Atlas Packs Co-Founder Allan Henry on Sports Photography and His New Product Line

Allan Henry has photographed over 600 major sporting events, including the PGA Tour, NBA, and MLB, and even earned Sports Illustrated’s Photo of the Year. Today though, he’s not just behind the camera. He’s also behind the gear as the Co-Founder of Atlas Packs, a high-performance camera backpack brand trusted by professional photographers and adventurers.

In this episode, Allan shares how he and his partner’s frustration with traditional camera bags led them to launch Atlas Packs. We talk about the new Atlas One line, building products with intention, and why community feedback shapes every design decision he makes.

Allan also explains why he never shoots just for fun, how he “cheats” using the Sony A9 III, and what truly separates professionals from amateurs. If you’ve ever debated gear versus instinct or wondered what it takes to build a business for photographers, this episode is packed with sharp insights, hard truths, and a few laughs too.

Show Notes:
Instagram: @atlaspacks
YouTube: @atlaspacks
Website: Atlas Packs & Atlas One

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.142)
Question number three on a scale of one to 10, how often do you get that burning itch to just get out there and shoot photos?

Zero.

Wow, go for it to me. Now you got it. Can you explain that a little bit?

Speaker 2 (00:21.675)
There's no deliverable. I need it deliverable. I need an objective. That's it. Simple. How many of you guess have answered that question like that?

Okay.

None. That's why. Yeah, yeah, no. No, that's a...

That was by the way my shortest answer to anything you've asked me.

Yeah, I haven't got nothing more to ask you man. That was, yeah, I think this interview's over. I don't know what else to talk to you about now.

Speaker 2 (00:48.398)
and it's never gonna see the light of day. Yeah, it's a zero. Boom, peace out.

No, no, no, this is because of that. is a shocker. This is definitely seeing the light of day. That's that's great podcast right there.

Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Dechinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit bigphotohunt.com for more information.

Speaker 1 (01:34.498)
Hey, thanks for joining me today. My guest on today's show is Allan Henry, an award winning sports photographer covering, among others, the PGA, the NBA and Major League Baseball. He's been awarded Photo of the Year from Sports Illustrated, been hit by a ball from both Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy. Ouch. And he's the co-founder of Atlas Packs, a camera backpack brand that masters the blend between an expedition type

backpack and a camera bag. Hey Allan, welcome to the show. Ah, doing well dude. Thank you so much for your time. I gotta show you something real quick. I know this wasn't your intention, but I looked back, I thought I ordered my pack from you like during COVID. It wasn't, it was in 2022. When you sent the pack, there was I think a sticker in it and a coaster, like a coffee cup.

How are you?

Speaker 1 (02:31.118)
And that day I got it and I put the coaster on my desk and it's been here since 2022. Yeah, I don't know. I just needed a coaster that one day and I was like, shit, my coffee is leaking. I put it down and it's been here on my desk for three and a half years now. So thank you for sending coasters out.

Love it.

Speaker 2 (02:50.798)
You know, I love those coasters and you're not the first person to tell me about, know, I've got a coaster. I've had a countless coaster on my desk for X amount of years. And I don't think I've ever gotten a coaster from a company, but on my travels around the world, I've often tried to pick up coasters, right? I've found it's a nice way to kind of remember a beer or a moment or, you know.

I get it, it's covered in coffee and I see Atlas Packs every single day. Speaking of which, let's get into this, let's get into you, your background as a sports photographer, a photojournalist, your outdoor photography, how it led to Atlas Packs. You've got a new product line coming out, the Atlas One line. I love your first product line.

You just nailed it and solved a problem for people that I don't think a lot of people knew they really had until all of a sudden, they were like, holy shit, we can have a backpack that keeps my camera safe and is comfortable and good on my back. Anyway, why don't you just go ahead? Tell everyone who you are.

and go,

So I spent three years full-time with a PGA tour. I covered the downfall of Tiger and his re-emergence. I got photo of the year from Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine, numerous double trucks, covers. I've covered in my career well over 600 plus sporting events. Monthly I do anywhere from two to three events, from a D-Backs to Sun's Game to MLB.

