What’s in my camera bag?
I started shooting in 2010 with a Rebel T3 Canon camera. It was just a consumer grade, cropped sensor camera that I was over the moon for when I first got it. I quickly realized that I would need a little more speed from my shutter after I became interested in sports photography. I invested in a Canon 7D, mainly because of the shooting speed of 8 frames per second. A few years after that I became more interested in shooting families and individuals, so I got a Canon 5D Mark III. A fine work horse of a camera that brought me through many successful years of shooting. I switched my main camera to the Canon 5D Mark III and kept the 7D as a back up in my bag. That system worked well for a long time. My most recent purchase was in February of 2025 when I bought outside of the Canon boat and got my first mirrorless Sony camera. The Sony A7 IV. I was SO skeptical switching platforms, but I’m not sorry about it! This camera blows me away. Mirrorless is definitely all the hype. If you’re a photographer, this is the way. This model is also excellent for low light and video. I am not a specialist in video, but I plan on learning. I would love to offer video!
If your photographer only shows up with one camera and one battery, …oooff, I hope that’s not the case. I’ve seen this happen at a friends wedding. A wedding. It was clear that he was probably just a friend of the family doing her a favor, but still. I’m way too type A for that. I carry 3 bodies, several lenses, several batteries, cases of SD cards, charging equipment, laptop, hard drive, SD reader and just about anything else I could think to bring. I will bring multiples of everything that I can because when I commit to taking photos, there’s a lot riding on that. If my equipment fails, that’s my fault. Period. Even if your stuff is new, you should always be prepared with a back up. Same with photo storage. Keep more than one hard drive so that your photos are protected in case something happens to your hard drive. You just never know. It actually happened to my brother and his wife. Their photographer lost ALL of their photos and they never got them. Luckily, I had been taking some throughout the day with my own camera just for fun so those are the ones they have of their wedding day. After that, I decided I would make sure that never happened to me if I could help it.
Needless to say, I will always do everything in my power to be as prepared as possible! :)
