Everyday Items that Belong in Your Camera Bag

One of the most common questions I get in workshops, and at times, when you're traveling is what kind of camera bag do you have? What's in your camera bag? Boy, I tell you what that's a tough question because there really is no universal answer. People have heard me say that before. There is no perfect camera bag for anything.

I tend to have a variety of camera bags based on what kind of a shoot that I'm going to be on. And when you're car camping and car shooting, you can bring everything and the front door and the kitchen sink. But if I'm just going to go on a regular kind of a scouting trip, and I'm going to go off into the woods, and I'm going to bang around for a five mile hike or something, and kind of check things out, I tend to carry a backpack type of a camera bag. And there's a kind of a standard amount of gear that I tend to bring with these bags. And one of the things that I like, one that has a backpack feature to it, so I can carry it, it's more comfortable.

Over years of being a newspaper photographer and magazine shoot or walking around the streets, I carried the shoulder bag, and while that's good for some things, I started getting mailman's disease. My shoulders were like this because I had one that was on one side, not on the other, but it's a pretty standard amount of stuff that I carry. If I'm going to go on a hike, and I don't want to have to over pack, so I'm carrying just an outrageous amount of equipment. I generally have my zoom lens, I've got a telephoto lens, and I've got a wide angle lens, and then I'll also bring a macro lens with me. And lately I've also been bringing one of these lens babies, cause I tend to like to have those with me as well because it gives me an alternative perspective and view that I mount, as well as I will carry my flash.

I carry an extra battery, and I also carry with me a small LED bright flashlight. And these are really important for a couple of things. If I am off, and it's getting dark, and I want to be able to shoot, and it's getting so dark that I can't even use auto-focus, the great thing about these little LED flashlights, these mag lights is that you can actually put that onto a tree, even though you don't look as though it's getting much brighter. This little bad boy will light that tree up enough to where I'm using auto-focus, the auto-focus can pick this up, and I can still get a sharp shot even in darkness. So that's kind of a key ingredient of having that.

If I can't, I'll carry a headlamp, but this works out really well. Other things that I'll carry into my little collection here is of course is my cable release. I'll usually bring a body cap, if I have an extra body cap. I tend to carry a plastic whistle with me, believe it or not. This comes from my dad being a rescue pilot.

He always is safety-conscious, but I'll bring this with me because if I ever fall, if I break neck, fall off a cliff, break an ankle, I've got a whistle where people can just hear it, and then laugh, and say, "Oh, somebody is hurt." The other is I tend to carry extra batteries. And I also carry, it started a couple of years ago. I was on a shoot in Iceland, and I spent a great deal of time next to a giant waterfall, Dettifoss, and it was so loud that it really took its toll on my hearing. So I started carrying around earplugs. So if I get, if I'm in a plant, if I'm by a waterfall, I can toss on the earplugs.

They weigh nothing, so it's not that big of a deal. Inside here are extra bags, I tend to carry a thing of aspirin with me, in case I can get dehydrated and get a dehydration headache. Well that's kind of the inside of the pack. On the inside of the pack, outside here, I always carry a ball cap, in case the sun starts to get too much. I carry a handkerchief, if I need to put it on the ball cap around to get some protection on my neck.

I carry a notepad, so I can write down quotes. I can write down information if I need it. I'll carry a map with me as well. And one of the other things that I pretty much bring everywhere with me is I bring a little garbage bag. And even though these bags have a tendency, most of them now, most of these modern bags, especially these backpack type bags, they have a rain shower that comes in the back and will go over it, so if it starts to rain, you can throw it over.

This gives me a little extra protection as well, as there are times when I go someplace, and it's pretty muddy, and that rain protection isn't going to help me or my bag so much. So if I got that plastic bag, I can lie on that plastic bag, and keep the mud and the wet off of me, or it allows me a place to put my camera bag down if I'm out, and I don't have to put my camera bag directly in the mud as well. Kind of the final item that I carry, and I usually carry this either on the inside or the outside is I'll bring some kind of a cotton as opposed to a, oh what do they call it, a fleece type of a blanket because this works for two reasons. One, it helps me on days like today wipe the sweat out of my eyes, but also it allows me to wipe off my camera gear whenever. And it's very absorbent.

So if it sprinkles, I can wipe my lenses off. If I get condensation on my lens, the cotton will take it off without smudging it. And so this is a really good thing to bring with me almost everywhere I go. Again, it weighs nothing, and I can take all of those things with me on any kind of a normal, general type of a hike. And I pretty much have everything I need to be out.

And of course, if I needed a tripod, I can always toss on my mini tripod, and throw it on top of my bag and take off. But for the most part, that's it for general hikes. And if I need to shorten up and carry just the lens and a fanny pack for another lens on city works, I'll do that, but this is pretty much what gets me around.