Originally published in 2020, not much has changed in my camera bag over the last three years except I now shoot with a Nikon D5 now and have added a 70-200mm lens to my kit.
One of the most important things to any professional is their gear bag – whether it be someone traveling for work or a photographer heading to a photoshoot, the items contained in their bags allow them do their jobs and do them well.
For me personally, my gear bag changes depending on what I’m doing. If I’m just going somewhere to write, I have a smaller backpack that just carries my computer and a few other miscellaneous items. But in today’s blog, I’m going to go over one of my more “complicated” packing jobs – the bag I take when going to any sort of event I’ll be shooting.
The bag I’m unpacking and restocking today after two weekends at the track is new to me but the equipment I usually take doesn’t change much no matter what it’s carried in.
Disclaimer: I was unpacking the bag in my living room so items in the background may seem a little weird!
Nikon D3 & 80 – 400mm Lens
Of course, the most important items in my gear bag are my main body (a Nikon D3) and my lens (an 80 – 400mm). They are always the first thing I pack, and the items I double and triple check for before I leave home. I also make sure I have my cards in the camera (I’ve made the mistake of not having them in there before – thankfully I also have a spare outside the camera!) and a fully charged battery.
A Smaller Lens
While I don’t use a smaller lens too often at the track and horse shows, I do carry one that I can pop on if needed. For the last two weekends I’ve carried a 16 – 80mm lens (the lens that shot most of the photos in this blog), but I also have an “in-between’ lens that goes to 120mm. I often use that lens for on-farm shoots where my normal lens (shown in the photo with my camera body) will be too powerful for close-quarters shooting.
Back-up Gear
While I thankfully rarely have to use them for their intended purpose, I also carry a back-up body and lens. I upgraded to a newer camera recently so my old camera (a Nikon D500) and a 55 – 300mm lens have gotten the call to be back-up. There have been some situations where the “back up” lens has worked better than my main lens for various reasons so it gets the call more often than the camera body (which also plays the part of carrying the smaller lens if I need two cameras for a shoot).
Battery Charger and Batteries
Ever since going to a shoot where my battery was dead and my spare was only partially charged nearly 10 years ago, I’ve been paranoid about the batteries in my kit. I have a second battery for both my main body and my back-up body and because I’d rather be safe, I also have the camera charger for the D3’s battery in the bag now (and used to have the D500’s charger when that was my main camera).
Often I’ll charge the camera battery in the press box after the races and then again when I get home (it usually doesn’t get fully charged in the length of time I’m at the track after the races) and I’ll also put the spare(s) on as well just to be doubly certain everything is charged. I do the same with the back-up camera batteries because even if I don’t use the camera often, I don’t want to run into another situation where I need the camera and don’t have charged batteries.
Card Reader
When I shot with my D500 I didn’t have to worry about this important piece of equipment because I have an SD card reader on my computer. But these days I shoot with CF cards so my Insignia Card Reader is always in the bag. It is one of the only pieces of equipment I put back into the bag as soon as I’m done using it because I want to make sure I always have access to it.
It’s nearly as important as the camera in that without the card reader, I won’t be able to get my photos off the camera.
External Hard Drive
I have a laptop that doesn’t have a ton of storage so photos rarely get stored on my computer. Instead I have a small external hard drive I always carry with me that gets backed up on to a bigger drive when I get home (which I’m actually doing as I write this blog).
When the hard drive is full, it gets “retired” to a life of living in the office and a new one takes its place in the bag. My current external is a little over three TB and just got put into service a few months ago so it has a decent amount to go until it is full.
Rain Gear
Since I’m from the Pacific Northwest, I always expect rain. That has been backed by storms rolling in at tracks I’ve been to around the world even when it’s not supposed to rain. Because of this, I keep both rain gear and a towel in my bag. I’m not a huge fan of using rain gear because I find it to be cumbersome but it’s something I make sure to always have just in case weather hits.
The towel I keep in my bag works two-fold … I’ve used it for both my camera and myself. I don’t have just one towel I keep in the bag, I often switch towels when one is in the wash so some days you may see a white towel peeking out of my bag and other days you could see a decorative one, it just depends on what I grab from my towel stash!
Recorder
I am often pulling double or even triple duty at the track so I always have my recorder with me just in case I have to do an interview. Sometimes that interview can be in-person at the track and sometimes it is someone returning a phone call so it’s important I have it with me at all times.
Masks
Welcome to 2020, where I always have multiple masks in my bag for myself and others. I find that the N95 masks work really well for keeping my glasses from fogging up too badly when I’m shooting so they are usually what I wear out on the track. However, I also sweat a lot in them so I keep some regular masks around to put on before and after to let my face have a bit of a breather.
No matter what mask I’m wearing, my glasses do tend to fog up a bit so a friend recommended the “Fog Defender System” from WalMart. I used it for the first time on Saturday and I’m sold. By the end of the day, my glasses started to fog up again but one more application (that only takes about 20 seconds) kept the fog at bay until I was able to take off my mask.
Sanitizer and Headphones
The only reason these two are combined is because they’re kept in the same pocket but both are important. I use a lot of sanitizer throughout the day when I’m in a public place and if I didn’t use some when walking by a dispenser, I’ll pull this bottle out and use it when I get back to my desk.
The headphones serve a variety of purposes. In some press boxes I’m easily distracted so they’re almost like blinkers on a horse in that they help me focus but they’re also handy if I have to transcribe something on my recorder or watch a race replay.
The Randoms
There are other things I carry in the bag that don’t fit into any specific category. I have caps for both a lens and a camera body just in case one wanders off at the track (which happens surprisingly often) and I also have multiple pens in my bag for the same reason.
Other random items include a wall charger that I can plug my phone cord (not pictured) into if I can’t charge on my computer (it also charges quicker plugged into the wall), rubber bands, and hair ties. I also keep two contacts for each eye in the bag just in case I can’t wear my glasses (usually when it’s raining) and one contact rips or falls out when I try to put it in. Not pictured is my glasses case that I’ll then put my glasses in.
Other items that aren’t pictured include my computer, computer charger, ibuprofen, and snacks. Many race days lead to long nights in the press box that continue way after all restaurants at the venue are closed so snacks are a must when you hit a wall and need to wake yourself up.
In all, I joke that my bag carries nearly everything I need to survive for a week but every item I have in the bag has come from needing the item and not having it in the past.