Skip to main content

Packing Essentials

Lesson 5 from: Landscape Photography: Capturing Adventure

Ryan Resatka

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

5. Packing Essentials

Next Lesson: Location Scouting

Lesson Info

Packing Essentials

So when I'm out visiting different places, I want to make sure that I have the gear required to visit them, and just in case I need extra time to visit those places, too. A lot of these really pristine lakes, or cliffs, or places in the mountains, the back country, you're going to want to have extra stuff just to make sure you're ready for most scenarios. This right here is my basic set up for the things that I use now. It's nothing too fancy or over the top. Most of these things you can buy at most REIs or outdoor retailer brands. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through each thing, and like why I use each component of my gear. So first we're going to start over here with the bags. I have both an overnight pack and a day pack. As you can see, the overnight pack is bigger and the day pack is a little bit smaller. This one is going to be more for putting your tent gear and overnight gear into, and this one's for pretty much anything else that you wouldn't do overnight, but wou...

ld still want to have on a longer hike. They both have compartments for pretty much everything, including food, gear, et cetera. And they also are either water resistant or have rain flies. Now keep in mind too that you might want to have a dry bag for when you have other equipment, so it's an extra little bag that makes anything that you put in it water proof. The rain fly in here is in the bottom of this, and then this thing is pretty much water resistant all the way around, which is really convenient. This right here is a sleeping bag. I actually like really comfortable sleeping bags just because. This one goes down to 20 degrees. It's by Eddie Bauer. Really comfortable down sleeping bag. There are other ones that you can get that are a little more compact, but I just like this one just because of the quality of the material. I have a one person tent. It's called a quarter dome from REI again. Nothing too fancy, but it's their pretty good one person tent. It's light weight and of course it gets the job done too. Hiking poles. I think when you have a bunch of stuff and a bag, either one, it's definitely way easier to get up a steep trail with a bunch of gear in your bag using these. It is marginal in terms of adding assistance, but over time it definitely adds up. It is noticeable. And when you're coming down hill on any trails, it's gonna take off any load that you may have on your knees. This is a reusable water bottle. This is one that I have kind of beaten up a little bit, just because I brought it so many places, but you can definitely get ones that are bigger or smaller than this, depending on how far of a hike you're going on, and I use it in conjunction with this right here, which is like my camel pack. So this one right here is three liters, and then this one is about 1.2 liters, so I have about four liters combined. That's going to be able to tackle most hikes that are eight to 10 miles roundtrip. Over here, we have my boots. As you can tell, these boots definitely have a lot of wear and tear on them. I wear these boots at pretty much every single hike that I go on. They're Danners. The other thing is they have the Gore-Tex sealing, so they're going to be water resistant up to about like here on your foot, so if there's any creeks or river crossings that obviously aren't too deep, these are going to be exactly what you want. They're going to keep your feet dry. Obviously if you're out somewhere in the wilderness or in a back country area, you want to keep your feet as dry as possible at all times. This right here, this is actually a Nemo. In fact, these are both Nemo for sleeping, the pad and the pillow. The pillow actually folds up into a much smaller size than what you see right here, but you can blow it up and it's really comfortable. I mean, I could sleep for nights on this and use this as a legitimate pillow if I absolutely had to, and this right here, of course, is the Nemo sleeping pad. Now this thing, there are ones that are a little bit lighter in terms of sleeping pads, but I do like the portability of it, and it's only one pound, which really isn't that much. There are a lot that are a pound and a half or two pounds, and just having that one pound difference can make a difference when you add up everything else that you're going to be bringing out with you. Another thing too is that I also have usually a few down jackets with me, or a sweatshirt, depending on the weather. They keep me warm in a lot of places, like where we're at here in Montana or Wyoming, or anywhere out west where there's going to be scenic stuff. At night it gets pretty cold, even if it's hot during the day, so you want to make sure that you have clothing materials that are ready for almost any weather situation. I always pack a rain jacket as well, just because you might get a downpour of rain, and you want to try and keep yourself dry as possible. Another thing that I've considered when I'm getting my equipment is the aesthetic or the color aspect of it. So right here, I have a bunch of photos I have take with this Eddie Bauer bag, and it looks really good as a back drop or as a subject, just because that red's gonna pop while you're taking the photos. It's going to really stand out as a subject. You know, I also like wearing these boots too, because they just look more rugged, and people kind of like the aesthetic rugged look. Sometimes I'll, when I have props, I'll also bring other things like canvas bags, or other sweatshirts or blankets too, and I usually try to make sure that whatever bags I'm using are going to be able to fit those as well. Another thing to mention too, or keep in mind, is food when you're traveling out to some of these places. Now I don't have any food set up here to show at the moment, but what you can do is you can either bring with you non-perishables, things that are wrapped, or things that you can cook with like a jet boiler or a similar product that actually can heat up water and boil it. Now when you do bring your food, I would make sure that you have a container for it, just because of animals or bears, et cetera. And you want to make sure that it's several hundred feet away from you, from where you're camping, 'cause you don't want animals coming into your tent or where you're sleeping in the middle of the night, trying to find food. Some people will take string, will put it above two trees, and hang it and they'll put it in middle, and they'll make sure that they're again not really close to the food, or they're like within sight of it at the very least. That will keep most things like bears or et cetera from being able to get up and grabbing it. If you're not in an area with any trees, again, the best thing you can do is put the food as far away from you as possible that's still a reasonable walking distance, just because if an animal does come into your area, you don't want it coming into the tent at night, and there's not really much else you're going to be able to do at that point just because of where you're at in such an exposed place. Also make sure that you bring a trash bag or something to put trash in, where ever you're going to leave, pack in, you gotta pack out with you, and it's really important to make sure that we're not leaving anything behind and that we're also leaving no trace.

Ratings and Reviews

user-b87872
 

This is actually a question....regarding "park guidelines". Will you cover what permits are needed, costs; and most of all "insurance". I'd like to take my photography "pro", but these "hoops" appear to be confusing and expensive. Is there any way around them? Or to get the cost down to reasonable? I live in Nevada near Death Valley and travel to California often.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES