0:00

How's it going everybody? Welcome

0:02

back to another episode of the podcast.

0:05

I'm Robert Massey. This is the Travel and Adventure Photography

0:07

School. Thank you so much for joining me out

0:09

here today. Super excited to be here with you.

0:12

This week was an interesting one

0:14

to try and find time to record. Admittedly, brought

0:16

the mics with me on a few different adventures.

0:19

Some kayaking, some hiking,

0:21

some Aurora shooting last night, and honestly, every

0:24

time I was out there I got totally distracted

0:26

that I totally forgot to record anything. So

0:28

instead you get a little walk around town

0:31

where I am a little less distracted and

0:33

a little bit more focused, and

0:35

hopefully gonna be able to give you something better than random

0:37

ramblings. So, we're currently

0:39

walking on some little

0:41

side streets in Banff up towards the Banff Center.

0:44

It's gonna be a good little walk today. So what

0:47

I wanna talk about is something I realized last

0:49

night when I was heading out to shoot the Aurora, and

0:51

it's five things that I always

0:53

keep in my photography bag

0:55

when I'm heading out shooting that aren't actually

0:58

related directly to photography.

1:01

Most of us have the gear that

1:03

we know we need to have with us when we're shooting. If

1:05

we need filters, if we need a tripod, anything

1:08

like that. We know the photography accessories that we need

1:10

to go out and create the photos that we want to create. What

1:13

this is, is things that I tend to always

1:15

have in my bag regardless of what type of photography

1:18

I'm doing. That's because these are

1:20

critical needs for creating pretty much any

1:22

good photo. But also just making sure that

1:24

I can actually go out and continue to create

1:27

what I need to, no matter what the situation is

1:29

that I run into. Alright, so

1:31

it's a list of five. The first thing that ends up in my

1:33

bag is my portable battery

1:35

bank. This is basically

1:37

a large charger that

1:39

allows me to recharge my camera on

1:41

the go, allows me to recharge my headlamp my phone

1:44

or anything else, I need to. I made sure to get one

1:46

that had a USB-C port in it and a

1:48

USB-A port, so I could charge basically

1:51

any devices I need to. But the USB-C port was

1:53

really critical to be able to charge my Sony

1:56

camera at a high rate

1:58

so I could keep my camera going a little bit

2:00

longer, leave it sitting for 20 minutes, get

2:02

a little bit of extra juice out of it if the batteries die,

2:04

or if all my extras die. I haven't had that happen,

2:07

but it's nice to know that I can make

2:09

that happen if I need to, and that I can

2:11

recharge my batteries, if something unforeseen

2:14

happens, I have another backup

2:16

in case anything's there and I'm not missing my opportunities

2:19

to shoot. So one of the things

2:21

that you make sure that you want to include when you're

2:23

purchasing a battery pack is to make

2:25

sure that it's strong enough to actually charge

2:28

your camera. So what this means is the

2:30

little tiny stick ones that you get that can charge your phone

2:32

might not be powerful enough to actually give

2:34

your camera enough of a boost to keep it going. So

2:36

when you're choosing which one to buy, just make sure that you get

2:38

one that's got enough umph to it that you'll

2:40

be able to charge your camera and do it

2:43

relatively quickly. If you have one that's a pretty low amperage,

2:45

you won't actually be able to easily charge your camera,

2:47

easily charge your devices while you're out on the

2:49

go. It'll go too slow. It won't actually allow

2:51

you to charge things very quickly. And then

2:54

the other thing that you wanna make sure that you watch out for is that

2:56

it has the USB-A, USB-C ports.

2:58

It has the right ports that you can actually

3:00

charge your camera with. So make sure that you are

3:02

actually going to be able to plug it in. I

3:04

would suggest right now, always go for USB-C.

