6.5 Days!

Hey everyone, still counting down till take-off. Less than a week left! After the Bokeh light tutorial post, I thought it might be helpful for you to see what equipment I use, how I use it, and why I chose it. Please understand that I'm not paid to say any of this, it's all rooted in my experience and what I like and dislike to use. The links are provided for your reference, and I make no commission off of them. Now, I have quite a bit of equipment to cover, from cameras to post production tools, so lets go ahead and dive right in.

Cameras:

I think it may be from a newfound love of the art form, or maybe I just don't want to lose an investment yet, but I still shoot film photos. In fact, I still shoot black and white film photos. I am not behind the times, however, and I also wield a powerful and mighty DSLR. Let me introduce you to my two cameras and why I chose them.

Film:

Meet Delilah.

My Vivitar 220SL and her flash

Delilah is my trusty, steel body Vivitar 220SL. She has a great, solid frame, snappy shutter, and a satisfying "CHRRCLICK" when the mirror flips. She has a shoe mount for a flash, which I also have, but it doesn't get used very often. I bought her used for my film photography class after my dad's Nikon FE2 finally bit the dust on me. I paid $25 for the camera body and lens (which is a Vivitar 50mm 1.8) and another $5 for the flash. She has a 42mm screw mount, which means there's plenty of great glass to be had at a great price. A fantastic, rugged, and romantic old school camera. If you want to find a Delilah for yourself, check out a near-by camera store for their used selection. In the Mid-West we have a store called Dodd's, and that's where Delilah was found.

I specifically got her from all the other used cameras because of the mount style, the steel body construction, the manual features, and the super satisfying sound of taking a picture. As soon as this camera got in my hands I fell in love with her, and I highly recommend shopping around to find the camera you fall in love with too.

Digital:

My Nikon D7000 is a different beast entirely. His name is Phillip.

My D7000 equipped with a Nikkor 35mm 1.8 lens

Phillip is a recent addition to my camera family, but I got him, after much deliberation, because his body and button layout are styled very much the same as my older brother's D70s, which is what I learned to shoot on. The key factor to this body style is that there are two dials, one on the front under the index finger, and one on the back under the thumb. This means I can change the aperture and shutter speed on the fly, without having to pull away from the viewfinder to find the button that switches the functions. With a little practice, I can also change autofocus modes without having to look at the display which is another handy feature.

Phillip also has a magnesium alloy frame and a protectively sealed body. While this doesn't make him invincible or water proof, it does mean that he's ready to travel and deal with some of life's harsher conditions. He can also shoot up to 20 minutes of 1080p video, and while I'm not much of a videographer, it has been something I've been interested in playing with. Finally, he feels heavy duty, just like Delilah's steel body frame, but without too much heft or bulk. He can also do continuous shooting at up to 6fps, quiet shooting for discretion, and has 2 user defined presets if you find yourself dialing in the same settings a lot.

Now some people may call me a Cannon hater or Nikon fanboy. They're only kind of right. The reason I love Nikon is because I learned to shoot on a Nikon. Everything I know about photography has come from a Nikon or Nikon-style camera. I say Nikon -style because Cannon does layout their cameras, menus, and even lenses differently than Nikon. Because of this difference, I find it really difficult to use Cannon products. So difficult in fact, that I forget everything I've ever learned about photography when I'm holding a Cannon. It's nothing against the quality of Cannons or the images they produce, I have several friends who shoot Cannon and produce stunning work. By the same token I know some people (myself included at times) who have struggled to make even decent images with Nikons. Cannon cameras just make me feel stupid. I don't like feeling stupid. 

With that off my chest, lets get back to the equipment.

Lenses:

Besides the two lenses I generally keep on my cameras, I have two more lenses. Both are fully manual, and fantastic pieces of glass.

The lenses aren't named. Yet...

The first is a Quantaray 28mm 2.8 lens for Delilah. Usually if Delilah doesn't have her 50mm on, she's wearing this lens. I love it because it gives a lot of extra perspective without a lot of distortion. This has proven helpful in capturing architecture, which I seem to photograph abundantly when I'm not shooting people('s pictures, of course).

