Knowing what equipment you should take on a job is always difficult, so I thought I would share with you what I ended up taking on a 10-day ad campaign, and more importantly, why.
I have a habit of packing everything and the kitchen sink. It is probably an insecurity thing or down to some form of imposter syndrome. I am fortunate enough to be in a position where my agent gets me some pretty cool campaigns and I'm able to see my work in some really exciting places, but with this, over the years, has come the fear of not being good enough, which in return makes me pack the most obscene camera kit into the van for a shoot. I have shot Instagram campaigns on huge medium format systems and often packed more lights than the location could actually power. At some point during lockdown, this changed to a far more measured approach.
Although I have my own studio space, I tend to travel down to London for any big jobs and rent a space down there, so I am often traveling with gear, despite being a studio photographer. For this shoot, however, I feel that I managed to travel with the perfect amount of kit with a mix of my own gear and various items of rental gear.
In this video I go through the camera gear, lighting gear, digital capture, and remote backup equipment that I ended up taking with me for the 10-day photoshoot, and why I made certain choices.
What is your go-to travel kit?
I'm curious: why would the client demand the use of a particular brand of lighting kit? I can see artistic/creative demands. But, I was confused as to why they wanted Profoto over Broncolor, Elinchrome, Godox, etc.