The Pelican 1510

I spent the weekend photographing a police operation targetting illegal street racing, which involved being driven around in police cars and jumping out to shoot. The Thinktank kit is incredibly handy for this sort of work, as for the short hops I could leave it on. A seatbelt just fits over it and as speed was often of the essence I would have lost valuable time slinging a camera and bag over my shoulder as I leapt in and out of the back seat (yes, I let the reporter take the front seat).

I've only found one real drawback with the Thinktank kit, which I alluded to last week. It isn't really a bag, so you need something to put it in when you're storing it. Of course you could empty it and put all your kit into a normal camera bag and re-fill it as needs be. But if you're like me, you don't want the hassle. Not to mention that I sometimes need to grab my gear in a hurry and decanting it from a camera bag to the Modulus kit takes too long.

Then there's the other problem that all photographers face. That's the old question of security. As most of my work is press photography I like to have my basic kit in the car with me all the time. This is for those occasions when I set off into the city to some meetings and get a call from the news desk; "I know you're not shifted on today, but can you get over to the courts in twenty minutes?" And for those rare occasions when the news comes to you, as happened to me when I took this photo:


I'd just parked up to do a spot of shopping when lo and behold, I looked up and there it was, a page 3 photo in the following day's big daily newspaper. Which more than paid for my shopping that day. One way some photographers get around the always-carry-your-SLR-kit problem is by carrying a tiny P&S (point'n'shoot camera) but I'm not a fan of them as they're all limited by their sensor sizes. And with a P&S you'd still be out of luck when you're needed at the newspaper at short notice and can't get home to pick all your equipment up.

So after a spate of friends having their gear stolen, I bought a Pacsafe. This was way back when I was using a Lowepro Stealth 650 (more on that in a later post). I looped one end of the wire through a hole in the boot (US trans. - trunk) of my car and my kit was way more secure for a relatively small outlay. The only problem was that getting the bag in and out of the car was a nightmare, as it snagged on the Pacsafe mesh. There had to be a better way.

I noticed everyone seemed to be getting Peli cases, so I took the plunge. And I'm really pleased I did. After mistakenly buying the enormous Pelican 1560 and being laughed at by my fellow press shooter colleagues, I downsized to the perfect, legal carry-on sized Pelican 1510.

I can't work out how the folks at Pelican do it, but the thing is a veritable Tardis. My purchase was largely inspired by the esteemed travelling photo-blogger Steven Frischling but I didn't quite believe it would take as much as he claimed. It does.

I dispensed with the foam it came with and was about to order the dividers when I realised that I had the perfect dividers already; you guessed it, the Modulus kit. With the addition of a lid divider and I found I had the perfect solution. It's as a great way to get my equipment around and it can all be accessed quickly and easily. As you can see below, I do have to take the Whip-it-out (which I should remind you isn't part of the basic Modulus kit) off the Modulus belt, but that takes no time to put back on. The gap at the front left is where my camera goes, stored with the lens off in a Lowe Alpine mountaineering hat. I found that hats are perfect for storing cameras sans lens. Hats are often forgotten as you head out the door until you're either on the freezing cold stakeout or sitting in the boiling sun burning your ears and head. So I carry a winter hat and a summer hat around with me, keeping my cameras nice and cosy, ready for when they can be pressed into service keeping my head cosy. Or out of the sun. So anyway, I digress. Behind that is my backup camera then anti-clockwise is a 15mm Sigma fisheye, a Crumpler pouch with a CP-E2 battery pack, the Lightning Fast module, the Speed changer module, the Lens Changer 25, the Whip-it-out with my 550EX on top of it and finally the Lens Changer 50 with a 16-35 and lens hoods. The 550EX does fit the Lightning Fast when in the Peli case, but only just, so it's safer to lie it down.

I get home every night so don't carry chargers with me all the time, but there's enough spare room if you cram it to fit the Canon charger and a BC900. In the lid I keep sunscreen, electrician's tape, aspirin, a cable release, a WhiBal, spare 20d batteries, pens, a small LED light, a flash bracket for social photography and other small bits'n'bobs. Oh yeah, spare rechargeable AAs. If you're not using rechargeables, PLEASE wake up and stop being so wasteful.
So there you go.. it rolls with me to save my back and everything is easily accessible. When I go on press jobs most of it comes out and gets worn and my backup camera, lenses and stuff stay in the car. But what of the other problem ? The security one ? I've saved the best 'till last, 'cos it turns out that Pelican cases, being waterproof, are airtight, shut tight, lock stock and barrel. They're basically a plastic safe with handles, all you need to do is add a lock. So with the help of an engineering company, my Peli case travels with one or two steel cables. In a minute or so I can loop one end through the spare wheel or other hard point and suddenly your equipment is pretty much as safe as it can be without driving it around in a tank. It's certainly enough to deter all the thieves that have preyed on anyone I know. Of course, in the rare event your car is stolen, they'll probably get to your equipment, but protecting against that is the realm of a car security blog. Here's what it looks like in my car:

In engineering terms, you need to ask for 1.5m of 4mm galvanised steel cable with a 30mm soft eye on one end and a 50mm soft eye on the other. While you're there consider getting yourself those remote camera security cables you always make out of shoe laces.

