Here at f-stop we are always happy to hear stories from our users, whether they are customers or Staff Pro team members. "We Are f-stop" is a new series of stories from all kinds of f-stop users, covering the ups and downs of life in the field. We are kicking off with this testimonial from customer Katie M. Zaharkin of Nature's Lenz Photography who got in touch with her story of what must be close to every photographer's worst nightmare - involving a car and a camera bag. This story had a happy ending though, so Katie was able to keep on shooting the images below. We'll hand over to Katie from here:
All photos copyright Katie M. Zaharkin / Natures Lenz Photography
Luckily this was the only casualty!
"I am not one for writing reviews. Iโd rather focus on posting photos or better yet, going out and taking photos. But every once and awhile I come across something I really like and I just have to share it.
A few weeks ago my husband and I took a trip to the Adirondack Mountains High Peaks Wilderness area here in New York for the purpose of photographing fall scenes and to do a little hiking. We had pulled over on the side of the road at a trail head, put our gear on and started out. A few hundred yards into the hike we realized we may not have started at the right trail head. We went back to the car and I took off my camera pack and leaned it up against the side of the car while we looked at the cars GPS for another trail head location.
After 10 min of studying maps we pulled the doors shut and decided to take off down the road. Upon backing out of the trail head parking lot we felt a thump. My heart instantly sank as I realized I had forgotten about my camera bag and my husband had just ran it over with his SUV! I didn't even want to look. It was loaded with about $2000 worth of camera gear!
Once I mustered up the guts to look inside I slowly pulled out lens by lens and realized that out of everything in the bag, only one lens had been broken. That's ONE lens. One lens out of 2 cameras and 5 other lenses. Oddly enough, it was the lens that was packed right smack in the middle of my camera bag. I still feel like a complete idiot for forgetting my my bag and allowing this all to happen. But sh*t happens and I owe it all to my camera bag for protecting my gear in even the most unsuspecting situations!
After a few weeks of trying out different camera bags from all different companies, I finally decided to settle with an F-Stop Lotus. The bag was more than I wanted to spend initially, but now that this has happened, it was worth every penny and I am so glad I went for it!
Below are pics I was able to take a few hours later with the same camera that was in the bag when it was run over along with a pic of a smashed lens that just goes to show you should never run over your camera bag!"
Katie M. Zaharkin out and about with her f-stop Lotus pack - and still doing so luckily with most of gear intact!
To see more of Katie's work, check out her website and Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/natureslenzphoto
in, showing an image of itself, bothย unique and bewitching.
"We Are f-stop" is for all f-stop users to share their stories from the field, from small daily adventures to epic travels. Contact us with your story on Facebook or drop us an email to [email protected] and let us know where your photography takes you and your f-stop pack!
SHOP ALL GEAR MORE WE ARE f-stop
ยฉ2022 F-stop
Working in the industry for over 10 years, Emily switched gears and entered the academic world as an assistant professor of Digital Media at Utah Valley University. Sheโs hoping to inspire the next generation of Digital Media students with her escapades. When sheโs not in the classroom, sheโs plotting and planning new projects and expeditions that continue to take her around the world. Emily has been able to combine her love of video and photography with travel and in 2018 she finished her personal goal of visiting all seven continents. You can follow her on Instagram @highlandhedrick or the Instant Portrait Project @instantportraitproject
Words and images by Emily Hedrick
Cameras and lenses. Check. Extra batteries. Check, check. Instant film camera. Check?
I had no idea that a last minute addition to our gear list would launch in to a new and exciting side project. Iโm a professor at Utah Valley University in the Digital Media Department. I had just finished my first year of teaching full time at my alma mater when I was preparing to take a small group of students to Namibia, Africa to work on The Untold: Namibian Womenโs Stories Project.
