After working for a few days with Adobe’s new Lightroom 3, I found a new feature called Lens Corrections. Adobe profiled a number of lenses from Cannon, Nikon and Sigma, and you have the option to profile your own as well. I would think that over time Adobe will release more and more profiles for common lenses.

LR 3 will read the metadata and if a profile is available for your lens then when you check the box for ‘Enable Profile Corrections” it will auto populate the Make, Model and Profile drop down boxes.

My most common used lens for landscape work is the Cannon 24-105 L IS lens, and lucky for me Adobe has profiled this lens. With this new tool I can fix a number of problems that this lens has quickly and easily.

Lens Corrections allows you to correct geometric distortion that causes parallel lines to bow inward or outward, vignetting on the edges of an image, and chromatic aberration that gives blue and red color fringes. As I’ve stated to play around with this new feature I find the auto setting to work amazingly well. However, if you find the auto setting are not your liking there are sliders to adjust the amount of ‘Distortion, Chromatic aberration, and Vignetting’.

I’ve posted a before and after photo from San Francisco, though on a small scale on the web its hard to see all the detail. I encourage all of your to try it for your self.

In Adobe’s Lightroom 3 (as in 1 and 2) when importing photographs you may chose the size of the preview for the photos being imported. I’ve learned the hard way why importing 1:1 is the best option if you have a good amount of photos to work with, but first a little background.

When importing photos in the top ‘File Handling’ dialog there are four options for rendering previews.

1) Minimal – This is by far the fastest option, when your on the run and need to just get the card onto the computer as fast as possible this is a decent choice. However Lightroom will only render very small low quality previews, when you are browsing your photos you’ll have to wait for the photos to render again to full resolution.

2) Embedded and Sidecar Preview – Lightroom renders previews already present in the photo or sidecar file. Sometimes there can be issues with the embedded images and they are typical not as accurate as fully rendered Lightroom files. If there are issues with the files you’ll have to rebuild (re-render) the photographs thus taking even more time. I have never found a value in this options, but in a very narrow set of circumstances this can be useful.

3) Standard – This option will render new previews large enough to view the images in the Loupe View. This will take longer then options one or two, and is an OK starting point. Some people argue that this is the best option for import since you can quickly go though and see all your images on your full screen. However since the 1:1 ratio has not yet been rendered when you zoom into the image you will have to wait for it to generate. This can become a nuisance since often times I zoom in to insure the image is sharp, check noise etc. The wasted time sitting behind the computer waiting for every I zoom into to render really adds up.

4) 1:1 – This option will render a full size 1:1 ratio image for every file imported. This option will take far longer then the other options, and will increase the size of your catalog. However, you will be able to review, sort, zoom in and edit your images with no wait time. This allows you to sort, rank, edit much faster assuming you have anything more then a handful of photographs.

For my work flow I have learned the hard way that importing photos at 1:1 is really the only option. A good example of why this is the case is on a recent trip I took close to 1,700 22MP photographs, I imported them in the hotel room as minimal size previews. This worked OK for being on the road, I just really wanted to make sure the photos where off the card and backed up. Now once I got home and moved the catalog into my master Lightroom catalog and I started sorting the photos. It was between taking 5 and 10 seconds per photo to render the full size image. It was going to take me a lifetime just to sort the photos. Until the full size image was rendered I could not fairly judge the quality of the photo. After wasting an hour, I had Lightroom generate 1:1 reviews for everything (more on this soon). This took close to 3 hours but I was able to just walk away and let it run. After this had finished I was able to quickly and accurately determine the quality of each photo, chose the picks, sort and edit.

I should note that my desktop at home is a massive Mac Pro tower with two Xeon CPUs and 16GB of ram, and it still took a little more then 3 hours to render the photos.

I have determined that unless I am in a huge hurry its best to let Lightroom build the full size 1:1 images at the time of import. Sure it’ll take a lot longer to get the photos in, but you don’t have to sit around the computer while they are importing. Once the first import is done at 1:1 you’ll be able to sort and edit in half the time.

