Jamaica Part 1

In this blog I’m going to share the equipment I brought, why, and what I didn’t use. In the following blogs I’ll share more about the farm visits, their different cultivation practices in the varying regions of the island, and some stories.

After a day full of flights departing from Reno to arrive in Kingston I made it to the tropics!

For the first time ever.

I was welcomed by heat, humidity, Dr Machel with a freshly cut coconut to quench my thirst, and a paper bag with mix of herbs to roll up. I was blessed with some near extinct landrace sativa too!

My flight landed at night, so we headed straight to my hotel for the first few nights. For the majority of my trip I stayed on campus in the dorms with a couple of med students.

I had never traveled with this much equipment before so I needed to pick up the some Pelican cases keep everything safe and secure. I decided on two Pelican 1615 Air cases. The biggest you can get without oversized issues.

I purchased them from Color Case and received exceptional service! One of my cases got “lost” in transit and Color Case next day aired a new one to me just in time for my trip. I highly recommend going through them for your next pelly purchase.

What I brought:

Canon R5, RF35, RF50, RF100, RF 70-200, 65mpe, Mity 20x + objective parts
Leica Q2
Canon demi half frame 35mm
Nikon Fe2 35mm, 35f2
DJI mini pro3, DJI Mavic Pro2 Hasselblad
(2)Profoto D2, speed rings, zoom reflectors, 2x2’ box, diffusion panel
Novoflex rail, Stackshot 3x
Various clips, Smallrig, cables, film, batteries, ninja 5 monitor
Manfrotto video carbon fiber tripod
MacBook Pro M1 + SSDs

I was pretty impressed that I was able to fit everything I wanted to bring. Even though it was a bit overkill, I’ve always had the better prepared than not mindset.

My bags ended up weighing 67lbs each. I brought my camera backpack with MacBook Pro M1 and SSDs. I also had a duffle bag with all my clothes for Jamaica and NYC. It was a challenge to pack clothing coming from a crazy winter in Truckee heading to the hot tropics and then to an unpredictable NYC at the end of April!

One thing I didn’t account for was the small pelican case that arrived with the Q2 rental from Lensrentals.com - I’ve been happily renting from them for the past 5 years with zero complaints!

Here’s a referral link for $25 off your first rental.

I must’ve been quite the site to see with two pelicans— a duffle bag on top, camera bag on my back, fanny pack slung across my chest and another pelican clipped to my chest. haha!

I did get randomly searched a number of times, and my pelican bags were opened and searched by TSA twice going through Reno. They broke the inserts of one pelican, stole my TSA approved locks, and smashed the unused bowl from a steam chalice gifted to me in JA.

To those of you who are probably thinking I travel with herb - you’re mistaken. I never take sand to beach.

Once settled I re-organized my pelicans to prepare for the field work. I only wanted to take one air case, my backpack, and the fanny to hold the Leica, film and batteries.

My biggest concerns were theft and damage during travel. Thankfully I didn’t encounter either of those things, besides the TSA damaging my stuff.

My photo goals were to shoot editorial field work and to collect flower samples to bring back to the studio to capture in studio macro photography.

I used the Leica Q2 the most in the field and the Canon Demi for fun bts shots. I shot a few rolls with the Nikon Fe2, but unfortunately discovered that the focusing plane was off since the mirror had been knocked out of center. Huge bummer, but made for some interesting slightly out of focus images that greatly juxtapose my hyper-sharp studio work.

I’ll share more of those in the future.

I literally just got the call from the camera shop for my Fe2 repair and we’re gonna do a full overhaul on the body for $220! Little pricey, but damn I love that camera.

I used my drones on a few locations and utilized the DJI mini 3 the most. The Mavic 2 was really loud and sketched out some of the locals the first time I put it up. We could hear folks in the distance yelling that it was the police so I landed it promptly.

Since the Q2 has a fixed lens and focal length equivalent to a 35mm I had the R5 ready with a 50 and 100. I love the 50mm focal length and the 100 was great for some more depth in the shots.

The Q2 has a macro feature that was really useful in the field. With such a fast lens at 1.7 and electric shutter up to 1/40,000 of second.. that’s pretty incredible! I didn’t need to push anything to the max though.

Compared to the R5 with the 100f2.8 and max shutter at 1/8000s makes the hand held macro a little more challenging.

Both camera preform really well in low light scenarios and have great dynamic range pushing 15 stops too.

Granted, I didn’t tripod or do any focus bracketing with R5. I enjoyed using the Q2 in the field over the R5. The functionality of the camera and less invasive approach to portraits was really key for me.

Check out a side by side, unedited, field macros below.

Leica Q2

Canon R5 100mm

Canon R5

The conditions we were in varied greatly from hot and humid, to tropical rain storms, to high noon sun with subjects with dark complexion creating high contrast, to swamps to mountains, and the beach. We visited 5 parishes and at least three cultivations per parish. And traveled almost the entire circumference of the island!

Our schedule was pretty consistent with field day, studio day, field day, studio day, rest day. Each Parish we visited with met with the local don or other respected local to the region. After meeting our chaperon, we traveled to the first site and met the people. Then we would make our way to the cultivation areas.

It’s not like we could just call ahead to see how the farms were.

In hindsight less is way more with the gear at times. I wanted to be prepared for anything and found that in most situations it was pretty challenging to access different gear or change lenses.

Like trying to juggle my R5 in a marsh to change lenses, or needing something out of my larger pelican. Often times I like to challenge myself creatively with a fixed focal length for a day of shooting, but when it comes to important projects I didn’t want to miss an opportunity —even if it was just that one shot with the 70-200..

I was fortunate that have help carrying things in the field, but in the airport I was struggling.

Check out these next couple of portraits and the cropped in versions that show off the incredible detail captured!

What I could’ve left behind

All video recording accessories; cables, smallrig, Ninja 5,
DJI Mavic Pro 2
1 Profoto and the modifiers for a second strobe. I’d bring an extra bulb if only one strobe.
Mail the rental boxes to my next destination