Should You Hike With A Heavy Camera Bag?
When you make the switch from part-time amateur to full-time professional you quickly learn the one phrase you will hear until the end of time, "Boy that's a big lens you've got there". This phrase, or the like, will dominate everything you do in your professional career. For years I scratched my head when people would comment on my glass and then immediately follow it with how they could never use it because it's too big and heavy. Look up reviews for any Telephoto zoom or larger lens and most of the comments will be filled with expressions of distaste simply because the lens is too heavy to carry around and operate.
For me, heavy gear was part of the job. You need the big glass because the work you do requires it. The reason its so heavy, large and complicated is because the work we are doing often times demands we plan for every possibility. Do I have a use for a 14mm f/2.8 prime lens on a portrait shoot? I can think of about half a dozen off the top of my head so we include everything in our arsenal to cover our bases. However, as I have been learning fine art photography and particularly landscapes I am finding this issue is really starting to weigh on my mind.
You don't really think too much about how much weight you are bringing until you are staring down a 50 foot near vertical ascent up a frozen and deeply snow-covered waterfall. Looking up at the incredible steepness of the route and being 3.5 hours into a snowshoe hike in mid-February I started to realize why someone would complain about the weight of their glass. The climb was what you called an "ass kicker". The final push before the pay off at the top of the mountain and all I could think about was how bad my shoulders were hurting and why I had brought my studio with me on my back.
On any given outing I carry my 16mm, 24-70mm F/2.8, 50mm F/1.8, 60mm F/2.8 Macro, 70-200mm F/2.8, an Aluminum tripod and various supplies and filters that I need. The only lens I used was my 24-70. So effectively I took 80% of my camera gear out for a long walk and some fresh air! Thinking back on this would I have missed any of my gear from that particular outing? No, I didn't even take any other lens out of my bag! So this got me thinking about trying a minimal approach and building up from there.
On my next outing, I will be taking one lens, my camera body, tripod and maybe a filter or two. I am attempting to go out with the bare minimum of gear and see if I miss anything rather than kicking myself for taking too much with me. It is important that we remember that the locations we go to are going to be there tomorrow, next month and next year. You can always go back plus with the added time you will be taking the photography will be even better because you are putting more thought into your compositions.
I will report back with a follow-up post in a few weeks after I have experienced the minimal pack. I am almost excited at the lack of options I will have because for so long I have taken everything and been overwhelmed by the number of choices I have. The overall message here is that we as professionals need to remember that we can overthink things too much and get in our own way. We are the artisans of our craft. Its time we started showing the world what we can do when we are put to the test and have to get creative to make a shot work. After all, that's why we call ourselves creatives is it not?
