It’s easy to make jokes about whatever is on your back.
Sticking notes on your friends back with some awkward requests is just one of them. But this is another story.
Bullshitting me?
No, not at all. This is about one of our main goals in building better photo backpacks. Getting out in the morning to hide yourself somewhere on the damp and misty heath will get your feet wet within 50 meters. But that won’t keep you from looking for a ditch to hide in. And when you have found your spot you will put your backpack on the ground and turn it over to get to your camera. And, as a result of that, both sides of your backpack are wet too. Since perspiration on your back is very well handled by the open cell-foam and very open netting cover of our backpack, all the dew and condensed water will be soaked in your back panel.
So, when you discover the deer are showing up, half a kilometer away, you’ll swing your pack on your back again to find out that it is cold and wet. But hey – this is only some clean and fresh water! No big deal.
Add some penguins to the story
When you get the chance to take pictures at Patagonia or even South Georgia in the penguin colonies, you can observe that the most respected penguins are the ones that look like shit. Even more: it is shit. Powerful males have to fight for their position. The immense amount of penguins, eating fish at sea and feeding their chicks with the remains is already a smelly way of life. But although penguin-shit seems to be a very good fertiliser, on the bare rocks nothing will grow. The beach is a mixture of pebbles, shit and fish.
Count your blessings; you are one of the lucky guys who managed to get here, so put your photo backpack on the ground and turn it over. Turn it over? Yes: this is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to get so close to these cute chinstraps – get your camera ready!
The other side of the story
That trip was amazing. Nothing less. But the shit is still in the back of my old photo backpack. I could have prevented it taking a plastic sheet with me but I didn’t and nobody else did. But the trip was the inspiration for me to make myself a pack that did not have to be turned backside down in the shit, clay, mud, wet grass or whatever kind of soil I encounter when looking for opportunities to take some pictures of the wildlife around us.
That is why the Boris and the Bertik are built to have access to your gear from the back panel.
For those who say: but then your front panel wil be dirty… our answer is nope; we have included a washable rain cover which can stay in place while you get your camera out.