The other lens is a Tamron Adaptall 2 80mm-210mm 3.8/4. Because of the adapter, this lens pulls double duty as the moderate zoom lens for Delilah, and the major (almost telephoto) lens for Phillip. This is because Phillip is a crop-sensor camera, so the focal length of any lens he's wearing is effectively multiplied by 1.5, making the 80mm-210mm a 120mm-315mm lens. The other challenge is that without a motor or data connection, Phillip's light meter won't work with this lens, which makes it fortuitous that it's digital and there's an instant feedback. This lens rarely gets used, however, which should make it less of a hassle.

The lens Phillip usually wears is a Nikkor 35mm 1.8, and Delilah wears a 50mm 1.8. For Phillip, 35mm was the closest lens that would approximate 50mm (35 x 1.5 = 52.5), so it was the best choice for me. What's so magic about 50mm, you ask? And why didn't I get a zoom lens that would surely cover that focal length? I'll tell you why. 50mm is the focal length that most closely approximates the human eye. This means that when you look through the view finder, you'll see an image most like what you saw in your direct line of sight while you composed the image. It also aids in shooting with both eyes open, which is both a strange experience and a very useful skill when shooting high action shots where you or your camera is in danger of getting hit with a ball or body. 

Secondly, I prefer single focal length lenses for a variety of reasons. For example, they jumpstart your creativity and force your active participation in the creation. Zoom lenses let you stand in one spot and try to change the shot from there. Single focal length lenses force you to get in the action and interact with your subject. Also, single focal length lenses are available in much wider apertures, and won't ever lose that maximum with moving in and out from the subject. This was important to me because a lot of my aesthetic includes shooting wide open, coming from a drive to do mostly portrait photography, which uses that style. Finally, single focal length lenses tend to cost far less than zoom lenses, especially  zooms which don't lose maximum aperture as you increase the focal length. My 28mm lens for Delilah was under $40 used, and my 35mm for Phillip was about $200 brand new. A prime zoom lens with the same maximum aperture would have easily been 4 times the cost. I do like using zoom lenses to get to spots that I just couldn't reach physically or for certain applications where I want more compression or some other artistic/practical use, but most of the time my cameras sport 50mm or equivalent SFL lenses.

Bags/Cases:

With 2 cameras, it makes sense to have 2 bags and my lens cases. I have a Tamrac bag that I purchased when I got Delilah, and a Lowepro bag that came with Phillip. The Tamrac is nice and roomy, with enough space for Delilah, her flash, the 28mm lens, and some rolls of film. It's pretty boxy, though, and looks like a nice, new camera bag, which means it'll probably be staying at my apartment with whichever camera I'm not currently using. The nice feature of the Tamrac is that it includes a rain cover for the bag, which is great in the weather, and it also has the Tamrac Modular Accessory and Strap Accessory systems that let you add on and expand with other small accessory bags.

The Lowepro is no frills and has just enough room for Phillip, his lens hood, the spare SD card, and the  card reader. This is the bag I'll use to take whichever camera I plan on using for the day out into the world in.

The last two items in the photo are my lens cases. The first is a soft pouch case that came with Phillip's lens, but now holds Delilah's 28mm. The other is the hard case for the Tamron 80mm-210mm lens. It holds the lens and the lens hood safely in foam.

If I had to do it over again, I would aim for bags that look less like camera bags. This is because shiny, new camera bags indicate to thieves that there are probably shiny, new cameras inside of them and that you're not well traveled enough to protect them. It makes you a bigger target for robbery. That's also why Phillip and Delilah wear plain, black, padded, neoprene neckstraps. Neckstraps that have Nikon or Cannon emblazoned across them scream, "I have an expensive camera, please rob me." That, and the padded neoprene neckstraps are 800 times more comfortable than the included ones, and they can be picked up for $10 at Walmart. Seriously a good investment.

Miscellaneous Supplies:

Here are a couple other supplies I pack in my camera bags.

