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 my digital photography equipment in the bag consists of a couple of digital SLR bodies, a digital point & shoot, several filters and lenses, 2 tripods, a waterproof camera bag, several compact flash cards, an infrared remote control, a 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. The full details and why I have this equipment are coming soon.
DIGITAL CAMERAS
Nikon d70 kit
Nikon D2X (yes!)
Olympus 5050 Zoom
CAMERA LENSES
Nikkor DX 18-70 f 3.5-4.5 ED
Sigma 70-300 f5-5.6 APO macro super
Nikkor AF DX 10.5 mm f2.8 ED fisheye
Sigma 105 mm macro
Lensbaby
CAMERA FILTERS
Cokin P153 Neutral Density
Cokin P121 Gradual Neutral Density
Cokin P700 (equivalent to Wratten 89B infrared)
Cokin P 173 Blue to yellow polarizer
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
2 Nikon EN-EL3 batteries for the D70
2 Nikon EN-EL4 batteries for the D2X
2 1 GB Lexar CF cards (80x)
1 256 MB Lexar 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
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!)
And if you’re wondering, none of the images on this site or any of my other gallery site were taken with the NIKON D2X (yet)!
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. 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.
Do you want to learn how totake beautiful pictures with your great equipment? Alesson in photography can help you with lighting techniques, color combinations andphoto composition. Or maybe you want todraw a beautiful picture. We offer all kinds of art andmusic lessons as well!