Speaker 2 (04:25.72)
I don't even have a website, although I do own the domain ahenry.com. And it's because candidly, photography is too distracting and too addicting for me. And I find that if I spend too much time doing it, it takes me away from the other types of things. And this is just inherently part of the push and pull of being a professional photographer.

Does that tension what led you to make the shift into the camera gear space? Because a lot of people would love to be where you are or were as a photojournalist.

As good a photographer as I am slash was, I was never able to achieve the levels of success that I wanted. I think it's almost impossible to make a living as a professional photographer. And more so, I felt like could offer the photography community something more than just creating photographs. So my partner, David Tedesco and I connected well before 2012 with business partners and friends and other ventures.

And he went on a base camp trek to Everest and came back from that experience cold and miserable with very, very few photos. It was his collection of photography gear that I used to borrow when I would sneak into PGA tour events, which is how I ended up getting my credentials. So when I first started, I would sneak into events and I get to know people and network. And then eventually I worked my way through the kind of the proverbial ranks. Well, when David got back from his Everest base camp trek,

sent me a message and was like, hey, I to start making camera packs. And I was like, sure, why not? And fundamentally, the issue that he solved was he couldn't get to his camera gear inside his very comfortable pack. And in trying to figure out what equipment to take, there's no way he was going to take a camera bag.

Speaker 1 (06:21.228)
before I got my Atlas pack, I used to, when I would go hiking, like in the mountains and stuff, I used to throw my camera in like an Osprey pack and wrap it in like a towel or a sweatshirt and just throw it in the bag and just hope that by the end of the trip, it was still in good shape. And so I get it. I totally get it. I obviously get it. That's why I love your product. So you're obviously on a really cool journey. What's it like to run a camera gear company in this space? Cause it's a cool space, right? Like,

You get to meet with some really cool photographers. And I remember when I was younger and I saw this movie where there was this guy, you know, like an action pack, like gear company was going out into the mountains. It was so cool. Like, what's that like? What's that experience like?

Well, I have fantastic four by four Jeep, um, and I just got new tires on it, but it hasn't seen a trail in, like over a year. I'm not that mountain man. I'm the event sports photographer. Right. And that is okay too, because if I was a mountain man, I might end up competing too much with my customers intuitive understanding of their own activities.

And I have a community of ambassadors of customers who have purchased products and have built relationships with. And over time, they've shown me that they're using my products in such a way that I'm learning from them. And ultimately, people like Atlas Packs because they have a better experience. Here at the end, you just have a better experience. Because I've designed them to carry better. I know how you're to kind of fundamentally use them because I've been carrying photography gear for over 20 years.

And I still do it today and I use my own products and I'm critical about use my own products in my, in my own setting.

Speaker 1 (08:06.926)
And I'd also imagine that lot of that is just that running a small business is hard and it takes your time and

This small business is tough. You know, it's hard to separate work-life bAllance and all of those types of things. But I wouldn't change what I'm doing for all the world. that the whole small business and all those types of things, they're absolutely, you know, it's the foundation. But it's the fact that I'm doing something that I find so fulfilling.

that it offsets all of those other pieces.

And it's obvious you care about your product. I mean, I got my athlete pack over here and the thing is just jamming, you know, and it's a good product.

It's pretty much indestructible.

Speaker 1 (08:55.8)
Yeah, mine is solid. So speaking of solid, what's going on with the product? Are there updates? You're working on a new product line. I know we talked offline about your Atlas One line. What is next? What's the latest? Fill me in there.

Well, there's little bit of a conundrum because the marketplace and the games are new V, new version, blah, blah, right. Every single year. And so I get a lot of people who start with, when are you releasing something new? And it's a hard thing to answer because, you know, in my mind, this is a classic design and I can't think of a reason to change anything. Right.

