Gear

A gear page is often hard to come by on photographers websites. I always felt it was interesting to know what other people are shooting with and so I decided I should put together a little page of the gear I use. I will admit upfront that I am a gear head. I love checking out the latest and greatest but I always think about if it’s something I really NEED or if it’s just something that I really WANT before making a purchase.

Canon has a long list of amazing prime lenses like the 85mm F/1.2L II and 135mm F/2.0L just to name a few. However, for the way I shoot, these lenses are no better than the zoom lens trio that makes up my kit. What I mean by that is I shoot around f/8.0 for probably 90% of my work so why would I spend $2000 on the 85L when it’s going to be no better than my 70-200mm at f/8.0? Sometimes it’s easy to try to convince ourselves that if we had the 85L we would have more of a reason to shoot at f/1.2. And maybe that is true for some of you but for me I know I’d shoot it wide open for a month or so and then revert back to the way I normally shoot.

I’m sharing my gear with you to give you a better idea and hopefully inspire some of you to realize you don’t need the top of the line equipment to create great images. If I was using the top of the line gear, you’d see Digital Medium Format Cameras and Profoto or Broncolor lights in my kit (but you don’t). Granted, I do have an amazing amount of incredible gear but you always have to work with what you have. You can take great images with a kit lens and small speedlites. I started out with a Nikon D60 and 18-55mm lens and just grew from there. It’s easy to get caught up in what you really want but take the time to figure out what you really need.

(Click the links to get more info about each section.)

Cameras

Canon 5d mark II

Lenses

Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS

Lighting

3 x Paul C Buff Einsteins

1 x Alien Bees Ringflash

1 x Paul C Buff Vagabond II

2 x Paul C Buff Medium Softbox