The Photographer's Load
![The Photographer's Load](/content/images/size/w2000/wordpress/2018/08/Kit281of129.jpg)
A professional photographer friend of mine is in Seattle for a few days en route to several assignments abroad. I’m always interested in packing lists and gear decisions, so I snapped a picture of her kit.
I can be a little neurotic when it comes to packing. I’ll make lists, I’ll lay things out, and I’ll pack and unpack, all in the hope of getting things down to the minimum. I usually fail and pack too much. Sometimes it’s hard to resist the “what if” pull. I also like having some redundancy. There’s a saying you’ll often hear in the military – “two is one, one is none.”
My friend has been doing this for years, makes a living off it, and is mobile. She needs to be ready to hop on a plane and shoot fashion, portraits, restaurants, food, etc. That bag is heavy! Those are just the tools, though. She makes the images work through hard work, creativity, and skill.
![Kit (1 of 1).jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a71229df9a61eb777aa9262/1534290774150-4AUWU82KUEZHWI86R3J0/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kA_SSaoz4elkj-HsZd8gX3Z7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UWPwZyNcweDIvdeL5kotwkIXjs9g0WibSO_cU-Ijy4Pwg6poS-6WGGnXqDacZer4yQ/Kit+%281+of+1%29.jpg)
I think I’ve always been interested in what we carry. I love reading the “What’s In Your Bag” articles and Outside Magazine stories about how through hikers decide what goes in their rucks. I even read S.L.A. Marshall’s “The Soldier’s Load and the Mobility of a Nation” to gain some insights. A lot of Marshall’s findings were disappointing – when we manage to cut or reduce weight, we have a tendency to negate that gain by packing more in.