3:07

USB-C to USB-C is going to be by far

3:09

the fastest charge that you can get with what we have

3:11

accessible to us on the consumer market. So,

3:14

check out for those things and always just throw

3:16

it in your bag. Remember to charge it up when you get home

3:18

and you're charging your batteries, toss it back in and

3:21

you're good to go. All right. The second

3:23

thing that always ends up in my bag, and this might be common for

3:25

a lot of people, but if you shoot in a studio setting

3:27

or anything like that, this actually might not be something

3:29

you think of, but when you're out traveling and you're out adventuring, having

3:31

a cleaning kit, just a little tiny one

3:34

can make all the difference in the world. So

3:36

I don't mean bring along like the massive

3:38

rocket blower and all of your pieces of cleaning equipment

3:41

that you would have sitting around your house

3:43

or that you should have sitting around your house to clean your camera. What

3:45

I mean is a lens clean cloth, preferably

3:47

two in case one of them gets wet or very dirty

3:50

if you've dropped it in mud or something like that.

3:52

They're very small. They're very light. Always have two

3:55

of these things on hand. I think I have them tucked into most

3:57

of the pockets in most of my bags 'cause I have so

3:59

many of them at this point. So I always have a lens clean cloth with

4:01

me. You wanna make sure that you have

4:03

some way to blow dust and dirt off of

4:06

the front of your lens as well. So just a little tiny rocket

4:08

blower is really helpful as well. And

4:10

maybe a little bit of lens cleaner if

4:12

you end up getting spots. That won't come off if

4:14

you're, say, shooting in the rain, shooting near a waterfall

4:17

or anything like that, where mud or

4:20

water can come up and grime the front of your lens.

4:22

So not a big kit that you would need to have

4:25

with you but can be so impactful

4:27

to your images. You can almost always

4:30

clean those kinds of things out in post, but man,

4:32

can they get annoying and irritating and really

4:35

suck in your time while you're editing.

4:37

If you don't clean them up right then and there, if you

4:39

don't get it right in camera, you're end up sitting

4:41

in front of a computer for a lot longer than most

4:44

of us probably want to. And that

4:46

being said, sometimes you can't clean

4:48

those water spots out. If you end up with one directly

4:51

over top of your person's face and you don't have another angle

4:53

to be able to do a face replacement, or it ends

4:55

up going over exactly the wrong spot in the image and

4:57

it could actually ruin your photo.

5:00

So just keep an eye on the front of your lens and always have a cleaning

5:02

kit with you. Mine is super small.

5:05

It takes up maybe a pound in my bag

5:07

and smaller than a credit card. So

5:09

if you can have that with you, fabulous. If

5:11

you know you're gonna be changing lenses a lot and

5:14

you know you're gonna be in a situation where

5:16

there's lots of dust blowing around, lots

5:18

of other things, kind of possibly contaminating

5:20

your sensor then you might wanna consider having some sensor

5:22

cleaner with you as well. So the

5:24

issue with that, you obviously can't clean your sensor

5:27

while you're outside. So if you have somewhere that you can go, that's

5:29

not gonna be blowing dust around then having something

5:31

like that with you is a great idea. I didn't really

5:33

find this to be a problem when I was shooting on Cannon, but now

5:35

that I shoot on Sony a lot more. It's a problem. Sony

5:37

sensors are giant, sucks for dirt. They

5:40

suck in dirt all over the place, and

5:42

I just, I don't know what's going on with them. They're beautiful sensors,

5:45

but man, they get dirtier far

5:47

faster than any other sensor I've ever seen. So,

5:49

if you're a Sony shooter, this actually might be way

5:51

more important to have something with you where you can sneak

5:53

off somewhere and clean that sensor when it does get really

5:56

dirty, because that seems inevitable now with

5:58

the way that Sony's cameras work. All

6:00

right, so point number two, bring a cleaning kit with you.

6:02

It doesn't really change much of the

6:05

weight of your bag, and honestly, it

6:07

makes a huge difference to your images. All

6:09

righty. Number three. We're just

6:11

plowing through these today. It's a light

6:13

source, so the light source

6:16

definitely changes, but I always have a light source

6:18

in my bag. It doesn't matter if I'm headed out at noon

6:20

and I'm shooting until like three o'clock in the afternoon.

