I’ve been using the range of bags from f-stop for a few years now, more often than not with an appetite for going big. Owning some of their larger backpacks, I was content to fill them to the brim, usually carrying far more than I needed during a shoot. With a ‘big is best’ mindset it’s true that I felt prepared for most eventualities, however mobility was often sacrificed which is something I found limiting in certain situations. When out skiing I feel that I can be out all day (and often am) with a larger pack. Switch sports to say cycling or running though and the more cumbersome design starts to bother me.I’ve found myself becoming somewhat of a bag geek over the last three years, largely down to having a front row seat in watching trail running explode onto the scene. The art of running in mountains is nothing new, but the recent development of running apparel is nothing short of miraculous. In a few small years running bags have adopted a vest like stance, with these super lightweight bags able to carry a surprising amount of gear, all whilst acting like an item of clothing rather than backpack.An example of this can be seen below. This is a picture of my running bag for this years UTMB, a trail running race that circumnavigates Mont Blanc from the town of Chamonix. With a heavily enforced gear list, runners are required to carry all of this (minus the dog, and the Haribo) for the duration of the event.
One week after this race I was set to head to Corsica to document a trail running project. Although I wouldn’t be running, I had to be prepared to move very quickly over very steep terrain with a couple of 1,000m climbs in order to get into shooting position. Having had the luxury of spending a summer using running bags, I wanted to make sure that I adopted a similar mindset towards choosing a camera bag for my time in Corsica. The guys over at f-stop had provided me with a Kenti earlier in the summer and I was eager to put it to the test during this project.
Whats in my f-stop Kenti then?
- Canon 1d Mark IV
- Canon 70-200 f4 IS
- Canon 85 1.8
- Canon 45 2.8 TS-E
- Sigma 15 fisheye
- Tamron 28-75 (not pictured)
- Canon 1.4x extender
- Think Tank card wallet
- Sony RX100
- f-stop rain cover
- Rocket blower
- Penknife
- iPad
- iPhone
- Energy gels
- Disposable poncho
- Petzl Nao headlamp
- The North Face windstopper
- The North Face fleece
- The North Face waterproof trousers
- 2 x 500ml soft flasks
- Down jacket
Trust me here, that’s a hell of a lot of stuff for such a small formed bag. The key feature of the Kenti is how the camera is held. Most f-stop bags have a rear accessed Internal Camera Unit (ICU), where you take off the bag and open the panel that rests against the carriers back. Unlike these packs, the Kenti has access from both sides. The bottom 2/3 of the pack is effectively one customisable compartment, with a central divider and access on both sides.
As you can see in the above shot, compared with the traditional ICU format, the Kenti allows you to store a camera in one side along with a few lenses on the other. This has been designed with photographers who are using smaller bodied cameras in mind, although with a little customisation I was able to fit the Canon 1d attached with the 70-200 in one side, and my lenses (minus the 1.4x extender) in the other. If i’m honest, fitting a pro camera body into the bag was a bit of a squeeze but it still worked.
Taking up the additional space is a roll down top compartment, allowing for some clothing and other accessories to fit in. The role down aspect is great as it allows you to slightly increase or descries the volume of the bag depending on what is inside. Going back to talk of trail running, the clothing that outdoor companies are producing right now are so lightweight that they take up very little space in your bag. I found it little trouble to get the clothes pictured into the bag, along with the remaining items. For hydration, the bag does come with a compartment where you can store a water bladder, but like most of the running community i’ve ventured away from bladders to soft flasks. In the image with my running bag you can see where the soft flasks slot in on the straps around chest height. I’m able to drink without touching the flask and when empty they take up no space. I’d love to see this incorporated into future camera bags and for this trip I found that storing them in the roll down compartment was a little too nerve-wracking (with the fear of them leaking on top of my camera equipment).Once on, the bag feels really comfortable and you notice the smaller form factor almost immediately. The project I was on involved shooting over a period of 36 hours, climbing, running and generally being on my feet most of the time. Of course, this bag ladened with a bunch of lenses and a heavy camera body was not going to a dream to move quickly with, but the camera fitted snugly inside and I felt comfortable to run without any of my gear jumping around.
This image above shows the bag next to it’s much bigger brother, the Satori EXP. It’s hard to gauge a full comparison from this shot as the Satori was nowhere near full. Still, you get an idea of the difference.Back from the trip and I was straight off to Photokina. Checking out some of the modern camera systems got me thinking how far we could go with camera bags when mobility is key. I’m convinced that technology has come along far enough where i’d be able to shoot an expedition style trip on a camera like the Sony a7r with complete faith in the image quality that the camera provides. Yes, I would require a couple of lenses along with the body, but it is much lighter and smaller than the 1 series line from Canon. If i’ve already ran distances over 160km carrying a Sony RX100 point & shoot in my running vest, then surely the time will come where something like a camera bag/vest could be possible, blurring the lines between photographer and athlete even more.A niche market perhaps? In the meantime I’m more than happy with the portability of the f-stop Kenti. Through talking with a number of other photographers who’ve experienced this bag, maybe we’re moving away from that ‘big is best’ mentality and are looking for that perfect smaller partner.
Thanks to Bastien for the images of me.
