70-200mm 2.8 Villager in central India. Originally tried 24mm but did not like distortion. I was shooting this tableau and the man walked out...perfect.

50mm 1.4 Woman and her offering at Boudanath Stupa, Nepal.

24mm 1.4 Woman sick with fever, Mission Hospital, India

The combination of lenses I use when I travel is constantly changing. On one trip I will go super light, so light that I, on purpose, don’t look like a pro. Other times I will carry everything from 14mm up to 300 and throw in a tilt shift and an extender just to test airline weight restrictions and build a few extra muscles. But for the last several trips I have standardized on three lenses: 24, 50, and 70-200. This simplicity of glass is suiting both my back and my creativity. Sure, without the wide and mid zooms I have to move my body more. But the fast 1.4 primes and 6400 clean files have opened up new opportunities to capture moments in near darkness. A caveat though — shooting at 1.4 is a bit dicey on the focus. I often have less than an inch of sharp critical focus. You’ve got to get the focus spot on the eye.

As David Duchemin always says, “Gear is good vision is better”. Make conscious, informed decisions about your gear choices. Experiment. Get comfortable with your choice and then let the creativity flow.

All Photographs copyright Gary S. Chapman

(Nikon D3s, 70-200mm f2.8, 1/640 sec, f2.8, ISO 400)

(Nikon D3s, 50mm 1.4, 1/100 sec, f1.4, ISO 4000)

(Nikon D3s, 24mm f1.4, 1/100 sec, f1.4, ISO 2000)

For the past four or five trips overseas I have touted the benefits of traveling extremely light on gear. I would take a couple of small Canon 5D bodies and three lenses: 24-105mm, 50mm 1.4 and a 135mm f2. My reasoning was that I wanted and needed to be lightweight to move quickly. But as I was packing for my trip last week to Mexico I kept sensing I needed to take my beasty (heavy and expensive) 85mm 1.2 and 35mm 1.4 lenses as well as the Canon 1Ds Mark II that weighs more than all of my packed clothes put together. I added to that a 16-35mm, a 70-300mm DO IS lens and a HD video camera for good measure. My bag weighed 25 pounds. I’m so glad I listened to that inner prodding that I’m sure came from God. I needed every lens I took. I needed the 1Ds when the the rain started pouring down. I needed the fast primes for shooting in dark huts and churches.

I could not have made images like the one above without the super fast 85mm 1.2 lens. It let in enough light, 3.5 stops more than my 24-105mm, so that I could capture the boy’s yawn at a 250th of a second. Other photos I shot at 1/25 sec, f1.2, 1600 ISO. I could barely see to focus. So, what I learned from this trip is that I really need to ask for wisdom for each trip as to what to take. I don’t want to arrive with too much or too little.


©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2008
(Canon 5D, 85mm 1.2, 1/250 sec, f1.2, ISO 1000)