What's in Your Bag?

[pendennis]

Just curious, when you were on duty what types of photographs does a Master Chief Photographer's Mate take?

The Master Chief usually has a PHAN striker humping the gear for him, because his index finger has a permanent crook in it from holding his coffee cup.

The two PHCS' I knew did a lot of portrait work, especially for O5's, O6's, and flag officers.

PS - I was attached to a Public Affairs office during 1969-1970. I was the "staff" photographer for a drill team and band at CBC Davisville RI. Quonset Point NAS was adjacent to our base, and I used their lab and office for developing, etc. When they weren't busy, they gave me very good tutorials on lighting, poses, films, etc. It helped me when I started doing portraits when I was transferred to COMCIVLANT in 1970.

[Glenn P]

Hey Steve. Those are my business cards (they're half width and come in a little dispenser) and a thumb drive. And yes that's an external battery pack for flash. And a Lens Pen brush.

The light modifier is a Rogue FlashBender and I pretty much use it always when I'm shooting with a flash. It's very versatile as you can bend it into different shapes and it softens up the harsh light from a speedlight real nice. It also does a fantastic job of eliminating glare on eyeglasses. I also like that it directs the light toward the subject (which means it uses less power so your batteries last long and the flash tube stays cooler) and blocks the light from people behind you (helping to make those flashes less annoying to everyone else in the room.)

I keep the ColorChecker Passport in my bag in case I'm doing more serious portraits on location and then use it mainly to get a good gray balance.

[Bootsy]

after selling off all my canon kit and swapping over to MFT. and checking out the wotancraft range of bags.
I decided on the scout bag with the extra water proof insert. its not cheap but its a great bag, its rugged and has been put to the test in alot of bad weather.

Olympus em1, grip, 12-40, 40-150, 45mm, 1.4x converter, 60mm (not in image)
ipad mini, aircraft radio scanner/aerial.
plus battery's,cards etc

[Manfred M]

Actually, there is nothing in my bag right now because it just arrived yesterday. My rather ancient Kata photo backpack has finally worn out and I replaced it with a Think Tank Photo Streetwalker Harddrive, which has more capacity and can carry my large Feisol CT-3372 tripod + RRS BH-55 ball head quite nicely.

I'm off in a few weeks so will see how well it does...

[NorthernFocus]

As other have said the kit depends on the intended shoot. Most recently we travelled to New Zealand (from Alaska) and wanted to travel as light as possible while also desiring to shoot a few birds. Visiting the gannet colonies in Muriwai and Cape Kidnappers were specifically in our plans. Kit was as follows:

Nikon D7200, Nikkor 16-80mm, Nikkor AFS 80-400mm
Sirui T-025X CF tripod w/C-10S head
Nikon/Black Rapids sport strap
Nikon ML-L3 IR remote trigger
Cokin P adapter, CPL, 3-stop ND, GND
three 32GB and two 8GB SD cards
battery charger

For travel the D7200/16-80 were assembled and in a small Tamrac bag along with IR remote, SD cards, and filter kit. The 80-400 was in the Nikon supplied lens case. Both were simply stuffed into a student style backpack along with laptop and rain jacket. The tripod, charger, etc. travelled in one of our checked bags.

All of the above weighed less than 5kg and as things went I was quite happy with the kit during our trip. In hindsight I'd leave the 16-80mm behind and carry my Sony A6000 w/kit lens for landscape work. That would only have added half a kg or so and carrying a second body for landscape shooting is much preferred. As it went I switched lenses multiple times per day and it shows in the form of a filthy sensor by the end of the trip. I spent an inordinate amount of time in spot removal on a few images.