Research on light travel photgrapher

I am a photography student and currently doing my final project. I

would like to do research on amateur and professional photographers

from all around the world who are keen to explore the forest and

shoot photos at the same time. I need to know what kind of equipment

needed for them to travel light yet have all the gear needed. Also

the equipments needed for night shooting. Need your opinion ASAP.

Any photography tips are welcome. Thank you for your help =)

You might want to check the catalog/internet offerings of the various bag/case manufacturers (like but not only Lowe, Tenba, Tamrac, etc.). That will give you an idea of many of the different approaches people have tried for carrying gear.

 

What type of night shooting? You usually need to add light (flash) or increase the length of the exposure. For long shots, that usually means tripod and remote/cable release. That's maybe simpler than you need but the question is maybe too basic?

 

There is a lot of information in the static content of this and many other sites. Use Google and other search engines and you should come across a lot of basic info.

I take my two favorite zoomz 28-135 IS on camera and 100-300 5.6 L in fanny/waist pouch. Camera is carried acrros chest instead of around neck so it doesn't bounce. Five rolls of film. One in camera two canisters taped to each side of camera strap. For night and low-light I carry a small clamp that clamps or screws that fits in the second smalller pocket in the fanny/waist pouch. Which film I take is determined by subject and conditions when I leave.

On long walking safaris (7 hours a day) I prefer a bum bag to rucksac. I have a wide waist strap, a tripod ontop of a rear bag, and camera with lens mounted on one hp, a water bottle on the other with a water filter kit on the side.

 

Camera wise, a Body, battery pack and 50mm lens inside apadded ccs bag. For more options I have used a 28 - 200 lens as an alternative, but mostly find myself using the 50mm.

 

For night work, I have an IR night scope mounted onto a T ring adapter, and have had a little sucess with that (poor image quality on 1600 film)I guess that this was specific animal photography.

 

For forest work, using the Canon IS systems is great with the low available light, it adds a couple of extra stops down on the speed side opening up to more availability in low light.

 

G

Check out my friends web site www.nevadaweir.com

She has some tips for travel.

 

I do some night shooting. I use mostly Kodak TRI-X 400 film for B&W and some Kodak E100GX with a Leica M6 TTL. Lenses are usually 75mm F1.4 and a 35mm F2.0. Lot of people use the Leica M 50mm F1.0. It is a very fast lens and expensive too. The main reason I carry the Leica M is it is small and not heavy to carry around when traveling.

 

 

Best wishes on your project!!

I sometimes do "average-comlicity" tracks (forests + mountains + streams) while carrying my Minolta Maxxum7 with 24-105 lens.

I have a "regular" ruckzack with some (protected) place left for the camera, but I only put it there while passing through the difficult places; most of the time it just hangs around my neck.

I tried walking with P&S film- and digital cameras, but didn't liked it. Decided to just take the SLR and not think about the (possible) consequencies.

Here are some conclusions I made so far:

- one needs 24-xx zoom; 28mm isn't wide enough; 35mm is just frustraiting;

- film speed of 200 ISO at least is preferrable; 100 ISO is usable but les comfortable;

- some flash is a must, at least the built-in one; fill-flash technique is required too frequently;

- I wish I had external flash as well - for making side-lighting; here Minolta's built-in wireless remote flash controller is a huge advantage;

- I wish my lens had some macro capabilities - there are lots of suitable subjects;

- having remote flash would help a lot for macros - there usualy isn't enough light otherwise;

- the Maxxum 7 + 24-105 combo is almost perfect functionally, though is over-weighted and over-priced for the purpose;

- I don't carry external flash because of an additional weight;

- there usualy is some wind in the forest (otherwise it's unbearable in summer); thus I'm not sure the slow shutter speed is of much use;

- IS is nice, but adds weight;

- the lens hood + UV filter is a good lens protection; you may leave the cap in the pocket, but you must remove the hood when using built-in flash.

 

Oleg.

lyana, I'll treat this as a kind of survey rather than a search for a perfect system for travelling.

 

Although I've done a fair bit of travelling, I haven't been really interested in photography until very recently. Before Christmas I packed a simple point-and-shoot camera made by Pentax. Since buying my wife a Canon Powershot S30 last Christmas we've been using it quite frequently. In fact, in the last month we've taken more than 300 pictures! The pictures are clear and it's certainly no hassle to cart it around. Even with the tripod it's not a burden.

 

I've also got a Pentax K1000 SLR camera. It's my very first one and I'm still learning how to use it well. It also takes clear pics, though the I don't fiddle with the colour saturation in Photoshop like I do with the Canon's shots, so they're not as vivid in colour. It also takes me a fair bit of time to compose shots; I don't take action shots as well as I'd like to.

 

Compared to either the point-and-shoot and the digital camera, my SLR is a hassle to take places. It's not so bad in the side bag, but around my neck it's too hefty to be ignored - it swings into chips and dip at parties and whacks me on the ribs if I move more than to blink my eyes. And that's just the camera! When you add in other lens, films, and filters, I feel like I'm toting around school books again.

<p>I don't know if this is too late for you or not, but I figured I would chime in.</p>

 

<p>The last few times I've gone into the woods I've been shooting medium format. For support I use</p>

 

<ul>

<li>Bogen 3221WN tripod

<li>Bogen 3038 ballhead

</ul>

 

<p>I like the 3221WN a lot. It is very stable, the spread of each leg is independently adjustable out to 90 degrees from vertical, so I can essentially get right down to ground level with it once I remove the center column. The downside is that it is heavy, especially when the ballhead is screwed on. The 3038 has a nice big baseplate, so it supports my MF body well. Unfortunately it weighs in at almost 5lbs, so the combination takes some getting used to. I have a strap for the tripod, so I wear it slung across my back while walking into the point where I start shooting.</p>

 

<p>For camera equipment I carry along:</p>

 

<ul>

<li>Mamiya 645E

<li>80mm F4 Macro

<li>150mm F3.5

<li>2x TC

<li>Cable release

</ul>

 

<p>For filters I carry:</p>

 

<ul>

<li>Circular Polarizer

<li>Moose Warming Polarizer

<li>Cokin P holder and adapters for each lens, with Cokin colored filters for B&W (as well as some Lee polyester 'gels') and ND, Grad ND, and warming squares.

</ul>

 

<p>Walking in, everything is carried in a Domke satchel. Once I've setup once, the camera and its cable release stay on the tripod. I then carry the tripod and camera over the shoulder.</p>

 

<p>Add to that ten or twenty rolls of film, depending on what I think I'll find.</p>