Back many thousands of years ago, when I was just a wee lad shooting photos with a Pentax K1000 and reading Popular Photography (rest in peace, Herbert Keppler), I kept hoping that PP would do an article or a series of articles or a column or something on “what’s in your camera bag”; basically, I wanted to know what real pros like Walter Iooss Jr. (warning: some photos, especially one in particular, may not be safe for work) and Eddie Adams took with them when they went on the road. I had ideas about being a professional journalist, one who not only did his own writing but also took his own photos.
Getting to the point, this piece at PetaPixel, showing what Umit Bektas packed in his camera bag for his stint embedded with a US military unit in Afghanistan, made my day today. That, in turn, links to a first hand account by Bektas for the Reuters Photography Blog, which goes into a little more detail and has some amazing photos. (Not of battle. You’ll know the ones I’m talking about when you see them. My God, look at that sky.)
My one gripe about these articles is that I’d appreciate some annotation. It looks like his backup laptop is an eeePC (a fine choice indeed), but I’m curious about what his primary one is. I can’t tell what his cameras are, either; the logo kind of looks like Canon, but again, I find it hard to be sure. I’m glad to see that he packed a GoPro (also the official choice of the Park City Snowmamas). And I had to look up “Bgan” and “Thuraya“.
But I still think this is pretty interesting, as is “A Glimpse Inside the Camera Bag of a Newspaper Feature Photographer“. More like these, please.
(Hattip: his Jim-ness on the Twitter for the initial link, and PetaPixel for the ones after that.)
(And of course, the most important thing about photography, war or otherwise, is: have a camera with you. I was so wrapped up in getting Christmas presents together on Saturday that I completely forgot to bring my camera gear, which ticked me off. I ended up having to resort to the Evo camera for photo purposes. Granted, between my sister and mother it wasn’t like we didn’t have multi-camera capability, including the ability to deploy a digital SLR if we needed it, but I was still ticked at myself.)
I loved my Pentax, but it really wasn’t a point-and-shoot. I end up using my phone camera for a lot these days.
The K1000 has a special place in my heart because it was my first SLR (and a Christmas present from my mother as well).
Agreed that it isn’t a point and shoot. I like both my SD1000 and D40X because they let me take more pictures. (One of the three things I learned when I took a photography class at the local university; the best way to learn how to take good pictures is to take a lot of pictures.) And the phone camera is always with me.
But there’s something that still appeals to me about film cameras, especially non point-and-shoot 35mm cameras, and the aesthetics and skill required to use them well. I’m actually tempted to purchase a Nikon body and some manual focus lenses that will also work with the D40X so I can try to get back to the old days.