But you also don't want to say that because, you know, everybody thinks you're kind of blowing smoke. So I'm not making any changes to it. None that would require really any type of a fundamental change. But I am looking to kind of change the type of conversation I'm having and find a different audience who is looking for a solution that isn't predicated on having to

have multiple pieces of camera gear and ultimately started at a very simple level, which is you had to pick one body and lens. What bag would it be? And I think in the same way that you said you use an Octarix or an Osprey or whatever it was for your trip, I think most people would respond with deciding on a bag or a brand that doesn't make a camera bag, right? Just, think that's fair to say.

So that's my objective here, to build something really comfortable and of great quality that serves a purpose for a niche, whether you do it or don't put camera gear in it. And if you do decide to put camera gear in it, the infrastructure is really designed and the workflow is going to be designed to make that body lens combo really function. And it will also allow for additional camera gear that come with its own infrastructure.

Speaker 2 (11:06.572)
And I'm curious to see how it all ended up.

Yeah, me too. And now you're giving me more bags to buy. I have a thing for bags. I have a bag that I use for like just travel trips. I have your bag that I use if I'm going hiking or, you know, and then I have two or three slings. And those are usually if I'm just going to go street photography and I'm just taking like one prime or something like that. Speaking of which, what's different about your new bag, the Atlas One line that the original Atlas packs don't have?

What problem are you solving with these new...

Well, if I ask you to make some complaints about dividers, which are ubiquitous, which are part of every single camera carrying system in the world, you'll come back with some obvious ones. You don't like how they bend, you don't like their size, and all things being true. But as a solution, a divider has some major flaws that have always bugged me. And I'm curious to ask you.

if you can identify what those are.

Speaker 1 (12:12.446)
For me, the problem I have with dividers, and this is your product or just any camera bag in general, is that I have to reconfigure it for every different time I go into the field. And so my use case is always different. Whether I'm going for street photography and I want one lens, I realistically in that case, I would just take a sling.

You nailed the first one, nailed it, right? That's part one, now part two. You get out to where you go, gets you, right? You open your pack, you open your bag. Problem number two with dividers is...

When I opened my bag.

This is the problem you didn't know you had.

Sometimes it's just hard to get my shit out.

Speaker 2 (12:49.23)
Okay, small inconvenience, but that's not the problem you didn't know you had. What have you fundamentally done when you open your bag?

just keeping stuff out of it. You know, if I'm out hiking here.

exposing your whole kit, all your stuff. And the reason you're exposing all your gear to the elements, even though you might just need one thing, is because that's how this whole system is designed. Every time you go to get one thing, everything is getting exposed. And so I believe I've come up with a solution to the problem you didn't even know that existed, right?

and it gives you the ability to configure your gear in such a way that it's dynamic and flexible and does it in a way where you can get whatever you want with your camera bag open without exposing all the stuff that you don't want to the element. But the more important part is when you don't have your photographer hat on. And that's who this product is made for. For times when we just want to separate a camera

and a lens from the back. Or we just want to take one camera lens, one camera body, and one lens. And the line Atlas I is specifically designed around the idea, let's make a bag line that is designed to work fantastically for a body lens. And all of that really connects back to efficiency and simplicity and making sure that things carry comfortably and are of good quality. I'm taking 100 reservations.

Speaker 2 (14:28.814)
in advance, fully refundable. And the only way you can find out information about this product is by putting in a reservation and then joining me for my monthly Google Meet. And every month I walk people through detailed update of the production. And essentially, it's a little focus group of customers that log in and provide good insight and direction.

I think that's great. You know, that's something that I do. I try to talk to as many big photo hunt members as possible and get to know them. It helps me build the big photo hunt. And I've made so many friends that are members and use the product myself.

If you're not participating in your own community here and showing them how you can also create, then you start to lose, at least in my opinion, you start to lose your relevance. That's why I am out working two or three events a because I don't have the time to go mountaineering, right? And I never did, so I'm not going to start out. But I've become very in tune with what it takes to make something kind of fit and feel great.

And it's my understanding as a photographer and the tools that we use that allow me to connect the dots between all of those things. And as my skill says, a photographer, that's allowed me to reverse engineer all of those pieces.

One of the things that we talked about before offline was this idea of amateur versus professional photographer. Could you maybe talk about how you define an amateur versus professional photographer? When we talked before, you had some great insight.

