Professional Equipment
Professional Photography Equipment Advise & Tips
Hello friends family and clients. I am so thankful you have decided to drop in again and read my blog and view my images. I deeply appreciate your referrals, and taking the time to look at my images and share them with others. It means the world to me to be able to do what I love and also help others with their business.
To start todays topic on camera equipment I want to share a story with you about golf ( it will all make sense in a minute ). Once I decided to go play a round and was paired up with a couple. They had the top of the line new golf clubs, bags, rolex watches, brand new sun glasses a fancy cart and I’m pretty sure $3000.00 cash in a money clip that they liked to flash around when the beer lady came. I thought to myself these people must be professional golfers. I humbly walked up with my old golf clubs my grandfather gave me when I was 12 and my old trusty Ping bag it took me a year to save up for when I was in grade 9. We proceed to play the round and I will say without hesitation they where the worst golfers I had ever seen in my life. I played a steady round and humbly shot a round of 80. The moral to the story is the equipment doesn’t make you a better golfer if you don’t have the drive to be a good golfer. You can have all the best camera equipment in the world and be a terrible photographer. It will always come down to understanding and practicing the fundamentals and having the pure drive and determination to be creative, original and find that talent expression within yourself. With that being said when you have honed those skills and trained your eye and found what you love to photograph then the equipment becomes important. To be a professional you must have it all. The talent, the drive the creativity and the top of the line equipment. When it all comes together then you can truly advertise yourself as a professional and increase your rates. When people hire me they want to see and feel that I am a true professional. They want that re assurance that when they spend money they are getting a professional service and I will deliver. This shows in my equipment my understanding of camera gear, work flow, editing, back up systems, all of it is important.
Here are some of my favourite Equipment tips
- Invest in the sensor – You can always rent lenses when you travel or borrow lenses from a friend but you will always need to have a great full sensor camera body to give you the quality of images you need.
- Have a good range of lenses – Try to find a range of lenses that you can have on you at all times. I personally always carry a 16-35 mm, 50mm, 70-200mm. This covers a all the focal lengths I need day to day.
- Shop used – You can find a lot of good camera deals online and even amazon has used options. I’m not saying to cheap out but you can get some really good deals on bags, tripods, and lenses.
- Keep your gear – When you acquire gear hang onto it. If your running a photography business its important to have a wide variety of gear to choose from for different projects.
- Good friends – Find a group of friends that have similar gear and help each other out.
- Learn to be resourceful – You don’t need top of the line everything. There are a lot of little things with camera gear that add up that can be expensive. Spend the money on the important things and be resourceful with some of the others.
- Find the balance – Some items of equipment you must go for the best to truly get you into the professional category and its a must you have it. Some things like mentioned in number 6 you can be resourceful.
- Don’t listen to a word I say – Do what feels best for you. This is just my experience. All artists have different spins on the equipment and thats what makes us all different and unique.
Here is a little peak at what I use
Canon Bodies – 5d Mark 3 & 4, 5dsr
Canon Lenses – 70-200 2.8 L – 16-35mm 2.8 L
Zies Lenses – 50mm Macro and Prime 1.2, 85mm 1.4
Canon Speed Light Flashes and Pocket Wizards
Aquatech elite series warehousing equipment
Epson- Back up drives
Lacie Tech Hardrive Systems
Dakine Bags
Pelican cases
CRKT Knifes and Survival Tools
Apple Computers
Patagonia Wetsuits, clothing and travel equipment
Aqua Quest Dry Bag systems
I hope this has been of some value to you. If you ever have any questions or need some help. I do one on one consulting and lessons and can help you get on the right track towards being a professional photographer.
I have a lot of exciting things happening and have been sourcing suppliers to help get the cost of art down to help those who want a metal print, acrylic, canvas or custom framed image. I have all the descriptions of this on my website.
and here is a link to the full explanation of art and services that I offer.
Please contact me say hello. I go above and beyond for my friends and clients. I love appreciate you all so much. Thank you for choosing Nick Sopczak Photography Freelance and Fine Art
My best
Nick
Leave a reply