lens, and you'll see that in the lenses and filter section of the boot camp. And then I have the filter holder itself, which snaps onto that. And then I bring lots of indie filters and so on. These are great for motion. These are great for stills. I'm still using them quite a bit. I'm using them a little less for stills these days. Um, but I still definitely use filters to control light, slow exposures and obviously forgetting the desired aperture and shutter speed and so on for motion since your relatively fixed again. That's also covered in the boot camp on Ah, on the, um, on the motion portion. But these air what I bring And you know, this is a This is the nd filter, Probably harder see, But there, Ah, for cutting light. So I bring of several sets of these because I tend to drop him, scratch him room. I go through quite a few of them and so brings different sets, also of soft graduated filters, that hard graduated filters. It said, I have a lot of variations. I go into a lot of depth in the in the boot camp, but that's basically on lenses and filters. But that's the basic gist of what I've got going on in the top portion of this, my tripod itself. I typically rely on the carbon fiber. They're light. Weight is everything, especially after 12 hours in the field or more on the summer days. You know, this is my basic set up for something like this. I've got the legs, they're super super light. I mean, they don't want anything. It's usually the heads away the most. The reason I haven't replaced this for something lighter is because I've had it forever, and I use my gear until it no longer works. So I've had this for a very long time. A number of years now, Um, it's broken on the end, but it still works, right? So, uh, until it little longer works, I don't I don't bother. It's great, because it has two points of pivot to access point access points for pivot. Um, super, super fast. I can just tell Go vertical locked in balance. Use the legs. And away I go, Um, I'm used to it, which is obviously a big part of it. Comfort is half the battle when it comes to gear. And let's take a look inside another tripod had that I bring. And you know, there's There probably is. I haven't put a huge amount of time into researching because I'm still using this. And I don't always bring this cause of most of the time. I'm using a different motion set up. Then I my DSLR. But this is my fluid head. It also goes right on here. Um, quick spin. It's on. And I can use my camera idea seller on here to get those nice fluid movements to go pan left, right, or till up down. Um super nice. This comes off, you can unscrew it and it breaks down. But truth is, it's It's just fine across the top, so I just leave it set up. Um, you can definitely probably condense potentially the only downside of a fluid head. A lot of them they don't have a vertical axis, so you can't go and switch to vertical for stills. But you're not going to shoot vertical eso. That's something you want to consider and figure out which one is the best one for you. That's the one I use, Um, going through the cancer. The camera first. Ah, this is the new one. It's always exciting. A new camera. Um, Canon five D Mark four had the mark three before I looked into it. Maybe trying something a little different. Little lighter. Whatever. This is what I've been shooting on for a long time. The quality, the frame rate, the motion clips, the comfort level, the user interface and menu. All those things played a decision. This is what works for May. I've got the longer strap up in the top. I have ah, short strap on At the moment I was working in water So I'm working in water. A lot of times they keep it a little bit higher up. That way I can get in. Don't worry about it being further down, were flying around or things like that. So and I also don't want the strap to drop into the water and then get back on for the cameras. So Canon five D Mark four almost said Mark three. This lens is my favorite lens, by far of used to some I read prior to having cinema lenses. It's a 16 to 35 F four. Its image stabilized. I s so it's got an internal gyroscope that gets you that little extra stability, a little more goodbyes. You buys you a stop or so and then obviously auto focus. So 16. 35. This lens is so sharp at the time, I think it was like considered the widely considered to be the sharpest lines cannon had ever made. It is sharp all the way to the edges. So a lot of people I want the two week is it's faster. Yeah, I like the to wait, but honestly, I've been much happier with this and the I s essentially gets me there. So for me, this is working out really well. You know, it's relatively new for me, but for the most part it's also more or less the same from what I had. So that's the lens that he used there. again? A little bit older. I think this is the Siri's to image stabilizers. Well, um, tried and true. Great for those tele photos. Uh, this is kind of my standard kit. If I'm going to go and do anything like I did North Cascades, I usually bring a 72 116 of 35. If I think it's a chance for wildlife or something, I'm not gonna car a big lens. I'll bring a tele converter. I've taped this because this is a little loose. Um, robbery a tele converter to two x doubles the length of my telephoto. So goes from 7200 to a 1 40 to gets me a little bit more, but you sacrifice light for that. I've got my 50 millimeter macro with two extension tubes. I leave it set up because typically I'll start with the two extension tubes and then remove them work my way a little further away. That's all covered as well. Um, into the boot camp when we start to use this and I'll show you how to use those super helpful to have these days. I don't bring this nearly as much. I brought it on this particular trip just in case. It's great for Phil Light. It could be great for people. This is my strobe. It's the 5 80 x to, um I have ah. Ah, the cord. I use a sink ward. I know people like the wireless, the wireless might work, but honestly, I use the same court because most of the time I'm just