Photokina roles around every two years, transforming the German city of Cologne into a photography mecca. Having been invited to come and spend a few days with the team over at 
There’s been a lot of talk online about the new lenses that Sigma have been producing and I was keen to try out the relatively new 50mm 1.4 Art lens. It’s heavy – in a good way, produces beautiful images and I absolutely have to find a way to get this into my camera bag. One of the great thing about investing in new lenses like these is the adaptability. With the camera advances of today, it’s possible to be shooting this lens on a pro body like the Canon 1D series, and then simply switch over to a body like the Sony A7R (using an adaptor) for an altogether different look and feel. The price is also very attractive, coming in quite a bit cheaper than the Canon own brand offering. 
The race proved a perfect area for introducing this new section, 
With interactivity at the heart, the viewer has the ability to navigate between projects checking out images, quotes and full screen galleries from each stage. Rather than just seeing one or two shots from each day, there is now much more work to check out encompassing a range of formats from lifestyle to action.
The Tour de France was a perfect launchpad for this Insights microsite, and as more suitable projects are completed, they too will be added to the site. In the meantime, i’d love to hear some thoughts on the site. Let me know your opinions, they’re always great to hear.To head over and check out the new Insights then just 
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8…………….I count 30.Outdoor photographers love clean images. We can often be seen crawling around on the ground making sure that our field of view is uncluttered with nothing else, especially other photographers, encroaching on our frame. Every now and again though it feels nice to break the mould, bringing me to today’s behind the shot, focusing on a series of images from this years Mont Blanc Marathon.I’ve never been a huge fan of finish line images. Like podium presentations they often feel like a necessary evil with a nod in the direction of the sponsors rather than the athletes themselves. More often than not these images see a quick turnaround with them forgotten about the following day. I’ve been on a mission of late to take scenes from an editorial setting, such as a race like this, and make a completed image that stands the test of time, 
Despite feeling like herded cattle, i firmly believe that many accredited journalists (much like the iPhone “journalist” above) just don’t question the possibility of photographing from somewhere else. Maybe it’s the power of the media pass around their neck dictates that they have the right to photograph from a hallowed position that keeps them from straying, despite the fact that their lens is aimed at exactly the same point as 50 or so other people.I’ll admit, moving position though was a gamble. I had two of Elisa Desco’s sponsors requiring images and she had held together her side of the bargain by being in a position to win the race. The marathon distance that this year would crown the winner as World Champion was kind of a big deal. Elisa had fought off intense competition and entered the finishing straight after 3hr53. With every other photographer preoccupied with the finish line, I was able to capture some great moments from this unique angle. I mentioned it was a gamble and it really was. There’s a huge risk that a photo from behind could prove unflattering, uninspiring and just plain busy.As you can see from the image in the header, this made its way to become advertising for Scott Shoes (with Compressport also using one of the shots in the series). There’s no fear of an unflattering image here, her figure looks incredible and the fact that all of the photographers are fully clothed in waterproofs really adds to the environment.
Of course, media accreditation is a great tool that we have at our disposal during events, but it’s great to take a step back and think about how to create different images to all the others, that will stand that test of time that i talked about. A week after this race I photographed a series on the Tour de France without accreditation and it proved to be a great lesson in working hard for my shots. The Tour de France is a logistical nightmare at the best of times and without a pass, there has to be some intense planning on what you want to achieve from that day. A selection of shots from that project are now available on a 
I was sat down at my desk this morning when i noticed that my window was leaking due to the incessant rain that Switzerland has been experiencing this summer. In amongst trying to cure the leak I was reminded that it rained for 24 consecutive days in July. Now thats a statistic for the pessimists amongst us.
Luckily for me, I recently escaped this gloom and headed over to The Peloponnese in Greece for a couple of weeks. Staying just on the tip of the Greek mainland, the daily routine centred around the ocean, venturing off for some great excursions under some stormy skies.
What a roller coaster the first week of this years Tour de France has been. I made the journey up to England for one of the most incredible weekends of cycling for Le Grand Départ. Managing to get out on the bike myself, I relaxed under the blue skies, caught up with friends and talked over our predictions for the tour. Little did we know how much carnage would unravel over these first days. Whilst boarding the ferry, a cursory glance to the skies confirmed the change in weather. Long gone was the beautiful sunshine of the Yorkshire Dales, replaced by heavy rain to greet the riders for the infamous stage 5 and the cobbles. Chris Froome was to abandon early on, having fallen before even reaching the feared cobbled section. For the rest it felt like an exercise in damage limitation.The image above was from the Champagne region yesterday as we made our way to the stage. Not quite the picture postcard image that I had in mind whilst planning the first week of Le Tour, but quite fitting for how the race has so far panned out. With the mountains on the horizon, it can be sure that the second week will throw up many more twists and turns along the way. 
In a previous blog post, i talked about 
When most people think of road cycling, one race comes to mind: The Tour de France. Spread across 21 stages and over 3,000km, this carnival of sport attracts crowds in the millions with all roads, in a cycling sense, leading to Paris. What people often don’t know is that professional cyclists do actually take part in other events, often back to back, whilst in preparation for the 3 Grand Tours (the Tour de France is joined by the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta A Espana in the Grand Tour classification).A very busy UCI World Tour calendar sent the riders to The Tour de Romandie, a 5 stage race around the Western region of Switzerland. With many people’s perceptions of riders limited to what they see during a race, I wanted to spend a little time behind the scenes to bring out the real life personalities of the riders around the team buses and away from the bike. Access to the riders is almost unattainable during stages of the larger races, whilst many of the buildup events often have much fewer spectators opening up an array of photo opportunities bringing us to toady’s behind the shot.I’d spotted the Europcar rider, Davide Malacarne the previous day (