Backpacking for photographers

My approach to getting there

iv
• Photography Gear

Snow and trees • Chugach National Forest, Alaska

Part Four: Photography Gear

So now that you've decided to sleep in the camping equivalent of a ziplock bag, wear the same clothes for days on end, and eat mushy, taste-challenged food, you should have some extra room in your pack. The challenge is to squeeze your gear in the remaining space of your pack in such a way that you don't need to remove everything to get to it. Since I am primarily after landscape photos I don't worry too much about having instant access to my gear. I have the luxury of removing my pack and taking my time while I decide how I want too shoot a specific scene.

I stuff everything I'll need into a medium sized fanny pack from REI and then put the fanny pack inside the backpack on top of everything else. It just fits. I strap the tripod to the outside of the pack. Although heavier, this arrangement has the advantage of allowing me to take side trips without my entire pack. I will frequently set up camp, hang my food bag and take a hike to a nearby location with only my tripod, fanny pack and a little water. I like having all the necessary gear together so I don't do something silly like walk off without my film or meter. Fanny packs are available that are reasonably waterproof which adds some extra protection to my gear if my pack gets wet.

Like everything else involving backpacking, I make some concessions. I only carry one body and two lenses. The body is almost always a Pentax 67 (without the wood grip) and the lenses are always a 45mm (wide angle in this format) and a toss-up between the normal 105mm and the telephoto 200mm depending on the type of shots I predict. I also bring a couple of filters (warming, polarizer, and neutral-density grad), a spot meter, and film. To save space and weight I use the waist-level finder rather than the very heavy prism finder. My tripod is a carbon fiber Gitzo 1227. This, like the titanium spork, is one of those objects that costs four times as much as you would expect because it is a few ounces lighter. But it is a few ounces lighter, and as sturdy as a tripod twice its weight. I try to take a little extra care with the backpack because the gear is not very well protected from bumps. This is the area where the Pentax 67 excels. This is a tough camera. I have had some minor problems associated with rough handling, but nothing that I couldn't fix with a small screwdriver. For a little added protection I stuff the lenses into hiking socks to keep them from bumping together during the trip. If I could be happy with 35mm slides, this affair would be much simpler. I could probably get by with a system of small bags that attach to the waist belt of the pack. Although my feet may hurt a little more, I know when I get back to the light table this will have been worth the effort.