Fort Worth Photographer l Camera Bag Essentials

I get a lot of inquiries as to what is in my camera bag, so I am going to share with you today! Before getting started, I think it is important to say that while I love my camera and lenses, they are merely tools that help me bring my vision to life. A great image is not made by great gear—it takes a lot of time and effort to learn about photography and 90% of that process involves things other than upgrading your camera equipment. I’ve learned about composition, exposure, focusing, light manipulation, ISO, shutter speed, controlling my aperture, post processing, etc. The right tools certainly make my job easier and improve the final outcome, but they are a means to an end…not the other way around.
TERMINOLOGY
Now, here are a few pieces of terminology that will help as I go through the different items in my bag:

Prime Lens: I work almost exclusively with prime lenses. A prime lens is the opposite of a zoom lens. The focal length is fixed, so if I want to take a picture that is cropped in close then I have to get closer to my subject. If I want an image that’s further out I must step away from my subject. My feet work as the “zoom”. Prime lenses (often called primes) are sharper than zooms and quicker to focus, thus making them ideal for low light.  To me, the only downside is that you have to do a lot of running around, especially if working with little ones. Of course, everyone has different preferences and what is right for me is not right for everyone.

Bokeh: The blurry part of your image—the out of focus parts that provides a nice, creamy background.

Full Frame: Full frame refers to the camera body. A full frame camera uses a senor that is equivalent to 35mm film. My main camera body is full frame, but I do have a crop sensor as a backup. Most professional photographers will shoot with full frame cameras. It’s a bit much for me to explain here, but if you are interested feel free to check out this article.

CAMERA BODIES

Canon 6D:  I started with a Canon Rebel T3i back in 2011. It was an affordable, consumer-level DSLR and I purchased it with the intent to take photos of my newborn son. I didn’t just want to plunk down $600 and not even know how to work my camera, so I took some night classes that taught me how to shoot in manual mode. I learned all about the three basics (shutter speed, ISO, aperture) and the rest of my story is basically practice, practice, practice.
I upgraded to the Canon 6D when I began offering photography professionally. The Canon 6D is what is considered a professional, full-frame camera. In addition to many other features, it offers superior performance in low lighting.

Canon Rebel T3i: A crop frame camera that I use as a backup.

BAGS
Backpack: I take my Canon backpack with me on all my client shoots. It protects my gear and has slots for everything.

Shutter Bag: I use this when I go on vacation and when I want to take my camera on personal outings. I can only fit my camera body and about two lenses in here, but that’s perfect when I’m on an outing and don’t want to lug everything with me. Plus, it’s cute.

LENSES

 

Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye Lens: A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that produces very strong distortion with the intent to show a panoramic or hemispherical image. This lens offers me a 180 degree field of view—better than what can be seen with the human eye.
This is the lens I use to have fun. It isn’t something that is appreciated by everyone, but I happen to think it’s pretty nifty. I bought it as a personal purchase so that I could take photos during beach vacations, but I do use it on occasion with my clients. Here are some images I’ve taken with this lens:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM: This is the only zoom lens in my bag. It has a higher aperture than the other lenses I use, meaning that I will typically only be able to use this in situations that are extremely well lit or when I am using a flash. This also means this lens isn’t built for bokeh. This is part of the Canon “L” series—meaning it’s a top of the line, luxury, professional grade lens. The real benefit of this lens is that it is super sharp! I almost always use this when doing full family portraits because I have a good field of view. Furthermore, I am usually working at a higher aperture when dealing with families so I can be sure to nail the focus and not lose some family members with a shallow depth of field.

Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art Lens: This is the latest edition to my camera bag. This is what I use in my studio for newborns and cake smashes. The “Art” distinction basically means this lens is comparable to Canon’s “L” series and is professional grade. I love how quiet the motor in this lens is—a must have for anyone working with sleeping babies. This lens is super sharp and has the ability to deliver serious bokeh.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II: The “nifty 50”. This baby was my first lens purchase back when I was just doing photography as a hobby. If you are a photography enthusiast, this is a fantastic first lens purchase. It’s really affordable, particularly in comparison to pretty much any other lens you could ever hope to buy. For the price point, this lens performs really, really well. I used it for years with newborns and in my studio with superb results. However, while the optics of this lens are really stunning, it is built poorly and I destroyed two of these lenses in two years. They just eventually fall apart. The one I currently keep in my bag has some focusing issues in low light, but I keep it around for personal use because it is a workhorse. I recently started keeping this lens on my backup camera at all times so that it’s ready to go when I want it. I figure with the affordability of this lens and the fact that it’s already on its last leg I don’t have to worry about damaging it in personal use. This gives me a lot of freedom to take it wherever I want and use it in conditions that I probably wouldn’t with my better lenses.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM: Holy bokeh. This is by far my favorite lens. I try to keep this on my camera for the majority of my sessions. It’s sharp, it delivers creamy bokeh. The only downside is that this is a prime lens and so if I am working with a toddler or young child I will have to chase them to get my shot. Otherwise I have only glowing things to say about this beauty.

 

EXTRAS

I have a ton of other things in my bag besides my glass and camera bodies. There are batteries, tools to set my white balance, a flash, remote trigger for off-camera flash use, etc. Here’s a peek at all the rest:

H. Parker Photography specializes in newborn, baby and child photography in Trophy Club, Texas and surrounding areas including but not limited to Dallas, Ft Worth and Roanoke.