articles/Landscape/tools-of-the-land-page7

Tool of the Land - Landscape - part 7 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

by Mike McNamee Published 01/08/2015

Carrying Gear
Having decided upon the kit that you need for the landscape you now need to get it there. If you are to work close to a vehicle then your normal bag will probably suffice or even the simpler method of carrying your camera attached to the tripod. For the more adventurous, things need more planning and more specialist packing. Now you have to consider the camera gear but safety is important and so you will need maps, compass, guides, rain gear, drink and food. A smaller tripod is also going to be needed unless you have the strength of a young bull! One thing that is really useful is a rain cover for your sack. Not only does this keep things extra dry but if needed the cover can be used as a kneeler of a safe surface to place kit upon while you mull over the lens and filter options.

We have been using f-stop bags at Aspect2i for some years now, a Satori and a pair of Tilopas. They have proved to be very functional and easy to use in the field. Manfroto also have a good range as do Lowepro. BMM showed us some interesting bags at the Convention.

Meters
Despite the facilities on the backs of today's cameras many landscape photographers still prefer a separate meter. There is no doubt that it is far more pleasant to measure and assess light from a standing position rather then squatting down at a low-level camera with an LCD in bright sunlight! Also for landscape photography the more considered approach of measuring light and assessing the exposure strategy should lead to a better quality result. For those of us with varifocals and poor near vision, the 10mm numerals on a meter are a much easier read. In particular the use of a hand-held meter is an advantage with a tilt/shift lens where the auto exposure facilities of the camera may be compromised.

For the purpose of this feature Sekonic offered us two meters. The slightly older L-758 DR is a combined spot, incident and flash meter with additional facilities for triggering flash and performing camera profile calibrations. The smaller, lighter L-478 DR is an all whistles and bells jobbie with a touch screen and built-in facilities for controlling up to three flash-head groups of Nikon, Canon or Elincrom manufacture via a Pocket Wizard module. The L-758 is a joy to use outdoors with its large display numerals and no-nonsense dials. The L-748 is much more at home in the studio.

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