Landscapers ― share your best “take-down” tips

[Bill_1856]

Pick it up, dust it off, and thank Gawd there was a filter over the lens. Blow everything off with compressed air when you get home.

[h2oman]

My final step after packing my bag & collapsing the tripod is “walking-around” the set-up area, looking for small items I may have forgotten.

This is what some of my rock climber friends used to refer to as the "stonie check!"

[Robert Hughes]

In boy scouts we called it "policing the area".

[Peter J. De Smidt]

I'm an assistant photographer, and so I pack out large amounts of gear on a daily basis, and we have to be able to pack up and move very quickly, as we often photograph at a number of locations during the day, and often we have very tight time constraints.

The most important thing is that you have a very good system for storing and moving all of your gear. Everything needs it's proper place, and this takes some planing and trial and error to get correct. When setting up, you keep stuff in it's place until you need it, and when you're done you put it right back in it's place. Don't strew stuff all about. Not only will you lose stuff, it also creates a trip or damage hazard.

We take a van full of equipment, and we use a cart to wheel most of the gear from the van to the location. All of the cases get packed in a certain way in the van, and they get placed on the cart in a very specific way. The more all of this becomes second nature, the faster, safer and more creatively you'll be able to work.

When you get home go through your packs and cases, cleaning them out if needed, and making sure that everything is accounted for. Download all of your cards, if you haven't already, and take care of all of your film holders. Charge batteries and do whatever you need to do so that all you have to do is load your equipment cases into your vehicle, and you're ready to go to another shoot.

[Drew Bedo]

When in the field, my 4x5 kit is a Zone VI with 90mm, 150mm and 210mm lenses, 10-12 film holders, two filter wallets, loupe, meter, level, tape measure, dark cloth (or hood) and a tripod. This all goes into a large-ish 35mm camera bag with minimal use of dividers. Each item is placed in a fleece bag, then stowed in the camera bag.. If there is an empty bag left over when packing up, then something is still out and must be found.

This is how it gets rigged-down:



1. Remove and stow film holder.

2. Zero-out all movements.

3. Replace front lens cap, remove lens board, replace rear lens cap and stow lens.

4. Fold and stow camera.

5. Stow all accessories and close/secure bag.

6. Fold tripod and strap it to the bag.

7. Go somewhere else.