Equipment
Since moving to digital photography from film approx 6 years ago, my preference has been for Canon gear. My first purchase was a Canon EOS 10D which I soon upgraded to the ever popular EOS 20D and then the full frame EOS 5D along with a BG-E4 Battery Grip. The full frame sensor of the EOS 5D allowed me to take images as I saw them through the lens without any multiplication of the focal length and I found that this feature was especially useful for landscape photography, as it allowed me to get better use from my wide angle lens. I have recently upgraded to the EOS 5D Mark 2 (again with a full frame sensor) which is a truly fabulous camera.
Talking of lenses, I mainly use the following:
- Canon EF 16 – 35mm f2.8 L USM wide-angle lens
- Canon EF 24 – 105mm f/4 L IS USM Zoom lens
- Canon EF 100 – 400mm f/4.5 – 5.6 L IS USM Zoom lens
- Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens
I also have a Canon Extender EF 1.4 X II for use with the 100 – 400mm Zoom lens and a Canon Speedlight 430EX for use in low light levels and for indoor photography.
To support my camera I use a Manfrotto 055 PROB tripod with an 804RCT 3 pan-tilt head which gives me excellent stability on uneven terrain and in the gale force winds that summer in the Lake District can sometimes bring! I use this in conjunction with a Canon RS80 remote switch to obtain the crisp images essential for printing and publishing.
I own a wide variety of Lee filters but, in all honesty, I use very few of these to get the images that I require. My set of ND grads, however, are in constant use allowing me to correctly expose images where there is a wide contrast between light and dark. I also use a polarising filter when photographing in bright sunlight especially when this falls on the lakes and tarns which appear in many of my Lakeland images.
My preference is for Sandisk Extreme III CompactFlash cards. Memory is very cheap nowadays so, as I always shoot in RAW, I keep a good supply of these in my case and housekeep them regularly!
I store my kit in either a Lowepro Orion Trecker or a Tamrac Expedition 5 depending on how much kit I require for a day’s shoot and how strong I’m feeling as the later when full is very heavy!
I have recently begun to shoot some wild life images to fulfil a long-time ambition of mine. To assist with this, I have purchased a Canon EOS 400D which when coupled with my 100 – 400mm lens and my 1.4 X Extender allows me to obtain a much longer focal length than is available with my full frame sensor 5D. This is an area of photography that I know is very competitive but which my love of wildlife impels me to enter.