What's In My Camera Bag
***Affiliate disclosure: Some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, and if you click on the link and make a purchase, I am going to receive a tiny commission. I still only share products that I truly believe in.
As a professional photographer, I’ve had people interested in photography ask me about gear. What camera should I get? What lens should I use? So here I wanted to share with you what is in my camera bag on any given day for an outdoor portrait photography shoot.
Camera Bag
First off, my camera bag is an older Lowepro backpack and it has served me well for several years, but I have my eye on this Thule camera backpack for an upgrade.
Cameras
The Canon 5d mark IV is my main camera body that I use 99% of the time. I love that it has dual memory car slots so that I always have a backup of my client’s pictures from the moment I am shooting them.
I also have a Canon 6d mark II that I keep at home as a backup camera and also bring as a second camera when shooting events. I will also bring this camera when shooting mini sessions or a session that can’t easily be rescheduled if I have a camera failure (which I haven’t ever had, but better to be prepared!) If I was starting my business over again, this is probably the camera I would try to find used or refurbished to start out.
Lenses
The Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART is the lens I use probably 80% of the time. It is wide enough for in home shoots but also great for outdoors as well
The Canon 50 mm 1.8, was the first prime lens I purchased after officially launching my photography business. It is known as the “nifty fifty” because it is only a $125 lens, and is small and portable, but I still think it is a great lens that I pull out on occasion during my sessions.
The Canon 85mm f1.8 USM is an older canon lens I purchased used from another photographer. I don’t use this lens a ton, but when I do pull it out is it typically for photographing seniors when I want to get a lot of background compression, or in areas where I feel the background is really busy and I want to have more blur and bokeh. During the winter when there are no leaves on the trees, I really like to use this lens help make the background feel less busy
Additional Gear
At least 2 spare camera batteries
SD Cards - When I first started photography, I was having a lot of issues where my camera would stop shooting because it was writing data to the SD card. My understanding is that it is related to the data sync speed, and after purchasing these SanDisk 64 GB Extreme Pro SD Cards I didn’t have any trouble.
CF Cards - SanDisk 64 GB Extreme Pro CF cards
Memory card case to safely store all of my SSD and CF cards
My Gear wishlist
I am really eyeing an upgrade to the Canon EOS R6 Mark II and if I was starting over I would purchase this over the 5d mark IV even though I love my 5d.
That means I would probably get the mount adaptor so I could keep using my current lenses
Eventually I would love to get the RF Mount 50mm 1.2 to replace my “nifty fifty “and use with the R6. This would probably become my sole outdoor portrait photography lens.
Did you know I offer mentorship and coaching for photographers wanting to start or grow their photography business?
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