My Camera Bag

Here is a list of the camera equipment I typically carry on my shooting trips. I will admit to all of you that I am an equipment geek. But as I have gotten older certain parts of my physical being have complained. Plus I now believe that having too much stuff can actually hinder the process. Its not the camera that shoots the picture. Its you. Its your vision. The camera is just a tool. I had many instances where something was happening and I was fumbling in the bag for some lens or filter. No more. I have pared down what I take and what I take fits into my shooting vision. So here is whats in the bag.

Camera I carry a Sony α900. It is a full frame, 24.6 megapixel and captures incredible RAW files. I really love this camera. It is a shooter camera. Simple menus and many of the functions can be accessed directly from buttons on the body. It has one of the biggest and brightest viewfinders I have ever used. It does not have live view or shoot video. Both things I could care less about. I can’t compose from a screen and if I want video they make cameras for that too. (I apologize for being editorial here).

Lenses I carry four lenses. My wide lens is a Sony SAL 20mm, f2.8. For zooms I carry a Zeiss 24-70mm, f2.8. I can’t say enough about this one. It is on my camera 80 to 90% of the time. It is clear, sharp, and there is simply no chromatic aberration in my files. My telephoto is a Sony SAL 70-300mm, f4.5-5.6 “G”. I also carry a Lensbaby Composer with a Lensbaby Superwide attachment.

Flash I have two Sony HVL-58AM flash units with a variety of small soft box and snoot type attachments to modify the light.

Filters When I shot 4 x 5 I carried a host of filters to do things to the Velvia. With digital capture I have been able to simplify my filter kit. Here I have to editorialize again. I tend to shoot digital the same way I did with large format. That means I am fairly deliberate in my compostion, I really study my corners, I tend to feature important foreground elements, and I shoot to capture the image as it happens. I really don’t like to come back and spend a lot of time in the computer merging files. Yes I do do this on occasion but I prefer to try and capture in a single shot (with brackets of course). To that end I have a simple filter kit. I carry Singh-Ray 1, 2, 3, and 4-stop split neutral density filters. In addition I have a 4-stop reverse split neutral density for conditions where the horizon is bright but the sky and land are in balance. I also carry a 4-stop solid neutral density for slowing down my shutter for water, clouds etc. And I have a Heliopan Circular Warming Polarizer. Thats it for filters folks.

When shooting I will either hold the filter in front of the lens when things are happening fast or I also have Hi-Tec filter holder that allow me to use the 4 x 6 neutral density filters or combine these with the polarizer.

Last But Not Least I use a Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod with a 3-Way pan head. I don’t like ballheads Tried them, hate them (yes I know, editorial). I like the control the pan head gives me. I also have a bracket that allows me to quickly orient the camera from landscape to portrait. And lets not forget the electronic cable release. For CF Cards I carry Lexar and SanDisk in 8 and 16 gig capacity. All this goes into my old LowePro bag which just fits the overhead bin on the plane.

As far as software programs I use Adobe Lightroom for processing my RAW files and Photoshop for final finishing. I have a particular system for coding my images and everything is backed-up on terrabyte drives using an action back-up script. Back-up drives are kept off-site.

Final Comment All photographers will debate about the equipment they have, how they shoot, how they process, what their vision is, and the list goes on. I’m no different. If you ask I’ll give my 2-cents worth. There is so much out on the market today that your head can spin in trying to make a decision. Experience helps in some of this. Learning from your mistakes helps as well. The bottom line is you have to find equipment that works for what you want to shoot in the way you want to shoot it. Do you see who is in control here? Thats right. Magazines are full of ads trying to sell you something that will do wonders for your photographs. Don’t fall prey to this. In many ways, and this is only my opinion, photography is still fairly simple. See the light and capture it. To do so I need a camera, a good lens and an understanding of exposure. So, keep it simple. Have a good camera and a few choice lenses. And know your cameras controls forwards and backwards. Countless great photographers have shot incredible images with a single 50mm lens. Don’t complicate your life. And finally just do it. Get out and shoot.