Sean M. Leahy Photography

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Rwanda in the heart of Africa.  While in Rwanda I spent most of my time producing a video that will be used for training purposes around the world in developing nations so I did not have the luxury of being able to travel the country and take in all the sights.  I did however manage to rack off a few shots while out in the field.  We were able to visit a few farms in the rural area outside of Kigali, the capitol city of Rwanda.

On the trip we were pretty loaded down with various video, audio and computer equipment which did not leave alot of extra room for gear but I did manage to bring along my D300 and my trusty “do-it-all” Nikkor 18-200mm lens.  With just the single lens I felt confident that I would be able to grab any picture I needed.  Again, I cannot stress enough how versatile this lens is, as it covers you from 18mm wide angel to a 200mm telefocus.

While on our trip to the fields, we were surrounded by lots of curious onlookers as we shot our video.  It was a wonderful opportunity to see some people out in there daily routine in the fields.  Below are a bunch of images that I was able to grab while on assignment in Rwanda.

Recently I have come across a wonderful opportunity to travel to Rwanda situated in the heart of Africa.   While in Africa I am on assignment to capture an Integrated Pest Management Workshop that is being put on by Michigan State University and the Rwanda Horticulture Development Authority (RHODA).

The capture for this project will include video recordings of the presenters, screen captures of the presentation given and lots and lots of images.  So in preparation for travel I was trying to figure out how to cram a ton of video and audio and photography equipment into 2 backpacks.

Starting with my photo bag, I needed to stay as light as possible because I would need to carry a bunch of audio equipment for the video cameras.  Luckily for me I had purchased the Nikkor 18-200mm VRII lens a short while back.  With all of the audio equipment to be packed into my bag I really only had room left for one lens, the one attached to my D300.  So with that, it was an easy decision, I packed the D300 and 18-200mm VRII lens and called it good.  I wont go into more detail on how much I love the “do-it-all” 18-200mm lens [see previous post on 18-200mm], but let me just say this, this lens provides the traveler with the perfect equipment, a lens you can attach and never remove for your trip.  This lens allows you to have a wide-angle lens all the way to a medium length tele.  This is the one lens as a photographer you can feel confident that when you spontaneously pull up your camera to capture that once in a lifetime image, you’ve got the right focal length attached to your camera.

The contents of my bag packed for Africa include the following:
•    Nikon D300 Camera
•    Nikkor 18-200mm VRII Lens
•    Shutter Release
•    Blower (for cleaning lens)
•    Lense/Camera cleaning kit
•    Nikon SB-800 Speedlight
•    Lumiquest 80/20 and mini-softbox diffusers for flash
•    2 Western Digital 350GB Hard Drives
•    Azden Wireless Mic system (one transiver and two lapel mics)
•    10 MiniDV tapes
•    Wild assortment of USB Flash Drives
•    Card readers, cables and rechargeable batteries.
•    Travel medications, documents, passport and granola bars.

The bag I am using is the Lowepro Fastpack 350. This pack is a great day and light hiking pack, not mention a pretty sweet travel bag.

This bag has several advantages, but the first and best for me personally is that it not only holds a good deal of equipment, but it also holds up to a 17” Macbook Pro which helps eliminate yet another carry-on bag.  The laptop section is placed right at your back keeping the heft of your computer closer to your center of mass plus it has a super easy-to-access zipper so you can pull out your computer or other papers you keep with it without having to undo any other straps, snaps, or buckles.  The lower compartment of the bag is where the guts really provide the biggest benefit, there is enough room for a camera body with lens, and several other lens, flashes, pocket wizards and so on.  In typical Lowepro fashion there are configurable dividers so you can customize the shapes and sizes of the storage compartments to maximize the amount of stuff you can cram in there.  The top section of the bag is a great place for everything else.  Its an open compartment that has a nice flat bottom shelf (the top of the camera compartment) so you can place a wide variety of objects there, more equipment, some clothes, whatever your heart desires.  All of this is then strapped to your back via the padded shoulder straps.  The bag has both the waist strap and sternum strap.  This bag does not include a tripod holder at all, but with a small D-clip you can turn the mesh water bottle holder into a tripod holder by putting the collapsed legs into the water bottle holder and then cliping your tripod to the top handle with a D-clip or strap.  Its not recommended by Lowepro, and I offer no garentee, but I do it and it has worked well when you need to carry a tripod on the go.

In my personal opinion this bag is great overall, but I would have liked the bag to have a little more robust strap feature, when the bag is fully loaded with camera equipment and a laptop its pretty heavy and will definitely start to strain on your neck, back and shoulders after a while.  But overall it’s a  great pack and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a camera bag and laptop bag.