What’s in my Gear Bag?
I've listed some of my current gear that I use on various shoots below. You can follow the links to find the items at Adorama, my preferred camera and video store. I sometimes get new gear or change out gear and will keep this up-to-date as much as possible. Much of my camera selection is Nikon, and one of the prime reasons is the color and tonality of the RAW photos they produce - which to my mind is better than other cameras (not that those other brands don't have their benefits as well)
Mindshift Photocross 15 Backpack
This is what I currently shove all my stuff into when I’m out on a shoot. At least, all my camera, lenses, and smaller accessories. I can fit a full frame mirrorless, 3 lenses (24-70, 70-200, 50), an E2Z adapter, ThinkTank accessories pouch, photo gloves, and a knit hat. Plenty of dividers and pouches.
Camera Bodies
Nikon Z7ii
I've been a Nikon shooter for a while now, and the Nikon Z7ii has been my primary, full-frame camera body for shooting many landscapes, portraits, wildlife, and more. At 45 MP, I love the detail and flexibility I get both in shooting photos and in cropping in post-editing without any noticeable loss of resolution or clarity. It's also a much lighter body as a mirrorless than a DSLR typically is, making it easier on my back when lugging around!
Nikon D7500
The Nikon D7500 is my workhorse of a APS-C (crop censor) camera with great dynamic range and versatility. It excells at low light photography and is one of the many reasons I utilize this camera for much of my wide field night sky photography and astrophotography work. It's rugged, solid, and dependable and a great all around DSLR just below the venerable Nikon D500 APS-C flag ship model.
Lenses
Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S
This is a fantastic all around lens. It's not the fastest, but at f/4 it can get the job done doing shooting both wide angle and medium range at 70mm. The clarity and sharpness of the glass Nikon provides for Z mounts in it's S-line is amazing across the board, and this lens is no exception. Are there better lenses? Sure. But I don't pixel-peep at 400% original size.
Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8 DX
For wide-field astrophotography and milky way shots, this lens is amazing. Super fast for low-light shooting and great clarity nearly out to the far edges. This can also provide some interesting shots for portraits and candids that give you a different view than a straight 50mm might, too.
Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S
Primarily a portrait and walk-around lens. This provides great separation between subject and background at f/1.8, and 50mm gives me plenty of focal range for shooting close, but not too close. Again, I have nothing but great things to say about the sharpness and clarity of the Z S-line lenses.
Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2
This is my telephoto landscape and wildlife/nature photography lens. I mean, come on, 600mm focal length? That's about as close as I can get to a bird without scaring it, anyway. It's also great for deep sky astrophotography work at night on a star tracker, which will give you amazingly detailed pictures of the Orion Nebula at the far end!
Nikon Z 70-200 f/2.8 S
A great telephoto lens that allows me to really compress different scenes, capture vignettes of wider views, and get some great subject/background separation opening all the way f/2.8. Amazing, professional level lens that’s weather sealed and heavily used on my shoots.
Equipment
Godox AD200 Pro
A decently powerful strobe that I use on indoor shoots as well as outdoor shoots to give me enough light to be creative with. While not a 400/600ws, at 200ws I find it’s powerful enough to give me great light on one to three subjects outdoors in daylight.
Westcott 5-in-1 Reflector
When shooting outdoors in natural light or using it as a fill source inside, this kit has held up quite a while. Easy to fold and carry, with a case, you simply unzip and recover, giving you: diffuser, white, gold, silver, and black sides.
Flashpoint Pro, Heavy Duty Lightstand
I have a number of these in the 7’ to 9’ range. They are very sturdy, solid metal builds (no cheap plastic parts), easy to setup and still light enough to carry around. Plus you can get them in 3 cool colors! (these are the air cusioned type, which frankly, are worth getting because I no longer pinch my hands and fingers)
Godox v860ii TTL Speedlight
You can’t have too many of these babies! Well, probably, but I have 3 which gives me plenty of flexibility to create various lighting setups. They’re well built and provide consistent lighting and control both on camera and off.