Video Shows How a Wedding Photographer Preps His Equipment

New York based wedding photographer Richard B Flores is taking his job very seriously. Like all of us, he works hard on the day of the event and of course the following days while he edits. But Richard is doing something maybe not many of us do: he spends the day before each event heavily prepping his equipment - from cleaning, to syncing and charging. Check out his BTS video showing the prep day and read his explanation for each of the steps.

Richard is a great wedding and engagement photographer, and he shoots a lot of weddings every year. He knew he must be very organized in order to not forget any piece of equipment before he leaves for a job, and make sure all equipment is in a perfect working condition. In order to do it, he developed a prepping system he follows before and after each of his events.

Richard made a check list where he can make sure all equipment is ready and packed and he uses it for each event he shoots. He also uses the same list when he comes back from an event to make sure nothing was left behind.

Right when he gets back home from an event he charges all batteries. It takes time and he want to make sure he's not waiting for the last minute to do it. By doing it right away he subjects himself to considerably less stress later in the process of prepping.

Below are the steps (as seen in the video) explained by Richard:

1. I make sure our office is clean. We're constantly cleaning and vacuuming to prevent dust and pet hair from getting on our equipment.

2. I clean every lens one by one. First the front lens, then the back lens. I use air to blow off anything before using Lens Cleaner and the Lens Towel. I make sure to blow air on the caps as well because those get dirty also. When blowing air onto the front and back of the glass I try to keep it away and make sure the liquid inside is settled so it doesn't spray the freezing liquid.

3. I use a Visible Dust Artic Butterfly to remove anything that is stuck inside the ridges of the front of the lens. The fiber are really thin and are good at picking everything up.

4. I wipe down the contacts on the back of the lens.

5. I close everything off and I spray lens cleaner to the outside of the lens and wipe it down with a regular microfiber towel. I make sure all the rings turn correctly and the Manual/Auto focus buttons are working properly.

6. I bring out our camera bodies and remove all batteries and grips.

7. I wipe everything down using the same Lens Cleaner spray and the microfiber towel.

8. I remove the Eye Cap and clean the viewfinder with the visible dust wipe.

9. I blow air on the entire camera and check that all the buttons are working and not stuck. (I had a wedding guest spill a drink and some of it got onto one of my cameras. I thought it was okay but it dried and got sticky and the button got stuck so I had to spray some liquid to get it to work properly again)

10. I check all the batteries to make sure they are charged and if any are low then I leave them charging. (I Usually put all batteries to charge the day after we finish a wedding so that it's ready to go.)

11. This is probably the most important one for me. Making sure our cameras are all synced. So I set them all up and make sure the time is synchronized. This makes my life easier during post processing.

12. I confirm all my settings are the same for all cameras and leave my shutter at 1/100 and ISO 100. (I don't have a reason for this but I just do it idk)

13. I Check all Memory Cards and format them in camera if needed.

14. I load fully charged batteries into all cameras and load clean memory cards.

15. After everything is finished I pack all our gear into one of our rollers.

16. I use spider holsters so I make sure 2 of the cameras have the adapter.

Do you have a system for prepping for a job? Let us in the comments!