6:23

I always have a light source with me. That's

6:25

because they can massively influence an image

6:27

just by painting a little bit, something extra onto somebody's

6:30

face or adding a little bit of light to

6:32

a piece of scenery. Just adding that little

6:34

bit of something extra to light

6:36

up your scene can actually make a huge,

6:38

huge difference to making your image just

6:41

pop. The type of light I bring with me

6:43

does change quite frequently, but it's

6:45

always there. Let's take last night for example.

6:48

I was out, we were shooting the Aurora till about three in the morning.

6:50

It was fabulous and before

6:52

I left, I made sure to throw in my RGB

6:55

LED tube. This is a multicolor,

6:59

basically tube of LEDs that

7:01

is about 20 inches, 50 centimeters

7:03

long that I can easily tuck into a

7:05

backpack, but it's bright enough that I can use

7:07

it to add a little bit of lighting on someone's face if it's

7:10

midday, or I can use it to paint

7:12

in a little bit at night or add a really

7:14

cool glowing effect. I can

7:16

also change it into basically any color I

7:18

want. So it's this super versatile

7:21

piece of kit that is actually, honestly,

7:23

fairly cheap. Cost me about, I think it was 60

7:25

bucks Canadian, 70 bucks Canadian to buy one, and

7:28

it charges on the same U S B C port, so I can just plug

7:30

it back into my battery bank when I need to charge on it.

7:33

And it works great. I threw in there last night when

7:35

I was out shooting the Aurora. I didn't actually need to use it, didn't see

7:37

a point for when I wanted to, but it's great to have

7:39

that additional, pretty bright, pretty nice

7:42

light source. And the other light

7:44

source I threw in my bag last night was the constant, my headlamp

7:47

with a red light on it. So I obviously always have

7:49

my headlamp with a red light for shooting

7:51

at night. So I don't affect my night vision too badly. I know

7:53

the camera does do that when but at least

7:56

when I'm kind of standing around not looking at the screen, my

7:58

eyes can adjust a little. I'm not totally throwing them outta whack.

8:01

But that headlamp is beautiful. I made

8:03

sure to get one that had a spot function on it so

8:06

that when I wanted to create those head, looking

8:08

up with the spotlight going off your head

8:10

in the middle of the night kind of photos, I had that available

8:12

to me without having to do a lot of extra work in

8:14

post. You'll find I am a huge

8:17

believer in not having to do extra work in

8:19

post if you don't have to. If you can get it right

8:21

in camera and then just do the

8:23

very minimal tweaks and very minimal editing, then

8:26

you get to be outside more. You get to be adventuring more. You're not wasting your

8:28

life behind a computer. So adding

8:30

light now rather than having to do it after

8:32

the fact is huge, and it makes a huge

8:34

difference to the amount of work that you're going to have to do.

8:37

All right. Other light sources that I typically throw in my

8:39

bag, just depending on what I'm doing and where I'm going.

8:41

I have some magnetic Lume Cubes

8:44

that are daytime temperature that I can

8:46

stick onto things. They're fully waterproof, so I can attach

8:48

'em inside of canoes and boats and have them in

8:50

the water with me. They're not bright enough to counter-act

8:53

the sun or add fill light during sunny days. But

8:55

what it does do is allow me to paint

8:58

in a little bit light on people's faces or tuck

9:00

it up underneath of somebody's body while shooting

9:02

at night or set it up against a

9:04

piece of ice or anything like that. Just

9:06

add a little bit of information and add a

9:08

little bit of detail. Lume cubes are fabulous

9:10

because of the fact that a lot of them are waterproof. You

9:12

can actually do a lot more fun things with them, especially in

9:14

the winter, by like tucking them into snow

9:17

banks and illuminating certain features.

9:19

And then at Blue Hour or at sunset,

9:21

using them to illuminate pieces of

9:23

your foreground that you want, to add

9:25

a little bit of depth and dynamics to your

9:27

image. All right. And the fourth

9:30

one we won't spend a lot of time here is snacks.