doing it a little bit off camera like this. Um, and it's good for exercise as well, you know. Don't do that. Um, but anyway, I don't use it nearly as much. Mostly really enjoyed working with natural light, but it can be really helpful on it. Does have certain looks and and feels that that, um that it provides. And so I'm looking for that. It's good to have. It doesn't cost. I'm sorry. Does it doesn't costs a lot in your weight, is what I mean, doesn't take a lot of extra to bring it. Ah, an interval. Ometer is a new way eyes a good way to go for time lapses, especially for motion off camera stability. So on so forth. Um, I realize when I created my camera that I don't think this one works with it. So that's something that I got a check. And so that's also something When buying gear, you've got to make sure that all the stuff you had to begin with still works. Um, that's just the unfortunate side of any sort of equipment purchase. Uh, you think you're getting more or less the same thing, and you realize you end up spending a couple 100 bucks more to replace a piece of gear. So that's something I learned the hard way. It's something I should have tested in prior. Whenever you get new gear that significant like a camera body, you probably want to test all of your little elements to make sure before you go out so that you don't you don't end up having that issue. Batteries of courses have already covered. Bring extras. You'll notice my name is on everything. By the way, I put my last name on everything. I have it on my card reader. I have it on my, um, CF card I put on the bottom of my camera. I put it everywhere because you'd be surprised you're out with friends. Photographers here gets mixed up. Whatever. I spent enough time with other people with a lot of the same stuff that you really want. Make sure you know what's yours. So it's important to have that, Um, I also bring a set of Zeiss. I have little mini Zeiss lenses for my IPhone, so I'll throw those in my bag as well. So those are super cool and we cover the use of those in my IPhone class and then some motion specific stuff. Besides, the fluid head is audio. I've got a little squishy at the moment, but a little on camera. Ah, microphone shotgun that goes right on the top, mounts on the top, plugs into the side and just gets absolutely great audio. It's a little directional, so you can get, um, it's a great way to get started. I think it was like 100 bucks, you know, and it's just wonderful for capturing that and it's so small that it fits into your bag. There's no reason not to bring something like that. One good tip to have is bring headphones. Uh, my editor keeps stealing my headphones actually be. My office keeps stealing the nice headphones I buy for myself, so I keep getting stuck with the ones that come with the phone. The new phones pro tip. Remember, they're the end will not fit in the camera, so you probably want to use the older ones or head pair headphones that still has the stereo jack. But it's great to plug in your camera when you're capturing audio and hear what you're getting, because the microphone will pick up things that you don't realize it's picking up. So it's good to have that extra set of ears on things, not just picking it up ambient wise. One of these guys for keeping everything clean about clean. Have a lens pen, which is great for keeping lens clean also has a brush on it, but I still like the paintbrush. Just a little larger, more aggressive lens cloths, lens cleaner. Ah, headlamp. I always leave a headlamp in my bag. Hopefully, it's charged, probably not, um, but always have a headlamp in your bag. Maybe bring some extra batteries as well. Uh, you know, when your outdoor photographer and that like, it's nice, it's really addictive. And you're just out there. You out there, You out there. Next thing you know, you're welcome. Back in the dark, you don't wanna have toe rely on just your phone to get you back. So headlamps, great toe. Have I definitely used those before? And then I have self timers as well on I'm sorry, not self timers. Camera triggers remote triggers so I can put this on top of my camera. And if I'm the only person out there, I can go And I can fire the traditional selfie small person, big landscape, sort of shot or whatever. Don't always bring these, but honestly, they're so small, a negligible. They all kind of fit into this one little section in here. This will change every shoot. I'll do exactly what I'm doing here on this table. Lay it all out and figure out what is it that I want to bring? So this is a pretty typical set up. This is my still set up and um, You know, I have to figure out what works for you. Trial and error. Keep a list, and you kind of go from there. But, uh, any questions? So do you take your backup body with you when you go out? I don't usually take my backup body with me. I'll leave it in the hotel room. Yeah. Which is doing now? Um, I don't Of course. Normally, wouldn't be careful to announce that, you know that she makes a really good point about gear. Um, in general, I don't ever announce when I'm actually somewhere for the most part, because people watch social media. Actually, I've even read stuff about, like neighborhoods and so on where they see people are out of town, they break in. If you're a photographer and you've got a ton of gear and you're posting your gear online or on social media, you don't want to advertise that. The only reason I just hesitated is have it. I just I'm so used to not saying Hey, I'm here most of the time I'm posting on the delay. Um and I would never be like, Hey, this is where I am. This is where I'm working today. I don't want to become a target. Um, you know, I saw something. I think it was like yesterday. Somebody got robbed in the national park, had face to face right on the trail. Took all their camera gear because they saw them as a professional photographer. So you know, it's it. It's the reality of the world living eso. Normally, my backup gear is exactly that. I don't bring it with me because I might not