Then just when I thought I'd discovered all the amazing advantages of owning a Peli case, the other day I was doing some street furniture photography for a commercial client with my tripod at that awkward height; too low to stand behind but too high for kneeling. Bingo, the Pelican Seat. It sure beats stooping for half an hour, looking like a wierdo and giving yourself a backache.


I'll leave you with a parting shot I took for this post of my Peli case heading towards my office.

Intro and Thinktank Modulus kit

So, welcome to the 'blog. I'm a photographer so many of the bags featured here will be photography related. Over the coming weeks I'm going to try to update once a week with articles on ThinkTank gear, Pelican cases, Lowepro gear, Timbuk2 laptop messenger bags, Waterfield pouches, Eastpak courier bags and other bits'n'bobs. If enough people read it then I'll keep writing it !

I'm going to start with not so much a bag, more a "carrying solution" as Lowepro would have you believe*.

It's the Thinktank Modulus belt kit. I've met too many photographers with bad backs, so when Doug Murdoch left Lowepro to set up Thinktank with a few other photo and bag luminaries a couple of years ago, I took up their "Test Drive" program. It basically was an innovative marketing strategy whereby they'd send you their kit and if you didn't like it you could send it back. Needless to say, I loved my first set of Thinktank kit; a Speed Demon beltpack and a "Whip-it-out" holster for the 70-200 (Canon or Nikon).

Here's a photo of me using it at the 2006 World Mountain Bike Championships.

Photo credit John Cowpland

It's worth mentioning here that this kit has a very narrow focus; that of photojournalists, hard news photographers and sports photographers. Trust me, you look really silly when you walk up to someone's house to take their portrait wearing these huge pouches on your waist. Similarly in some cases, you don't want to advertise you're a photographer and BINGO, huge pouches full of lenses kind of give the game away (I'll explain how I get around that later).


I use it for some hard news photography that I do; running around to hotspots in the city, be they fires or crime or car crashes. When speed is of the essence and it's obvious you're a photographer, Thinktank Modulus kit can't be beaten. As you can see above, I keep my CP-E2 AA battery pack in a Crumpler pouch. I don't really like Crumpler bags much, but their John Thursday 90 pouch is absolutely perfect for the Canon battery packs.


The Thinktank kit is supremely well thought out. Designed specifically for a 70-200 f2.8 the "Whip-it-out", doesn't have a lid but holds your lens in place with a rubbery section a bit like a softer version of skate board grip tape. When you zip it up, it tightens around the lens and holds it in place when you're running around. Unzip it and you can pull the lens out in a moment. Think of it like a quick-release pistol holster for your lens and you'll be close, although I hate military analogies for camera equipment. The only drawback? Canon users like me have to take off the 70-200's tripod ring although Nikon users don't. As you can see, I don't use a 70-200 lens shade. I've never had lens flare using it and leaving the lens shade off makes it the camera's 'footprint' a lot smaller when it's swinging from your neck or shoulder.

The other lens pouches simply rely on a toggle and elastic to hold the lenses in place. When I got mine they were a bit of a fiddle, requiring two hands to get the lenses in and out. I unpicked the plastic toggle and re-threaded them so that the toggle was then captive. Now I can tighten and loosen them with one hand and I've yet to have a lens fall out.


I wear the main Speed Changer component in front over my belt buckle. Inside I keep a spare battery for my Mark II N, a 1.4 converter, the tripod ring from my 70-200, an off-camera cord (note: one of the most under-mentioned but extremely useful things you can own), a little Olympus sound recorder, a notebook for caption information and notes, pens, lip balm, sun cream (I live in a VERY sunny country), ear plugs (never know when you're going to shoot motorsport or a loud concert), lens cloths and a AAA Maglite. I nearly forgot a Pixel Pocket Rocket, another great TT product for holding your memory cards.


The only drawback I've found with the Modulus system is that unlike a good camera bag, whenever you carry it, even slung over your shoulder, it's very VERY obvious what it is. Particularly since you can't put your camera into it. TT do make a pouch or two that will fit a camera, but I've got a 32" waist, so where that would go I have no idea. Perhaps I should eat more fast food. Or some fast food. Yeuch. I've found a way to solve it but that'll come later. I'll leave you with the setup that greets me when I go to work.. minus my camera of course.


*for an explanation of that you'll have to wait for the Lowepro article.