cool weather pictures chosen on purpose.
Visualizing cooler weather....
In the recent past I've made a point of only taking one camera and one lens with me when shooting for fun in order to not be weighed down, literally, or figuratively. If I have only one camera and one lens with me I never have to hesitate and make choices. And, if I'm working on hot days, I don't have extra gear to carry around with sweaty hands and lower energy.
In fact, except when I'm photographing for clients I rarely think about taking along a camera bag. I generally have the camera and lens hanging over one shoulder. I keep an extra battery, along with my car's key fob, in my front left pants pocket, my wallet in my front right pocket, someone dollar bills in my left rear pocket and, if I want to further encumber myself then my cellphone goes in the right rear pocket. Done. No other stuff necessary.
But I seem to be changing my mind and I blame it on the rising heat levels in the Summer. Yeah, climate change. Yeah, global warming. And, grudgingly, I find I want to take other stuff --- like lens cleaning clothes, a different lens, etc. But I recently realized that the one advantage I've been looking for is some discreet transport "mechanism" that keeps my mostly black cameras and my mostly black lenses out of the direct sun when they are not in use. Infrared warming on black metal camera bodies is a real thing. In Texas, in the Summer, the heat soaked up by an all black camera pushes the camera's electronics beyond their stated engineered-in limitations. Most cameras are heat-rated to about 104 or 105 degrees, max. If that's the same as the ambient temperature then a camera exposed to direct sun for even ten minutes can quickly climb in temperature to over 125°. At that point the internal electronics are prone to accelerated wear, early failure, and in the best case, just a bunch of noise added to the files.
Many cameras I've used in previous Summers, like the Fuji GFX 50S and the Sony A7Rii, started giving me heat warnings after only five minutes of walking in sunlight on days when the ambient temperatures were just over 103°. And that sure puts a crimp in your day of photography.
While I haven't had problems with most of my Leicas in Summer heat I did start to get some performance slowdowns with a Q2 recently. In its defense the symptoms started about an hour into a walk on an afternoon when the temps had crept about 100° and the humidity was plainly uncomfortable.
The camera recovered quickly in the shade but it really started me thinking...
I wrote yesterday about my preparations for an outdoor shoot I'll be doing next Saturday. Here's a screen shot of the weather as predicted almost a week out::
The shoot is mostly exterior. I know pretty well how to work in this kind of weather. Lots of sunscreen. Hats with big brims. Neck wraps with evaporation gels. Frequent breaks in the shade. Access to air conditioning when things get dicey. But cameras can heat up quickly and they don't sweat or self cool.
I'll mostly be working with a Leica SL2 and the big 24-90mm f2.8 Leica lens. All black. Both of them. I'll have a bunch of white cloths cut to 14 by 14 inches (Terrycloth) that I can keep damp to put on top of the cameras as needed but I decided that I wanted a light-to-white colored camera bag to dump the gear into while we're scouting or lining up talent or otherwise out in the sun but not quite ready to shoot. Most of the camera bags and backpacks we have in house are black or dark brown, etc. They were never engineered to reflect IR or to basically, breathe. They are made for folks working milder climates. That will change...
I wrote yesterday about an Ivory White photo backpack I bought from a company called, BagSmart. It's great bag and I can't wait to put it through its paces on the shoot. Whatever gear isn't in use will be in the confines of the white backpack. Once I sorted that out I felt really prepared to work with the black cameras in the heat. But I started thinking beyond the upcoming paid shoot to my day-to-day stuff. What would I like to change about the way I walk around with gear in the Summer when shooting just for fun? Just for myself?
Here's a typical scenario where the camera is exposed to excess heat: I park somewhere and decide to walk a route from North to South on a Summer day in mid-morning. Already in the mid-90s here. I have a camera over my left shoulder because....well, it always feels comfortable on my left shoulder. Strong habit. When I want to shoot with the camera I grab it with my right hand. But my left shoulder is facing nearly directly east. Directly into the sun. And I may walk for a mile or so before I see something that I want to photograph so the camera just dangles there getting toasty as I walk along. I try to shade it with my left arm but it doesn't usually work. The camera gets warm to the touch. A bit later it's uncomfortably hot to the touch and that's a warning sign for how high the temperature must be inside the camera body...
Ideally I'll break with my tradition of not bringing along a camera bag. I'll carry the camera, my phone, my house and studio keys, an extra battery, lens caps, lens wipes and some cash in a small, easy to carry bag that does its part to mitigate the heat issue. And the way a bag does that best is to be very light in color. Mostly like...white.
Being a jaded, gear happy photographer I went to B&H and looked for white camera bags. I found stuff for the little Fuji and Leica Instax cameras but they were too small and looked like crap. I looked for Peak products or Think Tank or Tenba. Oh hell, I even looked for Billingham but it seems like the bag makers have uniformly decided that all photographers want dark gray or black bags. The closest to my color preference were the "sand" colored bags from Domke. But they were bigger than I wanted and too pricy for what the use case entailed. And "sand" isn't really that close to white. It's better than black but.... why settle for half way?
Since I'd had good luck with the ivory colored backpack from BagSmart I circled back to Amazon and searched for a small, but not too small, camera bag from the same company. And I found exactly what I wanted. It was $31 USD; less than a nice lunch out.
It's called this:
BAGSMART Camera Bag, SLR DSLR Canvas Crossbody Camera Case, Compact Camera Shoulder Bag with Rain Cover for Women and Men, Ivory White
and here's a link if you are interested:
Link-o-matic No benefit to me.
I bought one and it came to the studio today. It is exactly, exactly what I was looking for. A bag big enough to drop the SL2 and the big lens into. A respite from the direct rays of the sun. Almost like the "ever ready" cases of old but more workable and less expensive now. The bag is well padded, comes with a very serviceable shoulder strap, compartment dividers, zippered pockets and a quick-to-access top flap. It even came with a rain cover. I love it. And it does not scream, "Camera Bag."
I'll stuff it with a Leica M240 and a lens tomorrow, and all the stuff described above, and take it out for a spin to prove my concept to myself. If it works then I will have made a new "friend" to help me survive the ravages of the Summer.
Why don't I like to carry cameras bags with more choices of lenses and stuff? Because, as the title to the blog says, the access to choices, and having to decide between two or more options, can be paralytic to the process of engaging with photography. And really, no matter which lens you have on your camera you'll find yourself thinking, "Should I be using that cool 20mm I brought along instead? Or is this the perfect shot for the 85mm?" And it's even worse if you are one of those "holy trinity of zooms" photographers and you have crammed the three cliché zooms into one overstuffed camera bag. "Do I need to zoom to 183mm or will 19.5mm work better for this subject?" No. None of them will work better....
Work is one thing but too much choice sucks the pleasure out of photography quickly when you are doing it just for fun. Two lenses at the maximum, each riding on an identical body if you must. But never anything more. You can always bring a different set the next time...
We can't really leave stuff in the cars in Texas unless we know we'll be parking in a secure parking garage. The heat in an exposed, parked car can quickly ruin just about everything you leave in it. I know. I've experienced it. Nothing like heat to mobilize the lubricants used in your lenses. Just thinking about the lubricant slowly spreading across an inner element in a prize lens is enough to dissuade most photographers from the practice.
Stay safe and keep yourself and your gear cool. Have a great Summer.
The studio is the place for lots of different lenses. Just leave em on a cart and grab what you need.
That day I went to the Pecan Street Festival with just a 28mmm on an M.
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