Last Sunday morning I was busy doing that most manly of pursuits, that of pottering, when my wife phoned me in the middle of her run to say “you’ve just got to get up to the woods and take some pics of the bluebells”. So I got together my photo gear and put it in the car. I wasn’t sure which lenses to pack so I took all three for the G3. Since I was going to take picture of bluebells, and they are quite small, I packed the extension rings. But I had previous done some nice bluebell pictures with the LX3 which is brilliant at very-close-up-in-context situations, so I packed that too. It was quite sunny when she called, so I packed took my reflectors to help lift the shadows. Now, there were clouds beginning to fill the sky, so it might be cloudy when I get to the woods, in which case the flash kit would be more useful. And if I was going to take the flash kit, I might as well take the flash stands.
In the end, I was wandering around the woods with three bags wrapped around my shoulders, but mostly my neck, looking like some deranged photographic sherpa. It was never quite sunny enough to justify the use of the reflectors, never quite dull enough to need the flash. No need to use the flash stands either. It was such a drag lugging the gear around that when I put the bags down to use my camera I didn’t want to get out the other gear. The extension tubes got used for a couple of frames. The zoom lens was unused and the LX3 stayed in its pouch. I didn’t get any decent pictures of bluebells. Next time I'll take a lot less gear and I'll not regret what's left behind.
