I have all sorts of gear and accessories that I have collected over the years along with allsorts of useful bits and pieces in my camera back. Browsing Amazon and other camera websites, spotting stuff in sales, seeing what other photographers use and recommend has resulted in all manner of things I have tried – some I use all the time whereas others I bring out when I have a particular idea or need or am taking a particular type of picture. In fact, I’ve just downsized my camera bag as I was carrying too much around with me all the time and moved most of my gear to another carry box that’s also easy to throw into the car boot when I go out and about.
In my camera bag now I just keep the essentials:
- My camera and a few lenses
- Spare camera batteries
- Spare memory cards – you can never have too many!
- My drone – for another perspective (up above) I fly a DJI Mini 2
- The controller, spare batteries and spare propellers, etc. for the drone
And that’s about it! I have deliberately cut that down to the absolute essentials to make sure that I am focussed and don’t spend too much time overthinking what I else I could be using and I’m certainly no longer carrying gear around for the sake of it. Often now this makes me think about what I’m intending to go out and shoot and it makes me plan better. There are times when I get out and find I’ve left something at home but that’s where the ‘spare box’ comes in:
My next most important stuff is kept in a big plastic container that, having said that above, tends to find its way into the car most times! There is all manner of things in there:
- My DSLR tripod – I used to have a cheap £20-£30 tripod when I got started until I invested in a 3 Legged Thing tripod a couple of years ago which I love. Very compact (but not the lightest) it is certainly sturdy and extends to a great height
- A cheap mobile phone tripod
- An ‘octopus’ camera tripod where the legs bend and grip around stuff
- A Go-Pro camera and box of attachments – you never know when you might need to capture some action video!
- Binoculars
- A selection of coloured and special effects filters and adaptors for the various size lenses I carry
- Remote triggers – some link to apps on my mobile phone, some are wired remotes and some are wireless (including the standard Nikon one)
- A programmable, wired remote for taking timelapse photos
- A flashgun
- Cleaning cloths, pens, batteries, a torch, leaflets from the front of camera mags, etc.
At some point or another all of this comes in handy and gear comes / goes into this box over time.