The first item is my monopod. I picked this monopod up on the cheap from Walmart while I was running to a downtown festival at night. I knew my exposures were going to be too long to shoot just hand held, but I didn't want to have to lug around and fiddle with a whole tripod. Monopods are great for exposure times that might be just under 1/30th of a second that you need some extra support for, but not a whole tripod. They're also great for shoots where you're moving around a lot to change your angle or something similar. I'm very active at a shoot (remember the single focal length lenses?) and having to re-setup my tripod would be a pain, but I sometimes need the extra stabilization. It works great for that, and also makes a good form of self defense in a pinch (especially with a steel body camera like Delilah on the other end).

The second item is a travel tripod. These are great little tripods for getting really stable shots for longer exposures. These are great for museums, self-portraits, HDR shooting, and other places where you need stabilization without being at the camera. The catch about these is that the more you extend the legs, the flimsier they get, especially with a large DSLR like Phillip on top. They'll stay stable enough to take the photo, but I wouldn't push the limits, especially in a crowded area. They are convenient to throw in your luggage without taking up much space, though, and something's better than nothing, right?

The last item in my picture is a Gorilla Torch. This LED lamp is powered by 3 AA batteries, has an adjustable brightness, and sits on a rotating head on top of a bendy tripod with magnetic feet. This thing is seriously awesome. It can hang from the most unlikely places and get light in those hard to reach spots. My only issue is that the light is kind've concentrated, like a spotlight, and it has a very blue hue to it. Experimenting with stretching fabric over a needlework hoop as a diffuser has had some good effects for me, though, and sometimes its nice to use the spotlight effect creatively. It was a little pricey, but I use it so much outside of my photography that it was worth it.

Not pictured is a remote for the camera. I just ordered mine today, so it hasn't arrived yet, but I fully intend to take it with me as well. It helps make full use of the tripod to eliminate any shake, especially in HDR or long exposure photography. Also, as a side note, if you're looking for the Nikon remote, they also make an Amazon brand remote that has better reviews and is half the price. I just ordered mine, so I'm not sure if the claims are true or not, but I figured I would try to save a buck, which seems to be a trend in my photo equipment.

Finally, that brings us to...

Post-Production/Editing Tools:

Let me start this section by saying that I try to have as little post-production editing of my photos as possible. I think it stems from having started with very little knowledge of digital editing techniques, and then moving directly into film, where any kind of major editing is limited, but I deeply believe in creating a great image in my camera from the start. That doesn't always happen, though, and sometimes images need some post editing to turn out the way I envisioned them. Other times it's because I've shot some work for a client and they're expecting properly edited, airbrushed images and portraits. Sometimes I just want to artistically edit my photos to create something that isn't possible in a camera. Whatever the reason, I keep a suite of editing tools with me.

My main editing tools are my heavily-bumper-stickered, 2005 MacBook and my large Wacom Bamboo tablet I got last year. On my MacBook I use a mixture of iPhoto, Photoshop Elements 8, and a handful of other programs for my editing. I use iPhoto to handle all of my organizing and basic editing of photos. PSE is used for the heavy duty lifting, including some of the RAW editing when I need to majorly fix a white balance or exposure. I also use a myriad of programs from GIMP to Corel Painter for specific artistic effects. I haven't yet found an HDR program to toy with, but I also haven't had the opportunity to shoot HDR. The Bamboo tablet gives me excellent control when I'm editing in PSE, and removing blemishes with it is almost enjoyable. It also acts as a giant, multi-touch trackpad for my laptop, which is nice, and it allows for handwriting recognition anywhere. The Bamboo package included several of my main editing programs, including PSE and Corel Painter, which was also a bonus.

I recently picked up a camera connector kit for my iPad, so I'll be adding that into my workflow for previewing images in the field as well as sharing some instantly with friends and family. This will also let me recycle cards more often, since I can pull images on to my iPad to be retrieved at my computer later, then delete them off the card. We'll see how well it fits into the workflow, and I'll keep you posted.

Whew. Told ya I had a lot of equipment to get through. Hopefully a look at my kit has given you some ideas on equipment you'd like, or how I achieve my shooting style. Again, all of the links are for your reference, and they're the exact products I have pictured, except the Bamboo tablet, which apparently released a new version recently. Let me know what you think, and next time we'll be talking about preparing for your destination.