Nature Photography Equipment - Follow up
As a follow up to my previous article titled, Nature Photography Equipment, I asked some other nature photographers what equipment they carry when out in the field.
Ned Levi, a professional photographer from Philadelphia, gave me permission to quote him and had this to say:
I’ll tell you a little of what I carry for my nature photography.
The first thing I don’t carry is a backpack. I find it’s too hard to get my stuff in and out, and it tires me out carrying it. I use the Think Tank Photo modular system to carry my gear, from lenses, to memory cards, to everything else. I generally wear a light weight photographer’s vest too, with a zillion pockets for odds and ends.
I do carry a super wide angle zoom lens (10-20mm) for my D200, and my 18-200mm for a lot of general shots, but I also carry a zoom telephoto, longer than that 70-300mm you mentioned, as it just doesn’t reach far enough. I carry a Nikkor 80-400mm VR.
There are times when I take a monopod, but my carbon fiber based tripod is light enough that I sling that over my shoulder, especially if I’m out at dawn, and/or sunset. At those times and for panoramas you just can’t substitute anything for a tripod.
There are lots of times I’m taking wildlife photos of animals which are on the ground, and I want to take the photo at ground level. There is nothing better to save one’s back, and help you not have to lie on the ground when taking that photo than a Right Angle Viewfinder.
If there is any threat of rain, I always have my rain jacket of course, and my Think Tank modular bags all have built-in rain covers. I also carry my Storm Jacket rain cover for my D200. Just because it’s raining doesn’t mean you can’t get great photos.
Lately, I’ve been taking my Garman Geko 301 with me, attached to my D200, which will allow the camera to record the GPS coordinates of each of my photos. I can plot where I’ve been and better identify the shots.
————
Another photographer, known as Matcam, mentioned that he uses a “half vest”, which is designed for bird hunting. It’s actually not a vest, but rather a belt with 2 very big pockets in front to hold shotgun shells and a larger pocket in the rear to hold the birds. When he gets where he’s going, he unloads most of his gear from his pack into the pockets in the half vest like his lenses, filter wallets, blowers, brushes, lens caps, hot shoe covers, etc. He mentioned that the rear pocket is big enough to carry his waders. He bought it at Cabela’s.
————
Related Articles:
Nature Photography Equipment
Outdoor Photography Lighting Tips
What to take hiking on a Nature Photography Excursion
All Nature Photography Blog Articles on The Lens Flare
Tags: camera, lens, Nature Photography, nature photography equipment
