Whats In My Seascape Camera Bag?

My guess is I’m not the only one that has accumulated way more photographic gear than will fit comfortably in a single camera bag.  So I tend to pack my camera bag for specific types of shoots that I am going on.  I enjoy seeing what other photographers have in their camera bag, sometimes they have a very cool accessory that makes life  a lot easier.  So I thought I would share with you whats in my bag and on my belt when I’m photographing seascape or landscape images.

A – My Crumpler photo bag…. I like this bag for a couple of reasons

• It’s well made and well designed
• For seascapes, sometimes you are standing and wading in water, so you can’t put the bag down anywhere (which is a problem with backpacks)
• It’s fast to get access to your gear
• Comfortable to carry short-med distances (I’d use a backpack if I had a big hike ahead of me
• The only time I have damaged gear is from backpacks where I don’t fully do the zippers up and gear has fallen out when I have lifted up the backpack.  With the Crumpler it has a flip over flap which velcros shut.
• Has a handy little front pouch with easy access
• Easily adjustable internal pads to support camera and lenses.

B – My ShamWow shammy – I have this folded up at the bottom of my bag in case I get wet while shooting.  It also provides extra padding at the bottom of the bag for lenses etc.

C – My Nikon D700 with 24-70 f2.8 lens.  The camera also has a Really Right Stuff L-Bracket on so I can flip from horizontal to vertical format in a flash while keeping camera weight over the center of the tripood head.

D – My Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens.  This is probably on my camera the majority of the time when I’m shooting seascapes

E – My Nikon 16mm fisheye lens

F – My Hoodman LCD Loupe – I just got this recently and I love it for the following reasons:

• If you are trying to view your LCD in a bright light, then it’s a disaster without this
• I wear glasses, and normally when I want to inspect the LCD I have to remove them to focus on the LCD.  Because the Hoodman has a diopter in it, I can leave my glasses on and focus on the LCD (yay!!!)
• There is something special about inspecting your LCD with the Loupe.  It’s almost like watching your image projected on the screen of a cinema… it’s all dark except for your LCD image, and you can really study it without ambient distractions.  I think it must be a bit what it is like when large format photographers put the black cloth over their head and study the ground glass.

G – My legal rights as a photographer in NSW.  This is a cool 1 page dual sided print out that summarises my legal rights as a photographer in Australia…. Everything from shooting in public places, through to photographing people in public etc.  I have that in my bag in case I get into a tussle with a cop or security guard about photographing certain locations.

H- My business card with contact details.  I had a terrible scare once where I left my camera bag on location and didn’t realise for about an hour.  While I was absolutely crapping myself on the drive back, what made it worse was that I realised I had no contact information in my camera bag.   Now I make sure I have a biz card in each of my camera bags.

I – My home made night photography table.  Allows me to calculate exposure for moonlight photography.

J – Allen key to adjust my tripod adjustments

K – 2 spare batteries for my D700

L – Lots of spare CF cards (I now shoot with a 32GB card in the camera which gives me 1,200 RAW files, but it’s nice to have a few extra cards in case of problems or in case I can’t unload.

M – My electronic timer and cable release

N – Lens cleaner solution from Visible Dust.  I’ve found this stuff to be the best at cleaning lenses without leaving smears.  It’s great stuff.  I get it shipped from the USA because I haven’t found anybody here who sells anything as good.

O – Heaps of microfibre cloths. If I’m shooting with lots of spray in the air, I put a few in my left pocket and a few in my right pocket.  Left pocket does a wet clean, then right pocket cloths polish the lens or filters clean.

P – Optech Rain Sleeve – weighs nothing, costs nothing, takes up no room, but provides good insurance for big wave action, rain or spray.

Besides my Crumpler full of stuff, there are a few more accessories I carry.  I usually either sling my tripod or carry it as a walking stick.  Around my waist I wear an army belt with a pouch for my filters.  Here’s what I use.

1 – Velbon carbon fibre tripod with Really Right Stuff BH40 Ballhead.  I love this head for a heap of reasons:

• It’s super light weight but will support all my lenses (including my 70-200 f2.8)
• You can just rinse it under water if you get salt or crap on it
• It’s great for pano’s because it has a swiveling pano base
• Nice friction adjustments
• I can change my camera from horizontal to portrait in about 2sec flat and everything is balanced over the center point.
• Really Right Stuff make absolutely gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous gear.  If you appreciate well made gear, you will love theirs.

2 – My filter pouch and military belt.  Having your filters right there all the time makes it easy to drop in an ND filter, or try a polariser.

3 – My set of ZPro filters (100mm wide).  These include from left to right…

• Cokin circular polariser
• Singh Ray 3 stop hard GND
• Sing Ray 2 stop hard GND
• Lee 3 stop soft GND
• Lee 2 stop soft GND
• Lee 3 stop ND
• B&W 10 stop ND

4 – My Cokin ZPro filter holder and 77mm adapter ring.

I hope you find whats in my camera bag interesting.  If you have some equipment that you regularly carry, please share it by commenting on this post below.

Happy Australia Day Everybody

Brent