Like many photographers, the stash of gear in my house is forever growing. I won’t waste your time and mine by listing everything that I own but I will share with you the items that I use every day and couldn’t live without.

Here’s a list of my favourite photography gear and why I love each item.

Canon 5d Mark 3

Why I love it…

This is my workhorse. Sure it’s a bit outdated now and I could walk into a camera shop and by something with more megapixels at half the size. But this old girl has never let me down. She just keeps working day in and day out. It is bulky and heavy and does wear on your shoulder particularly when attaching the 70-200 mm lens which weighs in at another 1kg just on it’s own. But the bottom line is that it’s still working and I have no real reason to change. Until I see a reason to change that will make me more money or significantly improve my photography I think I just keep shooting with this one.

Sirui travel tripod

Why I love it…

My trusty tripod. It has travelled everywhere with me. All through the most challenging terrain in South East Asia, Australia and more. It never fails, it always works, I just love it.

Canon wireless speedlights

Why I love it…

A lot of photography purists snigger at the suggestion of using off-camera speedlights. They seem to think that you need to have very expensive and/or very large strobes. Well, I’m here to say that I have the large strobes, C stands, etc etc and when it comes time for a portrait photography session I will reach for my trusty speedlights 90% of the time. The reason is they are so nimble. You can work with them in tight spaces. You can place them anywhere for that little bit of light like a hair or rim light. They travel well, something that is well appreciated when doing on-site corporate headshots. These should be in the kit of anyone who is considering offering professional a headshot service.

Canon 16-35 mm EF L lens

Why I love it…

This is the lens that lives on my camera body by default. It’s a fantastic lens for landscape photography. This was the first decent lens I ever bought and it hasn’t failed me yet.

Canon 70-200 mm EF L lens

Why I love it…

This lens is a beast. When I say a beast I mean it’s performance and the weight. Coming in at 1kg it is best used with the help of a tripod. But when you want that beautiful portrait shot at 2.8 there is nothing better. The compression it gives is also amazing.

My DJI Mavic 2 Pro

Why I love it…

This thing is a beast. It’s awesome to fly. It takes excellent 4k footage. As long as you play by all the rules in your area you will find that this piece of kit is a great addition to any photographers bag. I particularly love the fact that I can take ariel photographs in raw mode.

My GoPro Hero 9 Black

Why I love it…

I use this little guy for a lot of different projects including for my digital agency business. If you’ve watched one of my street photography videos this is the camera that takes the POV footage. It has awesome stabilisation and decent quality video.

Canon G7X mark 3

Why I love it…

This is only a recent addition to my kit. But with my focus for my photography business being on content marketing I needed a video camera that worked well in low light conditions. The G7X mark 3 has a fantastic sensor for such a small camera. Combined with the face tracking it works really well as a vlogging camera. I have rigged it out with a SmallRig cage, microphone and and LED light.

Camera bag #1

Why I love it…

My Pelican 1535 is my workhorse pack. It fits everything I need for both taking landscape photos and vlogging about landscape photos. 2 lenses, 2 tripods, My main camera, a vlogging camera set up, batteries, filters and more. It’s on wheels so it doesn’t kill my shoulders. And with the modular velvet & velcro dividers, I can configure the case for anything. It transforms well into my mobile headshot studio taking 3 nano light stands, 2 umbrellas and a camera kit. This piece is not cheap at nearly $600 AUD but I do highly recommend it.

Camera bag #2

Why I love it…

My sling bag is my most used bag of all the ones I own. Its always sitting close by filled with my camera, a back up battery and my shutter release. This bag is a great second bag for travelling overseas as it fits under the seat and is considered a “Laptop bag” by the airline check in staff.

Camera bag #3

Why I love it…

I think the search for the perfect camera bag is a never-ending one. But this Niko backpack by Chrome comes close. It’s small enough to fit on a plane as carry on luggage. It’s weather-sealed and quite tough. The only thing is the velcro straps on the outside aren’t worth a damn. They lose adhesiveness quite quickly and I would never attach any of my valuable camera gear there.

My winter jacket

Why I love it…

For years I had bargain-basement jackets from discount stores. I finally scrounged up enough money to purchase this jacket on sale at Macpac. It’s awesome. It blocks all the wind and is a generous size on me so I can wear a thick woolen jumper underneath. The big pockets are great for quickly dumping lens hoods and filters in.

My waterproof hiking boots

Why I love them…

One of the best things you can invest in when you are starting out in landscape photography is not a $5K camera but instead a good pair of warm boots. Mine are waterproof, have thick soles to keep out the cold which makes life easier during long hours standing in one spot waiting for the light.

My paper backgrounds

Why I love them…

When I do portrait photography I almost always use a paper backdrop. I have a bunch of different colors but my go to color would be the neutral grey, the reason is it’s easy to manipulate later in photoshop.

Macbook pro 15 inch

Why I love it…

Just like my camera, my mac is a pice of kit that I use day in and day out. Now that we live in a world where digital photography is the standard you must have a decent computer for editing photos. This mac is more than a few years old. But she just keeps working. The hard drive is going strong after all these years. Maybe its because I’ve always had external hard drives hooked up as scratch disks for editing photos and video.  As I always say “Once you had Mac you never go back” 🙂

Photoshop and Lightroom

Why I love it…

Let’s face it. If you’re going to call yourself a photographer in the 21st century you will need to edit your digital images somehow. The photographer’s subscription package from Adobe gives you the power of Lightroom and Photoshop for a reasonable price.

Conclusion:

I try not to be a gearhead, constantly upgrading gear and wasting money. Instead, I prefer to upgrade my skillset with online courses and hours practising my craft. Also because I do commercial work most of my photography spending is on flash gear, softboxes, tripod heads, lenses etc.

As time goes on I’ll change some of the items on this list. Keep shooting.

Will Faulkner.