Years ago, I went on a hiking trip with my friends to the nearby island of Pulau Ubin. Being young and energetic, my natural response was to haul along as much photography gear as possible, in anticipation of any photographic opportunities that might present itself on the hiking trip. I stuffed my backpack choke full of equipment, with the incessant belief that  I would need all the gear, and that I would be able to handle the weight and bulk. I have listed below some of the equipment which I had brought along that day:
 
 

2 Nikon SLRs	Nikon SB-25	Carl Zeiss 80mm	Spare Batteries
80-200mm f/2.8	105mm f/2.8 micro	Minolta IV F meter	2X teleconverter
28-70mm f/2.8	Gitzo tripod	Lots of filters	Accessories
20mm f/2.8	Hasselblad 500C	Lots of film	Swiss army knife

My LowePro backpack was bulging at the seams with all the equipment I had been trying to fit it, and I was naively trying to convince myself that the weight did not matter. But the truth was that the weight of the pack had been a nagging concern from the very first step out of the house. By the time I reached the jetty, I already had serious doubts about my ability to handle the luggage. Of course, there was no turning back, and neither did my male ego allow me the option of asking my friends for help. Needless to say the trip was a total disaster for me.

An hour into the hike, I was sweating profusely from lugging the heavy bag around. Coupled with the energy spent on fending off the ceaseless attacks from the "commando" mosquitoes, I could safely say that photography was the last thing on my mind. I was more focused on surviving the darned trip, and getting out of the island alive. The last straw came when my companions decided that bicycles would be a better alternative to get around the island. Armed with only fishing rods and some fishing equipment in their bags, they sped off into the trails on their rented bikes, leaving me struggling to catch up with them. As anyone who visited Pulau Ubin will know, some of the trails are really undulating tracks of highs and lows. When cycling up the steeper slopes, I was actually dragged back down the slope by the heavy bag and had to dismount to push the bike up! I had never such a great opportunity to utilize my comprehensive Hokkien vocabulary picked up during my army days. And at the end of the day, sweaty and frustrated, I realized that I had only taken less than 20 frames in total, using less that 30% of the equipment I had brought along. That was when I told myself that it was the last time I will pack my gear with the "bring everything" attitude.

Moral of the story:
Increase in time leads to increase in weight
Increase in weight leads to decrease in photographic inspiration

Is this what you have been lugging around ?

Everyday, thousands of photographers throughout the world suffer from some medical complications resulting from carrying heavy loads. Professional photographers are especially at risk, given that the nature of their jobs demand that they bring everything (and a backup set of everything too) to ensure that they have all the tools to accomplish their assignments. It is not uncommon to hear that photographers suffer from backaches and slipped discs, due to their heavy equipment that they carry along day in and day out. If you haven't been weighing your camera bag when it is full, you should probably do it someday. You will be surprised by how much you have been lugging around while shooting.

On-location photographers might have the luxury of carting along their equipment, or having assistants to help them manage the gear, but photojournalists and other photographers will not have that luxury. So what can you do to minimize your risks of back injuries ?

There are two major ways to avoid overloading your back - smart packing and choice of bags. This article will discuss how to pack your camera bag smartly, to reduce the overall load that you will be carrying, and the pros and cons of the different cases, so that you can choose the most suitable bag for yourself.
 
 

Smart Packing

One way to avoid straining your back during photography is through smart packing of equipment. Smart packing refers to customizing the contents of your bag through the prediction of photographic opportunities. By thinking about your trip, you should be able to visualize the various possibilities of photographs, and then bringing along the equipment which helps you capture the images.
 

