BRIAN ADAMS - PHOTOGRAPHER - ALASKA: Carry On - Photographing in Rural Alaska

ASNA's longest serving board member, Herman Kignak.

Chimera Soft Box+Chimera Speed Ring+vivitar 283+Packet Wizard Plus III+Gitzo Bassalt Tripod+Tenba Back Pack as Weight because of wind = A nice environmental portrait fill light.

Camera Bag. Photo taken with GoPro Hero 3 Black.

Some of you might remember, in 2010 I started the weekly blog post "Carry On" (Example). I kept it up for about a year, but it didn't take long for me to run out of gear to share with you. What can I say, I am a minimalist when it comes to photography. I like to keep things simple but effective. Anyway's, I was chatting on FB the other night with my buddy Nick Pickles in LA. We had been talking about life (Nick is kicking but in LA as a boom operator on movies now. So stoked!) and our favorite gear for about an hour. I mentioned to him that I was thinking about doing a blog post on what I packed for this trip. He encouraged it. Thanks Nick. So here's whats up.

I am currently in Barrow, AK on assignment for ASNA, I am honored to be here photographing for their new hospital. I am photographing in Barrow and I am also photographing other villages in the region to be represented in the new hospital (this is a dream job). I am wrapping up week two of three tomorrow. As you can imagine this job requires a lot of set up, take down and a quick pace once you hit the ground in a village. So, I wanted to pack light but effective.

First off, the lighting. My go to flash is the Vivitar 283. I love this flash, I have been using the same one for 10 years. But whats a good flash without a good soft box? I go with a Chimera soft box and speed ring. The flash screws right onto the speed ring followed by the soft box in seconds. With a tripod plate already on the speed ring, I can have the whole thing up in about a minute. To trigger the flash, I use Pocket Wizard Plus III's, or a house hold PC cord. When traveling in rural Alaska, I like to use my tripod as a light stand instead of a normal light stand. You never know what kind of uneven ground you will find yourself setting up your flash on. For that I use a Gitzo 1297 Basalt tripod. Nice and light. I think thats it?

More info here.
Vivitar 283
Chimera Soft Box
Gitzo G1297

Now the camera bag. The photo above is pretty self explanatory. For film, I use two Hasselblad 500CM bodies, two film backs, 80mm lens, 50mm lens and a Sekonic L308s light meter. For digital, I use a Canon 5d (Circa 2007!), 100MM F2.8, 50mm F1.2 and a 17-40 F4. And last but not least, I took the photo of the camera bag with my GoPro Hero Three Black (A wonderful Christmas gift from Ash!).

More info here.
Hasselblad
Sekonic L308s

Well, that was fun! I hope you enjoyed this Carry On post and feel free to ask me any questions, or if you want to tell me to stop being a dork! Cheers!