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Thread: Photo Vests While Backpacking...

  1. #11
    Jim Ewins
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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    I mostly agree with Dave although I'd leave it on the pack when hiking a distance, if I could carry enough film holders in the pack.
    I usually leave my light meter and gray card/note book in the jacket. The pack straps are no problem. I do look a little silly as I'm short and the vest comes almost to my knees. What the h...l!!

  2. #12
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    Jim - if you had your overly-long vest died black, and add hand-painted pin stripes, you could look like a zoot shooter. ;-)

  3. #13
    Scott Rosenberg's Avatar
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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    wow, thanks for all the informed responses. for the way i shoot, i'm not sure i'll find the vest all that useful. it sounds like a windbreaker with a couple of deep pockets is all i really need... plus, that could serve double duty as a darkcloth! my loupe is on a cord around my neck, so the only items i find myself handling are my meter and backs... surely i can find a wind breaker with room for them. just for the record, i've no concerns about my attire making me look like a geek... i seem to pull that look off regardless of what i'm wearing!

    dave, i never mind being approached in the field. talking to people & letting them have a polaroid test shot sometimes results in a sale!

    frank, with that get-up, you must strike quite the image in the field. i don't know how you get any work done, with the throngs of ladies constantly vying for your affections.

    eugene, if christine asks where the vest went, i'll just tell her that you advised i send it back. seriously though, she never has a problem with me exchanging things. when she presented (pun intended) it to me, she told me that i had twenty days to figure out if i was keeping it.

    michael, could you point me to the gnass lens pockets that you referred to... i checked justin's site, but could find no reference to lens pockets.

    thanks again, everyone for all the observations,
    scott

  4. #14

    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    Scott-

    You said: dave, i never mind being approached in the field. talking to people & letting them have a polaroid test shot sometimes results in a sale!

    [rant]
    I understand completely, and there are many times that I don't mind being approached when I'm working. Sometimes, though, the light is changing fast and I want to get some shots done. Since I do all of this for my own love of the art and have no interest in selling anything, sometimes I will do whatever I think is necessary (including wearing the photo vest) to be left alone.

    I seem to have a very friendly face and demeanor, and people seem to have no problem coming up to me and simply taking me away from my photography for as long as they'd like. I've never turned anyone away from a ten minute conversation or from a quick look under the dark cloth, but I've been known to abandon a spot if someone keeps after me for more time than I feel comfortable giving up. Usually simply climbing under the dark cloth works, but some lonely souls simply take that as their cue to wait for me to come out to continue the conversation. (These people are, by the way, inevitably the same ones who want to know if my camera is digital or if it's some sort of Hasselblad or Nikon.)

    Let's face it: Even with the Renaissance in large format photography, a field camera is still a rare sight and people are interested in finding out what it is that we're doing. Answering a few questions and being an "Ambassador" for our passion is both a good thing and an inevitability at times. But there are limited hours in the day, and my real job already takes up enough of my time. Giving up more than a few minutes to a curious bystander is something I simply choose not to do. I won't be rude about it, but I will happily wave a friendly goodbye rather than spend enless hours with someone who obviously is there only to be entertained. (I have had experiences when I felt the person who approached me was genuinely interested in what I was doing and might actually become a "convert"; for those folks I have all of the time in the world.)
    [/rant]

    But to get back to your original question: Keep the vest and try it out. Either empty the pockets when you move between locations, or take it off and stuff it into your backpack. Either way, I think you'll be surprised at how useful the pockets are. Even though the vests usually aren't designed with LF in mind, they're still mind-numbingly useful things and I'm glad I have mine.

  5. #15
    Scott Rosenberg's Avatar
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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    dave... i certainly did not mean to come off as snide in my response. please take no umbrage by my quip. i agree with everything you said, and when the light is changing quickly, i usually come up with some way of quickly ending the conversation. then there are the times that i'm simply not in the mood to talk... like when the battery in my light meter died and my spare was back at camp in another bag... i was quite moody that morning!

    the two questions i get asked most frequently are...
    1. is that a hasselblad?
    2. why do you carry all that stuff... my (insert pronoun here) has a neat digicam that fits into his shirt pocket!

