Purpose Driven Packing…..

Here we go again, with apologies to Rick Warren, the author of the Purpose Driven Life, the best selling Christian book of all time, with the exception of the Bible. With that out of the way, it’s the beginning of a new season and time to update my packing plans, but why? I just had a birthday in February and I’m now 76 years old. With every year that passes new challenges arise. While I once needed a comfortable backpack for walking several miles with 30 pounds of gear on my back! No longer, a hike today is a round trip of around 100 yards to and from the SUV! Not pretty, but reality. Before we go on, let me be clear, I’m not complaining, I knew these days would come and I am just trying to make the most of every opportunity I get to be out in God’s great outdoors!

So let’s get to it. For the first few events of this year’s schedule I will carry two cases and a tripod. My camera bag is the Tamrac Anvil 15. I am a member of the bag of the month club and have owned over a hundred bags, still do own quite a few! Other brands are more prestigious, but this is a well made little backpack that really is perfect for what I need and carry, illustrated below. By-the-way, the backpack resides in the back of my SUV until, on a rolling cart, it goes to my hotel room, as the young ones say, “just how I roll”, get it, roll!!!

These photos probably raise a few questions. First what are the colorful bags that hide the lenses and bodies, they are Tamrac’s Goblin bags, available in a multitude of colors and sizes and a excellent way to protect your expensive gear! There added benefit is a great place to keep front and rear lens caps, body caps and any filter you may have removed. The lenses I carry give me coverage to an equivalent full frame range of 15mm to 630mm

Hidden away in the bag, in various zippered compartments, are the following:

Blower bulb
Business cards
USB rechargeable flash light
Victorinox Explorer Swiss Army Knife (large)
Leatherman Style CS scissors tool
Victorinox Mini Champ Swiss Army Knife (Small)
Anker Multi Connector dock for my iPad Pro
Powerful LED panel with adjustable brightness and color balance
Mindshift filter pouch with ND filters and polarizers
Think Tank card wallet
SOG Multi-tool
Swiss Army Knife (Medium)
Kobalt mini screw-driver
Small Rig allen wrench tool

Also filed away is a iPad Mini and shade to be used with it for flying my drones.

Now since I am no longer piloting my own planes I had to find a way to shoot from up there! The solution is a drone, currently a DJI Air 2s and a DJI Mini 2. Since I am driving to almost all my workshops this year, (I hate flying with someone else piloting the plane!), no actually with masks and all, I just would rather drive.

OK, sometimes you have no choice but to fly, and when I have to, I use the Think Tank Advantage Rolling bag which will carry everything that fits in my bag and drone hard case, and rolls very easy and it fits in the overhead bin of any 737, I mostly fly Southwest, if they are going where I need to be!

So as a photo generalist, this set of gear allows me to do all but the most specialized work and is not a burden to take along on my adventures. My packing plan is designed to meet the intended purpose, thus “Purpose Driven Packing!”

Blessings,

the pilgrim