carrying light stands, etc outside

[shutterdown]

These questions are for anyone who does a lot of outside shooting, and have to carry gear (light stands, umbrellas, sand bags, etc).

Sean might be the expert on this, but if anyone else has suggestions, I'm all ears.

When shooting outside, I generally bring two lightweight stands for mounting a couple (at least) speedlites, triggers, umbrellas. Invariably, a couple of sand bags to steady things. Tripod, too. I can put the camera gear in a bag, but the other stuff requires another person, at the very least, or several trips to the shooting location.

A Lowepro for cameras, lenses is not suited for the other hardware.

I was thinking of some sort of cart, similar to one for hauling luggage, but preferably on that can house all the stands, tripod, sandbags, etc.

What are some suggestions? I'm not averse to making something myself, if that would work for my purposes.

[andnowimbroke]

A cheap golf cart (two-wheeled pull cart) and old golf bag could help ya with stands and umbrellas. Everyone has those at yard sales for cheap. If you just need the bag, disconnect the clip and you're free. Need extra storage, all kinds of things can be bought and modified for your specific needs. A two can cooler with lid and scratch board that fit on the upper handle work great as is

[UmiKaibutsu]

you can in fact put a couple of the matthews reversible 9' stands into a backpack. they fold down to about 22" or something. depending on the backpack,they may stick out the top, along with the umbrellas. I've posted on here before and shown step by step, the exact process.

i wouldnt put a camera and lenses into a standard backpack with them though.

the Kata Bumblebee has a laptop slot that holds these stands and umbrellas nicely, the side of it has a built in tripod foot holder and loop at the top as well. it is safe to carry camera, lenses and speedlights in the same bag. its rather expensive though.

[Sean Setters]

These won't help you carry the sandbags and such, but I have the Model 8 (original rollup) that holds some of my lighter weight shoe-mount flash stands and umbrellas. It's a really well-made bag. Not necessarily cheap, but worth it:

http://www.standbagger.com/

If I were buying one today, I'd get the Model 13 because I use my bigger, sturdier lightstands much more than the smaller ones. You can also take a look at their "Grab and Go" series which is cheaper but has outside pockets for storing strobes/misc equipment.

Sean

[shutterdown]

Those standbagger products are great. I got one of them. The PRISM holds all my stands, umbrellas, tripod, and even the speedlites/triggers (in their cases).

Good suggestion. Thanks.

[mcarriganphotos]

That's a cool bag. Not to high jack this post, but on a similar topic, how do you all carry your small stuff? I just went to shoot my son in a pumpkin patch and found at the last min that I was going to have a serious time constraint so I was not ready at all. I went out with a backpack that had 2 strobs, my triggers and transmitter, my small Lumipro folding softbox and 1 light stand. My flashes have their nice pouches but I can't think of a way to carry the triggers outside of their original boxes which are not conviniant at all. Because of the shape, the triggers don't carry well attached to the flashes.

[Sean Setters]

Here's how I do it - a fishing tackle organizer:



The best part is that the fishing tackle organizer fits in the laptop compartment of my camera bag. I glued pieces of foam to the inside of some of the sections to provide padding for the flash trigger/receivers.

[mcarriganphotos]

That's a cool idea, thanks!

[Jayson]

I used a baseball bag for a long time before I started using my backdrop stand bag. I put the stands where you put the bats and umbrellas and stuff in the gloves area. I don't carry things often. The hand golf cart thing sounds like a good idea.