The 500

Blimey, finally got around to talking about this bag. It is the Lowe Pro Flipside 500AW and it is blue and black. And it is limited edition. Only 1200 of these beauties will grace this earth and I have one in my gimp basement. But it wasn’t until my trusty ComputrekkerPlus AW (IMO one of the best packs LowePro has produced) started showing signs of it’s age that this here coach put that there pack into the game. Still, I’m no stranger to the Flipside ideal. I use its smaller brother, the Flipside 400AW (dur!) loads. In fact most shoots that see me boarding a plane sees the familiar rounded shape of the 400AW on my back and in the speedy boarding queue. I can cram the 400AW with enough gear to do a demanding shoot with two bodies, two speedlights, 12-24,17-55, 70-200,10.5 fish and 50mm inside. The outer pocket takes the Pocket Wizards and all the other photo gubbins I need.
Well, the 500AW is a veritable tardis. I nearly got lost in there and had to send up an emergency flare. I could, if I wanted, get my 300mm 2.8 inside and still have room for enough shorter glass and two bodies and two flashguns. Most backpacks are designed to house at least one body with a lens attached and the 500AW is no exception. Since I had a costly adventure when a helicopter baggage handler crammed my pack into the hold and sheered the 70-200 lens off the body with the lens mount still attached, I choose to keep body and glass apart until I want to introduce them to each other.  So, with the added depth that the 500AW offers, I found I could stow two guns, and three (count em) Pocket Wizard Multimaxes into the upper space obviously shaped to take a camera body. The bodies I stashed on the sides , along with the wide zooms and the long zoom down the centre.
I’m not a tripod kinda guy so I’m not going to carp on about the concealed tripod cup and the straps on the front of the pack. Rather, I want to talk about the mesh side pockets and the cinch straps above them which allowed me to store a lightstand in each and pull down the straps to makes everything stable: important when stumbling and bimbling down a muddy mountain side which is more than often the case.  The pockets are big enough to still allow some space to stow overtrousers or a small bottle of water with the stands in place. This is a Very Important Thing. Do not underestimate the need for water and dry trousers.
The usual organizing pockets sit inside the front compartment for pens, phone, keyflash, cables etc. But it must be said that the pocket is easily large enough to store a netbook or an iPad,. On this particular shoot I threw, figuratively speaking like, a Rayflash ring light. It would also easily swallow a good size waterproof jacket or fleece. Did I say keeping dry was important? Oh yeah, anyway fully loaded the Flipside 500AW is no featherweight and this is where the harness steps up like you have David Haye (insert name of your favourite heavyweight here) fighting in your corner. The load sits well up the torso and with the sternum straps tightened down, the pack is easily to transport. Super comfy. Super important to my health. There is a large carrying handle on the top of the unit that makes small shifts around, like from car boot to floor to speedy boarding queue to overhead locker that much easier.
And lastly, why Flipside?  Because entry to the pack’s contents is through the back of the unit i.e the part that sits against the wearers back.  This means your cloths stay relatively clean and dry when you dump the pack down in mud or snow. If I were to add one thing, or change really, to this already great item is would be coloured ends to the main compartment zippers. Blue or red, something that can be easily spotted and grabbed when in a rush. Perhaps glow in the dark? The black ones tend to hide beneath the hip belt or inside the zip covers– or maybe it’s just me? (yes,get your eyes tested. Ed)
Oh, and why just the one snap? (I think we can safely call it that) Because this was taken at the end of day long  and complex shoot in the Lake District when it rained stair rods and never stopped. Of  course, because I had waterproofs (did I mention that?) I was dry but my cameras were less than enamoured with the conditions and I decided to put them away for good once the last frame was captured. Promise to do better next time, honest.

