If you do nature photography -- landscape, wildlife -- what do you carry with you in case of emergency (getting lost, stranded, injured, etc.)?
I carry a cell phone, mostly in case I have a heart attack or break my leg. You do have to check on the carrier - my old Nextel was useless in 90% of Michigan's upper peninsula and in the national forests along lake Michigan (it would work alone the lake shore and along the freeway corridors only.) The cell phone I have now works in most of those places but you can still find plenty of dead spots.
I also carry a compass and a water bottle or two. the compass is useful, not only as a survival tool to just to keep you heading in the right direction (can't say home many times I've headed out only to double back on my old path.)
I don't carry a weapon - we have coyotes, wolves, black bears, and pumas in Michigan. They are all scared to death of people and run like hell when anyone approaches - never saw anything but a coyote and it was running off. I spend a lot of time in some areas that are alleged to have pumas - never see a trace of them. The only poisonous snakes aren't lethal except to the weakest of people. the most scary ting I've run into in the woods is a rabid racoon, and it was so messed up all i had to do was walk away.
In regards to human predators - I met many more on the streets of Chicago and Detroit than I ever met out in the woods. Once your are a mile or two off the beaten path, you don't fine a lot of ne'er-do-wells slinking about. When Michigan revised it's law so that anyone without a criminal record could get a CCW, I was tempted. But I'm not scared enough to have to resort to something like that. I figure if someone ever wanted to take my camera gear by force, I'd just hand it over. That's what I have insurance for, and I don't think I'd be happy with myself if I shot someone over something as trivial as camera gear. Besides, there would be all that explaining to do. ("Look Peter, that was my good birding lens he took - it cost me $4000. Where are your priorities? Now let me in those pearly gates, fer crying out loud!")
- MCC ----- Mark Cassino Kalamazoo, MI -----
Photography:
http://www.markcassino.com
