On Gear
While gear isn’t everything, it is definitely important if we want to reach our full potential as photographers. Below is a list of my current gear, and a short explanation as to why I choose the gear I do. I have broken down my gear into seven sections: Camera Setup, Lenses, Drone Gear, Camera Bags, Essential Accessories, and Editing Gear. Much of this gear accompanies me during my travels.
When it comes to the camera, the Sony a7III is an obvious choice for a main body. There is a reason why it’s one of the most popular cameras for professional photographers in 2018/2019! The A7III has an awesome 24mp sensor that delivers not only awesome raw photos, but gorgeous 4k video. It feels great in the hand, has incredible auto-focus capabilities, and is a beast in low-light. I’ve shot with other high end cameras, but this one seems to trump them all. The Sony A6500 is my current side camera. I use this as a second camera when filming my courses, and it’s also a great travel companion since it is so small and compact. I always recommend this as a starter camera.
Lenses
Lens wise, these 4 lenses cover all of my bases. The Sony 55mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.4 lenses fantastic for portraiture without sacrificing too much versatility. The 35mm f/1.4 is tack sharp and is great for street or fashion photography, and the 16-35mm f/4 is a versatile lens that I use for landscape photography. While my prime lenses aren’t as convenient as zoom lenses, the artistic pop they deliver is too gorgeous to give up.
For the drone, it’s the Mavic 2 Pro without question. The 20mp sensor is amazing for such a portable drone, and the software is better than any other drone brand on the market. If you plan to travel with a drone, you must also purchase the Fly More Kit. You will need the extra batteries, and bag included in the kit is also very useful. Lastly, the PolarPro filters are an awesome addition to any drone kit. I use the ND4/PL filter for all of my shots to help soften the highlights and bring out the colors of the image. Highly recommend!
Camera Bags
I picked up the Lowpro in April of 2019, and I already love it. It’s the bag I currently travel with since it can hold so much gear and it offers fantastic protection. I also love the WANDRD PRVKE 31 backpack, the design is sleek and it holds quite a bit. I recommend this bag for anyone that has less than 4 lenses. The Incase DSLR Pack was my main backpack for awhile, it has fantastic capacity and it looks great, but it started to hurt my back when I loaded it up with all my gear. The Peak Design 10L sling is what I use for quick day trips around town, when I don’t want to carry my laptop. I have used all of these bags for quite some time, but find the Lowpro bag to be better suited for carrying all of my camera gear as it has a bigger camera compartment than the others. I can hold my camera body, all 4 of my lenses, my gimbal, my DJI Osmo and several other accessories in this bag. If you have more than 3 lenses, I recommend picking up the LowPro Protactic 450 or the Incase DSLR Pro Pack.
There are a few products I would like to highlight here, starting with the Zhiyun Gimbal and the DJI Osmo. I use these for video creation and they allow me get extremely smooth and cinematic shots that instantly up my production quality. They have become invaluable tools to me. The Peak Design products have become some of my all-time favorite accesories. They are incredibly strong and I am always confident my camera is safe when attached to them. The Joby Gorillapod is my favorite travel companion, I use it for all kinds of things while I am on the road and it is small and easy to travel with. Lastly, I love the 128GN fast SD card from SanDisk. They hold so much data and I can shoot for days without clearing them, highly recommend these SD cards.
Editing Gear
Macbook Pro 15 inch is my daily driver. It’s sleek, light, and powerful. I have two of these 4TB WD Hard-drives that I use to store all of my information (as well as on the cloud). These are great as I have accumulated a ton of data over the years. The Sony headphones are great when editing in a loud cafe, and the Razer mouse is extremely precise which is crucial for photo editing.
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