Seb Rogers: mountain bike photography

Another week, another check-in desk...

... but fewer dramas this time around. Thanks to Air France's relatively relaxed carry-on weight allowances (far more reasonable than some airlines I could mention, whose allowance barely runs to the weight of a small bag packed with a jacket and a laptop) i've been able to keep all my gear with me. Admittedly i did pack a bit lighter this time - D300 and associated kit - but it's nice to know it's all safe.

Particularly since I've missed my connecting flight and now have five hours to kill in what must rank as one of the most expensive airports in the world. I mean, seriously. 10 Euros for an hour of wifi use (with the most convoluted means of getting online I've ever seen, to boot)... it makes the pay-through-the-nose (I'm sorry, pay-as-you-go) wifi hotspots around the UK seem like a veritable bargain.

Wonder if I can make a 10 Euro coffee last an hour...?

Yeah but no but yeah...*

After last week's minor upset at Heathrow which resulted in my having to pack thousands of pounds worth of gear in the hold instead of carrying it on board with me, I was expecting the worst for the return leg from LA.

Nope.

Barely an eyebrow was raised, let alone scales used in anger.

Go figure.

(Oh, the pictures? Sorry, you'll have to wait a few weeks to see them...)

*with apologies to David Walliams and Matt Lucas

Busted by Virgin

So here I am, sitting in Heathrow Terminal 3, sweating about the fact that the bulk of the gear I'm flying with is currently making its way to the hold of the plane.

it wasn't supposed to be like this.

I took my Dakine Sequence, packed carefully with all the heavy and fragile bits of kit I'd rather carry with me. Er, that'd be most of it, then. Now, to be fair, it probably weighed close to 15kg. But I'm an old hand at making a heavy bag look lighter than it is, so I stood in front of the check-in desk with my bag nonchalently draped across one shoulder, ignoring the growing twinge in my lower back and trying hard to be patient with the sloooooooow people ahead of me (just how long does it take to check in two passengers and their single bag each, anyway?).

it was all going swimmingly until the guy checking me in (his name tag said Angel - fantastic name) asked me about my carry-on. I indicated the bag on my shoulder in as off-hand a way as I could muster. 'I need to weigh it', he replied, and with those five simple words I knew the game was up.

To be fair to Angel he let me take the laptop out to re-weigh the bag - something that Virgin's carry-on rules don't really allow. But I knew that wasn't going to solve the problem. 

i explained that I was a photographer and that I was carrying my gear in my carry-on because it's fragile. No dice.

I pointed out that the bag would comfortably fit in the overhead locker. But that wouldn't do either.

At this point every photographer is supposed to whip out the apocryphal multi-pocketed vest, stuff all their gear into it and re-present their carry-on triumphantly for weighing. But I don't have a vest and, frankly, I'm not convinced that that approach would wash (and which vest has a pocket big enough for a 200mm f/2, anyway?).

Luckily I'd packed with a last resort scenario in mind. I conceded defeat and distributed most of my gear between my two checked bags (which, luckily, hadn't disappeared down the conveyor yet). I'd brought the 200 f/2's dedicated case, and packed my (empty) Peli case in an anonymous-looking holdall. I held back the D3 body and 14-24mm, though - call me paranoid, but if all else fails I'd like to turn up at my destination with at least one functioning body and lens. My newly lightened carry-on was still a bit over the weight limit, but I smoothed it over by coming clean and suggesting it was the best I could do. Good enough for Angel, who had the good grace to apologise for the hassle.

And now, of course, having bought a couple of litres of water for the flight, my carry-on is waaaay over the weight limit again. Irony not pictured.

Can't wait to see what happens on the return journey. I'll keep you posted...

Fitting a quart into a pint pot: flying with your camera

I've got a trip coming up which will involve a 10 hour flight. So I've re-jigged the playlists on my iPod, ordered a set of noise-cancelling headphones (something I've been meaning to do for years) and lined up a couple of books to keep me occupied.

I've also started figuring out how the heck I'm going to safely transport my gear from point A to point B. It's not as straightforward as it sounds.

Airline baggage regulations tend to make travel for photographers pretty awkward - particularly in the UK, where onerous carry-on weight limits make it all but impossible to play by the rules whilst ensuring your gear arrives in one piece. Plenty of decent bags fit under the size limit of 23x36x56cm (or 9x14x22in), so that's not a problem. But a 6kg (13lb) weight limit is barely enough for the bag, laptop, a couple of books and a single (lightweight) camera body. 

I know - I've checked. My Dakine Sequence with 15in Macbook Pro, D3 body and 14-24mm lens (and nothing else) weighs in around the 8kg mark. That still leaves my D300 and, for this trip, 16mm, 50mm, 85mm, 200mm f/2, two flashguns and various other assorted bits and pieces to find a home for. The D300 and 200mm will happily fit in the bag, but that pushes the weight to 11.5kg...

Like many photographers, I'm reluctant to entrust relatively fragile - not to say expensive - gear to the hold. I've done so before on a few very limited occasions and have a hard case for the purpose, but it always makes me nervous. A bright yellow Peli case screams 'valuable gear inside!' and post 9/11 US TSA rules make it highly inadvisable to lock any hold baggage with anything other than a TSA-approved (and therefore by definition less secure) padlock.

Rock and a hard place, anyone?

In the past my preferred method has been to pack the most valuable and fragile items in a bag that complies with the size restrictions, then make sure I handle it nonchalently at check-in despite the fact that the weight is liable to give me a hernia... 

It's worked every time, so far.

But it leaves me without a leg to stand on if the bag is weighed and I'm forced to check it in. The Sequence, good though it is, would never give enough protection to the gear inside if it was thrown in with all the other hold bags. 

I haven't decided what to do on this trip yet. But checking in is definitely my least favourite part. The freedom to carry the tools of my trade safely to my destination appears to be one of many freedoms that have quietly been lost to 'security' paranoia...