Some photographers actively oppose this method, saying that such thinking creates fixed expectations of images, and that you will return with images which meet your expectations. For example, if I go into the forest bringing only long lenses to capture wild bears, I will not return with wide-angle landscape images of the meadows I encounter along the way. As such, my images become restricted and I close myself to various other opportunities. Personally, I disagree with those opinions. I am advocating that you go out with a goal, but I am not suggesting that you close your mind to other possibilities. Neither am I suggesting that you have a cliché image in your mind. I am saying that by packing only what you think you will need, you are reducing unnecessary burden on yourself and giving yourself the energy and freedom to move, to capture more with the equipment that you had brought along. Contrary to limiting yourself, such smart packing will in fact maximize your energy to create new and novel images. Do not confuse limiting your equipment with limiting your possibilities! How do you pack smartly ?

Visualize your shoot
First of all, you must have a rough idea of what you are going to shoot on your trip. For example, if you are going to a botanic garden, you will expect to shoot close-ups of flowers and insects, or wide-angles of the entire garden flowerbed. As such, you might choose to leave your 300mm lens or 80-200 f/2.8 zoom behind in favour of macro lenses or wide-angle lenses. If you are going for some street-photography action, you might like to pack a couple of zoom lenses, or some fast prime lenses and fast film, instead of macro lenses and Fuji Velvia  film. The degree of accuracy of expectations depends very much on experience. The more experienced photographers know what to expect during a trip, and will pack a bag to reflect their needs more accurately than a beginning amateur. Like a experienced fisherman knowing instinctively what fishes are likely to be in a certain part of the sea, he chooses his bait accordingly to increase his chances of getting a bite. So take note of the type of scenarios you frequently face, so that you can pack your bags more logically to reduce the weight you are carrying.

I am a firm believer of smart packing, and my bag seldom reach its full capacity if I know I am moving around with the bag. My opinion is that I can maximize my creativity and peak my visual senses when I am not loaded down with weight. Think about it this way - would you rather be tired from carrying a heavy bag all day with all your equipment, or moving about light and easy with just a couple of lenses and a camera body? You may not have all the equipment with you, but you are maximizing your potential with the few pieces that you have!

Prime time
Primes really show their worth here. Compared to the heavy and bulky fast zooms, prime lenses are small and light, offering the same or even brighter aperture than their zoom cousins. For the weight of a 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom, you can pack a 105mm f/2.8 macro and a 180mm f/2.8.  Not only are the primes sharper, they are more versatile (you now have a macro lens) and easier to use (using a 180mm prime is easier than handling a 80-200mm). In addition, you can choose to bring along some primes and leave the rest at home. For example, you might have a bag of 28-70mm and 80-200mm zooms, or you can have a bag of primes such as 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm and 180mm. Both of them will weigh the same, but you can remove some primes to reduce the weight, while you cannot do the same for the zooms. Take out one of the zoom and you have just reduced your range by half ! Of course, if you are using consumer zooms, you can have the necessary range without the accompanying weight. Again, this requires experience. If you are expecting to photograph in bright light, a compact consumer zoom will do as well as a pro zoom in the middle-aperture region.
 

Tripod and supports
Tripods must be the bane of photographers. We hate them to the core for being bulky and heavy, yet we can't do without them in dim light conditions. They restrict our movements, and yet at the same time offer us the ability to shoot in conditions which will otherwise lead to blurred images. Photographers have learnt to have a love-hate relation with tripods. Unfortunately, there is really no ideal way to handle this wild beast. Tripod straps and bags do help to make them easier to transport around, but the weight and bulk still bothers us. We can predict their use during close-ups and low-light photography and bring them around, and that is about all we can do to reduce our weight. My personal tip is to separate night-photography from regular day-photography. Dawn-to-dusk shooting is not for me, because of the fatigue and the fact that I will have to lug along the tripod the entire day ! Try to schedule situations where the tripod is needed separately from the situations which require mobility. That is, don't try to arrange street shooting on the same day as a evening cityscape shoot.
 
 

Monopods and tripods add to your bulk, but they are indespensible for improving stability during long exposures. The Manfrotto tripod and monopod are featured here, with a Optech strap attached on the tripod for ease of handling during transport.

