What is in My Bag? Find Out What This Southcoast Baby Photographer Carries in her Camera Bag
People often ask me what my favorite lenses are or wonder what I carry in my camera bag. Through the years, I’ve owned about 6 different camera bags. I’m on my 7th right now. It’s a backpack by Case Logic. It’s smaller than all of my other bags but has plenty of room to hold my camera and a few lenses. I love it. It’s comfortable and holds just what I need. Since it’s smaller, it has forced me to only carry what I need for each session rather than lugging around extra lenses and photography paraphernalia.
There are a few things I always keep in my bag, no matter what type of session I am doing. Then there are other things that are in my bag depending on the type of session I am doing.
The standard items are a gray card, trigger for my studio lights, an off camera flash, extra batteries, extra SD cards, a small cleaning kit to clean my lenses, a rain jacket for my camera, pens, and business cards. I also usually keep a protein bar just in case my session(s) run longer and I get hungry.
If I’m shooting a newborn session, my Sigma Art 35mm 1.4 is my goto lens. I also make sure that I have my 105mm 2.8 macro in my bag as well, for those shots of tiny fingers and toes. Since I usually do family and sibling shots as part of a newborn session, I have my Nikkor 28-70mm 2.8 in my bag as well.
For my maternity sessions, my goto lens is just my Nikkor 28-70mm 2.8.
With indoor children sessions (cake smashes, milestones, etc.) I mostly shoot with my Nikkor 28-70mm 2.8 but I always have my macro with me as well.
For outdoor children and/or family sessions, my goto lenses are my Nikkor 70 – 200mm 2.8 and my Nikkor 85mm 1.4.
Between Mr. Z, aka Drew Zion, (who is also a professional photographer) and me, we have a few other lenses in our repertoire, including the all popular “nifty fifty”. But the ones listed are my staple goto lenses.
For a body, I shoot with a Nikon D610 and have a Nikon D7000 as a backup.
For those of you with DSLR cameras, what are your favorite lenses? What are the staples in your camera bag? Please comment on Social Media.