If like me you made the mistake of not generating 1:1 previews on import and you are bashing you head on your desk waiting for the full size images to load not to worry there is a easy fix. You can select one or more photos, in my cause I just selected every image in the folder (all 1700 photos from the trip), and went to the ‘Library’ menu and selected ‘Previews’ then ‘Render 1:1 Previews’. I then walked away and let Lightroom do its magic for the next 3 hours. When I came back, I was able to sort the picks out of the 1700 photos in at least half the time if not more.

As most of you know may know by now, Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom three came out this week. I’ve just gotten back a 10 day photo shoot in Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks. I thought this would be a great chance to test out the new version of LR and see how it performs.

The upgrade (just like LR 2) is rather simple and straightforward. After you download LR 3 you run the installer and it installs a new version of Lightroom. This can be handy if you ever need to go back into LR 2. After the installer is finished and you start LR 3 it prompts you to upgrade your catalog, I should note that once this is done there is no way of opening it again in LR 2. For this reason I did a full backup to an external hard drive before letting LR 3 upgrade my catalog. The upgrade took about 45 min, I have a rather large catalog of almost 80,000 photos, I assume if you have smaller catalog it would be much faster.

After updating the catalog I imported my photos from my must recent trip, about 2,700 photos in all and started the sorting and developing process. I must say that after three days of working with LR 3 it feels must faster. There is less of the annoying lag time that I used to get when working in LR 2.The new rendering engine seems to be doing a much better job handing noise and sharping.

I won’t go though every feature of LR 3, that’s been done to death. From a users point of view the new features seem to work well, the overall experience feels faster, and the photos are looking better then ever. I’m working on a post dedicated to the new ‘Lens Corrections’ feature for later in the week. For the $100 dollar upgrade fee I’d say its a wonderful value.

Over time we all develop huge libraries of photographs, and defining and sticking to an organizational system becomes more and more important. If you’re just starting out, now is a great time to come up with your own system that you can build from the ground up. If you already have a huge library of photos that is not organized, now is the time to update it.

This article will focus on tools and techniques in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom since that is my main editing platform, though the concepts and ideas found here can be used in other software packages.

There are 3 areas we need to look at when talking about managing a large library of photos:

• Organizing your photos on disk
• Organizing your photos in Lightroom
• “Keywording” or “tagging” your photographs

Where do I put the photos?

Having a logical system for where to put your photos is important. You need to be able to find your photos if you don’t have access to Lightroom (or whatever cataloging software you use). This could happen for a number of reasons: the software crashes, the computer crashes and you are looking at your backups, or maybe you are on the road and just need to find one file. For whatever reason it’s critical that you have a system that allows you to find your files without any other software.

There are a number of ways you can organize your files on disk. I’ll explain what I do, however this may not suit everyone.

I start with a high level folder named “Photography.” Inside, I have folders for every country that I’ve photographed. Inside the country folder I have folders for states/cites/National Parks, etc. Every time I import photos I let Lightroom create folders by date and import the photos there. This way if I go to a location 3 different times for 4 days each time I have a total of 12 folders for that one location.

Example: If I wanted to see all my photos from Yosemite National Park, they would be on the photo drive under /Photography/USA/CA/Yosmite NP. Within the “Yosemite NP” folder there are folders broken down by date for each day I’ve photographed in the park.

For work not based on location, such as studio photography, I simply create a folder inside the “Photography” folder named “Studio,” and create sub-folders of every “shoot” that I’ve done. If I use a model more then once, I create a folder with the model’s name and then inside that folder, I create folders for each shoot I’ve done with that model.

In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom I can point it to look for photos inside the top level “Photography” folder. The great part about my system is that if, for example, I want to see all my photos form the USA I simply click on the USA folder; if I want to see all my photos from Chicago I can dig down and click on the Chicago folder; if I want to see all the photos taken on one particular day in Chicago I can click on that date.

Lightroom

Lightroom has three main ways of organizing photos.

