I received a comment today asking what I typically shoot with and thought it best to address it with an inventory of what’s ‘in the bag’.
My primary camera is the Canon 50D. I purchased it almost 3 years ago and have taken nearly 70,000 photos with it. Most are of my kids but many now show up here as well.
I have three lenses that I use:
For ultra wide-angle shots, the Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens is hard to beat. It offers a great, wide field of view that can capture all of Castle Rock from the top of the wall. It also helped me get this shoot at Mooring Road with a pier and most of the beach. It does tend to have the effect of making distant objects seem further and smaller than in real life.
My main lens is the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens. This lens does just about everything. Perfect for taking shots of the kids in most situations (indoors and out). A great landscape lens. I would guess that 70% of the shots here were taken with this one. All of the photos posted this week were shot with the 17-55 as were the Irene shots.
My last lens is the Canon 70-200mm f/4 IS. This one is rarely used by me as a landscape lens but does an amazing job when I do reach for it. All of the Supermoon shots were taken with this lens. It has good reach to get those distant objects like the lighthouse as seen from Fort Sewell. It also has the opposite effect of the 10-22 lens in that it can make objects seem closer to each other than they otherwise are.
If you have seen me on a shooting day, you have invariably also seen me carry around a set of legs. My tripod is made by Feisol and is composed of carbon fiber making it extremely strong and light. The tripod head is made by PhotoClam and is a standard ballhead. It is very quick to adjust which is important with objects such as a rising or setting moon/sun.
The other items in the bag include filters. I have a circular polarizer that can accentuate or diminish reflections. I used that this week to ‘see through’ the water and show the rocks below. You’ll see another (better) example of that on Wednesday. I also have two filters that cut down on the amount of light. The 10-stop will decrease the amount of light reaching the camera’s sensor to 0.1%. It allows me to take long-exposure (several seconds) images that blur waves such as that in the Grace Oliver black and white shot. I have a second neutral density filter that cuts down the light a bit less than this one.
As for the miscellaneous items. They include 100% DEET, a Rocket Blower to get dust off the lens, intervalometer for the timelapse shots, powerful LED flashlight, bubble level, and flash.
UPDATE – 2012
In May 2012, I purchased the Canon 5D Mk III – a full frame digital SLR that allowed me to greatly improve my ‘keeper’ rate both in terms of its improved autofocus and low light capabilities (important for photos of my kids) as well as increased dynamic range and image size for my landscapes. It’s hard to explain but there is a significant improvement when moving from smaller sensors to full frame ones.
With the move to a new camera, the Canon EF-S lenses above would no longer work.
I now use the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L for wide angle shots, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 IS L is my workhorse and responsible for 2/3 of the images shared, and the same Canon 70-200 f/4 IS L lens. I also have a Canon EF 100mm f/2 for portraits of my kids.
I also updated the tripod to a Really Right Stuff TVC-24L and their BH40 head.