Landscape photography : Gear Essentails
First off let me say that you don’t need this gear to take great photos, it will simply add to your creativity pool to enhance your skill you already have. I’m not a massive gear nut when it comes to photography gear, to behest if I'm going out on a shoot I try to pack as minimal as possible especially if I'm hiking all day to get to the location. However since I've started this landscape journey I've been able to pin point every bit of gear I need in my kit depending on what I'm aiming to shoot. Planning is a must before going out and trying to take a collection of images. Before I go out I generally ask myself a list of questions (it helps to write them down)
Where am I going?
What am I expecting to see? (Mountains, animals, desert, gorges etc)
What do I want to capture?
What is the point of me going to this location (whats the story behind it)
Once you answer these questions you’ll be able to narrow down exactly what you need to bring. For most general situations this is a full list of what I’ll take in my kit each and every time I go out.
Tripod
Without a doubt one of the most important pieces of gear in my kit, I’ll basically never leave my tripod at home. Most times when I’m shooting it’ll be either night time, dusk or dawn which basically means it could be low light. I like my images to sharp from the front of the image all the way to the back so my aperture is generally between F11-F16 which can mean my shutter speed gets so low I need a tripod to keep it stable. If I try without a tripod it means ill have to bump up my iso which will introduce noise which I can avoid. For longer exposure shots theres also no way you can do it by hand. This is why a tripod is a must have in my kit.
2. Lenses
Bit of a no brainer, without lenses we aren’t going to have must luck taking photos. But in all seriousness I like to carry with me a variety of lenses to capture any scene I may encounter.
I carry a wide angle zoom (17-28 F2.8) a medium zoom (28-75 F2.8) and potentially a telephoto lens depending on what I'm shooting (70-200mm F4). Carrying this variety of lenses gives me the ability to capture a wide variety of images and gives a wide variety of compositions. There are times when I leave the telephoto at home, it really depends on where I'm going and what I'm carrying. If my pack is full of hiking gear sometimes I can’t justifying adding more weight to my already heavy pack.
3. Cleaning Pack
A small pouch full of everything you need to clean your lenses and sensor to ensure your images won’t have dust specs all over them. I have a Zeiss kit which includes a cleaning cloth, 10 cleaning alcohol wipes, a rocket blow, cleaning fluid and a thin bristle brush. This is all I need to keep everything in perfect condition during the trip. I always try my best to keep dust out of the sensor to ensure I don’t need to bring sensor wipes as well.
4. Filters
This is a massive must have for me, it opens up so much potential in getting creative with your photography, especially if theres running water involved.
A CPL (circular polarised filter) will always be in my pack, its just a filter that is handy for alot of situation, especially if you’re shooting in daylight or near water. It adds a bit more contrast, saturation and gets rid of those harsh sun rays.
A Set of ND filters is essential for slowing down that shutter speed to get into long exposures. Personally I like to use 100mm square filters, I always carry a ND6, ND8, ND10, ND16 and maybe a GND6 & GND8 (graduated ND). I used to use screw type ND filters but I had problems with vignetting so I switched a variable ND which worsened my situation. VND’s are personally my pet hate (not sure why). Once I switched to square filters it made everything a lot easier, the benefits of using square filters compared to circular ones outstayed the cons. It just made sense.
5. Headlamps
A quality headlamp is not only essential but probably very important to ensure you don’t die or seriously hurt yourself. I picked up a pitzyl headlamp which has a rear battery compartment for 4 AA batteries. Not sure how long it lasts (I use it a-lot before changing batteries) but its only run out on me once, which leads me to the next point.
6. Spare Batteries
I’ve only run out battery in my headlamp and phone once, and it happened to be the same day. Which lead me to being stuck in pitch black darkness trying to get back to my van. Since then Ive learnt, now I carry a 6 pack of AA batteries for my headlamp, a spare camera battery and a battery pack to charge my phone incase it runs out of charge. Theres nothing worse than having your headlamp go flat to pull out your phone and find it flat as well so make sure you carry spares.
I like to keep my pack pretty minimal, I don’t carry a remote for my camera because I feel I don’t need it, for long exposure I use a timer or my phone which is basically a remote anyway. It's a basic kit but it works well for me. If you think theres something I should be carrying which I'm not please comment below!
Thanks for reading this and hopefully you find it enjoyable! Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any new blogs or updates. All the kit I use can be found below!
Cheers Guys!