August 19, 2007 - The arsenal. Top: 2 Photoflex 3′ convertible umbrellas, 2 Bogen 3330 light stands. Right: PowerMac laptop. Left: Tamrac waist pack. Center: Canon EF 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS, Canon EOS-1D Mark II with EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS, Canon EOS 20D, with EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5, flashlight, 2 Canon 580 EX speedlights, Canon EF 2X II extender, Canon EF 1.4X II extender, Canon EF 50mm f1.4, 2 Stofen Omni Bounce units, Canon ST-E2 transmitter, pack of smokes, extra AA batteries. Exposure details: Nikon D2H, AF Nikkor 20-35 2.8D, Manual, 1/250 sec at f/10, ISO 200, Daylight setting

“Are you a photographer?”

For some reason I always get asked that as I walk down the street, cameras dangling from my shoulders.

So, yeah, I guess I am. At least that’s what I’ve been told.

I try to keep my equipment to a minimum, and the photo above shows what I carry with me on a daily basis when working for the Bulletin. Less is more.

Flash Set-up:
The umbrellas and stands are always in the car. I like to keep them on hand since I’ll never know what assignment I’ll get, so if a portrait comes up I’m ready. I carry two 580 flashes which I use with the umbrellas for a quick lighting set-up. I trigger them remotely with the ST-E2 transmitter. Nice light, cheap, and quick and dirty. I use the Omni-Bounces when I need to go on-camera with the strobes. They soften the light a little, and disperse the light for a somewhat softer look than straight, naked, on-camera flash.

The Bag:
I’m not much of a bag man. I prefer to keep my cameras out so they’re always ready. And since I don’t carry much else, I just use a waist pack to hold my strobes and transmitter, the 50mm, the extenders, and some extra batteries. The 28-135 comes with me sometimes, otherwise it’s in the trunk. Just in case. The smokes… well…

The Cameras:
I carry two bodies. The Mark II and the 20D. The 70-200mm is always on the Mark II since the 10-22mm only fits on the 20D. Most of what I shoot here is done with those pieces of equipment. The Mark II is great for sports and fast moving subjects, and does well in low light. I also really like the 20D. Sure, it’s a “prosumer” camera, but who cares. The color is good, and I can use the super-wide zoom on it. I like the 10-22 a lot and that’s why I got that camera. Gotta take care with it though — beware the “cone head effect.” If you shoot at 10mm and put people in the corner of the frame they tend to end up looking like cone heads. But I like the look of really wide photos where there’s so much context jammed into one frame.

The Laptop:
We’ve been fully digital at the Star-Bulletin since 2001, and we use our Mac laptops to process and edit our daily work. Of course, since the advent of digital, this also means we can send pictures to the office from the field. So after a football game we can whip out the computer, edit our take, and send the pictures to the office with our wireless air cards. Makes things a lot easier. It also helps when we’re off-island since we can send from anywhere there’s a cell signal.

And now the cat’s been let of the bag.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 5:21 pm and is filed under equipment, Photo Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.