9:32

I never leave the house with my bag, not having snacks

9:34

in it. It's basically a necessity for me

9:37

to keep shooting, whether I'm out on a shoot with

9:39

somebody or I'm shooting on my own. Snacks

9:41

are a must. What I bring depends on

9:43

who I'm with and what I'm doing and all that kind of stuff, but

9:46

definitely always have them in there and I always make sure to have one that

9:48

will allow me to rebuild my electrolytes if

9:50

we're expecting to do something that's really

9:52

active and really pushing. So honey stingers

9:54

or cliff blocks or anything like

9:56

that are great especially when you're shooting because rebuilding

9:59

your electrolytes are basically critical

10:01

to keeping you going, keeping you able to think

10:03

and move at a high rate of speed. And then

10:06

some sort of high calorie, highly dense,

10:08

something that's also very tasty. So I'll actually want to eat

10:10

it. So Hornby Bar or cliff bars

10:13

tend to be my go-tos for on-the-go

10:15

quick and portable snacks. I also obviously

10:17

always bring fruit, veggies, things like that.

10:19

And then if I'm out shooting with kids and I know them

10:21

and I know the parents won't mind, I actually

10:23

typically bring some healthy

10:26

candy. Healthy being a relative term,

10:28

obviously because it's candy, but we

10:30

always make sure to include something

10:32

like that so that we can keep the kids going and

10:34

give them high, high amounts of sugar. You'd

10:36

be amazed how often I

10:39

want to stop being somewhere or I want to be

10:41

out, or I want to stop shooting or go home, or

10:43

I start to get grumpy and my creativity just starts

10:45

of fall and. Then

10:47

I have a snack and life's better again and

10:49

life's good and I want to keep going and I wanna keep shooting.

10:52

So yeah, snacks can, snacks can save

10:54

your shoot. So don't forget

10:56

them, don't neglect them. They go right hand in hand

10:58

with water, obviously. Whatever your snack

11:00

is of choice, whatever is gonna perk

11:02

you up and keep you going and give you brain

11:05

energy, not just energy, where you're gonna be bouncing

11:07

off the walls. We don't want the person who's

11:09

had eight cups of coffee bouncing

11:12

all over the place, unable to focus kind of energy. We

11:14

want something that engages your brain,

11:16

gets your creativity running, gets you up

11:18

and going, and if you don't know what that snack

11:21

is for you do some work. It's

11:23

made a huge difference for me to understand how my

11:25

brain responds to different foods and what

11:27

foods actually give me the right kind of energy

11:29

to be creative in certain situations. All

11:31

right, and the last thing that goes into my bag, this

11:34

isn't always there, but I would say it's in there 75%

11:37

of the time is some sort of

11:39

raincoat. I have two different

11:41

types of raincoats, so which one makes it in,

11:43

tends to be about the situation

11:46

that I'm heading into or what it is

11:48

that I'm going to be shooting in, so I have

11:50

one that's pretty lightweight, really

11:52

not meant to survive much more than a

11:54

decent rain shower or protect it from more like mud

11:56

and things like that. I purchased it for when I was out shooting

11:58

rodeos and I needed something fast,

12:01

light, and easy to put on, take off and

12:04

keep on my camera and clean it off really quickly when

12:06

it did get soaked in mud. And then I also

12:08

have a much more heavy duty one that almost protects

12:10

the camera from little nicks and scratches

12:12

as well. It's a little bit more rubber based

12:15

and definitely protects the

12:17

camera a little bit more from not just torrential downpour rain,

12:19

but all sorts of different types of weathering conditions.

12:21

If I'm out shooting in the snow or I'm expecting heavy rain

12:24

or blizzard, then that's actually the one I pull on

12:26

because I can leave it on when I have my camera

12:28

on a clip, and then if I do fall over

12:30

into a snowbank, hopefully I don't, it has a better

12:33

chance of protecting the camera from that

12:35

fall than the little plastic one that I have.

12:37

I almost always have some sort of rain

12:40

gear for my camera whenever I'm out shooting. And

12:42

that's just because you don't know what the weather's gonna do.

