Tools of the trade

As wedding photography goes, many people with a camera has great aspirations of being a photographer for a friend or relative's wedding. In modern weddings, there are wedding guests who sport more fancy gear than we already use. A few of these guests have professional aspirations and some happen to spot a good eye for angles and often block the professional, who has to jostle his/her spot for another angle.

As popular as digital cameras goes, its common that many guests, even our clients, own digital SLRs or other high end equipment themselves. The most popular question who be, which brand is better or what lenses to use.

I would like to tell you, tools are little like your own personality. Some people are flashy, some are more conserved. Brands are something like that, Some folks are attracted by certain brands as a prestige or lifestyle. I cannot tell you my lifestyle suit yours, so whatever brand you choose, its more to reflect your style and needs.

My choice of camera is the canon EOS system as this point of time for wedding photography. I like the shape of the camera bodies and the buttons layouts are very logical for my handling. I have very little to complaint how the system works and I'm generally comfortable to use anything it offers, from the entry level to its professional range. Yes design is very important to me, I cannot work with something is not pleasing in my eyes.

The lens in my kits evolves from time to time, as I update my hardware to make my shooting easier and new tools always never fail to inspire me. From the beginning I work with a huge zoom lens that covers almost all my shots, a 28-135mm and another wider lens, the 20-35mm for my wide angles. nowadays, my kit is spit into a morning and night assemble.

The morning kit contains the popular 16-35mm wide angle lens and the 24-70mm standard lens, both lenses are f2.8 and provides me with great coverage from pre-dawn to noon. Some rooms and spaces are rather poorly lit and I have a couple of prime lenses to work by, mainly the 24mm, 50mm and 85mm. If there is a large garden, or church ceremony, I would whip out the 70-200mm lens.

The night kit is more focus on shooting with the maximum amount of available light in ballrooms, So usually zooms lenses are kept away and my main lenses to work on are my 24mm and the 85mm prime lenses. I usually take the 50mm as well as the 135mm lenses to complete my night coverage. Most of these lenses have a maximum aperture of F1.2 to F2.

There, the kit was built from 6 years ago as I slowly evolve my way of shooting. My most favourite lens is the 85mm and the most versatile would be the 24-70mm. I shoot with 2 to 3 bodies, usually the 1Dmk2n, 5D and the Eos 1V.

Hope you equipment folks would enjoy 'peeping' into my kit.