As I prepare for my first 2019 Ladies Magic in the Tetons Retreat, I thought I would share the tools that I carry in my bag to capture the beauty around me. Landscape Photography is a genre that tends to be heavy on gear. And quite often I will weigh down my shoulders in order to have all the creative options available to me. If you read my recent article on the Best Lenses for Landscape Photography, you know that there is not just one lens that works best for every scene. Add in tripods and filters and my bag gets pretty full! Keep reading and you can learn about my favorite and most used gear and why each is essential to my landscape work.
I absolutely love my Promaster bag. It has a big main section that fits 2 camera bodies plus several lenses. The top flap has a thin compartment that is perfect for carrying an iPad, small laptop, or important papers or items to stash away in a safe area while out and about. There are several zippered compartments perfect for holding my other gear I will share below such as an intervalometer, filters, extra batteries and memory cards. One side has a pocket perfect for my water bottle or coffee thermos and both sides have straps to hold a travel tripod.
2. Nikon D850 & Nikon D810
My D850 is my workhorse camera and it is the main body I use to capture the majority of my images. It has incredible resolution and is super sharp. The tilt and touch screen is amazing for capturing unique perspectives and all the buttons are so intuitive and easy to adjust settings with ease. My D810 is my well loved second body and I always have it with me not only as a back up but to be able to set it up for a time lapse or shoot fast shutter speed images while my D850 is shooting long exposures.
3. Tripod
My tripod is an essential item in my landscape bag. I have two lightweight carbon fiber tripods that travel with me for my landscape photography trips. My lightest and most compact tripod is my Gitzo GIGT1555T Traveler Series 1 Carbon Fiber Tripod. It is extremely light and compact and can fold up to fit in a carry on roller bag. My other tripod is a Promaster Specialist Professional Tripod and it is also very light with flip lock legs. I love that there is a soft foam area on one tripod leg for carrying as the tripod legs can get extremely cold in frigid weather. A tripod is essential to have for long exposures, night photography and time lapse photography. I will often have two tripods so that I can do time lapse and long exposures at the same time.
This wide angle lens spends a lot of time on my camera. I love a wide angle that showcases dramatic skies or the jaw dropping expanse of a mountain range. 16mm can capture an extensive scene while 35mm is still a wide angle but brings the scene closer to what our eyes experience in real life. It is a perfect range for capturing the incredible landscapes of the world.
16mm
My 24-70mm lens is my go to lens when I go on a hike and just want to carry my camera with one lens. At 24mm, you can get a nice wide expanse. At 70mm you can zoom in and get more detail. In the mid range, the images beautifully represent the landscape the way our eye experiences the scene.
24mm
60mm
I adore my 70-200mm f/2.8. The lens is extremely sharp and captures those beautiful details that are far away from me. This telephoto lens allows me to capture the beauty of light hitting a mountain peak or filling my frame with details and texture that draw me in. While the wide angle focal lengths capture the great expanse of the whole scene, the telephoto captures those far off details.
200mm
7. Sigma 14mm f/1.8 & Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8
These two lenses are my go to lenses for astrophotography. Both of these lenses are extraordinary choices for shooting the night sky. Not only do their ultra wide angles capture an incredible number of stars but they are also fast, allowing me to keep my ISO lower as I open up the aperture. One might ask why have two lenses for astrophotography but I love to set one to take a time lapse while I experiment with compositions with my other camera & lens.
14mm
This lens is a beast of a lens but it is perfect for capturing those very far off details like the tip of a mountain top, a tree with beautiful light across a lake or wildlife in which you must keep a safe distance.
550mm
9. Breakthrough Photography Filters
Filters are an essential technical and creative tool in my landscape imagery. Polarizers, Neutral Density Filters, and Graduated Neutral Density Filters are each helpful in their own way. Polarizers cut out haze and glare and give greater definition to clouds and vibrance to colors. They also cut glare off of water when shooting rivers, waterfalls, and lakes.
Graduated Neutral Density filters cut out light from part of the frame, such as a bright sky, to allow you to brighten your exposure and capture more detail in the shadows without blowing out the highlights of the scene. This filter is extremely helpful scenes with a large dynamic range.
Neutral Density Filters cut light from the entire frame. You can purchase neutral density filters in varying degrees of strength. I own 6 stop, 10 stop and 15 stop filters. Depending on the ambient light and the creative effect I am going for, I choose which filter will help me create my art.
10. Intervalometer
My remote intervalometer is one of my most used tools. A remote trigger is helpful to avoid any camera shake when the shutter is pressed. I use my intervalometer for shooting long exposures and time lapses.
11. Headlamp & Flashlight
If I am headed out at night, I have a headlamp and a flashlight for both lighting my way in the dark and locating necessary gear or buttons. It is so helpful for night photography to know your gear well in the dark, but sometimes you need a little extra light. A strong headlamp light is not only helpful but is also comforting in the pitch black as you get to your shooting location.
12. Extra Batteries & Memory Cards
There is nothing worse than discovering your camera is missing its memory card or battery, finding them run down or out of space at the beginning or middle of a shoot. I keep several extra batteries and memory cards in my bag so that I have back ups in case of an emergency.
13. L Bracket
My L Bracket on my D850 allows my camera to sit tight in my tripod whether I am shooting vertically or horizontally.
14.. Extras
Some additional items I often carry in my bag are clean microfiber clothes & Zeiss Lens wipes for cleaning my lenses, extra AA batteries for my intervalometer, hand warmers for colder weather, and a coffee thermos and/or water bottle!
Beautiful landscape imagery can be captured with whatever gear and camera you own, so don’t let what’s in YOUR camera bag stop you from getting out and capturing the beauty. But if you are looking for new tools, I hope these favorites of mine will help you out!
Kristen Ryan is a landscape and fine art photographer residing in the Midwest suburbs of Chicago. All images can be purchased in the Fine Art Store. Kristen leads ladies landscape photography retreats in the Tetons, Chicago, and the Canadian Rockies, offers private mentoring and teaches an online landscape photography workshop twice a year.