  6. #16

    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    The lens pockets are not produced by Gnass, I got my wife to sew me up several as they are easy as the dickens to produce.

    Take a rectangular piece of durable cloth proportional to the dimensions of your lens boards plus a little extra and lay it flat on a table. Fold over a small flap on the end big enough to hold the cord and sew it closed on the end. Fold it back square and sew the long ends together. Get some cord and several of those push - open and let it go closed devices from a place like REI to use as closure devices and you are good to go. You can sew or even iron on a name tag so you always know what you are grabbing from the Gnass case. Cheap and efficient.

    Cheers!

  7. #17
    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    I have a really good insulated photo-vest that I bought for $3 in a thrift store because it was $3. I find it quite useful. It hangs in my closet, and keeps my leather motorcycle jacket from bumping into my sport-coats. Very handy...
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

  8. #18

    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    I find a vest of invaluable use. I have used one since I began in photography. I always buy fishing vests because they are cheaper and often have far more pockets than a dedicated photo vest. I carry filters, cable releases, roll film, loupe, etc in the vest while hiking. When shooting I put lenses, film holders, and other things I need quickly in the vest. I shoot large format and carry a Super Trekker. When people ask me questions while I am shooting and I don't want to be bothered, I tell them I am working and when I am finished, in about an hour, I may have time to answer questions. The hour bit always gets rid of them.

  9. #19

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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    You need to think of the vest in a different light: as an office while in the field and a storage locker when at home between photography trips. My vest holds many things which I would absolutely overlook when frantically trying to get everything together at the last second before heading out for a one or two day trip. For example: Blue ink pen, black ink pen and permanent marker, compass, pocket knife, Advil, small flashlight for focusing in the dark, pocket pack of facial tissues, Marble Memo note pad, Pentax Digital Spotmeter (attached to lanyard so I can't drop it on the ground), Toyo focus aid, #90 Mono Viewing Glass, multiple pages of blank exposure records to keep info on individual images taken, about 16 small cheat sheets of information which assist you in understanding how to take large format photographs (what filters do what, focusing hints and checklists, reciprocity data, etc.), 3 different sizes and colors of shutter release cables so I have a selection based on whatever whim strikes me and a backup if one breaks, multiple extra batteries for spotmeter, flashlight, etc., two lense cleaning cloths and an anti-static brush, a flexible rubber pad for opening lense filters screwed together to tightly or to open a peanut butter jar if I get hungry, another pack of facial tissues, an 18% gray card, a mechanical measuring tape for bellows extention measurement (which includes another bubble leveler if I need it), and six or seven Heliopan 82mm len filters (including a polarizer). Then, when I'm ready to go, I grab the vest and my backpack (which includes tripod, dark cloth, lenses, film holders, readyloads, and, oh yeah, my ARCA-SWISS 4X5 field camera - funny how you need that last item) and I'm out the door. Normally cash and food stuffs are provided by driving thru the ATM and Burger King down at the corner. So ... That's my checklist. And why my vest is essential on a backpacking photo hike.

  10. #20

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    Photo Vests While Backpacking...

    Yeah, but on the other hand, simplicity can help you avoid anxiety and make it easier for you to shoot, instead of keeping too many things organized. If you carry spares of everything you'll never have the energy to hike or make a photo.

    For example, from your list above, I take:
    One Sharpie marker, in my pocket, along with a scrap of paper or two
    One Leatherman, on my belt
    One loupe, worn around my neck
    One meter with belt-loop case, on my belt
    One AA Maglite or Petzl headlamp; one spare cable release; and a spare meter battery in the bottom of the pack
    A t-shirt or jacket to use as a dark cloth
    NO filters, level, or tape measure because I find that I really don't need them
    Maybe a Cliff Bar and water if it is longer hike

    Film and readyload holder goes into a Gnass case that hangs off the tripod. The extra lenses go into the Gnass lens case. Both of these go into a light daypack. The camera, mounted lens, and tripod go over the shoulder.

    I bet I can cover twice the ground of some poor guy trudging along with spares of everything and an 60 pound Lowe-Pro Super Hummer SUV Pack. If I took all that stuff, I'd just get a Chevy Suburban and mount the camera on the roof, like a machine gun.

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