• Pick/reject
• Star rating 1-5
• Color labels

There are number of ways you can use these options for sorting you photos. I can’t write about every possible way, but I can write about my way.

Pick and reject

I use this when I first import photos from a shoot. I go photo by photo over everything and select the photos that I think might be keepers by “picking” them (you can use a keyboard shortcut for this, “p”). Once you have gone though all the photos, you can choose to see only photos that are flagged as picked.

Then I start to edit the photos; if I’m not happy with the image I can un-flag it by pressing “u.” I have never found a great use for the reject feature, especially because sometimes I need to find an image that I may not have edited and I like seeing all the photos that are not “complete” as un-flagged.

Star rating

I use star ratings in a few different ways. First, when I’m going though a collection of photos and editing them, I will star photos with three stars when I’m happy and feel they are done (if I’m not happy, I’ll un-flag them). After I have all my photos edited, I should be looking at an entire page of three-star images.

Then I look at the photos as a collection and often I’ll have two images that are just slightly different and I won’t know which is the better image until I’m looking at them both side-by-side. When I finalize my selection, I’ll mark the chosen photo as 5 stars. Five-star images are the best photos from each shoot that are fully edited and that I’m happy with.

Color labels

You can assign a number of different color labels to each of your photos; you can pick from, red, yellow, green, blue or purple. Again, as aways there is an endless way you can use these, but here is what I do.

Red: Photos get the red label after they are fully edited (marked as five stars), named, and keyworded. These are the photos that are going onto my website.

Yellow: Images in a group that I’ve used for a panorama or a stitched-together photograph.

Purple: Photos that I’ve used for stock photography.

I don’t really use the rest of the color labels, though you might find them useful for something.

Keywording

It’s important to keyword for two reasons: first, so that you can search and find photos in your collection through whatever software you use, and second, so that photos you post on the web can be indexed by search engines and found by other people. Proper keywording is the best and fastest way to get traffic to your website short of paying for ads.

Two-step process

On import

Every time I import photos I tag them with very general keywords such as the location name, state and country, and in some instances things like the time of year, or general locale that can be applied to every photo (“urban,” “nature,” etc.). Along with the keywords, I’ll add my name, website, phone number, and copyright in the metadata of every photo.

On the finished photos

Every photo that goes up to the web gets a unique name and keywords for that individual photograph. This will help me find the photo later inside of Lightroom, but more importantly help people on the Internet find my photo as well.

If you have ever had to travel with a large amount of camera gear you understand what a pain it can be. There are many pitfalls you have to watch out for. In 10 years of traveling with a large amount of gear I have come up with some helpful tips and tricks that you can use to save time and be hassled less.

The problems

• You should never check critical pieces of your camera gear. Since you can no longer use “real” locks (only TSA-approved locks) there is no way to secure your equipment. Even if no one steals anything there is always a chance of it being lost for days on end.
• Airlines have different standards for the size of carry-ons allowed.
• Even if your carry-on meets the size requirements, it’s almost surely overweight.
• You have to carry whatever you bring onto the plane though airports, to rental car counters, etc. If its a ton of gear you’re going to feel the pain by the end of the day.

The solutions

Do you really need all that stuff?

Know what you need. Think back to past trips. Did you use every lens, camera, and filter you brought with you? Chances are you packed too much. Packing lighter makes everything easier. Spend some time up front thinking about what you’re going to be shooting, what you need to bring and what you can leave back at home.

The camera bag

Option A: The rolling camera bag. When you really need a dozen lenses and two or three camera bodies, this is the only way to go. You are going to be over the weight limit but we can deal with that later. If you’re flying within the US you can take a decent sized roller onto the plane. If your travels bring you overseas, be sure to check size limits. ThinkTankPhoto.com does make the Airport International V2 rolling camera bag, which at this time meets the requirements of just about every airline I can find.

Option B: The backpack. This is my current favorite. I try to pack light and take everything I need in one small camera backpack. See my review of the ThinkTankPhoto StreetWalker Hard Drive for more information on what I’m using. A backpack lets me get though the airport more quickly, and if not overloaded does not cause a great deal of stress to carry for an entire day.