The Untold Project is a three-year endeavor to capture womenโs stories from all twelve ethnic groups in Namibia. There has never been a comprehensive research project about Namibian women by women. My mentor professor Mike Harper began the collaboration project in 2017 with journalism professor Emily Brown from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). I took over the Utah Valley University (UVU) side from Mike for the last two years of the project. The NUST team will be conducting the interviews, while UVU is capturing the stories.
As our UVU team began organizing our gear for the interviews, our f-stop Loka UL and Ajna packs had to contain our individual mobile studios. We had to pack lightly but efficiently to make sure we capture the quality we needed. We brought Sony A7IIIโs and an A6400 with all the accompanying lenses, batteries, filters, and accessories. A last minute addition was the FujiFilm SQ6 Instax camera, which was definitely the oddball of the group!
Lotus carrying all the essentials in the ghost town of Kolmanskop
Located on the Atlantic coast and was once a part of South Africa, Namibia is a desert country that houses both the Namib with its giant sand dunes and the dry Kalahari. The landscapes are surreal and sparse with an occasional oryx or giraffe roaming the bush.
Interviews with the women didnโt begin for another week which afforded us an opportunity to travel to various sites around the country. As a group of budding photographers we decided to go to the ghost town of Kolmanskop near Luderitz. We were also in some of the best dark sky country in the world and we couldnโt pass up an opportunity to drive out to the Quiver Tree Forest and photograph the Milky Way.
Night sky at the Quiver Tree Forest with light pollution from nearby Keetmanshoop.
The following week the team traveled west to the coastal town of Swakopmund, we had planned to do interviews in an informal settlement on the outskirts of town. An informal settlement is essentially a squatterโs camp. The houses were all part of a network of corrugated metal huts with outhouses and water spigots on each block. Itโs an alarmingly high concentration of people in impoverished conditions.
When the NUST van pulled in and the team piled out, our presence generated a lot of interest by the community. As an icebreaker, Emily Brown suggested that I take a picture of one of the mothers. When I handed her the photo, she gave me an expression that seemed to say, โOkay why did you give me a blank white piece of plastic paper?โ I didnโt speak Afrikaans and trying to explain with hand gestures that an image will appear didnโt translate, but it did buy me time as her image magically appeared. And thatโs what it was: magic.
Soon other mothers wanted photos of their babies and children. Snap, snap. More kids came from out of nowhere to get their photos taken too. Picture snap after picture snap. I had only brought 10 packs of film (or 100 instant film exposures) to last the entire trip. I thought 100 exposures would be plenty of film for the three-week trip. Oh, how wrong I was!
Swakopmund children and their photos. (Photo: Brandon Leavitt)
Everyone held their photos gently; they treasured the image and protected it from the dust. When I spoke to Emily Brown about it later, she said that many of these kids will never have a physical photo of themselves in their childhood. For them, a photo is a luxury item. In an age of digital abundance and selfie-taking in America, for these children and youth, an instant photo isnโt a novelty, itโs a precious keepsake.
Our next set of interviews took us to the eastern border near Botswana to meet with the San people: a kind, beautiful ethnic group that has unfortunately been marginalized in Namibia. We had traveled to another settlement near the town of Tsumkwe. Breaking the ice once more, I pulled out the Instax camera. Again, confusion and disappointment when I took the first (seemingly blank) image! That is untilโฆ
A portrait being revealed. (Photo by: Brandon Leavitt)
Soon the colors began to appear, and the image of the San mother developed before their eyes. Smiles erupted as the instant film worked its magic and created a small portrait. Soon there was a line of mothers and children all wanting their photos to be taken too. Cartridge after cartridge I snapped away at the growing congregation of adults and children.
Me (Emily Hedrick) handing out photos. (Photo by: Kellie Leavitt)
The most heartwarming moment was when the matriarch of the settlement was being interviewed and she asked if she could get her photo taken. I wanted to take her photo before because of the beautiful vibrant colors that she was wearing, but I couldnโt understand her native click language. When she asked for a photo I was able to take the last cartridge of film out and take her photo. But not before I accidentally bumped the button and took a picture of my shoes. Ugh, 8 photos left!