You should probably have a few tripods if possible. Personally, I have around four tripods for various uses, such as travelling, heavy duty etc. The small and plastic Slik © tripods are ideal for some light work, while the heavy Manfrotto tripods are great for height and heavy use. I am not exactly the muscle-man type, and I find that the Manfrotto 190 is about the heaviest I will go for mobility. The 055 stays in the studio unless I am using a large-format camera outdoors. The carbon-fiber tripods seems very promising, combining rigidity with low weight. They cost a bomb (S$700 for a Gitzo Mountaineer ©), but they are worth every cent if you carry around a tripod frequently. Finally, you should also consider using a monopod if you can get away if low speeds that don't require a tripod. Not only are monopods cheaper, less bulky and lighter than a fully-fledged tripod, they are easy to use and offer you mobility with stability. Monopods are great for outdoors portraiture session and sports photography with long lenses. You will not catch me without a monopod when I am shooting portraits with a 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. You can see the magic in enlargement prints!
 
 

Backup cameras
Backup cameras and equipment is part and parcel of life for professional photographers who cannot afford to miss the shoot due to malfunctioning equipment. For the rest of us, I feel that a backup camera is more of a liability than a safeguard measure. My main camera has never failed me before, and neither have I heard of anybody else who had their cameras fail on them repeatedly. Bringing along a second camera body adds to nothing but the weight, and I will gladly dump a backup body in favour of less weight, or for more lenses and film. A second body is only necessarily if:

- you are shooting different film in the second body
- you are a professional on assignment
- the area you are travelling to is remote and hazardous to cameras

Surprise yourself with the amount of accessories you have been carrying along by clearing out your bag once in a while. Bring lots of films and batteries, and plan your trip carefully so that you do not bring unnecessary items. Every ounce counts when the going gets heavy !!

Accessories
Accessories are tricky - they expand your photographic possibilities without taking up too much space. However, no matter how small they seem, they take up a considerable bulk if you add all of them together. Things such as cable releases and vertical release grip/motordrives are hidden carriers of weight. Remove all of them and you will be surprised at the weight you saved. For exposures less than 30 seconds, I will leave my F90X/F100 on self-timer rather than using a cable release. And the motordrive and vertical grips come off if I know for sure that I am not using fast film advance or vertical compositions. These are small considerations that add up to a lot.

Flash
If you are not using a flash, take it out. Flash units take up considerable space and weight, which can be better used for films and lenses. There are usually two main uses for flash - as the main light for low-light photography, or auxiliary light for fill-in flash. If you are venturing out in the day, and not expected to encounter any low-light situation, you can do better by jettisoning the flash at home. Flash is very useful for fill-in light for portraiture and close-ups. If you are doing street photography where you want to remain inconspicuous, dump your flash!

Filters
It is very tempting to bring along every filter that you have, with the prospect of using them somehow or another in some situations. Although a single filter seems small and insignificant, they quickly stack up to become a substantial mass if you toss them into your bag indiscriminately. Although filters can enhance an image if used appropriately, overuse of filters can quickly lead to cliché images. Try to use filters sparingly, and only to enhance an image rather than using it to create an image. For that matter, bring along the appropriate filters. For example, you might like to bring a diffusion filter for your portraiture session, and leave your polarizing filter behind. And you might do exactly the opposite when taking architectural photographs. Bring only what is necessary.

Batteries and film
So far I have been trying to cut down the load from the bags, but I feel that some stuff should not be omitted, especially batteries and film. You should try to bring an extra set of batteries with you, given that your cameras are inoperable without the electrical supply. Try to be selective about the batteries you bring - you can cut down the weight by standardizing on your batteries. For example, if both your flash and camera uses AA cells, you can save weight by bringing just one set of AA batteries. You can't do that if your camera uses CR123 cells while your flash is using AA cells. And if weight is really at a premium, use lithium AA cells instead of alkaline AA cells, since lithium cells are lighter and lasts longer. And all the weight that are saved from the previous few points can be used for bringing along more films. You should not compromise on film, because they are light and an essential component of the image-making process. Bring slightly more film than you think you might need, and try to restrict yourself to not more than three types of film. There are few occasions which warrant bringing along so many types of film, and you can do better by concentrating on a couple of film types.
 
