Do you keep your camera bag open at night when photographing? Here’s five reasons why you shouldn’t.
I usually photograph in deserts in the American Southwest. However, most of the reasons why you should get into the habit of zipping up your camera bag will apply to most areas.
Critters
There’s plenty of night critters in deserts, forests, grassy areas, and elsewhere. I personally don’t like surprises of the creepy crawly kind when I reach into my bag to retrieve something. Unless you love spiders, ants, cockroaches, moths, or other bugs crawling around inside your camera bag, zip it up wherever you are.
I suppose it’s possible for rodents, coyotes, mountain lions, or other critters to sniff around inside as well, although I haven’t heard of this ever happening myself.
Dust
The desert is dusty. And so are numerous other environments. You have sensitive camera equipment. Even a gentle breeze may stir up dust at night. A zipped bag minimizes dust on your precious equipment.
Moisture
Night often brings dew or condensation. Even in drier environments, drops in temperature can bring on a little condensation.
But there’s more. I’ve seen people mistakenly spill food or drink inside their bag before. A closed bag can minimize some of that moisture and food from getting inside.
Condensation
Speaking of condensation, I should mention here that it’s good to close your bag when you are moving your equipment from the cold night air to a warm area like your car or your room. A closed bag allows for gradual temperature adjustment. I realize that if you are moving your equipment inside, it’s most likely zipped shut anyway. However, it’s good to be mindful of this nonetheless.
Ooooops!
If we get in the habit of closing our camera bag, we are far less likely to pick up the bag and have the contents smash on the ground. And if we mistakenly bump our bag off something like a rock or a table, the camera bag will do what it’s supposed to: protect your equipment. Zipping it up adds an extra layer of protection and security.
I posted this comment before, and miraculously it vanished, meaning it offended someone’s sensibilities. Why, as a photography website, would you use AI images for the spiders in the backpack? Half of the cameras are melting into the fabric of the backpack, so it’s not even good AI. It’s a slap in the face when you can’t come up with an original image, and frankly lazy. Let’s see if you leave this comment up.
I used it because I thought it was funny, couldn’t find any stock images that had spiders in a camera bag, and couldn’t coax any large spiders into my camera bag. Of course it’s not good AI. I wanted to make sure that it looked like an AI image and that it drove the point home in an exaggerated, funny sort of way. Tell you what, you take a couple of photos of a large spider emerging from a camera bag, and I’ll swap it out. One more thing. I have an article where I use an AI image about… Read more »
as the wife of someone who did have a big hairy spider crawl out of a camera bag. trust me there is little time to stop and take photos! And yes I thought the AI was quite funny too. Some people these days have no sense of humour!
That’s just it. It’s done as light-hearted humor. As if I’m going to wait for spiders to crawl into my bag and then take my time and photograph it in an exaggerated manner.
Here’s the other thing. Just because we don’t immediately publish a comment doesn’t mean we’re “offended”, S.Y. There’s other reasons why we not publish comments. I’ll let you figure out the other reasons.