Besides information on shooting digital infrared photography, what I’m asked most often is what equipment I use.
While it’s true I love gear and gadgets, the most valuable piece of photographic equipment you can own is your your brain – because you can seriously take a fine photograph with a shoebox and a page of film! But without a thought, or a creative idea there will be no photograph.
But having said that, right now, as of January 2010, my digital photography equipment in the bag consists of a couple of digital SLR bodies (Nikon D300), my old trusty D70, a converted digital dedicated infrared camera, several filters and lenses, 2 tripods, a waterproof camera bag, MANY compact flash cards, a Phottix Cleon wireless cable release for long shutter exposures, a flashlight, a few handmade odds and ends.
In the studio – my digital darkroom – my photography equipment is a computer, a portable DVD burner, lots of software and a slide scanner.
Here’s the detailed list of my digital photography equipment.
DIGITAL CAMERAS
2 Nikon D300 bodies
Nikon D70 (that I carry everywhere every day - remember your ABC's? Always Bring Camera!)
Nikon D70 converted to a dedicated infrared camera
CAMERA LENSES
Nikkor DX 18-70 f 3.5-4.5 ED
Nikkor 12- 24 DX
AF Nikkor 50mm f1.8
Nikkor AF DX 10.5 mm f2.8 ED fisheye
Sigma 105 mm macro
Lensbaby version 1
CAMERA FILTERS
SinghRay vary ND neutral density filter
Several Hoya Circular Polarizer
Hoya 1B (skylight) filters for all lenses (except the fisheye, which has a rear slot for filters)
OTHER STUFF in MY CAMERA BAG
A home made sun reflector from some copper foil and duct tape
Mini Mag lite
4 8 GB Lexar CF cards
A bunch of 2 and 4 MB Lexar and Sandisc CF card
Lens paper
Lens cleaner
Giottos Rocker Blower
Nikon infrared remote control for the D70.
TRIPODS and stuff
Uniloc Minor tripod and quick release ball head
An ancient Manfrotto tripod with a pan head
Nodal Ninja Panorama tripod head
2 large beanbags (homemade) for stabilizing my camera when a tripod won’t do, or isn’t available.
And finally…
MY BAG
Crumpler “Company Embarrassment” waterproof camera bag (love the name!). 2010 UPDATE: I've seriously out grown this bag unfortunately. One of the things I did NOT like was the lack of outside
pockets or straps. There's no room for a water bottle or even a place to hold a map. So I am currently looking for a new bag.
But gear is not so important - in fact when I made my submission to the Professional Photographers of Canada to become accredited, most of the photographs were made with wither an old Minolta XG7 (film) or the Olympus 5050 point & shoot. Only 3 of the 10 were taken with the Nikon D70 – and all were accepted and I received high marks for every one of them.
Now, I’m not intending to brag about my photography here, but I mention it only to underline the point that it is NOT the digital photography equipment that makes the photographer.
So if you don’t have the latest and greatest gear; or think that your camera is not able to make winning photographs, don’t buy into the marketing hype. And especially don’t let that false insecurity stop you from going out everywhere with your camera and taking shots. Just get out and do it – the more you shoot the better you’ll get. It's really not your digital photography equipment that will make the big difference.