 

Bags and cases

Other than smart packing, you can also use various bags, cases and accessories to help reduce the strain on your back. Thanks to technological advances and creation of new materials, we are able to create more novel methods of weight distribution and create sensations of a lighter load. There are many bags and cases on the market today which are specially designed to help redistribute the weight you are carrying, so that you are less likely to suffer medical consequences of backache in the long run. Comfort and convenience are the key words when choosing the appropriate bag or case. The more comfortable you feel when using the bag, the better you can shoot and the more frequently you will shoot. And convenience of access to the bag/case will dictate how useful the bag/case will be.

Shoulder Bags
The traditional shoulder bags that we carry hangs all the weight onto one shoulder, straining it unnecessarily. However, the shoulder bag does offer its own advantage, such as easy access to equipment and ease of loading and unloading the bag. Unlike backpacks, we can easily put our bags down while resting or shooting, and pick it up and go when on the move. And because the sling bag is always by the side, opening it to retrieve items (e.g. lenses or film) is a breeze. But the shoulder that is supporting all the weight of your equipment will not be too pleased with the arrangement. I'd advice that you buy shoulder pads that goes onto the bag strap so that the pressure is more evenly spread out over a larger area. As your physics teacher taught you, a larger area spreads the pressure more evenly, leading to less pressure per square inch. By having a wider bag strap, you spread the pressure over a larger area of the carrying shoulder, making the bag more comfortable to carry.

Changing your straps
You can either get a new strap if your bags allow you to do that, or modify your existing strap. If you are changing the strap, get a wider strap. A good choice might be the Optech © strap for bags. They are made of Neoprane, the same materials which divers' wetsuits are made of. They are springy and thick, and you will have the magical feeling that the weight has been reduced by half ! However, they are more expensive than the usual straps and some people do not like them because the bags have tendency to bounce around due to the elasticity of the strap. Personally, I dislike using Optech strap for the bag, but I found the Optech tripod strap very useful. Again, it all boils down to personal choice.
 

Modifying your straps
If you are modifying the existing strap, you can do it yourself by wrapping sponge or air-conditioning insulation around the strap, and using gaffer tape to tape them in place. The end result is pretty ugly, but it works really well. You can also dress them up with racket handle tape if you wish to beautify them. Domke bag users have a better choice - the postman pad offered by Domke (no... it's not a female sanitary item for god's sake!) . It is a thick and wide rubber pad which velcros on to your Domke bag strap, and it really makes a difference to the handling of the strap. I highly recommend this alternative, and personally I will not consider taking my Domke F2 bag out without the pad. See the picture of the Domke bag at the top, and you'll see the rubber padding in use.

Backpacks
Other than your usual sling bags, you have the alternative of backpacks. The traditional backpacks used in mountain hiking have been successfully adapted to photographic applications by LowePro, who designed the useful and comfortable photography backpacks. Of course, LowePro is not the only company to manufacture them, but the packs made by LowePro are the most popular around. Because the backpacks are carried on the back, the weight is evenly distributed over the entire back and across the two shoulders. Good backpacks also feature steel-reinforced structures for rigidity and adequate padding for comfort. The end result is a bag which you can carry over long distances without feeling the fatigue which a shoulder bag will give you. Another advantage is that the backpack frees your hands during trekking so that you are able to get a grip on something in case you have a fall.

However, the obvious drawback is that the backpacks do not offer easy accessibility to the equipment stored within. To change your lens, you will have to stop, take off the backpack, place it on the ground, and open it to access the gear. This is not only inconvenient, it is also extremely slow and taxing if you have to change your lens several times. So needless to say, while the backpack is ideal for trekking far distance, you will have to consider the convenience factor in your choice of bags. If you are trekking to a specific place to shoot, the backpack is a fine choice. But if you are shooting along the way, my recommendation is that you keep a small bag along to store the more commonly used items so that you combine accessibility with comfort.
 
