Last week's trip was a short one for a product launch. Basically it was "Fly there, get picked up at the airport and shuttled to a somewhat remote resort hotel, get shuttled to the range the next day, back to the hotel, then back to the airport and fly home."
While it would have been absolutely legal for me to bring a firearm, the allure of not having to check a bag was a strong one. Truthfully, I felt the absence of a pocket knife more than I did the lack of a gun; the threat envelope was virtually nil, but I hate having to open stuff with my teeth like an animal.
Anyway, this immediately presented me with a quandary, in that my usual, pre-packed carryon bags consist of a rolling bag and a messenger bag to stuff under the seat in front of me. They are entirely devoted to my work camera gear and a laptop with its associated support stuff (external hard drive for photos, mouse, A/C adaptor, USB card reader, et cetera.) My regular travel bag for clothes and stuff, an old Maxpedition Fliegerduffel, usually goes as checked baggage. While the Fliegerduffel is small enough to go in the overhead, my usual underseat bag was not currently set up as a standalone photography kit.
So on this trip I brought that bag of old Nikon gear from the other post and shot the product launch with it (and regretted not having a lens hood for the old 80-200/2.8). First thing when I got home was to reconfigure my underseat bag so that it, too, could function as a standalone travel setup.
The Peak Design Everyday Messenger is more than tall and deep enough to hold my work camera, the Canon 5DS, with the 24-105mm f/4L IS lens mounted.
To one side, also stored vertically, is my go-to standby for shooting on the range, the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L, the original gangsta unstabilized version. I got a good deal on my well-loved copy from a blog reader, but this variant is still being manufactured, since stabilization doesn't matter much in action shooting. Despite being launched in 1995, the original version still takes fantastic images. As usual, buying used can save a bundle, and don't worry, these things are built like tanks. The big putty-colored Canon L zooms are ubiquitous sights along the sidelines in sports for a reason.
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| Tom Givens working with a student, 1Ds Mark II & 70-200mm f/2.8L |
On the other side, over the padded divider, is a 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro, while under the divider is an old 17-35mm f/2.8L wide-angle zoom. The new and modern 100mm is up top because it's a good portrait lens as well as a stellar macro, and those are both things I use frequently for work, while the wide-angle is a a well-used older variant, and it's on the bottom because I rarely shoot much wider than the 24mm offered by the regular zoom I keep on the camera.
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| Tom again, this time with the 5DS & 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS |
While this configuration has every focal length from 17-200mm covered, and most of it with a fast f/2.8 aperture, for a class instead of a product launch, I'm likely to swap out the 100mm & the 17-35mm for a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS, the better to grab candid headshots from across the range.
Now that that's settled, if I do a little one-nighter again, I can bring my real work gear!
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