Blad in a Pack

You would be forgiven for thinking that the little LowePro SlingShot 100AW is a bag for little cameras - but I doubt many would class the Hasselblad 501CM as particularly small. As you can see from the pic above, I get the 501 body with 80mm 2.8 lens and waist level finder attached. A prism finder slots into a separate pocket ,as does the lens hood. In the top pocket I can fit a Sekonic light meter and more than enough rolls of 120 film for my needs. I am in the process of shooting an on going project about the mechanics that work on the pros bikes at World Cup races and I can get most access (and they are more relaxed) early in the week before the battle lines are drawn.  After more years than I care to mention shooting this kind of stuff, I really can't be arsed to lug a big pack around the pits, so the 100AW works out just fine for my needs. I have a pro set up in a pack I an throw over my shouler and get around with minimum fuss. Sounds odd but this becomes more obvious when trying to negotiate crowds later in the week, with a big pack and flailing tripods! Just look at how chilled I am! So laid back I'm not even using he small counterbalance strap that prevents the pack from rotating on the body. Useful when you are riding a bike, for example.

Since I want the full impact (theoretically) of the medium format pictures to happen when the images are published, I have made a mini slideshow of some of the out takes and other stuff I took because I liked the look of it.


Blad in a Pack - Images by Geoff Waugh

Of course, when the action begins I have to break out the big pack and my fave is the Computrekker Plus AW which holds a full load plus a laptop. There it is keeping me company in the gondola up the Anoch Mor mountain, shot by ace lensman and midge magnet Steve Behr

Tweed Run with a LowePro Pro Runner 300AW

Firstly, the Tweed Run needs explaining. It is a social bike ride around the streets of London wearing garments preferably manufactured from tweed and bicycles as retro as possible. If a gentleman or lady can look like he or she just landed from the 1920s or 30s that is A Good Thing. The ride is some 12 miles and takes in many of the city's landmarks; Buck Palace, The Mall, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square and, of course, Saville Row where the world's finest tailors ply their trade. The only way to cover the ride and experience the day out is to get on a bike and roll out with fellow tweeders.
And, to my mind at least, the only way to shoot such a proper event was to use film and my Hasselblad 501CM camera. I took a Nikon D300s too, purely to crack off a few action shots, where time, or lack of,  would be an issue. So what bag to use? It just so happened those kind folks at LowePro has furnished me with the Pro Runner 300AW part of a new line of backpacks for this season. And what's more they sent a green and black item rather than the photographers 'any-colour-so-long-as-it-is-black' favourite! The green is not like the old Lowe Pro green, even though it is described as pine green.  Praise be! Nope, it's a darker, forest green. The sort of green you may find in the twill of a nice tweed or a clan tartan. Bonus! But enough of the surface stuff. The 300AW is a shallow pack. Unlike it's bigger brethren, it has no laptop compartment and the profile against the back is super low. In fact, in the pic below, taken by a friend, the pack is so slim you cannot see it! It was perfect for the Hassy and the D300s minus the battery pack and with a lens fitted and ready. (I took a 12-24 for the wides and a 50mm 1.4 to give a similar perspective to the 'blad. And threw in my Rapha town gloves and a silk scarf to look the part.)

The zips are not the sticky waterproof kind that making one handed opening with the bag on the ground close to impossible. Because I wanted to carry a circular folding reflector I opted for a folding bike with a luggage rack. The Pro Runner was so stable on my back that I never used the waist belt and only clipped up the sternum strap every now and again on longer stretches (secretly, sections where I wanted to get RAD on a folding bike!) Also in the pack were rolls of 120 film for the Hassy, a wallet of cards for the Nikon that never got used, and a Sekonic light meter. The payload of the bag is way more but after more than a decade of lugging heavy packs over mountainous terrain, I need to travel as light as I can.

I could have used the mesh side pocket to stash a bottle of water on the lovely warm day but in my excitement I clean forgot. Luckily there was a most civilised tea stop in Kensington Gardens where I could refresh myself whilst taking in the amazing outfits and tasty bicycles.  I chose to leave the ride on The Strand and make my way back to my car at the start, but those that saw it through partied to the sounds of The Gentleman Rhymer and a jazz band. How very civilised. What ho!

Many thanks to Daniel Bosworth for the images of moi!