Overpacking the Think Tank Photo Airport Security 2.0

When I shot with Irish and Kayo in Tokyo at the end of last year, I ended up taking a lot of gear with me.  Since I am never really sure what lighting equipment will be available at the rental studios we use, I prefer to have enough with me just in case. The lighting kit I carry along with my camera gear allows me lots of flexibility in creating different looks while keeping everything down to one bag.

I mainly use the Think Tank Airport Security v2.0 when I travel. Having owned several camera bags and rolling cases from other manufacturers before, I have found the Airport Security 2.0 to be the sturdiest, most well-built and well-designed rolling camera bag out of all of them. In one bag I am able to bring an entire studio lighting kit to location shoots.

The main points I like about this bag are:

It can hold a TON of gear

It has a built-in TSA lock for the main compartment.

(Sorry that this bag is not in the most presentable condition, but I use this bag A LOT.)

It is deep enough that a 70-200 2.8 lens can fit vertically which saves a lot of space. This one feature alone was one of the main reasons I bought this bag.

In the rear compartment is a cable and TSA lock to help deter your camera bag from "accidentally" walking away with someone else.

User replaceable wheels. The rolling case I had before did not have this feature and this is another major reason why I switched over to Think Tank.

Integrated backpack straps hidden in the back of the case that can be quickly deployed when you need to carry it on your back down a flight of stairs or over rough terrain.

Did I mention it can hold a TON of gear? In the Airport Security v2.0 I can fit ALL of the following:

Canon 5D mkII body with a WFT-E4 Wifi transmitter and a ReallyRightStuff L-bracket

Canon 7D body with BG-E7 Battery Grip

4 - LP-E6 batteries (in cameras)

Canon LC-E6 Battery Charger

70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens

85mm f1.2L II lens

16-35m f2.8L lens

24-70mm f2.8L lens

100mm f2L Macro lens

10 - 8GB Sandisk Extreme CF cards in a Think Tank Photo Pixel Pocket Rocket

2 - Canon 580 EX Speedlites

2 - CP-E4 external battery packs

4 - Nikon SB26 Speedlights
40 - rechargeable AA batteries (in the flashes and battery packs)

5 - Pocket Wizard Plus II transceivers

4 - Pocket Wizard PC sync cords in an Altoids container.
 (The Altoids container also has strips of gaffer's tape on the lid - you never know when you'll need gaffer's tape.)

1 - Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 transmitter

1 - Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 transceiver

1 - Pocket Wizard AC9 Zone controller

1 - RadioPopper PX transmitter
2 - RadioPopper PX receivers

2 - Gary Fong Lightspheres (1/2 Cloud) with 2 white domes and 1 amber dome

1 - SP Systems barn doors

2 - Stofen Omnibounce diffusers

1 - Grid - homemade out of black cocktail straws, Frosted Flakes cereal box and lots of gaffer's tape

2 - Strobist gel packs

1 - Westcott Apollo Orb Softbox

2 - Westcott Apollo Strip Softboxes

3 - Manfrotto 5001B Nano lightstands with umbrella adapters and Frio hotshoe mounts

1 - California Sunbounce Micro Mini Silver/White Reflector with optional flash bracket

Manfrotto 190CX Tripod with ReallyRightStuff BH-40 ball head

XRite Colorchecker Passport

Sekonic L308DC Lightmeter

Gerber Multitool

Aluratek router

20ft USB to mini USB (tethering backup in case the wireless fails)

Dust Blower 

Ballpoint Pen

Sharpie ExtraFine Marker (with a few feet of extra gaffer's tape wrapped around it for good measure)

LensPen

Lens Wipes

Shiseido Oil Absorbing Sheets  - soaks up oil on skin without messing up the makeup

Ball Bungies

Clothespins

Business Cards
Model Release Forms

iPad in an Otterbox Defender case

The video below shows pretty much everything I took with me to Japan. A few things are missing in the video, like the iPad which I didn't have with me at the time that I shot this.

Also not shown is a Think Tank Photo Urban Disguise 60 that I also take to shoots. It slides right onto the extended handle of the Airport Security and holds a Macbook Pro, a couple of Justin Clamps, and any other miscellaneous items I might want to bring on a shoot.