What about weight?

With either option you are most likely going to be over whatever the official weight limit is for carry-ons. While I have never had anyone weigh my bag, and from reading some forums its rare, but it does happen from time to time.

The first thing I would suggest is to make sure you don’t give the impression that the bag weighs a ton. If it looks like its insanely heavy chances are greater someone is going to ask to weigh it. When checking in keep it on the ground by your feet out of sight, or better, with a friend in the back of the line. Second, if they do insist on weighing the bag and it comes out over the limit, quickly remove some of the lenses and cameras and stuff them into your pockets and hang the camera from your neck.

There is no weight restriction on what you can carry on your person, so after your pockets are stuffed full, ask them to re-weigh the carry-on. Once you’re through, put everything back into your bag. Some photographers even travel with a camera vest on for just this purpose.

Laptop

If the airline allows for two carry-ons, I take a second bag on the plane, and in my case it’s the ThinkTankPhoto laptop bag. I use it not only to store my laptop, but I also have all of my chargers, cables, and power adapters for everything on my trip in there, as well as some things to read while on the plane. If I’m flying out of someplace like the UK that only allows one carry-on (at time of this writing that is so) then I jam everything into my one backpack.

The checked bag

I do store some of my non-critical gear in my checked bag. This includes my tripod, ball head, and other small odds and ends. It’s important to note that I’ve made sure my camera insurance will cover lost or stolen gear in my checked bag. Also, I know that if I land in my location and my gear (or entire bag) is missing I have to go the nearest camera store and buy whatever I’ve lost.

Ship the big glass

From time to time you need a 400mm f/2.8 or a 500mm f/4.0, and these are big, heavy lenses that are a huge pain to deal with while flying. My answer is to ship them ahead of time to wherever I’m going. In my case I rent the big glass because it’s so rare that I need it, but even if I owned it I would use the same approach. I find wherever the nearest FedEx location is to the airport I’m flying into, I ship it a few days ahead and ask FedEx to hold onto it for me. My first stop after picking up my rental car is to go get my lenses. On the way home it’s my last stop before departing.

One last note, if you have a massive amount of gear, lighting, big lenses, etc., I would consider shipping everything ahead of time and not having to deal with anything while flying other than a laptop. As another option, rent all the equipment when you arrive at your location. This is especially directed toward the people who need 4-10 large Pelican cases full of gear for a shoot.

At least, consistency is good when we are talking about airlines, rental cars, and hotels. I’ll go through each of these one at a time, but let’s go over some of the general benefits of staying consistent. I travel a lot, and when I’m not traveling I’m incredibly busy (work, family, friends, etc.). Over the years I’ve tried out just about every travel option and I hope my experiences can help you.

First off, if you have either unlimited time or unlimited money, this blog post is not for you. If your time or money is limited, though, read on.

Big Picture

• Save time and money
• Default to the same providers to earn rewards
• Reduce the stress of travel by simplifying your planning

I need to save time just as much as I need to save money; I can’t afford to waste either. When I do travel, it’s often for workshops or solo photography trips and my mind is going a million miles a minute and I need to keep things as simple as possible.

I used to spend hours searching for the best possible price for my flights, hotels, and rental cars, and I would use whomever was the cheapest. Over time this became an issue; it was getting hard to find the time to search out the best deals, and worse, I had piles of login information to dozens of websites, piles of membership cards, and a list of support phone numbers.

Worse, I wasn’t gaining anything because I kept jumping around between different vendors and none of my frequent miles/hotel/rental car memberships had grown. I was paying full price for all of my travel and not earning any benefits.

I knew in the long run it was best to at least try to stick with the same companies; over time I would gain status and that would give me discounts, upgrades, and so on.

