Rotation 180° Professional Deluxe Backpack

Around the world with Steve Gosling

SG and Rotation Pro 180 on location 0666 (1)

Steve Gosling a professional photographer who specialises in producing creative & contemporary landscape images (his ‘signature’ style is moody, atmospheric and minimalist black & white photographs).

Steve’s images have been published internationally as posters & greetings cards and have appeared in advertisements, books, magazines, newspapers & calendars across the world. Prints of his work have been exhibited in venues throughout the UK and have appeared on sets for both theatre and film productions. His work has also won awards in both national and international competitions.

Rain Passing Over

Taken with Phase One A-series, IQ250 back and 35mm Rodenstock lens

“Bands of rain swept over me as I was taking this shot of a small lake in Colorado – it was more like UK weather” Storm Approaching Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Taken with Phase One A-series, IQ250 back and 35mm Rodenstock lens

“Sat in our hotel one evening at Westcliffe, Colorado I saw these storm clouds moving in over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, I grabbed my Rotation 180° Professional backpack and my tripod & headed to the nearest spot with a view across to the dark sky. I managed 3 or 4 shots before the rain reached where I was standing, soaking me as I tried to shelter the gear under the rear hatch of the 4×4”

Steve tested the MindShift Gear Rotation 180° Professional Deluxe

backpack and this is what he thought of it...

Over the years I’ve tried many backpacks and struggled to find one that has felt right for me and the way I like to work. That is until I came across the MindShift Gear Rotation 180° Professional Deluxe. It’s an incredibly well designed bag that allows me to carry a lot of photographic equipment and outdoor gear (waterproof, down jacket, hats & gloves etc) all day without any discomfort.

My Rotation 180° Professional Deluxe has been around the world with me from Europe to the USA to Antarctica and still looks like new. It’s very well made – the outer is of a robust material and the compartments padded to protect my kit. And when the elements take a turn for the worse the bag keeps the kit inside safe and dry (it also comes with additional rain covers).

Most importantly for me it allows me to access all of my gear without removing the bag off my back. It has a belt pack that separates from the bottom of the backpack and rotates around for easy front access. In here, I keep a camera with my most used lens and my Lee Filters. The main compartment of the backpack can be accessed from the rear by swinging the whole bag to the front. It may sound complicated but in practice it works quickly & extremely well. It’s great when I’m working in locations where I don’t want to put the pack down – either for security reasons or because of the environmental nature of the location e.g. working on a beach as the tide is coming in. Furthermore, when I can put the backpack down, the rear access means that the back of the bag doesn’t get covered in mud or sand.

Finally, as a photographer who travels overseas a lot, I need a backpack that I can take onto a plane as carry on. I’m pleased to say that I have never had any hassles taking my Rotation 180° Professional on board – it meets most airlines (that I’ve used anyway) carry on restrictions.

“In short, it’s the best backpack I’ve ever used!”

SG and beltpack 0671 (1)

SG accessing the main compartment 0676 (1)

So how much gear did Steve fit into the

MindShift Gear Rotation 180° Professional Deluxe?

Steve has two of these backpacks – one is loaded with an Olympus M4/3s system and the other with a Phase One medium format system:

Olympus:

3 Olympus OMD bodies
3 Pro zooms – 7-14mm, 12-40mm and 40-150mm
Remote releases for the cameras
A set of Lee graduated and ND filters
Accessories – batteries, memory cards, head torch, waterproof covers

Phase One:

Phase One A-series camera with IQ350 digital back
Rodenstock lenses – 23mm, 35mm and 70mm
A set of Lee graduated and ND filters
Accessories – batteries, memory cards, head torch, waterproof covers

Gear

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Belt pack

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Main compartment

“If I haven’t got wet then I probably haven’t got a good photograph”

This is particularly true of many of the locations I like to photograph – Scotland, Iceland, The Faroe Islands. I like to work in changeable weather conditions where I can get some drama as rain or storm clouds are moving in or away from a location. However I wasn’t expecting to experience this during a summer trip to Colorado, USA – they’d had several years of drought prior to my visit. But I was greeted on several trips out into the landscape to get images by heavy rain and even dense fog one early morning. The locals initially expressed great pleasure that I’d brought some UK weather over with me but after 10 days of it they were begging me to go home again and to take the rain with me!

Click here for more information on the MindShift Gear Rotation 180° Professional Deluxe.

Why not join him on a workshop…

Steve’s next landscape workshop is in the Isle of Skye from 7 to 14 October. He’s running this alongside Irish Landscape Photographer Peter Cox and you can see their full programme here: ISLE OF SKYE WORKSHOP.

Further information on Steve his upcoming workshops can be found on his website