Location Shoots, Traveling with lots of photo and video gear best way to?
 

For anyone that has traveled for location shoots. Any experience with traveling with lots of camera gear including studio strobes and stuff like that?

Anyone every use something like these hard cases on wheels?
http://www.portercase.com/
Seems like your stuff would arrive in one piece providing no one steals them.

What works best?

How does the airlines deal with all of this? Do they charge extra or something? What is the limits on size and weight or number of items?

I think most if not all of the airlines are now enforcing a 70 to 90 lb luggage rule per passenger, so anything more then that will cost a lot more $ to fly.

Cleo, as long as your cameras all fit into a single carry on bag, you can usually take that on board over and above your usual carry on stuff. Some airlines get a little crappy, but when you explain to them that you are not going to check a bag (that now has to be unlocked) with $XX,XXX worth of camera gear, they usually get a little better about it.

My Canon XL-1 has a custom case made for it that fits all carry on spaces. :)

Lights, stands, whatever... you need a tough enough case that it isn't going to get killed on the way. However, as Torn mentioned, you will get killed if your baggage is over weight, and some will even ding you for a second or third bag these days.

If you know where you are going, it might be easier to send your stuff by courrier.

Alex

Cameras always carry on. Lighting equipment is very light. The cheapest method is a 30" suitcase. Your collapsed lightstands will fit diagonally. The more sensitive pieces can be wrapped & stored in hard rubbermaid boxes, then placed in the suitcase. finally, pad the suitcase with costumes or a blanket for extra protection.

I've tried everything from pelican cases to hockey bags, and this just seems so simple. I never have to worry about oversized luggage, and everything arrives intact and without dents.

I'm not traveling anywhere but I am in charge of seeing that equipment travels intact with my penis packing talent shooter as she travels to LA, New York, and Chicago. Not sure how light Angel travels, probably with lots of clothes and shoes would be my guess.

Paying extra really isn't an issue. Ease of travel and getting everything there without loss or breakage is top of the list.

Not sure how well shipping stuff would work. I think it is best to travel with it.

Hey Cleo Well when I was shooting on a pro level I would never place my lens or lamps in anything other then Pelican
http://www.pelican.com/
Totally water proof (Nice feature when someone eats lunch outside on your case)
as far as the plane was concerned I never ever carried anything with me. Everything gets placed the pelican and taken to fed-ex or UPS. They wrap it and I insure it. Overnight if needed with an early morning delv time if needed

such expencive quipment I would only take with me in my carry on stuff; just make sure it fits the allowed sizes

Do you have it shipped to the hotel that you stay at? How does that work?

It depended on how much the shoot involved. IF it was over 3 days (weekend) I would always ship to the company I was working for and make sure for confirmation sigs, etc. If It was a 1 or 2 day shoot I would send it to the manager of the hotel. I would call them first to explain. 99% of them have provisions for this. I would just make it out to be the most important thing in the world so they took very good care of my boxes. IE tell them you have 1 million worth of equip in the box. I really never had any issues. Well one time I did have a UPS truck break down on road but it only took off 2 hours on the shipment. It was not time sensitive for the boxes to be there that time.

I've had some things shipped to the Venetian a few years ago, what a nightmare that was; hell it took 45 mins to find the damn place since that is one huge fucking building with 3 “post offices”

I would just call the hotels and ask what their policy/procedures is to have things shipped to and from them, the smaller hotels should be easier to deal with.

Oh Cleo one other thing you want to look for in a box is AIR PROOF. Most people dont look for that feature. Once you have these boxes you will end up leaving your equip in them. It's just human nature (taken shit out, putting it back doing it all over again). if the boxes are not air tight and you leave your equip in them they will build up condensation. If left long enough it will ruin your lenses and wiring in the equip. I'm still old school and prefer to shoot with film for my cameras when working for anything I consider important. Nothing beats tangable film I can look at in the light. Anyway if you do that also and you leave the boxes for just 1 or 2 nights and they are not Air Proof the condenstaion will require you to wait almost 3 hours before you can shoot with the film. And that is a no go for any work.

I didn't even think of condensation, good point.

Angel's Alien Bees strobes are beat to hell from just shoving it all into a big suitcase and checking it. Last trip broke a flash tube so she wants to get something a bit better and naturally protect it a bit better in the future.

Looking at something like getting a kit like this. I think the modeling lights on the strobes should be bright enough to also double as lights for shooting vids so that she doesn't have to travel with two sets of lights.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=241104&is=REG

Back when I did photography I always liked Bowens strobes and Norman strobes. Worst strobes I ever had was Novatrons which were forever going bad and had crap modeling lights.

I ship gear to (and from) the Weston every year at internext time. Just have the bellman bring it up once you check in- easy as pie

I see you know bhphotovideo. They are quite good when I went though my travel photography phase.

I was gonna suggest this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ist&sku=279100

But clearly you are gonna have a lot of gear.

I suggest you hire a cheap houseboy / housegirl to carry all your shit...and give you a massage now and again. ;)

Your best bet it to ship it as same day freight on the same flight if you can. Most airlines have a counter to drop off shipments, you just fill out the forms and it's available at the freight counter on the other side. You can check for commodity rates on it also. Just pack it real well.

Man I wish my subscriptions worked right. Anyway what I did with my sprobes back in the day was. 1 never take them out of the lamp. Your oil on your fingers can ruin them and over time make the glass weak and cause cracks with the heat or worse just blow up durring a pop. So what I did was I went to the local hobby store or crafts store and bought foam (the same type in the boxes the black stuff) I cut it in little strips and stuff it in the lamps around the bulbs before packing after everything is cooled down. I was never very picky as to the light source I used. I was always concerned with color temp. I know some shooters will think Im nuts but doing this for over 10 years I swear to you I was able to look at an image and be able to tell where in the country (roughly ) it was shot. I was looking so much at light and how it affected film that i was able to almost see it. If that makes any sence. I was always using speedotron (came with the studio) and for serious portait work I was using photogenic. They allowed me to see the light easier (more of a what you see is what you get type of light) anyway im rambling.