Blog Post #9

What’s in your bag ?

It’s a common question that photographers get asked, mainly by other photographers, “What do you have in your bag?”. It’s as if they are searching for a magical formula that will ensure they are armed with the right kit when out taking photographs. I have done it myself and been surprised at some of the answers and items that some photographers carry around with them. So what’s in mine?

It basically depends on what I am heading out to take pictures of and whether I am planning a session or just a casual walk around. I like to travel light in general and just take what I reckon to be the absolute minimum, particularly if heading out for an all day shoot. The following is my approach to kitting myself out for a day dedicated to looking through the lens.

My camera bag is The Scaramanga as discussed in Blog #2, so in a way by not having a huge bag limits what I can carry around. For a full day shoot I would have in my bag ;

1) Fujifilm X-T3 fitted with Fuji 23mm f2 lens and lens hood, which is my preferred camera, with both memory card slots loaded up with 32Gb cards (95Mb/Sec). I shoot in RAW format so may take along more cards if needed but not often. I dont use a shoulder strap when out roaming the streets and favour the Muflon wrist strap, also dicussed in Blog #2.

2) An additional lens depending on where I am going. I would choose either the Fuji 35mm, 50mm or 55-200mm Zoom. Only one of them would be included.

3) A couple of spare batteries. I may take my power grip with the batteries installed giving me a 3 battery life.

4) Contact cards with my details on them

5) A small notepad and pen

6) Lens cleaner brush

7) Good quality lens wipes, in this case Zeiss

If I was just say going out and about around town as opposed to specifically going out to take photographs my chosen kit would be even more lightweight.

This kit set up doesn’t even involve taking a bag along. This time I would only include:

1) My Fujifilm X-100F camera with its fixed 23mm f2 lens and lens hood. As before, this would have its single memory card slot loaded with a 32Mb (95 Mb/sec) card

2) This set up requires a shoulder strap and I use the excellent Peak Design “Slide” strap. This allows me to keep the camera out of view at my side or around my back, but I can swing it around to my front with ease when I need it.

3) I would also take a couple of spare batteries in my pocket as well, just in case.

The only other thing to mention is that if I am going away from home for a bit with the cameras, I would pack a few more things in my luggage, not the camera bag. These would be;

1) A power bank and cables. I need this for keeping my phone alive on the road.

2) Fuji battery charger for charging depleted batteries when back at base.

3) Fuji power grip. I sometimes keep this on the X-T3 and other times I take it along in case I need it. It adds a bit of weight to the camera but not too much. It holds two additional batteries.

So that’s about it for what’s in my camera bag and the different shooting scenarios I usually face. I still have other kit including Speedlite flashes, Manfrotto tripod, and Lee filters but these dont see much usage these days, but are there if I need them. I certainly wont be humping them around the streets!

Footnote: The 2020/1 Photography Show at the NEC.

On Sunday 19th Oct. I attended the postponed 2020 Photography Show at the NEC. This annual event is always worth looking forward to but this year it fell below my expectations. The halls were smaller and some of the big names were not in attendance. Given the way the world today I suppose it was to be expected but I was really surprised how low the attendance seemed to be on the Sunday. I immediately noticed that parking, transit to the hall and the entry process (Including Covid-19 passport checks) and ticket entry were a breeze. There are usually queues. In the hall it was quiet which on the plus side meant viewing kit etc was easier. I tried to listen to a couple of talks but found it difficult to hear over the ambient noise in the hall (I wear two hearing aids). In the end I wasn’t tempted to part with cash for anything but caught up with a few familiar faces and saw some nice printers that had me tempted. Here’s hoping things are more back to normal for 2023

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Peter Degnan