Professional Wedding Photography Whats In The Bag

Before i answer the question to the title Blog and you see what I use, firstly I need to tell you that the love of Photography started for me at the age of 9 years old when I was on a trip to Jersey my grandfather. He bought me an Agfa Mini Camera (Pictured below)  it had a plastic disposable flash on it that when fired it used a bulb so you had to take your shots carefully in low light as there were only 8 bulbs to one disposable flash unit.

After this I moved onto a Canon A1 with 3 or 4 Lenses.

I started taking Professional photos at the age of 17 (1990) and used my bosses spare Kowa Super 66 120 Film Camera..for people who used Film cameras then you will know that this model had an interchangeable back that you didn’t need to put a film slide in to remove (extremely clever design of its age) I was Classically trained with this Camera.  I then decided to buy my own and got my first Hasselblad 500cm which was in my bosses safe at the studio it cost me £1000 that was a lot money of at the time when you only earn’t £80 a week.

In 1999 i moved on and started my own Company www.johnpaulodonnell.co.uk.

As I stared getting busy and was commissioned by some big clients to photograph for them my cameras kit needed to grow so I went and bought 2 Hassleblad 501 cm with 2x standard 80mm lenses and then bought a 50mm, 60mm and a 150mm lens. Even today i still keep one Hassleblad and 2 lenses (80 and 50mm) and a metz CL45 twin head flash at my Studio.. something about Nostalgia but i don’t think i will ever get rid of that kit, it really was amazing times shooting on Film and even now I still love to put a roll of Black and White 120 Film in and shoot Portraits and certain types of Photographs with it.

When i first moved over to Digital in about 2006 i was using Fuji Camera bodies and Sigma Lenses. Started with a Fuji S1 then went onto a S3 and then bought two Fuji S5 cameras.  As the I got busier I gradually started to buy Pro Nikon Lenses of which today I have about 10.

Professional Wedding Photography Whats In The Bag

This is whats in my Camera bag on a general day to shoot a wedding this kit travels everywhere with me.

Bodies

Nikon D800

Nikon D3

Lenses

Nikon F3.5   28-105mm D Lens with Macro

Nikon F2.8   17-35mm   D AFS Lens

Nikon F2.8   70-200mm ED AFS

2x Nikon SB800 Flash Guns

2x LED Light Panels

4 x Elinchrome 250 Lights

Phottix Trigger system

Hope this has been interesting.  Take a look at my Instagram page and see some of the recent Fashion shots i’ve uploaded and soon I will run through some of the Kit i take with me on a Fashion commission and how i set the cameras and lighting up to get the shots I get.   http://instagram.com/john_paul_odonnell

John Paul