12:44

You don't know the situation that you're gonna end up in. You

12:46

don't know anything along those lines of

12:49

what might be presented in front of you. So, if

12:51

you have a rain cover for your camera, then you're always

12:53

gonna have it protected. I get that our gear

12:55

is very durable. It's very

12:57

weather resistant. I don't really have too many concerns

13:00

about having my camera out briefly in the rain or

13:02

briefly getting snowy on it or anything like

13:04

that. But why take that risk if

13:06

you don't need to? You can easily purchase a 15,

13:08

$20 little something that

13:10

works and protect that, multiple

13:13

thousands of dollars piece of equipment. One of the

13:15

last things that I'm gonna talk about here, a little bonus

13:17

piece, is actually something that does live in my

13:19

bag all the time, but, I need

13:21

to remember to take out of it, especially

13:23

if I'm headed into the city, getting on an airplane

13:26

and that's my bear spray. I have one

13:28

that lives on the shoulder strap on

13:30

my camera bag. It never leaves it. I

13:32

always have it on there so I don't even have to think about it

13:34

before they leave the house and wandering around Banff

13:37

not unusual to have bear spray on you. Wandering

13:39

around Calgary. That's illegal. Wondering

13:42

in a lot of cities that's illegal. You can't

13:44

have bear spray on you. Try and get onto an airplane

13:46

with bear spray, that's not gonna happen. And so

13:48

I always make sure to think

13:50

about where I'm headed and pop the bear spray

13:53

off if I'm heading into the city to shoot or if I'm,

13:55

you know, getting on an airplane somewhere. But it's something

13:57

I have to think about because it does live in my bag.

13:59

But depending on where you live, that's not gonna be a good

14:01

idea to keep it in your camera bag all the time. Now,

14:04

if you live in a mountainous region, if

14:06

you live somewhere where bears frequent, and it's pretty common for

14:08

people to have bear spray on them, of course it's not illegal

14:10

to have bear spray on them. Keep it on your bag.

14:12

I think it is an incredibly helpful device

14:15

to have. I thankfully have never had to use it.

14:18

I've pulled it out many, many times, but every bear

14:20

I've encountered has been lovely and nice, and

14:22

I've never had an issue. But you

14:24

definitely could have an issue very quickly, and it's one of those

14:26

minor things that. That's easy

14:29

to carry around and great to have

14:31

when you desperately need it, it could save your life. So

14:34

yeah, keep your bear spray in your bag permanently

14:36

if you live in a situation where you need

14:38

that, kinda like a place like Banff or Canmore or

14:40

Jasper. But if you

14:42

live in a city or if you, if frequently

14:45

go through airports or anything like that, remember to take

14:47

it outta your bag so you don't get yourself into a lot

14:49

of trouble with various different authorities. Or

14:52

so you don't have to throw out that $50

14:55

can of bear spray, which oh, would be

14:57

heartbreaking to have to do if you showed up at the airport with it

14:59

and forgot you had it in your bag. Alrightyy. And that's

15:01

it. That's my quick and dirty. This

15:03

is what I have in my camera bag with

15:05

me at all times that aren't photography accessories. Because

15:08

these are kind of critical things that can keep you going

15:10

on a shoot that can keep you actually being

15:12

able to produce images and incredibly

15:15

critical if you're out on a paid production.

15:17

If we're out screwing around and creating images for

15:19

ourselves. It's sad when we have to turn it home, but

15:22

not super detrimental. We can always go back out and

15:24

it's kind of just on us, but if we're being paid

15:26

by clients or if we are being expected

15:29

to complete something, having these little extra

15:31

things in there can elevate

15:33

the chances of your day going well, and the

15:35

more often you can do that, the better chances

15:37

are that your shoot's gonna go well. The better images you're gonna

15:39

produce and the better off

15:41

you're gonna be. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If

15:44

you want to chat, if you wanna send me any ideas or questions

15:46

that you have, you can reach out to me on Instagram at Robert Massey

15:49

Photography, or you can find us online at

15:51

robertmasseyphotography.ca. Thanks so much for tuning

15:53

in. Get out there, explore this big,

15:56

beautiful, wonderful world of ours. Bye for now.