Photography Equipment

We are often asked what photography equipment we use to produce our fine art images. We thought it might be informative for us to provide some significant detail about our equipment and how we use it in our work.

Cameras

We utilize a great many different cameras in our work. Some photographers swear by a single type of camera and take images with that camera exclusively. That works great for them because they can master one format and type of imagery. This frees them to contemplate their composition and lighting to produce their quality images.

For us, however, using one type of camera is like having only one tool in your toolbox. It does not work for all the various photographic situations we encounter. This is not to denigrate other photographers, many of whom we admire. But, they have their preferences and style and we have ours. We like flexibility, and with that comes the practice and substantial expense of using several different types of camera.

Large Format Cameras

To take truly great pictures for making truly big prints requires a truly big camera. We have two different types of large format camera that we utilize. The first is our studio camera. This is a Sinar P2 studio camera, perhaps the ultimate in studio cameras. It can produce images transparencies or negatives that are 4x5 inches or 8x10 inches in size. These are truly large film images that contain an extraordinary amount of detail. Many of our flower and still life images are produced using this outstanding camera. We could go on for days about the quality and benefits of this camera, but we will avoid boring you and simply say that this is one fantastic camera.

Our other large format camera is a Wisner field camera. This is a wooden camera with wine-colored bellows and brass metal trim. It is extremely attractive and draws attention wherever it goes (and it gets around). It is also very light weight, which allows us to carry it in a backpack on long hikes into the various landscapes we visit. This makes it an ideal camera for taking high resolution images in the field, and it is therefore the camera of choice for many of our landscape images.

Medium Format Cameras

The next step down from large format cameras - as far as film size is concerned - are medium format cameras. We employ two Hasselblad 203 FE cameras. Hasselblad is without doubt one of the best medium format cameras available. The reputation these cameras have for quality and reliability is unsurpassed by any other camera. They are fabulous cameras.

While somewhat heavy for field work (it's the high quality lenses that are heavy, not the camera itself), we still often take these cameras with us when we take landscape images. They produce crystal clear negative and transparency images that are two and one quarter inches on each side (square images). This is sufficiently large to produce stunning prints up to about 30x30 inches. These cameras come in very handy when we need to set up quickly to take an image that will be gone in just a minute or so. These are extremely expensive professional cameras, but the images they produce make them worth every penny.

35 mm (Small) Format Cameras

The smallest and in many ways the most flexible cameras we use are 35 mm professional Nikon cameras. We utilize F5, and F100, and a D100 (digital) 35 mm cameras for much of our close up work. They are also an essential tool for most wildlife photography. While we would hesitate to take an expansive landscape picture with a 35 mm camera, we would conversely hesitate to take a wildlife picture with a large format camera. As a practical matter, large format cameras generally require your subject to be stationary for long periods of time. The two cameras have their places and are each well suited for certain types of images. The 35 mm cameras are also extremely versatile because of the large variety of quality lenses available for these cameras.

Lenses

For the large format cameras we use lenses ranging from 90 mm to 210 mm (roughly equivalent to 26 mm to 160 mm lenses on a 35 mm camera system). This gives us a good spectrum of wide angle to moderate angle lenses which are more than adequate for most landscape and studio images. We use quality Rodenstock lenses primarily, but do have some excellent Schneider lenses as well.

For medium format we utilize the amazing quality lenses provided by Hasselblad. Our lenses range from 50 mm to 180 mm (equivalent to 32 mm through 117 mm in 35 mm camera systems). These are some of the best lenses available anywhere (you will never hear them referred to as inexpensive). They make the Hasselblad medium format system an outstanding choice for nearly any type of photography.

For 35 mm we primarily use the highest quality Nikon (and Nikor) lenses we can find. Quality lenses make a tremendous difference in the resulting image definition. We have a variety of macro (micro), regular and telephoto lenses ranging from 17 mm through 400 mm. With doublers and extenders we have an extremely wide range of lens possibilities with these flexible and high quality cameras.

Flashes and Strobes

Each of our different camera systems requires different flash and strobe equipment. For the studio we have a number of Speedotron strobe lighting systems that allow us to put a tremendous amount (or very little) light on a photographic subject. Our indoor flower pictures are normally taken using these lights. We also have a number of continuous lights that provide constant lighting on a subject. They aren't needed often, but on occasion they provide the perfect lighting for a subject.

When in the field we use a Hasselblad flash for the medium format cameras. This TTL (Through The Lens) flash system allows precise control over the amount of light applied to a subject so that we obtain a perfect exposure. A similar TTL flash system is used for our 35 mm Nikon cameras. On occasion we also use this flash system with our 4x5 field camera.

Studio Equipment

In the studio we have a great number of accessories that make it easier to take quality images. These include a large camera stand (like a tripod, but MUCH larger and much more flexible), a shooting table that provides many options for taking interesting images, and a host of light stands, booms, gels, props, and accessories that help us take our studio photographs.

Field Equipment

For the field we have a variety of tripods (including carbon fiber tripods which are very light weight and portable), backpacks, camera bags, spotting scopes, binoculars, light meters, and photographer vests. The vests are a bit of a cliché and many photographers avoid using them so they don't look like a geek - but when you are out in the wilderness, having plenty of pockets and places to put things while you are setting up, reconfiguring, or tearing down your equipment is simply indispensable.

Film

For the vast majority of our fine art images we use Fuji Velvia (ISO 50 and ISO 100) and Fuji Provia (ISO 100) professional films. These films produce deep, clear, saturated colors, especially in low light conditions near sunrise and sunset, that cannot be matched by any other film. The fine grain characteristics of these films make them ideal for producing large fine art prints. This is the best film, we believe, for exquisite landscape images.