It’s the question I get asked most often: “What gear do you use?” Fortunately, the answer is simple: very little!
Rather like wearing comfortable shoes and appropriate clothing, ‘travelling light’ is central to how I plan and execute a street photography assignment. I want to be able to spend as much time on the streets as possible, without feeling tired or having aching shoulders. So, for a typical day’s shooting, this is what’s in my bag:
- Fuji X Pro 1 with 18mm lens (my ‘standard’ lens), grip and leather wrist strap
- 35mm lens
- 3 or 4 batteries
- Memory card wallet with around 6 fast SD cards
- Gorillapod
- Lens cloth
- Notebook & pen
- ID & business cards
- Bottle of water
. . . all contained in a small Billingham bag. Also, depending on the conditions, I may carry a small tube of sun cream and / or a waterproof runner’s jacket (very lightweight and folds down into a very small package.
So, that’s pretty much the extent of the street photography gear I typically take out with me. As I said, I carry as little as I can get away with. I don’t bother with zoom lenses (they’re too slow to use and I prefer to zoom with my feet) or a flash (why would I?!) or a large tripod.
