What Gear do you Use? – Pro Photographer Tells All

The following is a continuation of a series of questions with a Pro Photographer.

I am a Canon nut and always have been (it goes back to my film days when I invested way too much money in Canon lenses).

I shoot with a Canon EOS 1D Mark II as my main camera but have more recently invested in a Canon EOS 5D as a secondary camera (it was a spur of the moment thing and something I get a little grief about from other photographers who think its a little to amateur – however I love it).

Two lenses stay on my cameras almost exclusively (although I have quite a few others). They are the:

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS – while I used to use the 24-70mm f2.8 L lens I upgraded to the 24-105mm option because I wanted the extra focal length and image stabilization. While I miss the f2.8 range I find that the IS more than compensates in most cases and the extra reach that the lens gives me makes it a lot more useful. Plus if I really need the extra aperture I can switch to my other lens.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS – this lens is amazing. I do a candid/photojournalistic style of portrait photography and this gives me the reach to create intimate images without my subjects feeling intruded upon. It also gives a nice narrow depth of field (lots of blurry backgrounds) and is one of the sharpest lenses I own.

The other lens that I’m falling in love with is the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Lens which is super sharp and amazingly sharp. I prefer having a zoom on my cameras for my more candid style shots but if I have more time on my hand and am going for a more formal/posed shoot the 85mm is great.

Other Gear

• I use a Speedlight 580 EX Flash
• I’m not big on filters (I use UV filters but that’s about all)
• I have a Manfrotto tripod (although it doesn’t really fit with my style of photography so don’t use it a lot)
• I have a number of camera bags (my wife says I have a worse bag fetish than she does) for different situations but like Crumpler and Lowepro Bags for day to day photography.
• My computer set up is an Apple PowerMac. I use Apple’s Aperture 1.5 as my photo editor of choice.