Airlines

• Choose an airline that flies a lot of flights out of your nearest airport, or
• Choose an airline with a nearby hub that you can take a short flight to and from
• Buy airfare directly from the airline
• Earn rewards and gain access to proper customer service

This is maybe the easiest of all of them; there are a handful of airlines to pick from that will get you (with their partners) just about anywhere in the world. They all have frequent flyer programs that over time will give you upgrades, discounts, and free tickets.

It’s important to choose an airline that fits your needs. Since not all airlines fly to all the places you commonly go, or may not fly many flights from your city’s airport, some research is required. If you live in a very small town or city, sometimes the best option is to find an airline that flies a number of small hops each day from your local airport to one of their hubs.

Once I had settled on an airline it made searching for the best price much easier, since I could skip looking at everyone else. Over time I’ve found that booking direct with the airline is close to the same price as everywhere else online and it gives me the added benefit of being able to call them up if I have any problems. This may not be the case for all airlines, just what I have found so far. As a frequent flyer I have an unpublished 800 number to call if I have problems or questions.

This to me is a huge advantage, since now I don’t have to worry about keeping track of numbers for different airlines and travel websites. I know how to get ahold of them if needed, and since they have my contact info I also get status calls and text messages with information about my flights.

Hotels

• Earn membership rewards by staying the same hotels
• Use travel aggregator sites (Kayak, Priceline, Expedia, et al.) to get the best rates
• Always use your membership credentials on the third-party site and verify it on the hotel’s own website

If you become a member of a hotel chain then you can earn rewards, typically either free nights or upgrades. If you stay in a lot of hotels this can add up to a lot of savings, though it’s a bit harder to pick a chain that will be everywhere you need to go.

I take two kinds of trips, either out in the National Parks or in a city (either in the U.S. or overseas). Because it’s hard to find some of the top-tier hotels in the small towns around our National Parks, I have settled on two hotel chains to use. So far with all my travels I’ve always been able to find one or the other everywhere I needed to go.

In terms of pricing, hotels are even worse than airlines. Prices can often be 20-60% less on some of the travel sites and sometimes just showing up late in the evening can get you the same discounts if they still have unsold rooms. Because of this I’m forced to check many sites before I book a hotel. I have a list of five travel sites to check and I’m confident that within those I can find a deal that is at least close to the best.

When I book the hotel on a third party site I make sure that I put in my membership information. As soon as the third party site has confirmed my booking, I log into the hotel’s website and make sure it’s made its way over there. So long as the hotel has received my booking information then from then on out I can deal with the hotel directly. Again, this means its a single point of contact, my business with the third party site ends there.

Rental Cars

• Use third-party sites to get the best rates
• Try to stick with one agency

After a few years and dozens upon dozens of car rentals I’ve come to learn a few things. The first is that almost all the major rental car agencies have the same cars. If not the same exact models, then ones so similar it’s not worth talking about. And second, they all give you just about the same level of service. So for me it comes down to price alone.

I went back though my rental car history (with a variety of rental car companies) and found that all the prices were fairly close, with a few outliers. I’ve settled on one company and book the same way I do the hotels: check the rental car website first, then the five or so travel sites. If I do book with a third party site, then I make sure I enter my membership info and once book I make sure the agency has the booking info.

Again, if the prices with different rental car companies are close then it’s worth sticking with one brand. Over time you’ll earn free upgrades, discounts, and best of all (for meat at least) faster check-in lines.

I hope this helps you in your travels.

Even though I live just outside of Boston and have worked downtown for years, I have relatively few photos from the city. I don’t think I’m alone in this, either; on our workshops we find that many people tend to take more photos when they are on “photo trips” than they would at home. In other words, I don’t often shoot in “my own backyard,” and this needs to change.

For me, it comes down to inspiration. No matter how many times I go to Yosemite National Park, everything is new and unique. Even after I’ve been there 10 times there will still be so much to see; so much changes from year to year. But when I see the same city five days a week, year after year, it all starts to become boring and uninteresting to me (at least to photograph). I find that even when I do walk around with my camera, I find little that inspires me.

