We’ve been asked many times through Instagram, emails, and messages for tips and advice on different aspects of photography and how we do things. And this got us thinking about how we can better help those around us who have all these questions. So we’ve decided to create a blog series especially for photographers to answer your questions regarding anything photography related! We took to Instagram and Facebook and asked what YOU all wanted to hear from us and what areas of need you as photographers have. We got tons of responses and have so many things we will be sharing over the next few months to answer your questions and help in whatever way we can!
This first post is all about what’s in our photography bag! We constantly get asked what lenses and camera bodies we use to shoot different aspects of a wedding day or portraits. So we’re giving you all an inside look at our equipment and a little bit about what we use each lens for! Since we primarily shoot weddings, our bag has 3 camera bodies and is full of many different lenses that we use throughout different parts of a wedding day. If you’re a portrait photographer, you won’t need as many as what we have, but we will be sharing how we use some of these lenses for certain types of portraits as well. With that being said, this is us sharing our personal preferences in regards to lenses and how we use them but there is no right or wrong way (which is the beauty of the art of photography) There may be others out there that do things differently, but this is what works for us and how we utilize each lens and camera body in our bag!
Here’s the breakdown of what’s inside our photography bag with links to purchase:
These are our main camera bodies which we use anytime we are taking photos and we obviously have 2 of them because we are two shooters. We’ve had them a few years and absolutely LOVE these camera bodies!
This is our backup camera (which is something that’s absolutely necessary to have as a wedding photographer). We will often give this camera body to our assistant to shoot behind the scenes photos of us and other angles on wedding days. We also use this camera body during the dancing portion of the reception because we love how lightweight it is!
This is definitely our go-to lens for almost everything! We love how versatile it is and we use it for all our portrait sessions and for portraits on wedding days.
Another lens that gets used primarily for portrait session and portraits during the wedding day. We also use for the formal dances during the reception and we love how creamy it makes our images!
One of our new favorite lenses that is also very versatile and gets used a lot during portrait session and wedding days. It’s wider than the 50 mm but still gives a gorgeous creamy look to our images. We also use this lens during getting ready, ceremony, bridal party photos, and dancing during the reception.
This is one of the two zoom lenses that we own and the widest lens we have. We use this lens for getting ready, family formals, ceremony, and reception details only during wedding days and do not take it to portrait sessions.
Our other zoom lens and the largest and heaviest of them all! This is the one we use exclusively for ceremonies on wedding days and we do not take this on portrait sessions.
Another one of our wide-angle lenses that we use for whenever we’re in a tight situation. We’ve used this lens for dancing during receptions, getting ready and group photos.
Last but not least, our macro lens which we take to our engagement sessions to get ring shots and our primary lens for details on a wedding day. This lens gets those very up-close shots and we also use if for the ceremony on a wedding day so that we don’t have to get so close to the couple.
SB 800 Flash
These 2 flashes are what use for our off-camera flash setup during receptions. They don’t sell these particular ones anymore but they do have similar ones still on the market like the SB 5000.
These flashes go on our cameras during indoor ceremonies and receptions during wedding days. They are easy to use and we’ve been using them for over 5 years!
Phottix Strato II Wireless Flash Trigger
These triggers have literally been a game-changer for us and our reception lighting setup! This link is specific to the triggers for Nikon, but you can get them for Canon cameras as well. We will dive more into our reception lighting setup with all the details in an upcoming post!
We will be diving into more detail about our go-to lenses for different parts of a wedding day as well as our portrait sessions and how we use it in upcoming posts! And if you have any questions feel free to comment on this post or feel free to contact us here!
Esdras HolandaIT WAS A GREAT IDEA TALK ABOUT YOUR GEAR FOR all of us, PHOTOGRAPHERS. I LIKE YOUR WORK VERY MUCH. I’D LIKE JOINING YOU ON A PORTRAIT SESSION, A DAY. GOD BLESS YOU GUYS.