My Favorite Equipment
Quite often you see my face and you know who I am. So, today I wanted to introduce you to the equipment that I take with me on my photographing flowers sessions.
My camera, I have a Canon 5D Mark ii and I have used this camera for many years now. I got this camera when we, Bryce and I graduated at the same time, were just about to graduate from graduate school at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. So this camera has been on many adventures with me. I have a few different lenses that I use often but these are the three that go with me on every flower photographing trip. My trusty 100mm macro lens, pictured on the camera, has been my go-to lens for photographing flowers since I first laid my hands on it. I was able to check out lenses at school and after a few times of using it, I was hooked and purchased my own knowing that it would be used a lot! I love this lens because it gives a life-size 1:1 magnification, it also has a very wide range of f-stops, which tell you how shallow the depth of field is, blurry, and how deep the depth of field is, sharp, from f-2.8 all the way to f-32. I love to photograph at f-2.8 which creates a beautiful shallow depth of field and allows me to pick the area that I want to have sharp in my images.
The next lens I love to use is my 85mm, f-1.8, this isn’t a run-of-the-mill lens that you would want to use in any and all situations. This is a portrait lens and that is just what I love to use it for, both with people and flowers. Again, I love to photograph with my lens wide open at the lowest f-stop so that my background creates a bokeh effect. The last lens I like to take with me is my 50mm, f-1.4, it is a nice “must-have” lens that is so lightweight and of course, it has the artsy shallow depth of field. I use this one for images that I am taking just a little further back from my subject.
The last couple of items are my diffuser and my monopod. I have a few different diffusers and reflectors but this is a nice pocket-sized diffuser that I can take with me just about anywhere. I use the diffuser when I am evening out the sun, blocking the sun if there is too much of it, creating even light, and sometimes blocking the sun from getting in my eyes while photographing. Last but not least is the monopod. Now not always do I have my monopod with me on day trips around town but when I am away from home I like to make sure that I have that extra bit to make sure I am steady and going to get the photograph.
Not pictured but often I bring along a kneeling mat to give my knees a bit of cushion and also for the times that I am photographing cacti. On more than one occasion I have gone home with a spine or two in my hands or my pants, so I have learned!
This is the equipment that I most often take with me and what I would call my favorite, for sure!
