Especially because we usually work alone, backpack journalists have to pay attention to every detail. There’s nobody around to run through the check list with us. So every time you pull the camera out of the bag, clean the lens. I know it sounds silly, but we get so wrapped up in the big stuff — tapes, time codes, batteries, not to mention the story itself, that we forget the small stuff. We come back from a shoot with smears or particles on our images that we failed to notice on the lens out there in the field. Get a little brush to clean off the heavy debris on the lens, and some good lens tissue for the smears and tiny particles. And use them.
