So I’m at the point now where I’m packed for the most part and here’s what I’ve learned over the years.

I have always habitually over packed, and it arises from the fear of needing something I may not normally bring. When chasing at home or locally I bring all of my lenses, 4 DSLR cameras and two or three video cameras. It may seem like overkill but I have had cameras go down at the least opportune times and having a backup has served as a remedy to this. Also, bringing all my lenses means I can do anything whether it be macro or super-telephoto, even artsy fisheye stuff is fair game.

The lens collection

What I’ve come to discover over time is that for tornado alley trips, I really don’t need the majority off the stuff I bring. It ends up just becoming a slog fest where it feels like I’m moving everyday with pelican cases, backpacks and the like. At the end of a long chase day the last thing you want to do is move stuff when you’re mentally and physically exhausted, and this is on top of the fact that batteries need to be charged and memory cards need to be cleared. I’m also burdened with the task of figuring out the next target. So the last thing I want to do is move a bunch stuff.

I’ve come to discover that on these trips I really just use the workhorse equipment. The two lenses I fallback on are the Canon 11-24mm ultra-wide and 70-200mm telephoto. In years past I’ve brought everything, and I mean everything including the 800mm which is just overkill. From a practicality point of view, because of haze and atmospheric distortion, you can’t really zoom in past 200mm, there’s simply too much clutter in the air, so for tornadoes and storms anything beyond the reach of a 200mm lens is impractical. In an ideal world the 24-70mm should also be on my list but the reality is that I rarely use this lens with storms, everything is either ultrawide or zoomed in. I have found the 24-70 is good for lightning, but it tends to be most useful towards the upper end in the 50-70mm range. So I’m still unsure as to whether it’ll be coming along.

When it comes to video, I just rely on two cameras, the Sony AX100 which is a beautiful camcorder, and the Sony A7RII which is phenomenal in all conditions. The camcorder sits on the dash but can quickly be put on a tripod. It offers all the features and function of a video camera which is important because trying to make a DSLR a video camera is painful, and having a built in zoom with a rocker servo and momentary auto-focus are sometimes very important. The A7RII on the other hand is a DSLR but for the chase trip I leave it fitted with a Canon 16-35mm wide angle lens and it just shoots beautiful wide shots of storms.

Here’s the problem ultimately with having and bringing too much gear – despite what you think you can do in your head, the physical reality is very different. In 2010 for example while a nice cone tornado dropped from the sky in Watonga OK I was so busy trying to operate 4 cameras I did not really enjoy it all that much. It’s a physical impossibility to shoot with two DSLR’s and keep track of two video cameras at the same time. On later trips I tried to just leave GoPro’s going all the time but then you end up wasting memory, and their lenses get dirty. In the end you don’t really pay attention to any specific camera, and what you get is poor quality content. It’s better to just focus on one or two things and not worry about a plethora of gear.

Cone tornado in Watonga, OK – May 2010

The other issue to consider is loadout and how that affects your ability to safely observe. There are many situations where you simply do not have much time at one location and every second you spend unloading photo and video gear is one less second you have to use it and one more second you have to spend putting it back in the vehicle. So ultimately, you cut down your observing time and if you underestimate the amount of time needed to pack up and run, it’s easy to get into real trouble, and it’s a lot harder to get out of trouble than it is to get into it.