What's In My Bag...

I noticed I have only been posting photos recently, and wanted to change things up a bit. For this post, I will be showing you all the photography equipment I have. :) This is most of my equipment and I usually carry all of it with me when I go on vacations to far places. I will usually skip over a few items if I'm only visiting nearby places depending on what I feel like shooting that day. I bring most of them to farther places when I visit because I don't know what to expect! No reviews of the products will be given here, but you can get an idea of what I bring and maybe what you are missing in your photography equipment collection. :) These photos do include the new 600EX-RT flash I purchased recently.

The first photo is of most of my equipment. My camera, tripod, and 1 of my lenses are not in the photo for obvious reasons.

Equipment listed in the above photo (Starting from the left):

• Vanguard Up-rise 43 Zoom Expandable Sling Camera Bag
• Case Logic DCB-204 Camera Bag (The smaller one I use to carry my filters. I attach it to my bigger bag via a stainless steal cable.)
• A red LED flashlight (For finding camera controls at night when doing night photography. Red light won't ruin your night vision.)
• 82mm to 58mm filter adapter ring (Used to adapt my 82mm filters down to 58mm for my smaller lenses. Helps to save some money on my filters.)
• Hoya Neutral Density Filters (9-stop and 5-stop filter).
• B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer
• B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer
• B+W 82mm Clear UV Haze with Multi-Resistant Coating (010M) (Was on my camera lens, not in the filter case)
• Fotodiox 6" X 8" Universal Softbox (for my flash)
• Giottos Rocket Air Blaster (Large) (Used to blow dust off my lenses and camera sensor)
• Lexar Professional 64GB Class 10 SDXC Card (backup storage in case my 8GB CF runs out)
• SD to CF Adapter (To adapt my Class 10 SDXC card to the CF slot. It's a really big savings than buying a real CF card. LOL Sadly, it does take the speed down, so if you do get one, take that into consideration, plus the adapter does get pretty warm when in use. Again, I repeat, I only use this as a backup when my real CF card runs out of memory.)
• Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II SLR Lens (I no longer use this one as I have a wide angle L-model to replace it with.)
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens (The one I use for bird and animal photography)
• Some lens cleaning cloths including a piece of chicken skin (which I bought in China), some random microfiber cleaning cloths, and a Nikon microfiber cleaning cloth.
• Some AAA and AA battery storage boxes (I read on a forum some guy accidently put some change he got after lunch in the same pocket as his batteries which burned a hole in his pants... Always use storage boxes for the batteries. I bought these at my local Fry's Electronics.)
• RainbowImaging 100 meter 2.4GHz Wireless Remote Shutter Release
• Zeikos Remote Shutter Release (has button locking feature for Bulb exposures)
• Canon 600EX-RT Flash (with carrying bag next to it)
• Flash Filters and Filter holder (came with my flash)
• Studiohut Timer Remote Control Shutter (Remote I use for time-lapse and star trails photography)
• Yongnuo Brand Off Camera Flash Cable (Buying 3rd party really saves money. LOL)
• Some one time use AAA batteries for my different remotes and my flashlight.
• Rechargeable High Capacity 2500 MaH Sanyo XX Batteries (for my flash)
• Extra LP-E6 Battery Pack for my camera.

Surprising how I can fit that much inside such a small camera bag right? LOL So now let's move onto the things that was not in that photo because I had to use my camera for that photo. The last 2 photos was taken using my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Equipment shown in this photo:

• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens (What I use for my landscape shots)
• Vanguard Alta+ 263AP Tripod

Here is a photo of the whole tripod with the camera on top. Photos also taken with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

So there you have it, most of the equipment I use and bring along for a photo shoot. :) It is very heavy. LOL Even though I have so much equipment, I can still quickly remember where I put it and quickly locate it in my bag. Sometimes I do hunt around a bit, but I usually don't. As a photographer, it's good to memorize where you store everything so you don't miss the perfect shot! As of right now, I actually don't have any space in my bag to store the flash. Not sure what changes I'll be making for that, but I bring most of these equipment along when I go on trips to far places. I most likely will probably just strap my flash to the outer part of my camera bag, the same way I'm storing my camera filters... If you read carefully, you'd know I usually cheap out and buy 3rd party equipment for all the parts that DO NOT affect optical quality! I never cheap out on lenses, batteries, or flash equipment... It's a very good money saving tip. :) Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Caterpillar

Hello fans, I'm sorry about the delay in photos. I have a good friend of mine visiting from China, and I have been taking him to different places, and it has been extremely tiring for me, so I never really got time to do a new blog post. Also, college classes start for me soon, so you should expect more delays like this. I am taking quite a lot of classes. Sorry!

So... Let's get started with today's intro... I have 6 caterpillar photos for this blog post. I found this caterpillar in my front yard. :D How cool is that? So, as all of you know, I have 2 parakeets as pets. I usually pour their poop bowl at the bottom of the cage in my front yard. This leads to a lot of their food being grown, and they sure love fresh food! So, as I was harvesting some for them, this caterpillar fell off one of those and landed on the ground. I picked it up with some leaves from my orange tree. LOL You should never pick these up with your bare hands. It will give you a rash. I thought it would be nice to try some macro shots of it (not real macro). Anyways, sorry for the high amounts of noise in the photos, I didn't have a flash and I don't have a macro lens, so these photos have been heavily cropped. The quality isn't too bad though. It was done with my Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens. No extension tubes were used. The white areas on some of the images is where the shade ended and the sun was shining, so exposing for the shade has washed out the bright areas of the image. I have put all the almost all in focus photos first, and the rest of them are slightly out of focus. If you ever tried macro photography, you'd know what a pain it is to focus on the shot!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. See my best backyard photography photos from 2012 here. See my best insect photos here. See all of my backyard photography photos from 2012 here.

I know it looks dead in this photo, but it's not. I never knew caterpillars can play dead so well! 

I'm not sure if this caterpillar is still alive... This plump and juicy caterpillar is exactly what the 5 robins that hang around in my front yard loves to eat! XD

I should try looking harder for these types of things in my yard. It looks so cool up close. :D I should find another one once I get a pair of extension tubes. 

I told you guys last time I will post something cool! Isn't this cool? :P Well, I thought it is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure it's cool for you too, unless you are really scared of caterpillars and worms. I hope you have enjoyed this post. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Sanyo Eneloop Rechargeable Battery Review

The Sanyo Eneloop Rechargeable Battery is the battery I use in my DSLR's external camera flash. Unlike other batteries, this battery have a very strong long lasting charge. It is great for power all your battery powered electronic devices that uses AA or AAA batteries. The battery charge will stay for at least a year, unlike other rechargeables which will pretty much be useless in a year.

My external camera flash works great with this! It will power many many flashes, which proves it is very strong. I didn't regret my purchase yet! It is great! I can't believe I didn't use this sooner. All those money I wasted on the other brands that doesn't even work. If you need rechargeable batteries, I suggest you go get the Sanyo Eneloop Rechargeable Battery. This is great for DSLR's external flashes, your Wii remotes, flashlights, or other products that drains your batteries quickly! So go get yours now!

Do you like reading about interesting products? Come check out this blog I made!