The other reason is that when we’re at home we have other things that distract us from focusing on photography. Whether it’s work, family, friends, etc., these are things that may prevent us from taking full photographic advantage of what we have around us. Of course we all have to honor our responsibilities, and sometimes it’s impossible to get away for any amount of time. However, if growing as an artist is important to you, then you should carve out some amount of time that can be dedicated to your craft.

Since we all can’t travel for the entire year taking photos all over the world, we are going to have to make do with what’s local for at least some of our photos. Since we all are striving to grow as photographers and one of the best ways to grow is to take more photos, what can we do?

I can’t answer for anyone but myself, but for me this year I’m going to make it a point to go into Boston at least once a month with some sort of photographic goal in mind. I think setting goals is a great way to push ourselves to go out and make better photos.

There is almost no limit to the goals you can set. Personally, I’m going to strive to do things that are new or different for me. Here are some goal ideas I am going to try to do:

• Use only a 24mm lens and shoot only things that are moving.
• Use the 70-200mm and only shoot at 200mm, f/2.8 for the entire day.
• Spend an entire day only shooting buildings, or
• Spend an entire day only shooting people.

If you don’t have a ton of lenses, another cool thing you can do is hop over to LensRentals.com and get something that you would otherwise never buy and use it for the weekend. This is a cool way not only to get some great photos but also to let you use something that you might otherwise never have thought about.

Early this week I posted my photos from Paris, France . They are from a tripe I took in early December 2009, I was only there for four days but since I was taking photos from before dawn to well after sunset I feel I walked away with a good number of keepers.

Since I was there in the first week of December I got a chance to see the city decorated for Christmas, I think this adds some interest to the photos. Taking photos in a place like Paris is very changeling, since the city has some many visitors each year its hard not to walk away with the same photo everyone else has. I tired my best to come up with things that where unique though to some degree that’s impossible.

I got lucky with the weather, the days where in the 40’s to 50s and the nights where not to cold. It rained on and off everyday, I continued to photography in the rain and felt that some of my best photos came from either shooting in the rain or right after it stopped. I find to many people stay in when the weather turns bad, that can be the best time to get out and find something truly unique.

This was also my first trip with my new Canon 1ds III, and I have to say that I was not disappointed. I purchased it used from Lens Rentals.com about a month before this trip, and it performed perfectly.

I hope you enjoy the photos from Paris, I still have a few left in the queue to edit, I’ll do my best to get them online as soon as possible.

Like most of my fellow photographers I’ve gone though many bags over the years. It seems almost impossible to find the perfect one. I have had huge rolling bags I used for travel only, small shoulder bags for walking around downtown streets, small backpacks for hiking, etc. I was never able to find the perfect bag… Until now.

Since I travel quite a bit I have unique requirements. I need to be able to pack a decent amount of gear and carry it though airports, onto planes, to rental cars, etc. I also need to be able to use all of the gear while I’m in the field. Often my trips will bring me to a national park and later on in the same trip, to an urban environment.

I used to carry all my gear in a large rolling camera bag and then either work out of the car or put the gear I needed for that day into a second camera bag, a mid-sized backup, and use that for the day. This meant that I had to travel with a least two camera bags plus a laptop bag plus a suitcase for my clothing! That wasn’t what I would consider a good solution.

About six months ago while hunting for a better solution I came across the StreetWalker HardDrive, a mid-sized backpack from thinkTANK Photo. I’ve been using a few other thinkTANK products for the past three years and I feel they make the best, highest quality products out there. Their bags are designed by photographers, for photographers, and it really shows.

The HardDrive model is the largest in the StreetWalker lineup; they are small to mid-size backpacks meant for use in crowded, urban environments. They don’t look a whole lot like other camera bags on the market. After getting the HardDrive it was no surprise that it was built with the same quality as all their other products, which is to say the very highest.

Once I received the bag and loaded it full of gear I was amazed. It can hold everything I need for even the longest of trips and still it’s small and light enough I can cart it around a city for an entire day. The fact that it can hold a large pro-sized camera body and a 15-inch laptop while being so small truly makes it unique. It should also be noted that this bag meets (at time of writing) all carry-on limits for both domestic and international flights.