Speaker 2 (16:06.99)
When I think about the difference between a professional and amateur, an amateur doesn't usually have good clarity about either what to take a photo of or which photo to select. So there's there. A professional has clarity but may not always make the right decision. And that's the difference between a good professional and a bad professional. And the amateur is you find that

You people who have good gut instincts or come from other walks of life and they have just an innate sense and it's a little easier for them. And then you people who have got no clue at all, right? And just don't understand why their photo is bad, just simply put. And that can be objectionable. can look at something and go, that's a poor photo. And I can explain why it's a poor photo. And I can look at something that's a good photo and can objectively state why it's a good photo.

And today when I go out and shoot an event, I never take a photo unless I already know in my brain that it's going to be a good photo. And once I've taken the photos, I'm at a point where I can sort through thousands and thousands of images from a given event and find the handful that I need to submit because A, I've done it so many times and B,

I've learned that there are ways to use technology to offset your limited time doing a

Talk to me more about that because everyone, like the whole conversation is always, it's not the technology, it's not the camera, it's your skill. Talk to me about what you mean here.

Speaker 2 (17:50.158)
For a long time, I struggled with my photography and I wouldn't say I plateaued, but we all run into challenges. And what I realized was that I was putting too much pressure on myself every time I went out because I was competing with people who are out on a daily basis. So in order to try and level the playing field, I had to do a couple of things. One, I had to try and prepare better in advance. One of the big part about photojournalism is the captioning and all that.

things in the background. And so I developed a system and workflow. And then I went and found the camera that would give me the best method of cheating. And I say that with all pleasure. I don't say it with a grain of regret. I ended up with the Sony A93. If you're a sports photographer and you are at your timing because you don't understand the sport, then you need to find a way to

to compensate for that difference. And with the A93, you can do it a couple of ways. The first is you've got a pre-record option, and you go up to one second back in time. The way I use that in baseball is really simple. I can listen for something, and if I hear something, then I hit the trigger. And if I don't hear anything, then I don't think those files go in the buffer. One of the limitations and the issues with

SLR and film and even mirrorless is the fact that the shutter speed as a specific range right and with action sports the shutter speed Is directly correlated with the ability to freeze action so with golf Alright, let's start shooting fish in a barrel. You don't need much much of anything But when you start to move to other sports, especially that they believe baseball or football

The blur, the motion blur there is because of the shutter speed. Now with the a93, you can go up to, can't even pronounce, like 1.8 thousandths of a second or something like that. You shoot at 20 thousandths of a second and you shoot at 15 thousandths and 12 eight hundredths of a second and you're getting action that is crisp. And this is the second part of the cheat because when editors look at the thousands of photos that they're seeing come through,

Speaker 2 (20:12.352)
you need to try and stand out in certain ways. And just on a practical level, it's not me special, it's just camera special. The camera is producing something that doesn't fundamentally exist or cannot be produced with other technology out in the field, right? And even in speaking with and watching how my counterparts work, very few of them are pushing up to these higher shutter speeds. And when you combine the prerecord with

the ability to freeze action like freeze the splinters on a bat as it breaks, freeze the seams on a fastball, 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, Freeze little specks of dirt and dust. All of a sudden, I can now start capturing content that my timing doesn't account for and capturing it in such a way that it's crispier.

than my counterparts because they're slower shutter speeds. And then shooting it all at 120 frames a second because why the hell not? And just on a practical level, it's not me special, it's just camera special. The camera is producing something that doesn't fundamentally exist or cannot be produced with other technology out in the field.

Yep, totally get it. Hey, I've got a couple more questions for you, but real quick, is this your office that I'm looking at? What is this area that you're in right now? looks like, is this where the magic happens?

So that's where I spend most of my day when I'm fulfilling orders, answering tickets, and those types of things. And then here's the warehouse and then front side of the space. Never walked forward with the camera pointed like that. We've got a big sewing area set up here in the front.

Speaker 1 (22:15.598)
Is this where you do all your fulfillment from?

No, all my fulfillment was in the where I was just a second ago. This is where like I do my R &D and my like thinking and my planning. so this is kind of the front of the house here.