Matriarch and her portrait.
The matriarch had poor eyesight, but as the photo developed, her portrait ended up being the most vibrant one. The film clearly showed off the colors of her headwear and clothing. Hidden beneath her sash was a little satchel where she carried her most important valuables. Everything was inside her satchel was in pristine condition: ID card, wallet, and other mementos neatly stored inside and never brandished in the dusty settlement. After showing off her own photo, she tucked it carefully away into her satchel and gently hid it back away in her sash.
Emily Brown leaned over to me as the matriarch was putting away her photo, โThis is something she will hold on to for the rest of her life.โ A photo. A simple instant photo was the best tangible gift we could give. It was in that moment that I knew I had to do something much, much more.
Little boy and his portrait. (Photo by: Brandon Leavitt)
After we wrapped up our interviews and made our way back home to Utah, there was still so much work on the Womenโs Project we had to do, but I couldnโt shake this idea about doing more instant film portraits for people. There is no shortage of international projects our university is doing and this idea could expand it to many more areas around the world. I had to do something.
I began working with UVU on extending the project to the community. UVU was 100% supportive on setting up a crowdsourced webpage letting anyone donate to the newly created Instant Portrait Project through UVUโs website. The project launched on September 6th and all proceeds will go towards buying a second camera and as much instant film we can carry with us. I think Iโll be upgrading to the Ajna backpack to get 8 more liters of space for instant film!
Photo by: Kellie Leavitt
The Instant Portrait Project is there to give a record of a moment in time in a personโs life. It is a keepsake that can be held on for many years to come.
We aim to raise $500 to get us started and plan to do subsequent fundraising as the project expands to other areas around the world.
The Instant Portrait Project: http://c-fund.us/mye
"We Are f-stop" is for all f-stop users to share their stories from the field, from small daily adventures to epic travels. Contact us with your story on Facebook or drop us an email to [email protected] and let us know where your photography takes you and your f-stop pack!
SHOP ALL GEAR MORE WE ARE f-stop
ยฉ2022 F-stop
A well crafted timelapse can capture the beauty of a location. f-stop customer, Mattia Bicchi is a professional timelapse and hyperlapse photographer and filmmaker from Italy. He has been living in London for the past seven years, creating timelapse pieces for film productions big and small, for clients inlcuding the BBC, Ford, Virgin Atlantic, and Mulberry. This summer he visited the Faroe Islands with his wife, and he got in touch to share these images and also some advice on what he used to shoot them.
Words and photos by Mattia Bicchi:
I recently decided to leave the UK and travel for a year with my wife, to make timelapse for stock (Getty Images) and to create short films of the places we are visiting. This summer we spend one week in the Faroe Islands, we did not know what to expect. Sure we had seen pictures and videos of the Faroe Islands before, but being there and experiencing the raw beauty of this unique country through our very own eyes was incredible.
In the Faroe islands we stayed in a beautiful Airbnb in the town of Saltangarรก and went around the island with a car we rented at the airport.
We carried all our gear on a Black Loka and an Orange Lotus, which in my opinion are the most versatile and comfortable photography back bag in the market at the moment, they worked perfectly in this environment. Everyday we drove and hiked in different locations and each of one was just breathtaking.
To make the 8K Timelapse I use a Sony A7rII and few Canon Lenses. I create the cinematic movement with the 3 axis 1.5m Dynamic Perception Stage One and R, which was hanging on a 200m cliff to get an amazing shoot of the iconic Lake Leitisvatn.
Hereโs the link to the final 8K TimeLapse of the Faroe Islands on my YouTube
You may find more of Mattia's work on his web site, Facebook and Instagram. nd.
"We Are f-stop" is for all f-stop users to share their stories from the field, from small daily adventures to epic travels. Contact us with your story on Facebook or drop us an email to [email protected] and let us know where your photography takes you and your f-stop pack!
