What do you do?

OK, I'm going to be off on a 7-day camping, fishing, biking, photo expedition next month. My first concern is what do I do to secure over $3K worth of cameras and lenses, etc.? Of course part of the time I'll be packing the camera and at least one lens and I have a wet bag for those times when I'm hiking up streams. However my concern is for the left behinds and times when I can't haul it all along (say to the shower, etc.). I can think of several options but am open to others. So my question is what do you do?

1. My equipment is with me when I eat sleep, shower--it never leaves my sight.

2. I carefully hide it under the car seats, the trunk, or dig a hole under my tent for it.

3. I just don't worry, my insurance will take care of it if its stolen!

Thanks for your suggestions--Larry

Larry, I have gone on many camping trips/photo expeditions and never worried about my camera equipment. Mind you, for the first 30 years my camera equipment did not total over 400 dollars (Canadian) Now my photo gear is worth considerably more. I keep it all in a Lowepro bag which I sling over my shoulder wherever I go during my expeditions. When I have to leave the gear behind I keep it locked away and out of sight in the trunk of the car. not on the back seat with a jacket or something over it. So I pick # 2. If you are backpacking then the equipment is with you when you eat, sleep, etc. Bottom line, do not worry. I hope you have a great trip and come back with many great shots.

Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

1. Take someone with you.

2. Forget camping!

Will, that's my problem now too--I never had camera equipment this expensive before. My Minolta and Canon film cameras were cheap in comparison. My other issue is that I have a truck not a car so there is no trunk and very little secure space in the cab. I normally wouldn't be so concerned however in the last few years there has been a growing trend of car breakins at parking lots in the area that I will be visiting. I guess I'll just plan on hauling the 50D, 10-22 and 24-105 with me and not worry about the rest of the stuff--my insurance will take care of anything that is stolen

Patricia--Forget camping--no way. We've been doing this every spring now for 7 years and I wouldn't miss it for the world. It's as tradition now!

I go on extended camping/backpacking trips quite often and share your concerns. I have a Toyota FJ and built lockable storage drawers in the rear compartment to hold the equipment that I am not bringing with me on that part of the trip. It is bolted onto the vehicle so someone couldn't just walk away with the drawers. You would have to break the lock and remove the drawers to remove the bolts.

Try to take as much of it with you as you can. Okay, that is not much of answer...

What is the minimum amount of photographic gear you actually need with you? Take only that.

Clean up the vehicle. Vacuum it, remove the garbage, damp rag it down, put maps and tourist brochures away and leave *nothing* visible, even if you have to stuff it under the seat. No coats. No postcards. No gas reciepts. Nothing. Make it look like it is owned by someone who is deathly afraid of dirt. It won't prevent a breakin and thieves are smart enough to run their hands under the seat, but if they don't see anything that would be a tipoff that there is stuff there, they might go for a different vehicle. Or maybe not.

Car alarms, especially at trail headers, are for practical purposes useless. Thieves will be gone long before anyone gets close enough to read their plates.

The classic approach is what Dan describes. But it's not always practical... last summer I went on an extended 3.5 month trip, and had about $15k of camera gear with me, half of which often got left behind. I could not put everything in the trunk, so I made sure to hide all the valuable stuff, and things that made me look like a tourist, and then made the visible things look like an unorganized messy pile of crap no one wants... like dirty socks. And I never washed my car. It may sound like a silly idea, but if you're a thief, you're not going to go break into the crappiest looking car in the lot that has a pile of dirty laundry in the backseat, you're going to go for that nice clean expensive SUV... Of course, if you can get away with hiding everything, then that's better.. but I've never understood how that's possible with an SUV for example, where the whole back is visible. If you use a pull over screen they usually come with for the back, then clearly you're trying to hide something... so I don't see how that helps.

I also had insurance on everything, which in my opinion would be silly not to have.

I do try to keep stuff out of sight, and my car is newish and well-kept, but I don't take any great lengths to deter thieves. Considering that my equipment maybe totals $2000 and is all outdated, I don't worry. Hell, I've been driving around since December with my tripod and a zoom lens sitting in on my back seat (not that I've been driving much...). In some ways I wish that it would get stolen so that I could justify upgrading...

Larry, if you are parking the truck in the areas you are visiting, then I assume you are taking the camera gear with you. You are on a photo expedition after all. Trailhead parking lots have problems with theft because the thief knows the owner is gone. He might even be watching you go. For the times when you are not shooting, like the shower, take the gear with you. Not in the shower itself of course (which, of course, you know) , but at every campsite shower there is a place for your clothes. The gear is safe there. Keep it in the bag. It will be safe from condensation.

Going with someone you trust and shares your interests is a great help. Then you have someone to watch over your gear when you cannot.

Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

Remember that if your gear is stolen, your insurance cannot cover the photos that you lost. That would be my greatest item to protect is my photos and the backups of the photos.

Nathan

My strategy has been to not take more than I can comfortably carry. However, I once went out into the jungle on Kauii and buried a few items to hide them. The trick is to remember where you buried it.


Kent in SD

Nathan brings up an excellent point. Over the course of my 3 months the single item that never left me was my little backup hard drive, which I carried with me on every mile I hiked.. that's really the only thing I'd be worried about having stolen.

Make sure you have nothing on your car or license etc that identifies your interest in photography. A friend of mine had PHOTOG on her license plate which I warned her about several time. Guess what,,,she got robbed!
I carry insurance for theft,,,not breakage. It cost $55.00 as a rider on my insurance policy.
Cheap piece of mind.!

I make the point about the photos because I remember reading a heart breaking thread a few years ago about a photog who went to an exotic locale, had thousands of photos that he could not replace, and he had his backups stolen in transit with all of his photo gear. It is painful to replace photo gear, but the photos themselves can never be replaced.

Nathan

I'm with Floris on this, when I can't carry everything with me, I throw clothes, towels, packs, etc. over the stuff in a very haphazard way. The idea is to look as messy as possible, in the hope that thieves look at messy people as ones not to own anything of value, because of the way they treat their stuff. Because it deals with psychology, it won't always work. Another thing I do is use the small trash bag for storage of things like harddrives and bury them under the dirty tissues,banana peels,etc. Leaving an empty banana peel on the top of the dashboard can be a nice little extra touch of sloveness.