I get asked all the time about the equipment I carry on a wedding event. Every photographer is different, and if you’re like me and you’ve been doing this a long time, the gear evolves over time. Here’s my latest kit, along with a few shots from Kristy and Leonard’s recent wedding at Brock House in Vancouver.

The Bag

This is pretty much all you need to shoot most weddings (excuse some of the dust on the cameras, I was out at the Squamish Beer Festival yesterday and it kind of dusty). I had a major reset during the pandemic and decided move from large heavy professional Nikon D4 cameras and high speed f/2.8 zooms, to the new and very high tech Nikon Z6 mirrorless cameras, and mostly prime lens based style. To be blunt, I had just gotten tired of dragging the huge D series cameras and lenses around. A Nikon Z6 with a 35mm prime lens feels like pingpong ball compared to a Nikon D4 with a 24-70mm f/2.8. So the list of gear is,

• Two Nikon Z6’s
• Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8
• Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8
• Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4
• Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4
• Godox V860ii N Flash Unit.

Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8

My all time favourite lens of all time is the 35mm prime lens. The old time newspaper photographers who taught me my trade all swore by them. I carried one from my start as a teenaged freelancer through my time as photojournalist in Africa. The Nikon Z version I have now is light years ahead of the previous models I had, but still a bit of a throwback. Since Nikon uses a realtime lens algorithm to correct distortion and chromatic aberration, it make these easily the sharpest lens I’ve ever used. I shoot it wide open at f/1.8 pretty much all the time.

Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8

The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 is my go-to lens for portraits and longer shots, replacing my gigantic Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 lens that I’d used for years. It’s a really lovely lens, deadly sharp with super quick autofocus. Like all the Z lenses, it’s very sharp at the wide open f/1.8 setting, which is where I tend to use it.

Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4

The primes are great, but you need to have a wide lens for tight spaces. I first bought the Nikon Z14-30mm f/1.8 for my architectural work, but I’ve found to be an invaluable lens for getting wide shots of the ceremony and working in tight hotel rooms and dinner venues. Like all the Z lenses, the camera corrects for whatever lens distortion is going on in real time.

Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4

I have to say the 24-70mm literally came as part of the package when I bought my first Z6 camera, and I never expected it to be such a great lens. I use it mostly for shots of the wedding reception where things are moving a fairly quick pace.

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