This is the question I get most often, and the one I find hardest to answer usefully. The equipment matters, but much less than the time of day, the patience to wait and the willingness to go back. Still, people are curious, and when I was starting out I was too. So here is what I carry, in general terms, and why.
I am deliberately not naming brands or models. Most of what follows applies to any decent modern camera system, and I’d rather this didn’t turn into a comparison.
Cameras
One full-frame mirrorless body for nearly everything, and an older body as a backup. The main thing I care about is that the camera is quiet, weather-sealed and has a good electronic viewfinder for working in low light. Resolution is more than enough on anything recent; I haven’t felt limited by it in years.
The backup body is there for the day the main one fails, which has happened exactly once, in the rain, in the middle of a series. That was enough.
Lenses
- A 35 mm, which does most of the work. If I could only keep one lens, it would be this.
- A 24 mm for the occasional very wide coastal frame.
- A 50 mm and an 85 mm for night work, both with wide apertures.
- A 70–200 mm zoom for mountains and compression.
- A macro lens, used almost exclusively for the dune pictures.
I rarely carry all of them. For a coastal morning it’s usually the 35 mm and the 24 mm; for a night walk, the 50 mm and nothing else.
Tripods and heads
Two tripods: a heavy one for the coast, where wind and soft sand make stability the main problem, and a light one for walking. The heavy one rarely leaves the car unless I’m doing long exposures. The light one goes almost everywhere.
On the heavy tripod I use a geared head, which lets me make tiny adjustments to the horizon without anything slipping. It is slow, and it is the single piece of equipment I would least like to lose.
Filters
Six-stop and ten-stop neutral density filters, which I stack for the longest exposures, and a polariser I almost never use on water because it changes the reflections in ways I don’t like. That’s it. No graduated filters; I’d rather choose a sky that doesn’t need one.
Small things that matter
- A remote release, and a spare.
- An eyepiece cover for long exposures.
- Spare batteries in an inside pocket in winter.
- Lens cloths in every pocket of every jacket.
- A notebook and a pencil, because pens freeze.
What I would change
If I were starting again, I would buy one good lens and one good tripod and spend the rest on travel and paper. Prints taught me more about my own pictures than any upgrade has.
Update, March 2026: the light tripod finally gave out after six years, and its replacement is slightly heavier but steadier. I’ve also stopped carrying the 24 mm on most coastal mornings; the 35 mm covers nearly everything, and one fewer decision in the cold is worth more than the extra width.