What to pack for three week assignment!!
How to pack for three weeks on assignment??
Tomorrow morning I'll be heading out for three weeks on the Continent, covering tournaments in Bulgaria and Romania - so three weeks living from a suitcase and covering both still images and video interviews. What does one pack for a trip like that?? One thing is for sure, with temperatures hitting high 30's (celcius) - you will not have enough clothes with you, so no matter how many pairs of socks, underwear or t-shirts I pack - there is still the need to use laundry services at some point, although sometimes it will work out cheaper to buy new clothes than have them washed by laundry service :-)
Roughly my clothes for this trip are :
- 4 pairs of shorts - 10 pairs of underwear - 10 pairs of socks - 13 t-shirts - 5 long sleeves - 3 pairs of shoes - 2 jackets - toiletries, etc
Good thing about going to warm climates is that packing can be done relatively lightly, as there is no need for heavy winter jackets, or wet weather gear (indoor sports being covered).
How about the camera gear? This will allow me capture the game action, as well as have a small set-up for a portable 'Speedlight-studio' for the occasional portrait image on the go. For the Men's tournament, the Magic Arms can be used to attach a backboard camera for couple of days - in case high flying action is to be expected. For the video, sure I could use the 1DX to record it, but I personally prefer the smoother use of a camcorder, which also can allow the capture of game footage (if permitted).
- 2 * Canon 1DX - 16-35mm - 24-70mm - 70-200mm - (in case of football job 400mm) - 3 * flash gun - Pocket Wizards - memory cards/reader - MacBook Pro 15" - USB Superdrive - Thunderbolt external hard-drive 1TB - 2 * Manfrotto Magic Arm - Sony camcorder - 2 * tripod (once strong/other lighter one) - screen wipes - batteries (AAA) - various chargers - Canon G11 (for random snaps) - ExpoDisc (for White Balance) - lead/connectors - lens cleaning gear - black canvas backdrop with clamps
There will inevitably be some free-time as well, so for that I have prepared with :
Neil Gaiman "NeverWhere" (book) - RIchard Dawkins "Selfish Gene" (book) - Cloud Atlas (DVD) - 4 * Martial Arts DVD - Tai Chi instructional DVD - music on iPhone (in the Cloud)
There are many (apart from getting paid) benefits in having traveled the Continent widely over the past years, on this trip I will be passing through three countries (Germany, Romania and Bulgaria) - and having some of the local currency helps at your arrival. Sure, most airports have an ATM where you can withdraw money, but going to a small corner-shop in Romania with a 100 LEI note, will not be so easy when you only want a bottle of soda and chocolate. Luckily for this trip, I have found plenty of Euros and both Romanian and Bulgarian currency worth around £30. So an ATM will not be the first thing I need to find once landing.
Hopefully this Blog page will be updated regularly over the coming weeks with various musings from the games, finding places to eat, capturing images, talking to players, spending time on the beach... so do come around and see how three of suitcase-living will go :-)