Busy Busy Busy!
And the problem is I’ve been busy with stuff
that has nothing to do with photography. I haven’t actually been able to take
my gear out for some serious photography in nearly a month, so I haven’t had
anything to write about, photography-wise, for about as long. But no longer!
This week has been all about the togging, so I can finally write stuff. Woo to
the Hoo. But where to start?
I guess I’ll start with the hiking gear and the
problems I’m having with it.
The Hiking
Gear and the Problems I’m Having with It
When I was in the army they taught us how to
pack our kit so we had everything we would need for a long time out bush in a
relatively small bag (2 weeks worth of gear in a 50L bag). And I can still do
that... sorta.
Y’See, when I was in the army I could fit in the
army sleeping bags, curled up all snug in my customary foetal sleeping
position. But as I have grown older my body has filled out more, my shoulders
have broadened and I just don’t fit anymore. I’ve got an army sleeping bag right
now and being in it is like wearing a sleeveless wetsuit! Fortunately, my super-secret
contact bought me a king size Weisshorn Camping Thermal Sleeping Bag for
Christmas. I’ve tested it out and it’s great! I fit in it comfortably, it’s
warm, soft and comparatively light. But it is a bit bigger, so it does take up
a bit more space in the old pack. Not too much, but more than the ‘wetsuit’ option
mentioned above.
Then there’s the problem of getting older. I’ve
done a whole lot of dumb stuff in my life, the result of which being a body
that is pretty much all aches or pains. So I need a comfy little camping
mattress to ease my pains so I can get to sleep, and the hard foam camp roll yoga-mat-lookin’
thing just ain’t gonna cut it anymore. I bought a flocked single air mattress,
and it is ever so comfy, but it
Then there’s the big one – the camera gear.
Right now I don’t have a lot of camera gear and none of it is extremely bulky
but it’s still too bulky for my backpacks, either of them, when the packs are
loaded with camping gear. Part of the problem comes from the fact that my gear
has to travel in a bag so that, once I reach my camping site, I can grab my
gear and set off in search of compositions. I can go with the solution Thomas
Heaton uses (hopefully I can get him to read this and offer me some advice!),
that being a camera bag liner in the pack, but then how do I carry the gear on
the searches? He never really shows that in his ‘what’s in my bag’ videos. Not
that I’ve noticed, anyway.
I think the only solution is going to be another
backpack. But this time I know exactly what I need from a pack and can go into
it informed. So which pack am I looking at?
Caribee
Jet Pack Travel Pack – The 75L version of this one seems the most logical
choice. It
So that’s the hiking thing. Next I suppose I
should go on to my new project.
My New
Project
So my Q-West Gallery project is suffering from
an acute case of bad timing, meaning I just can’t get those people in position
that I need in position when I’m in position to get the final few photos I need
to start building the final presentation (that sentence should give you an idea
of the complexity I’m dealing with!). The problem, I suppose, comes from the
fact that all the little duckies I need to get in a row are in Queenstown,
154km’s away from where I am in Somerset. This is starting to get frustrating
so, rather than just twiddling my thumbs, I am starting research on a new
project.
This new story, Heritage in Decline, will look at abandoned buildings, factories,
farming equipment and towns (yeah, Tassie has ghost towns!WOOHOO!!!) and ask the question, “What do we lose if we
lose these places?”
By that I mean, what can we learn about the building,
factory, town, etc that might expand our knowledge about the farm, the workers,
the people that occupied these decaying spaces? I am hoping to stimulate an
interest in the microhistory of Tasmania, and the rest of the world really.
Why? Because we have enough books talking about the big players in the big
events in history. We can easily lay our hands on a hundred books about World
War II and another hundred about why the first hundred are wrong. But how many
books are there about the challenges of farming central Tasmania in the 19th
or early 20th centuries? What do we know about the life experiences
of a mother living in Pillinger in 1890? I think a photo story presenting the
right view may just provide the stimulation I’m aiming for. Whether I can
provide that right view is another question, one that I will need to answer
before I decide whether or not to go ahead with it.
So I’m
researching locations to scout, searching for old buildings with the character
and level of decay I’m looking for, and cruising the back roads in search of
old buildings I can practice on. I’ll keep you up to date on this one if you
are interested, so let me know! And let me know if you have done something like
this yourself. What sort of problems did you face? What sort of problems do you
think I’ll face?