And just to clarify, THIS IS NOT HOW I PACKED IT WHEN I TOOK IT ON THE AIRPLANE.  The Gerber Multitool, tripod, lightstands and softboxes all went into my check-in luggage for the trip.  Everything that was packed inside the Airport Security, (except the Gerber obviously) came with me as my carry-on.

Once I was IN Japan, THEN I packed everything into one bag like this for my photoshoots.

Our friends at Think Tank Photo just announced a special deal on their popular rolling camera bags.  Order their Airport Security V2.0, Airport International V2.0, Airport Airstream, or Airport TakeOff rolling camera bags before May 31, 2012 and you will receive one of their Artificial Intelligence V2.0 laptop sleeves for free!  

If you are looking to buy a roller before you head out this summer, this is a great time to do so!

Travelling with the Westcott Apollo Orb and Strip Softboxes

The studios in Japan that I've used in the past usually already have lighting equipment available for use.   However, they tend to be constant lighting sources - tungsten or fluorescent lights. These are fine for general portrait lighting, but aren't very flexible if you want to do things like stopping motion or overpowering daylight.

When I travel, I normally take a bunch of Nikon SB26 flashes with me along with a couple of Westcott double fold shoot thru umbrellas and occasionally the Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe Softbox. For this past trip however, I had several shoots where I needed light modifiers that could give me more control than the umbrellas. That's why I picked up the Westcott 43" Apollo Orb and two Westcott Apollo Strip 16"x30" Softboxes just before I flew up to Japan this past December.

I really liked the Apollo Orb.  Setup was really quick - it opens up and mounts on the lightstand just like an umbrella.  The diffusion panel can be recessed a little from the edge of the softbox, which gives you a little more control over the light.  Not as much control as a grid, but good enough for what I was doing.

It turned that small SB26 into a huge 43" octagonal light source that looked great on the model.

The Striplights were really helpful in controlling the light in situations where I really needed to keep the light off of the background.  In the following image, the two Striplights are positioned just out of the frame on either side of the model. If I had only brought the shoot thru umbrellas with me, it would have been extremely difficult to get a shot like this.

Although the Westcott Apollo Orb and the Striplights fold up like umbrellas, they don't fold up as short  as the double-fold shoot thru umbrellas do.  For my trip to Japan, it was challenging to find luggage that these softboxes would fit into. I did manage to find a rolling duffle bag at Macy's that worked though - a High Sierra Rolling Drop Bottom Duffle 34" Evolution for about $150.

This bag was perfect - in the bottom section I was able to fit the Apollo Orb, 2 Apollo Striplights, a California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector + Grip Head, 2 Justin Clamps, an empty sandbag, a Speedlight Prokit Beauty Dish and 3 Manfrotto Nano Lightstands and still had room left over.

The bottom part of the upper section unzips if you need to pack larger items.

I used this rolling duffle to get the lighting gear to Japan.  Then when I went on location, the compactness of the Westcott softboxes made it easy to put them into the front exterior pocket of my Thinktank Airport Security 2.0 rolling camera bag along with a couple of lightstands. When you are a photographer traveling on trains and buses in Tokyo, it really helps if you don't have to carry a lot of bags with you.

The only real downside to using the Westcotts is that  because they mount onto lightstands like an umbrella, the flash ends up inside the softbox rather than on the back.

(in case you are wondering, the red coloring inside of the Orb in this shot is just the silver interior reflecting the backdrop we used)

To make adjustments to the flash power, you need to open up and reach into the softbox to do it, which is pretty easy to do, just don't attach the velcro on the bottom of the diffuser panel so that you can flip it up out of the way quickly.  Alternatively you can use something like the Pocket Wizard Flex TT1/TT5 and AC3 Zone Controller to adjust the flash power remotely.

Overall though, the ease of setup and control of light the Westcott Apollo series of softboxes along with the fact that I can now carry essentially an entire studio on my rolling camera bag make me really glad that I added these to my travel lighting toolkit.