What I carry in the bag:

• Canon 1ds Mk III
• Canon 5D (with grip)
• Canon 24-105 4.0 L IS
• Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS
• Canon 100-400 L IS
• Canon 15mm fisheye
• Canon 17-40 4.0 L
• Apple 15in Macbook pro

Plus batteries, CF cards, camera remotes, filters, two flashlights, rain cover, etc, etc.

Here is the bag closed:

Here it is loaded up:

I have to say, I have yet to find a bag that can hold everything on the list above and still work well as a bag to carry around for the day. The saying at thinkTANK is “Be ready before the moment,” and their products are designed to be used in the field, and quickly. All their products are designed by professional photographers to meet the needs of working pros.

The build quality is simply amazing, the zippers are larger than most and feel very strong; I don’t think they will ever break. The material is thick and won’t rip or tear, nor do I think it could be cut easily. They give you more inserts then you’ll ever need so you can configure the bag however it suits you. There are outside pockets to store the odds and ends that we all need when we go out shooting. Really one of the most thought-out products I’ve come across. Like all thinkTANK products, this bag comes with a lifetime warranty; thinkTANK builds products to last and stands behind them.

Product Page:
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/streetwalker-harddrive-backpack.aspx

Top features (from thinktankphoto.com):
“Designed for use in urban and crowded environments, this slim, lightweight backpack also holds a 15” laptop, as well as a Pro-size DSLR and a 70-200 2.8 with hood attached.”
Carry monopods and tripods in the bottom front pocket.
Additional tripod cup for larger tripods.
Pro Speed Belt (sold separately) can be attached.
Contoured harness for men and women with air channel.

Gear Profile

Holds Pro Size DSLR with 70-200 2.8 attached and hood in position ready to shoot. Two side pockets and two stretch pockets.

Photographer Profile

All photographers, from pros to serious enthusiasts.

Technical Specifications

• ID: 11”W x 18” H x 6-7” D (28 × 46 × 15-18 cm) 
ED: 11.5” W x 19” H x 8.5” D (29 × 49 × 22 cm)
• 3.8 lbs – 4.6 lbs (1.7kg – 2.1kg)
• Lifetime Warranty

In my travels I get to meet many other photographers both pros and amateurs alike.  I’m always taken back by the amount of photographers I meet who do not have any sort of camera insurance. Yet they are carrying thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment.  As someone who carts my gear all over the place I find having camera insurance as necessary as having a backup of my photos. I also find it takes a lot of the stress out of traveling. While no one wants to have their gear stolen, I can rest easy knowing that if anything happens I’m covered.

Once you have invest a serious amount of money into your photography equipment its time to get serious about protecting your investment. When you stop to think about it, there are so many ways in-witch insurance can benefit you. If your on a trip and you camera bag is stolen, lost, damaged etc what will you do? If shelling out the money to replace all your gear is not an issue for you then you can stop reading right here, but for the rest of us, we need some sort of protection.

Many people claim that their homeowners or renters insurance will cover there gear. This however, from my experience is often not the case. Many insurance plans for you home or apartment will not cover your gear if they consider the use ‘professional’. From my reading on the subject that can cover just about anyone. Even if you not a full time pro but maybe you have sold a photo, or shot a wedding. Your insurance company may consider you a professional and therefor deny the claim.

Also will your current insurance cover you when you travel? How about travel outside of the country?

There are a number of insurance companies that are dedicated to photographers. The only one that I have experience is TCP Insurance. I have nothing but positive things to say about them. You can get a quote online in just a few minutes, it only takes a half hour to setup a coverage and its very affordable. Not only will they cover your camera, lenses, bags, laptops, (all the things you take with you) they will also cover your home computer. For those of us with a lot of money invested in our computer setup this is yet another reason to get insurance.

With the amount of gear I carry around, I would not consider not having insurance and I hope you would not either.