If I decide to go ahead with this project, I’m
thinking that might actually give me enough fodder to justify the purchase of a
vlogging kit. I guess I’ll cover that next.
Vlogging
Kit
Gear time! I do love gear time.
So what am I looking at? Well camera-wise I want
to go compact, durable, portable and easy to use. There are a lot of options
out there, but here are the ones I’m thinking of, and why I’m thinking of them:
DJI
Osmo+ - This comes with the Zenmuse x3 Zoom 4k camera, has a minimum focusing
distance of 50cm and comes attached to an intelligent gimbal system, all which
weighs in at less than 500g (corrections welcome – I’m not sure of my numbers
here). This makes it perfect for stuffing into my hiking pack (if I can figure
that problem out) for vlogging some middle-of-nowhere building photography. The
problem is I have no idea how the audio is out of these things, so...
Panasonic
Lumix G7 – This seems to be TCSTV’s go-to suggestion for vloggers, and I can see
why. It’s a well priced 4k camera with a micro four thirds sensor, a good range
of lens options available and a flippy-out selfie/vlogging rear display. And it’s
small. A G7 with the Panasonic 14mm F/2.5 wide prime weighs in at only 465g.
That’s a nice small kit that I could carry in a pocket. Once again, though, I
have to ask ‘how’s the audio?’ And then there’s the lack of the gimbal that
makes the Osmo+ so attractive. And there’s also this:
Canon
EOS M50 – This thing really gives the G7 a run for its money! It offers the tried
and tested sensor from the 80D, a flippy-out rear display like the G7’s, 4k
video and Canon’s Dual Pixel AF, which is apparently god’s gift to vlogging!
But you can’t have Dual Pixel AF with
4k, which messes with my head a little. I have no idea what Canon was thinking
there, but in my opinion they need to think again. Still, Dual Pixel AF at 1080
is still fantastic, and might be enough to draw me away from the G7. At 487g
with the Canon 22mm f/2 it’s not that much heavier that the G7, but it is a
fair bit pricier here in Oz. Again, cameras like this and the others I’ve
mentioned don’t have the best reputation for audio, so let’s address that now.
Audio
Kit
I’ve been thinking about audio quite a bit since
I started thinking vlogging. I wear a hearing aid in my left ear, on those
occasions when it works and my ear isn’t blocked, so I like good clear audio. I
am also on a limited income (I may have mentioned) so when I look at gear I
have to look at quality of the product for the price being asked. For these
reasons I am thinking about these combinations:
Zoom H1N Digital Recorder – If I find myself going with the Osmo+ I’m thinking external audio is going to be easiest, and Zoom seems to be the buzzword for external audio, so the Zoom H1 suggests itself. Reasonable price, compact, good reputation for audio. I’d likely team it with a Rode Pinmic so I can get the microphone right up near my mouth and minimise the ambient noise factor.
Now, there is a final kit option
that I have to consider, and in considering it I have to say it looks like a
sensible choice. I’m thinking about my Nikon D3200 in manual focus using hyper-focal
distance to keep myself from getting all blurry, teamed with the mirrorless audio
kit above.
There are pro’s and con’s to this option:
|
PROS
|
CONS
|
|
I already own the camera and lens, so I’m not spending
big
|
Nikon’s autofocus in video mode is reputedly awful
|
|
I already know the camera and can start learning the
video functions now
|
No 4k, only 1080 or less
|
|
Light enough for me to vlog with
|
Much heavier than the other options with my wide lens
attached.
|
|
Sharp image
|
No stabilisation on anything but my kit lens
|
So that’s what’s come about in the last week,
and wasn’t it a lot of shite to happen all at once?! Now I know you don’t like
commenting, and most of you are probably bots, but if there are any humans reading this and you have
experience with hiking or camping, taking photos of abandoned or derelict
buildings, or if you know anything about vlogging or audio gear... well... help a blogger out?
Which of these have you done?
What camping gear do you use?
What vlogging gear do you use?
What audio gear do you recommend?
Do you have a preferred backpack for hiking?
What is it and why do you like it?
As always, I hope you enjoyed the read! If you
did, give me some feedback! If you didn’t, give me some feedback! (Get the
feeling I’d like some feedback?)
Anyway, I’ve added some new stuff to my
portfolio:
And I’m fairly active on:
And I am @BobCartPhoto on Twitter
Ciao!
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