Super cool, I love it, thank you. All right, listen, I got three questions that I ask every guest on my show. The first question is, what camera system do you use?

Sony.

Me too.

Speaker 2 (22:45.198)
Okay, so I'm gonna go back on that. Every single one of my professional works up until about 2020 or so, okay? All shot in the 1DX system, the original 1DX. I never changed the body, never. My photo of the year, most of my covers, the 1DX and the 70-200. So the Sony system I'm only using now, simply because I'm not doing this in and out daily. And specifically that A93.

because it lets me do things that I wouldn't, that my own abilities limit me on, right? And that's why I kind of call it cheating. So I love both Canon and Sony. And I want to always be sure to kind of play Sweden in this because I've got customers carrying all of this gear. And I have great respect for both of those organizations and still use both of that equipment to serve very specific needs and highly recommend it to everybody.

Number two is what is your favorite genre to shoot and why?

I've really, really grown to enjoy studio photography over the years. And the reason I don't jump to the sports is I don't really need to think about it too much anymore. And to me, part of the love of photography is feeling a little bit uncomfortable and feeling like you're a little bit out of your element.

Speaker 2 (24:20.322)
I don't feel uncomfortable going and shooting sports.

Question number three on a scale of one to 10, how often do you get that burning itch to just get out there and shoot photos?

Zero.

Wow, go for it to me. Now you got it. Can you explain that a little bit?

Speaker 2 (24:45.611)
There's no deliverable. I need it deliverable. I need an objective. That's it. Simple. How many of you guys have answered that question like that?

Okay.

None. That's why. Yeah, yeah, no. No, that's a-

That was by the way my shortest answer to anything you've asked me.

Yeah, I've got nothing more to ask you, That was, yeah, I think this interview's over. I don't know what else to talk to you about now. Hey.

Speaker 2 (25:12.384)
and it's

No, no, no, this is because of that. That is a shocker. This is definitely seeing the light of day. That's that's great podcast right there.

I mean, it's that simple, right? And just to give a little bit of context, I can't even practically count in my head how many thousands of hours I've had billions of image views, I've had thousands of images published and none of it matters. It's my next assignment on Sunday. I'm already focused. I'm already thinking about it. I'm ready for it. I had no need to pick up that camera between now and then. Zero.

It's just, it's a tool for a job. I love it. I appreciate you don't want to go out and shoot for fun. I do not want to go out and shoot for fun. I have a lot of fun when I'm working and shooting and I want to keep it. And I want to, love that integrity of it. Also love that when I'm done with an event, I don't have to think about it when I go home, but I love seeing other people shoot. I love working with other people. do mentoring and coaching. work with the high school that my kids are out with their digital arts over there.

I mean, I have customers call me all the time asking me for advice, you know, all that. I love it. But I'm not, I'm not too fun.

Speaker 1 (26:30.936)
I assumed that that's what was driving that. So Allan Henry from Atlas Packs, where can people find you? I wanna make sure that they go to Atlas, they go to you, whatever it is, and I want people to see your amazing packs.

Well, I appreciate it. So, um, you know, simple Google search for Atlas Packs will lead you to the, website and encourage everybody to take a look at how my products suit, suit your needs. And if there's something there that appeals to you or you have questions about, know, there's a little chat on there or there's a text message me.

Awesome man. Hey, thank you so much for your time. I am truly grateful. It was very generous of you. Love your product. Love your coaster.

Well, I tell you what, if I get back on the merch horn, I'll make some new coasters and we'll definitely get you a fresh.

That's all I needed. It's got coffee stains on it. It's it's been

Speaker 2 (27:33.998)
That edge is rubbed away quite a bit.

This thing has been on my desk since 2022. And just for the record, nothing has been on my desk since 2022.

appreciate that you have it. It's funny, I've heard from many people over the years that the coasters are, the coasters have been a good hit. Let me see the pack, you got it up.

It's over there, let me see, yeah. I packed some good shape. Hold on one second, let me get it for you. Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit bigphotohunt.com for more information. Thanks again for listening today.