Hey Ya'll! Its Fall! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty excited getting ready for a fall trip with my Photography Club. The Goldsboro Area Photography Club (GAPC). I have been part of this club for quite a while and love these annual trips. Sometimes we go to the North Carolina Mountains, West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia and have even taken a trip to Washington DC. This year we are going to Pennsylvania. Covered Bridges, the Amish , and Philadelphia just to mention a few stops this year. I'm very excited to be with my photo buddies for a week of photography and fun. What gear I'm going to bring is an ever evolving question that I have to go through each year and this year is no different. I want to have the right gear but I don't want to be bogged down with gear and decisions on what to use for each shot. Paralysis by analysis .  The types of photography will also make a difference in what I bring. When we're there we will be shooting Street, Landscape, Astro and just general photography. I also want to record my experiences with video like I have in the past. I usually bring a GoPro with me and record and make a video at the end of the trip. This year no GoPro but I will be recording my experience. So something different . I'm also using this trip as a practice run for a larger trip I'm taking next year. I'll get into the details of that trip in a later blog it's still a secret for now. I've got 99% of my gear figured out and this blog is going to come out a day before I go on the trip. I probably won't make the final decision until I stuff things into the bag. Now I'm pretty methodical about gear and packing I even have a spread sheet that covers everything from Camera gear to underwear  and everything in-between . I'm always tweaking this spreadsheet trying to get it just right and to make sure I don't forget anything. I even do a practice pack a month or so before to make sure things fit in my bags I'm bringing. So I have time to adjust bags or buy new ones that work. So what am I bringing? Let's start with Video.

Like I said in years past I always brought some sort of GoPro. Everywhere I went I had a one to record small short clips that later on at home I could combine into a travel video. Now I'm not a high tech video guy. My photography wingman Robert is really into video and does a great job at it. He has GoPros , Drones and big camera that he uses to make cinematic movies. He uses high tech post processing editors to blend his video clips into a cinematic beauty he color blends and does things I only dream of doing. He has been dragging me down the video rabbit hole for years and most of the gear I have are his hand me downs. Which I appreciate . This year I will use my phone a iPhone 16 Pro as one of my cameras. I always have it with me and it does pretty good. I have a wireless mike and receiver that I can plug into the phone and have good audio if I want to do some talking. I will also be using my Sony A6700 as a video camera. This is a hybrid camera and I only use it for photography so I've been practicing using it and trying to get the settings right for simple video clips. This camera is capable of Professional Video but that's too complicated for me right now. You could say that to compare what I do in video compared to what Robert does is the difference between shooting JPEG(me) to shooting in RAW(Robert) LOL This should keep my gear load down as I'm not taking a extra camera and the only thing I'm taking is a wireless mic to hook to my phone. Here is a link to "Max's Kitchen Gear Talk" Fall Colors Workshop where you can see me show and tell about the gear I'm taking. The link takes you to my YouTube channel where It would be awesome if you like and subscribe. Doesn't cost a dime and it helps the channel get seen by more folks.

UPDATE: Well I wasn't planning on bringing a action camera for POV type of  shooting but the DJI Osmo Nano a little small wearable camera (that I had my eye on) went on sale so I got it last minute and will be bringing it with me also. I'll Still use my phone and Sony for a lot of the video but will be using this as well. I'm sure there will be a blog about the Nano coming in the future. What about Photography Cameras and Lenses?

This year my main camera will be the Sony A6700. It's a powerhouse of a camera in Video and Photography. As you know I have downsized from full frame to crop sensor this year keeping my kit smaller. I plan on carrying 3 lenses with me. Which three isn't set in stone yet. My number one lens will be the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8. It will give me an equivalent full frame 27-75mm. It's a fantastic lens and will probably be on the camera 90% of the time. My Telephoto lens will be the Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 which gives me a 105-450mm equivalent. This is a super sharp lens and should get me some good compression and if I get to do some wildlife this lens will work great. The next focal range is the iffy one. The wide angle range. Do I bring a prime or do I use a zoom at this range. I was initially going to only bring my Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 lens which would give me a 15-27mm full frame range. I have recently gotten a Sony 11mm f1.8 a 16ish mm full frame equivalent. Now I'm trying to keep the gear down. Do I bring the 11mm instead of the zoom or do I use the zoom instead of the prime? Or do I just bring both? Not sure I will make the decision until the last minute. I will also be bringing my Lieca D-Lux 8 as a backup and my street photography camera. It sports a 10.9-34mm f/1.8-2.8 lens giving it a 21.8-78mm full frame equivalent. This is a super little micro 4/3 camera that I just love to shoot. It's a shooters camera. I use it as my everyday camera but will make a great backup and Street camera. I have polarizer filters and ND filters that will fit all of the cameras. I use step down rings on my ND filters. I'll be bringing my travel tripod which I've had for years its a Pro-master Carbon fiber. I also will have a mini tripod that might come in handy in some locations. All this stuff and batteries and accessories will be carried in a Shimoda Side Lite 22 camera bag that I talked about in a previous blog. I'll also be bringing my Moutainsmith shoulder bag that I call my purse that I've had for many years for short trips from the car. 

That should be about it for camera and video gear that I'm going to take with me. I'm looking very forward to going on this trip and with this gear I should be able to get great photo's. If I don't it won't be the gears fault it will be mine. So until next week Get out and Shoot!

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