come back with everything. I have the back of cameras, and if I lose a shot in the evening, whatever. I don't use all my gear for the whole trip. So that's usually my process. It's good question. Yes, all right. We have a few questions from on line. Sunrise is wondering if you could mention the actual which what backpack that is. A lot of people are interested in it. What's your question? Um, our Lisa manufacturer. It's F stop brand. The manufacturers F stop stop here dot com. Um, and I believe it's not the biggest one. It's the next one down. I don't remember what the name of it is. I've had it for years, which is a testament to the quality of it, because I abuse my gear and you don't know what the brand is off hand. I'm sorry with the with the model is I have a larger one. I think that one's called the Tell Oprah, but it's just too big for checking on. But it's still great because it has inserts and so on these bags of cool because the inserts air removable. So if you wanna change the configuration inside, you can actually just pull them out and put in a smaller one. So, like I can take out this top section right here and just have the bottom section with lens and, like, the bare necessities. And then I can actually put like a sleeping bag, clothes and other stuff in here and go to the back country with this and trap on the other stuff, to the edges and sides and so on. So there's a lot of different configurations for, I think is an outdoor photographer. This setups worked really well. I've used a lot of different brands over the years, for sure. Um, I've been I've been an advocate of the F Stop here. Awesome. Thank you. for that? Sure, a question from Norway. Do you check your tripod on and or do you bring it up to carry on? And is have you ever had any issues with? I hadn't issued many years ago, many, many years ago, where someone said I was large, bringing a large blunt object onto the plane, which made me think about witty responses I could I could come back with. And I'm like, I brought this on many, many flights before, and I'm like It's not a large blunt object. I think it's a tripod. Here's all my gear and special photographer and in the end they let it on. There was no big deal. I didn't make a big fuss about it in these days that you probably don't want to, um, but I mostly check everything that is like this on the tripod because it's heavy and it's on the outside and it also sort of screams photographer and so on. I just stick it in my luggage bag with my clothes. Almost always, my clothes bags are filled. I try to get off load as much of the camp filters the tripod, the head sometimes lenses will stick in the clothes bag as well. A lot of times, even my pelican cases, I'll stick inside other bags nowadays when I check them so that they don't look like Pelican cases. So just get cheap duffel bags somewhere, stick him inside there and then check those and people just see these ugly duffel bags ugly or the better. Um, no one wants to steal ugly. So if they look like expensive and they're labeled and you're like Red Dragon six K on the outside, you know you're that Target is Good question, though I'm curious about the microphone. Yes, I've not used anything like that. And I just dabble in video. Sure, so the idea of it is that you just hook it up to the hot shoe, and then and then it becomes the audio, so your video is just the same. It's just that the audio corrects improved. That's right. You're not using the It's a great question. You're not using the onboard audio that the camera will pick up, which is pretty basic and not the best. This will replace that with a high quality, uh, some semi directional mike, Um and so if you're for standing in front of metal sound really good. It'll pick up ambient as well. Great for sound effects. It'll it'll definitely be more focused on where you're at, but it will greatly improve the quality of the audio. Um, the next step up from this would be to use what I'm talking into right now, which is a lava Lear where snaps on its wireless and then that can snap on to the top of your camera and go in. But that's gonna be very much for a specific person or interview. But if you're looking for all around, someone's talking to the camera in the field. Or maybe I just want Ambien audio that's a little crisper, a little cleaner. This is going to do the job for you. The one thing to remember is you have to set your audio settings in camera, so you have to adjust those the sensitivity. So how loud it is. And that's why I recommend headphones to so you can look at the wavelength on there and see if it's peaking. You try to get to like, 75% of the way without ever hitting it at the peak. But the headphones to will really help. Make sure you know what you're getting and you'll notice right away if you move the audio changes pretty fast. A good question for sure. All right, So maybe one last question for Ian is sort of your baseline recommendations. You went through a number of different lenses, but for someone who is just starting your heading out to the field for outdoor shoot What? What are some of, like the must haves? Sure. I mean, I think this is a pretty basic set. I'd probably cut the strove out. I'd say you probably don't need a two X unless you're doing wildlife. You probably don't need the 50 Teoh 50 millimeter macro. Um, I would probably start with the if you're doing stills and motion, which is what this is all about. Um, I would bring the 16. 35 my camera body, my tripod, the to try potheads and the filters, Um, and then obviously the cleaners and so on. Memory cards, memory cards. You know, this takes to I have an SD and a CF in there. I get the largest or fastest like and get at the time. Usually, that are not that a reasonably priced. I don't put too much anyway as long. There fast enough to capture what I'm doing. Video wise. But I would say probably 16 35 camera, body audio, and then the two heads. And then I would add the 7200. Next. You might wanna consider some filters as well. Um, and that would probably get you there.