- A camera.
My new and ultra-fancy 1D mII. I really just bought it for the bad-ass sound that it makes when shooting 8.5 frames a second. - Another camera.
My trusty and reliable 20D. Now relgated to '2nd camera' status. - A lens.
An EF 50 f1.4. On the 20D, it's a wonderful portrait lens. Of course, it's not anything close to sharp at f1.4, but very nice at f2. - Another lens.
My EF 135 f2. If it were possible for a man to marry a lens... - Yet another lens.
EF 17-40 f4. Yes I wish it was an f2.8, no I wasn't willing to spend an extra $800 for the 16-35 f2.8. It also has an EW-83DII hood on it because the supplied hood is less than useless if you're not shooting full frame and this way it will actually fit in my bag with the hood on. - A mouse.
- A bag of wires and doo-dads. sync cords and light slaves for the flashes, charger for the 20D (is there are smaller charger for those 1D mII batteries? that thing is huge...) and spare batteries for flashes and CF card reader/backup HD.
- A flash. For flashing things.
Canon 430 EX. Small and simple and (I am embarressed to admit) is mostly set on manual at 1/64 and used to trigger my Vivitars with their remote slaves... - A magic box that stores photos. With magic.
Yeah, that's pretty much what this is. I plug in my cards while I'm out shooting and it backs them up to an 80GB hard drive. So I can go out shooting for a few days (or a few weeks if I'm shooting jpeg) without having to be around my laptop. - One of those bags what you put stuff in and carry it around.
A Domke F2. Why all photographers don't shoot with these bags, I really have no idea. - An ipod.
- headphones in a box.
- A cord. Off camera flash cord for my Canon 430 EX. On camera flash is lame. And ugly.
- A phone. For calling people.
Quad band and unlocked by the sketchy guy at the cell phone store. - Another bag for carrying stuff about.
- My portable studio - Part 1
2 Vivtar 285HVs. These flashes are cheap, simple to use, and can be powered by anything. When I was in photo school we used to build super-cheap recharageble batteries for them out of parts from Radio Shack. - My portable studio - part 2
2 Westcott 43' white collapsible umbrellas. - My portable studio - part 3.
Manfrotto super-collapsible light stands with umbrella clamps on them. Small and light and, believe it or not, fit in that bag that they're sitting next to. - Cards. Not for poker.
- microphone.
- Audio recording machine.
- A cable.
- A portable photo strorage thingy. Also runs on magic.
120GB USB 2.0 bus-powered hard drive. It's already been replaced because it was being sketchy. - One of those computer things that all the kids are talking about.
Macbook Pro. Running Aperture for all of my sorting/ captioning needs. - a reader for my cards.
- one jelly pong (not shown) - .anjali
- Portable studio - part 4
2 light slaves for the vivtars. I'm convinced that these actually do work with magic.
geared up
So, I've just started the best little project ever. And it invovles a pile of travel for about the next 10 months or so. I had to do a little gearing up before I left and I'm sure all you super-photo-geeks will want to weigh in on what I should have gotten instead of what I did get, so you can all have at it in the comments.
Comments and faves
.leila, Nicholas Christopher, A Posteriori Knowledge, elliott | v, and 21 other people added this photo to their favorites.
candyfight (63 months ago | reply)
this photo elevates my heart beat a little bit
Spooky 960 (63 months ago | reply)
20 countries will definately get the life photoed out of them with that heavy artillery.
phlatphrog (63 months ago | reply)
How many countries do you think you will you get thru before the first item in this shot is lost/broken/stolen?
Sorry about being negative there. :)
So, how bout posting the list of countries? Will you be posting along the way, or do you have to save everything up until the end? Will you be (photo)blogging the whole adventure?
Fanis (63 months ago | reply)
OMG, so lucky! I wish I got paid to do that too :D
Jemal al Jemel (63 months ago | reply)
Show-off... ;-)
Just teasing -- that is the coolest job ever.
Matthew Winterburn (63 months ago | reply)
Lucky thing...i've just got back from 2 years around the world.. mind you i had to pay for it all myself... enjoy... im jealous!!
fojalicious (63 months ago | reply)
I think you need one Mark Fojas. He could do voice command zoom in/out on some primes.
Actually, a bluetooth GPS might be one of the things you want-- or a GPS that will interface with your camera's EXIF data. You can always send me one of your Canons to see if its compatible.
Pix Gremlin [deleted] (63 months ago | reply)
Have a safe and great time where ever you end up during your journey...
Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith (63 months ago | reply)
ahoe. are you coming to Japan? wanna swing by Kyoto? I met one ex-bahai. I can show you where she lives. You can take a pic!
_rox (63 months ago | reply)
jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.anjali (63 months ago | reply)
the excitement has yet to wane, even after 2 months of reminding myself that i won't be your accompanying birdflapper-notetaker-jellypong-extraordinair e.
amelia.tyson (63 months ago | reply)
looks like weapons of mass photographic destruction!
since i was your best student in your photo-graphy class, i totally should be the one to come along and assist you! :-) hahahahaha
negeen (63 months ago | reply)
just twist the knife in my heart a little more, ok? :P
Departure Lounge (63 months ago | reply)
ok, a few more (actually useful) details have been added to the notes. Oh and phlatphrog, I wasn't thinking how long it would take before something was broken/stolen/lost, I was thinking "I wonder if anything from this photo will be left by the time I get back". So your comment was pretty positive!
And yes, I will be photo blogging as I go, so pictures are coming.
Arezu (63 months ago | reply)
great.... you wait till after I have to personally pester you with questions for details and then you add the useful notes :)
negeen (63 months ago | reply)
thanks for the added info, ry.
sahbapasta (63 months ago | reply)
from the thumbnail i thought these were guns. lots of guns.
phlatphrog (63 months ago | reply)
Ok, well, I guess you have a starting inventory here with this picture, so you can see how much is left at the end.
When you get to Hawaii drop me a line.
lensgrabber (63 months ago | reply)
This is one sick setup! I want that 135 :)
Knockoutmalley (63 months ago | reply)
Dude, I would love to see what the A-team/ McGuiver would do with that, I tell ya freedom would spread a lot faster withthose boys on the case.
Faran Vafaie (63 months ago | reply)
1D?? 1D!!!! 1D!@#%!^^%^@^!$#@%^
dragfyre (63 months ago | reply)
wow... just wow
suzums (63 months ago | reply)
Hey what kinda headphones are those?!
Thats a hefty amount of gear! Oh, the 16-35 is way worth it. Just got mine a couple of weeks ago, I pretty much live on it now!
toastforbrekkie (61 months ago | reply)
Photographic evidence...finally...of one of the many reasons your photos are so much better than mine. Creativity notwithstanding.
Xavier Donat (59 months ago | reply)
I am jalous.........
Noktor-Matic (56 months ago | reply)
god damn!
Ryan on Flickr (50 months ago | reply)
Oh I wish to buy a camera based on the sound of its rapid fire! Balls to the wall fella!