I got my wide angle zoom lens back from the repair shop yesterday – it looks as good as new and you’d never guess it had been through a nasty encounter with the pavement. Also, assembled a few odds and ends to take with me, so I’m (photographically) ready to go.

In case you’re interested, here’s what I’ll be taking with me to Italy next week – at least in my camera bag:

Nikon D600 Body
24-85 mm f 3.5-4.5 wide angle zoom (the one that’s usually on the camera)
70-300 mm f4.5-5.6 telephoto zoom (which I use about 25% of the time)
50 mm f1.8 (for low light and shallow depth of field)
SB 700 speedlight
Collapsible 22” reflector (optional, but it’s so light)
Collapsible 8”x12” soft box (ditto)
Polarizing filter for the wide angle zoom
Neutral grey card (for setting white balance in unusual lighting conditions)
Proline lightweight travel tripod (looking forward to some evening and night shots)
Remote cable release (minimize camera shake)
3 camera batteries
8 AA batteries for flash (4 in use plus 4 spare)
200+ GB of SD cards (don’t want to delete anything till I get back home)
Acer Aspire One netbook (for daily backups and staying connected)
Multiple chargers (not shown)
Black foam for shaping light from flash
Cleaning supplies
Small flash light
Nikon messenger bag with heavy duty shoulder pad – like the postal workers use (as though that’s going to make a difference)
Here’s what the whole thing looks like:

And, the total weight, all in minus the netbook, is about 15 lb. Most of the time I won’t have the tripod, so it will be about 12.5 lb. Still not light, but manageable – i hope.

BTW, if you think this is a lot, take a look at this video to see how much equipment commercial photographer Peter Belanger used just to take a studio shot of an iPhone 3G S