SHOP ALL GEAR MORE WE ARE f-stop
ยฉ2022 F-stop
f-stop Ambassador Agustin Munoz has been friends with pro BMX rider Kenneth Tencio since he was young. As an action sports and adventure photographer, it helps when your childhood friends become world-class BMX atheletes, but this doesn't usually happen when you are growing up in Costa Rica. In this We Are f-stop story, Agustin takes us behind the scenes of shooting BMX in the jungle, and how he sized down to a more compact mirrorless set up for shooting the action...
Words: Agustin Munoz
This is a video about Kenneth Tencio, who has been growing as a bmx pro rider and is now a Red Bull athlete. Here in Costa Rica, there are no BMX parks like this, so Kenneth decide to build his own, welding and building it with his own hands. Kenneth trains at his self-built "10-cio park" and that dedication has brought results. Last year he podiumed four times, including 2nd place at the biggest BMX event in the world in China. I have personally known Kenneth since a very young age, and we have shared a lot of very good times creating projects and photoshoots together, and i feel very proud of him and what he has achieved.
Agustin Munoz BMX project from f-stop || Gear on Vimeo.
For this video I was using Fuji X-T3 and X-H1. Those cameras have the ability to record at 120fps, which allows me to play with speed reamp effects. Also I am able to record on F-LOG, a format that makes the image flat with a lot of information on shadows and highlights, so later on in editing i can use different type of 'LUTS' for more options with color grading. These cameras also have a very accurate and fast focus tracking on video, something that lets me work with wide-open apertures without having focus issues. The lenses I have been using are; Fujinon 8-16mm f2.8, 18-55mm, 56mm f1.2 and for the very close up a 200mm f2.0. Most of the clips where shot with the DJI ronin S stabilizer. For the drone shots, I have been loving using the DJI Mavic pro 2.
I used to use the Tilopa when i using my Canon set up, but since i move to the the Fuji system, the Lotus is more than enough to carry all I need for all kind of photoshoots.
I like to put my 2 camera bodies and all my lenses in the main compartments of the ICU, then carry the drone sitting on top of the large ICU, in the space between the ICU and the top lid. In carry an f-stop Accessory Pouch filled with extra batteries, camera charger and sensor cleaner tools - all the small things you can't forget - which fits just right in in the side pockets.
For this video, f-stop Ambassador Agustin Munoz used the Lotus, with a Large Pro ICU and the Medium Accessory Pouch.
"We Are f-stop" is for all f-stop users to share their stories from the field, from small daily adventures to epic travels. Contact us with your story on Facebook or drop us an email to [email protected] and let us know where your photography takes you and your f-stop pack!
SHOP ALL GEAR MORE WE ARE f-stop
ยฉ2022 F-stop
The heart of each Camera Pack is the Internal Camera Unit which carries your kit. The Camera Inserts are interchangeable and each pack is compatible with various Camera Inserts.
We will visually guide you through the diverse Configurations that you can achieve with each individual pack.
Not every pack is compatible or recommended to go with each Camera Insert. For instance, the Shinn 80 L is designed to accommodate large camera/video equipment. To fulfill this purpose, both the pack as well as the Cine Master insert have greater depth compared to other packs. The Cine Master Camera Insert is significantly deeper than the Pro XL Camera Insert. Therefore, when you are using an XL Camera insert it will not fill out the pack fully. As a result, you can avoid any movement of the Camera Insert in the pack you can attach it to the side attachment loops inside the pack ( next to the Aluminium frame)
Furthermore, when choosing your Camera pack, you also want to consider how much extra room you need for additional equipment such as clothing, food accessories, etc. Gain a sense of the available extra space in the Packs with a variety of compatible Inserts.
Learn more about how to select the best Camera Insert for your needs.
https://shuttermuse.com/f-stop-icu-size-guide/
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