After coming back from the WPPI Atlanta trip, I realized that I needed to do something about my on location lighting. It's so hard to drag lights, stands, batteries, and more gear out to a location. I spoke with one of the speakers there about a contraption that he had designed that takes the pain out of lugging lighting gear out to locations. Blair Phillips is full credit on this ones guys, but I wanted to take you through my process on how I built it.

It's quite simple actually. What you start with are the following things:

- 1 Hand truck

- A lot of zip ties

....Yep, that's it.

Granted, you should of course have your own gear to build something like this, so I'm going to assume that you do for the sake of explanation. What you start out with is just a hand truck. I chose this particular one because it's very light and easy to roll. In hindsight, I would prefer one with bigger wheels and tires for more rugged terrain, but this one will do perfectly fine. (I may see about upgrading the wheels and tires later).

The first part of assembly that you actually do is attach the light stand. For this mock-up, I just used a JTL Impact stand that I had lying around. I won't preach stand quality, but it does matter. What I did her is attach the bottom of the stand to the back rod and lower cross bar of the hand truck. From here, work your way up, attaching the stand to each bar via zip tie. (So far, these zip ties are beast. I don't foresee any problems).


Once you have this done, focus on attaching your battery pack. I prefer the Paul C. Buff Vagabond II. This pack is very rugged, has great battery life, and comes with a great carrying case. It can be a little on the heavy side, but with your new awesome hand truck, no problems here. Begin by setting your pack on the bottom "shelf". (The part you normally put under your friend's dresser drawer, who conveniently forgot pizza and beer for your services). Once you've got it on there, take the strap and wrap it around the light stand once and connect it back to the pack. Next, zip tie the loops on either side to the bottom crossbar to hold it in place.

Well, we're just about done. Now it's time to test this thing out for weight. We shouldn't have any problems here because we've zip tied the crap out of every single thing we possibly could. First, attach your strobe. I use AlienBees and nothing else. These products are fantastic and made by the same company that produces the Vagabond II, Paul C. Buff. (Info Below). Once your strobe is attached, add your modifier. For my location portrait work, I use a 24x36in. Paul C. Buff Softbox.

Now, you're ready to go. Thanks a lot for tuning in. Good luck out there!

-- All design credit goes to Blair Phillips . Awesome photographer, and such an inspiration. Thanks for everything Blair!

-- Paul C. Buff products including the AlienBees strobes, Vagabond II Battery Pack, etc. Can be found directly at http://www.alienbees.com

- Clark Barron