What's in my bag

Local photographers email me a lot about my style and what equipment I use, mainly camera bodies and my favourite lenses.  Instead of answering every email, I am directing them to this post.

My journey started with a present from my husband, the Canon Rebel Kiss. Remember that baby? It was truly loved, and really encouraged me to take my love of photography further with the options of purchasing professional lenses. This is where my love (and where all my money went!)

At the time the Rebel was one of the first digital SLR's to learn with, at a reasonable price.

I first began shooting on location photos as my love grew into an expensive obsession as I built my portfolio with a lot of practice (and some terrible mistakes along the way!)

My first lens was obviously the kit lens 18-55mm which I did my early portraits with. I soon learnt to never touch this lens again. It is only used rarely with my personal digital slr for family pictures for my personal blog when I am not packing the pro gear.

My first lens was the more affordable Canon 50mm 1.8 prime lens, and then shortly after upgraded to the 50mm f1.4. This is what spurred me to take my passion and start a photography business. I put it off for way too long. I am not sure why I held back. I absolutely adore pictures!

I have upgraded the camera bodies several times through out the years. I now use a 70D and backup 60D.  These bodies show an amazing difference in clarity, and professional options which really helped me take my images to the next level. I mastered all my camera settings and how they work together and sank a small fortune into studio lighting, flashes and accessories.

I added the 85mm prime 1.2 to my arsennal, a 28mm 1.2 (or 1.4 can't remember!) and the 24-70mm f2.8. I threw in a hotshoe to pc converter, a 580ex speedlight, a 550ex back up speedlight and several barn doors, gels, umbrellas, softboxes and monolights.

My main studio set up includes the main strobe light and softbox, 2 slave lights with umbrellas, a hair light and an array of studio props including backdrops, boxes, baskets, newborn furs, headbands, hats and toys.