Bob's Photography Bag

My Cameras

 

Canon R6

This is my fourth Canon Camera and my first mirrorless body. I have taken roughly 9 K shots with it and love the features as well as the quality of the focusing and shutter speed. I use this camera for my more complicated shots and when I need the speed and flexibility it offers. Unfortunately, it is not light and, when coupled with the lens, demands that I have a reasonable probability of some nice photos. Otherwise, it stays in the bag, and I rely on my iPhone.

 

iPhone 14 Pro

This camera is just too convenient. The picture quality under good conditions rivals my Canon. However, it struggles under low light or highly contrasty conditions, and I have less flexibility when postprocessing. When I am carrying the Canon and Big Lens, the iPhone becomes my landscape camera and usually gets the shot I am looking for. I always have it with me, so it serves just in case the penguins come crashing out of the underbrush and start doing the jig.

 

Lenses

I have a range of Canon lenses for the R6.

 

My 200 - 400 Canon L is my bird lens. It is image stabilized (IS) and has rapid focusing that allows me to capture in-flight shots under decent lighting conditions. It is heavy, but the IS will let me handhold it for most shots. However, for long-range shots that will require cropping, I will rely on my tripod to get the sharpest image possible.

 

The 100 mm Canon Macro is my flower lens and closeup lens for bugs and stuff. It is my oldest lens and serves its purpose, but it almost always requires a tripod to capture the most stunning images. I can handhold butterflies and other mobile subjects, but I usually prefer my walkaround lens.

 

35 – 124 Canon L is my general-purpose walkaround lens. 80%+ of my shots are made with this lens. I can shoot landscapes with ease and even capture photos of birds and flowers that I can crop during processing. I also use the lens when taking family or indoor pictures, e.g., Museums, etc. It is light enough to carry but strong enough to do much of the heavy lifting of image quality.

 

16 – 35 mm IS is my landscape lens of choice. The wide-angle lens allows me to capture grand vistas with the Canon. It is sharp enough to be able to crop and select portions of a shot for my final image. I do not have much call for this lens, but when the mountains loom on the horizon, this lens is my first choice.

 

Software

My postprocessing is done on Adobe Lightroom. This is an excellent collection of tools for processing pictures in RAW and JPEG formats. I generally shoot in RAW, which preserves most of the digital information I need when I start developing the shot in Lightroom. JPEG also works but does not have the flexibility of a RAW format. Generally, I will process 10 – 75 % of my shots. But after a big day of shooting, I can have 500 – 600 pictures to review, select, and process. Lightroom makes this burden a bit lighter with customizable features and an intuitive interface.

 

Storage

 

I have three external hard drives that I carry and dedicate to photography.

·      4 TB Hard drives for my first volume of RAW images

·      2 TB SSD Hard drive for 2^nd Volume of RAW Images

·      1 – 4 TB Hard Drive for my processed images

 

I store my iPhone pictures on iCloud, and most of my processed shots go on Flickr.com as well.