 
 

A special bag worthy of short mention here is the LowePro Orion. It is special because it combines both the designs of backpacks and shoulder bags. It can be used as a shoulder bag when fitted with the shoulder strap, or a fanny pack when the waist strap is used (see left picture). When you combine the day pack with the fanny pack (see right picture), it becomes a pseudo-backpack. The design is ingenious, and you will probably like it if you alternate between street shooting and trekking.

 

The Strong Cases
The other type of camera bag is the strong case. As the name implies, a strong case is a box-like camera bag designed to store equipment for transportation. It offers maximum protection, but often at the expense of accessibility. Major brands of strong cases include Pelican and Zero Halliburton. Made of durable molded plastics or stretched aluminum, they are extremely strong and made for heavy handling during transport. Strong cases are suitable when you are travelling across bad-weather terrain (such as rainforest, rivers and deserts). They are used for transporting equipment to a certain location, and shooting is usually done on the spot. Otherwise, the equipment is transferred to a regular bag for shooting. Because of their bulk and weight, many strong cases are built with small trolley wheels so that they can be towed along, very much like the travel suitcases. Such wheels are the ideal way to carry strong cases, and if the strong case that you own does not have built-in wheels, or if they’re damaged, you can purchase heavy-duty racks in big photography stores to stack the cases on them, so that you do not end up carrying or dragging the cases along.
 
 

Conclusion

Thus, at the end of the day, the benefits of reducing weight from your bag must greatly outweigh the potential loss of photographic opportunities. You should try to reduce the weight in exchange for greater mobility and to enable yourself more energy to focus on your photography, rather than spending efforts to manage the weight of your bag. Smart packing and accurate analysis of your needs will help you cut weight without sacrificing too much of possible opportunities, while getting the right bag will enable you to carry your equipment with maximum comfort and accessibility. You should combine the choice of bag with efficient packing techniques to enable you to shoot with the greatest confidence. Once you have gotten the knack of carrying your gear in comfort, you are all set to conquer the world outside !
 
 
 

Reader's Tips

Reader Richard Koh contributed the following comments on using a ordinary bag to hold photographic equipments:

For travel, field and street photography, I personally use an ordinary pouch/bag system with internal padding, for the equipment, taken from the LowePro Orion (I have the Orion but I find it too bulky side-ways and with full-load, it is a strain with the padless shoulder straps). There are several advantages:

1. It does not attract so much attention as a branded camera bag, especially when travelling to avoid theft;

2. It costs much less considering how much camera bags cost. If I had known earlier I would not have bought a camera bag but find a way to just buy/make the padding and use a large pouch for the essentials such as lenses and body. The small/medium backpack, I use for accessories and other stuff like extra clothes/water etc;

3. Buy distributing some of the weight from a backpack to a large pouch, I ease shoulder pressure while having some load around the waist. The waistpouch offers easy access to lens changing and film reloading.

Just thought I'd share this tried and tested concept for better cost-reduction, comfort and security for photographers.

Happy shooting!
 
 

Reader Rene Morin adds the following tips to help you carry your LowePro bags in greater comfort:

I have both the shoulder bag (LowePro Nova 3 and Nova 4) and the waist bag (LowePro Orion). The shoulder bags can be greatly improved by inserting a belt in the slits found in the rear (LowePro sells such a belt). Used with such a belt, the weight is better distributed, a large part of it falling on the waist. - provided the belt is worn tight on your waist. You would be surprised at the difference it makes! But I still prefer the Orion, mostly because of the padding in the back, which better protects your lower back or ypur waist. (At age 66, I tend to take better care of my back). However, the Orion offers a little less room than the Nova 4. Choices, choices!

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