It's always a good idea to have back-up plan in this line of work...

Add in our chaotic scheduling, less-than normal hours, gallons of coffee, less-than ideal working conditions in the field, long periods of time in front of the computer screen and we are bound to forget something. Such was the case for my latest story and photo shoot working in over one hundred degree heat.

I pulled up on time and began setting up all the camera gear. I flipped open my camera bag to discover no memory cards, one battery (which was dead) and a dirty lens with no glass cloth to clean it. Aside from my slight outburst in foul language I took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from my forehead and just said, “oh well.” At that point there wasn’t much I could do. Time to start finding a solution to the problem. Needless to say I got the job done. We always prepare for the worst. I at least brought my battery charger which was thrown into the wall socket for some juice, I had a spare memory card in my car and I found a micro-fiber towel for the lens. All was good—another story in the bag…phew!