About Ann Young
When you purchase through affiliate links on our site, we may earn a commission. Here’s how it works.
Hi, my name is Ann Young. I am a wedding and portrait photographer, retoucher from NY. I have been shooting professionally for 10 years. I started my career selling cameras in the local shop. And today I am going to give you a quick look into my camera bag.
About Me
I was about 10 or 12 when I first picked up a camera just photographing nature and my neighbors’ pets. It was at film days and I have a Canon EOS 1. I tried many photography genres, imitated famous photographers like Steve McCurry and Annie Leibovitz, assisted wedding, fashion, portraits, real estate, aerial photographers, and photojournalists. Portrait photography is what I was actually interested in. Much of my work takes place outside on location so to build a solid foundation and receive a vibrant style of lightning.
My Photographer Kit
Canon 5D Mark IV
First thing in my camera bag is a camera. I like to use Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, which is a full-frame digital SLR camera body. You don’t have to buy the best camera for wedding photography with 50 megapixels, this body is got about 30 megapixels, which is more than enough, trust me, and I use it as my one and only camera, I am a single camera photographer. The full-frame sensor delivers incredible results with efficiency and ease no matter the assignment.
Canon EOS-1D X
Next thing I recommend any professional wedding photographer is notto leave the house without a backup camera and for that I use a Canon EOS-1D X.The best is the fantastic low-light level performance and that insane frame rate of 12 fps. In addition to the camera body, you will need a lens and if you want to invest money in lenses, I recommend going for quality, not quantity.
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II
So the first Canon wedding lens I recommend is the Canon EF 27-70mm f/2.8L II. It is a very versatile zoom lens, it can shoot as wide as 24 and zoomed in all the way to 70 millimeters so it can create wide group shots and some nice portraits. Since my purchase, I have used this lens for portraits, low light events, and group images, and it has never failed to deliver.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II
The next lens I recommend is Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II. My favorite one. It is a great long lens and it creates beautiful lifestyle portraits. If you like to stay further away from your subject, your couples and shooting a more thorough journalistic style, this is the best lens to have. Besides, if you’re shooting a ceremony and you going to stay away in the back so that lens will get you some nice tight frames of the altar.
Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II
My third favorite lens is the super wide 14 millimeters angle, Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II, which is a prime lens and I use it specifically and mainly when I photograph the reception. I like to shoot from inside the crowd, shooting out or getting manygroupphotographs. The lens itself is small and compact.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L
Then my other favorite lens is the portrait 50 millimeters 1.2. It’s a great lens for very creative portraits with a wide aperture shallow depth-of-field. I use it when I really want to blur out the background completely and I’m fairly close to the subject. I use it when I photographing the bride getting ready or the ceremony from really close and I want to create extra separation between subjects in the photo. Bokeh, contrast and color saturation from this lens are outstanding
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L
The next lens I have is the Canon 100 millimeter macro lens, which has a hybrid image stabilizer and I love it because I do all the detail shots with it. I literally take it out for the details and put it back in my camera bag. Use it to take beautiful ring and shoe photos.Read my review of the best lenses for wedding photography to find the models for your budget and purposes.
Lighting
I also keep in my camera bag at least one Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. A lot of times I use the Speedlite on camera, but if I want to take it off the camera I can trigger it with the Canon dedicated transmitter Canon ST-E3-RT, that works well with this specific model. If you’re really just don’t want to settle for just bouncing off the wall or the ceiling you’re really want to create directional lighting, you want to move your flash away from the camera, those transmitter works well and will do the job.
I keep with me a variety of Pocket Wizard products Pocket Wizard Plus III specifically from the +32 to the flex tt5, those can trigger not just a specific manufacturer of a flash, but any manufacturer. So, I’m using multiple Speedlites and I don’t always have the specific brand of the transmitter to work with. If I want to take the Speedlite off camera, one of my favorite tools is the Speedlite clamp Impact Large Clip Clamp. This clamp can attach to everything you can think of: chandelier, light stand. If I shoot with mixed lighting, for example, tungsten lighting inside a ballroom and I know that my Speedlite creates light in a color temperature of daylight, I have to balance it.It’s a lot easier to balance your Speedlite then all the lighting in the room. For that, I’m going to use gels. And by gelling the Speedlite I now have the unified white balance unified color temperature in the room with all the light, the ambient that comes from the room and the artificial light that comes from my flash.
Lowepro Rolling Camera Bag x200 AW
Honestly, I don’t like to take a rolling camera bag to lug around at weddings, because it is difficult to guard against potential theft. But this bag is essential for my big wedding photography gear. It still looks nice after months of weddings outdoors in the dust and mud. Moreover, this is a good camera bag to fly with all my camera gear and this fit the bill perfectly!
Case Logic KDB-101 Kontrast Pro-DSLR Backpack
How to shoot outdoor portraits without the best camera backpack that is comfortable and durable. A lot of space, perfect for a DSLR, several lenses, and accessories. It is very useful every time that I have a destination wedding photoshoot and lets me easily transport my laptop while keeping it safe.
HoldFast Gear MoneyMaker Two
This is the best camera strap I ever had. It is vintage (the leather itself looks, feels, (and smells) amazing) and gets the weight of my two cameras and lens off of my neck and distributes the weight evenly across my body. It helps very much, especially if you shooting weddings for about 7-10 hours. I also recommend that you have spare batteries for your camera, spare AA’s for Speedlites or PocketWizards, a lot of memory cards, a lot more than you think you need, SanDisk is my favorite brand SanDisk CompactFlash Memory Card. I have been using them for many years and I never had a problem with it. 16 Gigs minimum or 32 is great to have because then you can swap. I recommend swapping the memory cards every 400 to 500 images.
My Photo Retoucher Kit
Wacom Intuos Pro
How a photo retoucher can work without a digital graphic drawing tablet? I have been working as a photographer for 10 years now, and it’s been a bit more than 5 years since I started professional photo retouching. It’s been 4 years exactly since I got my first Intuos 4 tablet. A short while ago, I got the newest Intuos Pro, it’s a real pleasure to work with, and it helps you save a lot of time. It’s an essential part of my kit alongside my camera body, lenses, and laptop.
Dell XPS 9570
This laptop is a beast. If you are looking for the best laptop for photo editing, think about it. Yes, it’s mainly a gaming laptop, but if you retouch too high resolution photos for advertising and printing, use this model. This machine buffers through footage like nothing, the screen is stunning and very color accurate. The touch screen comes in very handy with Adobe softwares, as well as when just web browsing.
