Weekend Survival Kit

Headed up to Michigan to visit my wife’s grandmother. Absolutely love the woman. Full of life, happiness, amazing stories and infinite kindness. Truly a model human being worthy of all respect and adoration. However there are a few negatives I discovered upon my first couple trips up there a while back.. To avoid the sting of some of these negative attributes of visiting Mildred I’m preparing a survival kit. Here is a list of everything I’m bringing and why Its coming along. (In all honestly its not that different from any other list of items I would bring on any trip, just calling it a survival kit this time around because I’m blogging about it..)

• Coffee –

  Grandma only stocks the cheap stuff, and only makes it when we come up.. (I’m kind of a snob) Sorry Grandma, but its got to be fresh. I was going to go as far as bring my French Press & Grinder but I thought that was going a little overboard…

• iPhone Tethering-

  Grandma doesn’t have internet. I use my iPhone to tether internet to my iPad and/or laptop, whatever I’m working with at the time. I’m young & love to keep on top of things. I say its all business related, which is mostly true.. 75% of the blogs I read are all photo related, but do I really need it this weekend for my business? No, its mostly a comfort item, but just in case I need to link up to my desktop in Indianapolis (Using LogMeIn) to get a client a file, I can.

• iPad –

  Stocked full of games, magazines, sketch pads & photos. Its the perfect tool for any traveler. Whether you want to kill some time (Angry Birds Space), do some research (TED, 500px, National Geographic, American Photo, Professional Photographer…) plan future shoots (Paper|53), and having your portfolio on you at all times is never a bad thing.

• Camera –

  Of course I never leave home with out this… Seriously? Plus Grandma is a beautiful lady and hopefully I can talk her into letting me take some portraits of her!

• Power Inverter –

  What use are all these gadgets if they go dead?? Its happened to you before and you know charging anything from your cars cigarette lighter with a power inverter. Might as well use it for something if you not using it to pollute the environment and health of everyone around you!

• Laptop –

  Got to get a little work done while I’m on the road. Unfortunately my battery just exploded, so its a laptop that needs constant supply of power.. Bummer. It kind of needs replaced anyway, Looking to the MacBook Air for all my memory card dumping / hard drive copying / camera tethering / editing in the field needs.

• Wacom Tablet –

  Nothing is worse than trying to edit photos with the trackpad.. Be honest with yourself. You may ‘enjoy’ or ‘prefer’ it because its all you know. Try a Wacom, it will rock your world.

• Hard Drive –

  Always have a backup! Plus the hard drive has all of my digital movies on it in case things get really boring and all my work magically gets done. I pretty much need a hard drive at all times. The disk space on my laptop is minimal, plus with my laptop in its current state, I don’t really trust it 100%..

• DropBox –

  A tool that is with my anywhere I go. I love working on collaborative projects, but these projects require infinite sharing. DropBox is one of the best FREE tools on the market right now. There are hundreds to choose from though. DropBox is great because there is a restore feature incase you are working with a klutz who is always deleting files.. Also love the integration on your computer and wonderful iOS app.

• Books –

  What did he say?! A physical book?? In the digital word we are living in?? Yep. Its hard to pass up the experience of holding a good book. Plus I got these two as a gift and I don’t feel like paying to have them on my iPad… The Language of God by Francis Collins and Professional Business Practices in Photography from ASMP. I’m in love with The Language of God because it blends Scientific thought with Religious belief, two very fascinating walks of life! Personally I grew up in a house full of science and religion, so I’ve always been on a eager to define with science what Sunday School and the Bible have taught me. (Another book I was in love with was Love Wins by Rob Bell, although I don’t agree with everything, it was a great conversion starter in my small group! Personally I love the idea of Heaven & Hell being a mindset not a physical location, which are not original Rob Bell thought, just in the book I read.) Professional Business Practices speaks for its self. I’m a professional freelance photographer, one can never have too much business knowledge!

Hopefully this little survival kit help me with whatever situation arises this weekend! My guess is I’ll be too busy with socializing and helping Grandma with chores she can’t do on her own anymore to utilize anything on this list (with exception of the coffee!!), but I’m under the mindset of ‘Its better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it’

Have a fantastic Easter Weekend!! I wonder if I can talk Grandma into doing an easter egg hunt…

Keep shooting!
Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’