What gear do you use?

I started with a big ol’ Canon EOS-1D (like, a 2004 model or something), a gift from National Geographic photojournalist Paul Nicklen (my ex-boss), and two used lenses (a 20mm and a 70-300mm) courtesy of my brother Jeff (to whom I’m forever indebted for getting me started). The lenses were totally standard series and the camera body had a bunch of water damage from Paul’s underwater work, but they offered the best training wheels ever. MAN when you learn on standard gear and then upgrade to the Big Boy stuff, it’s as though a whole new world opens up for you.

These days, I have five professional-grade Canon camera bodies, each top-of-the-line for digital photography professionals, a Canon EOS-IV 35mm body that I can use with all my gorgeous Canon lenses, and what’s considered *boss* in the medium film format world: a Contax 645 kit with the Zeiss glass.

I have 10 premium lenses — a mix of primes, zoom, and telephoto —  for every imaginable moment.

I also use a wider variety of lighting accoutrement than probably any lifestyle shooter I know. Once I’ve gotten a sense of the style you’d like for your coverage and the lighting available on location, I’ll decide upon a lighting plan, which my include speedlites, strobes, and/or constant lights. By no means will my gear get in the way of anything or detract from the day itself, but I always find that it’s best to be over-prepared and have gear for any situation.

The following is a list of my equipment:

1. Canon bodies (1 Mark IV, 3 Mark IIIs, 1 Mark II)
2. Canon L Series lenses (14mm, 24mm, 24-70mm, 24-105mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 70-200mm) & a Lomography Petzval lens
3. Contax 645 kit with Zeiss 80mm lens
4. Canon EOS-IV 35mm body
5. Portra & Fuji Pro 120 & 35mm film
6. Canon speedlites (3 600ex-rt)
7. Profoto A1s (2)
8. Cheetah battery pack
9. Lumedyne Tinycycler battery pack
10. Paul Buff Alien Bees (800 & 1600) and Ringflash
11. Paul Buff softboxes
12. Westcott Ice Light II (2)
13. Paul Buff Vagabond battery pack
14. Holdfast Moneymaker leather camera harnesses
15. Ona camera bags
16. Lowepro travel bags
17. ThinkTank travel bag
18. FotodioX constant lights
19. Cowboy Studio constant lights
20. Apple computers (desktop, laptops)
21. Lexar and SanDisk CF cards
22. Pelican CF card cases
23. a hodge-podge of reflectors, umbrellas, scrims, stands, clips, sync chords, backdrops, and props
24. Victor.  He’s a professional photographer and my assistant/second-shooter/technical advisor/creative director.  He’s also a goofball, and sometimes I think he has more fun on shoots than anyone else.  Anyway, I’ve found that having another set of eyes behind the lens is invaluable.