Pro Photographers Camera Bag
Have you ever wondered what I use on my photoshoots?
I’m a full-time professional photographer and I mainly photograph portraits. Occasionally, I shoot a wedding, but most of the time it’s portraits.
Highlights from this video:
0:03 What’s in a professional photographer’s camera bag?
0:34 My camera bag
2:30 Rundown of the photo gear inside my bag
My Trusty Old Camera Bag (been everywhere)
This is my camera bag that I take with me in every shoot, and I want to show you exactly what’s inside. First of all, the reason why I chose this camera bag is because:
- I can fit everything I need in it really easily.
- When I’ve got it on my shoulder, I can actually open it up and I can take things out without having to put my bag down. Sometimes you don’t have a chance to do so. Maybe the ground is wet or you’re running around and you want to take everything with you.
So, this is my camera bag with everything I’ve got in it, everything that I need on a portrait shoot. It is a reasonably large bag, it’s quite heavy because I have quite a lot of stuff in here. This is what’s inside my camera bag.
Everything has its place (quick check)
One of the reasons why I chose this bag is because I can look at it and get a quick view of whether everything’s in there, and whether I left anything on the photo-shoot or in my studio.
Photo Gear Inside My Bag
- Canon 5D II with 70-200mm f4 lens (main lens I use for portraits).
- 24-105 mm F4 Canon Lens – backup lens just in case my main camera lens fails & if I need a wider angle lens.
- 85mm fix focal length lens, it’s an F1.8 lens. I’ve tried a couple of 85mm lens, but this is the one I chose because it’s relatively quick focusing. It’s got a very large aperture of 1.8, which gives me a very shallow depth of field. This is great for close-up portraits or photographing models or kids. When you’re really close, it just gives you a beautiful shallow DOF.
- Flash Unit with my cheat sheet of names on the back (I’ve got another video about how I remember everyone’s names).
- Filters – Neutral density filter and a polarizing filter.
- Model release forms in case I’m photographing models, always good to have one on hand.
- Spare memory cards if I run low on memory space. I always got a few extra cards and I keep them in this small pelican case, so if my camera bag falls in the water and everything else gets ruined, I don’t lose my images.
- Spare batteries for my flash unit and my camera. My camera battery has a cover at the bottom, which means it is fully charged, when the cover is off, it means it’s empty.
- Leatherman Multi-tool for fixing anything that needs to be fixed on the shoot, so that I don’t need to cancel the photoshoot.
- A couple of pens – never know when you might need one?
- Color Checker for when I’m photographing a commercial photo-shoot. I have this along to make sure that the colors are perfect.
- Shower Cap is great when you’re caught in the rain storm. You can put this on your camera to protect it from the water & the elements. Have one in your bag at all times because you’ll never know when you’re going to need it.
- Stands for my camera flashes if I’m using off-camera lights.
- Cable Release which I use to attach to the camera and the flash, which allows you to hold the flash away from your camera. This comes very handy if you haven’t got any triggers. You can achieve amazing results with this off-camera accessory.
Choosing the Right Camera Bag for You
Make sure that you get a camera bag that:
- Protects your Equipment – all your camera equipment is really expensive, and you don’t want to ruin your gear.
- Fits the Photo Gear you Need – What do you shoot the most? What gear do you need to take with you?
- Accessibility is easy – Can you easily grab the gear you need, while on a shoot?
- Everything has it’s place – where you can easily look at the things inside and know whether anything is missing or not.
What about you? What’s in your camera bag? Share them at the comments down below.
This is Brent, have an awesome day!
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Brent:
Do you use a harness to take some of the load off your back? Have you used any back packs dedicated to camera gear? What is your opinion of the “quick draw” straps such as Sun Sniper, or do you do any street photography?
Albert
Enjoyed the video on your camera bag contents. Although I’m a Nikon shooter, I carry pretty much the same thing, with a few modifications:
1 – Light Meter – Even though I use it more in my studio, I like to have my light meter just in case.
2 – Lens Cleaning Kit – a few pre-moistened lens cleaners; compact micro-fiber lens cloth (attached to each camera), combine lens brush/cleaning pen.
3 – Notepad – a small, top-spiral note pad (and pen)
4 – Background Cloths – Two (one black, one white) small (36″ square) pieces of lightweight cloth that I can hang as a quick headshot background. Takes up almost no space in the bag.
5 – Second Speedlight
I will start carrying a shower cap — great idea.
Last, a piece of great advice I got from Vincent Versace recently – Never have your lenses mounted on your camera body until you are at the shoot location (i.e.,when you have the camera out and on your shoulder, ready to shoot; not when traveling in train, plane, or automobile). It is too easy for a bump or other accident to damage the lens mounting mechanism, which will a) probably ruin your shoot and b) require a *very* expensive repair (for both camera and lens).
Thanks again for a very informative video.
dds
Great info Dennis. Thanks for the comment. Brent
Brett,
Very helpful and informative video. I never knew you could stand the lenses on end as I always laid them down. This way they take up a lot less room and you can get more in the bag.
Thank you so much for sharing and doing these videos. I love them…
No worries. Yes, lenses are made to stand on their heads – unlike us humans 😉
Brent
Hello brent,
I was wondering what is the name and model of your camera bag
Beucase it looks good thank you.
Called “cobra”. don’t know what version or who make it. I’ve had it so long that the info has worn off.