Current Gear

Camera:

Nikon D850

Nikon D300 backup camera

Lenses:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G AF-S

Nikon 85mm f/1.8 G AF-S

Nikon 24-120mm f/4 G ED-IF AF-S VRII

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR 

Nikon TC-14EII

Flash:

Nikon SB-700

Rogue Flashbender

Promaster 22″ 5 in 1 reflector Disc

40″ reflective umbrella and light stand

Bags:

I started out in photography with a film N65 Nikon and two sigma zoom lenses about 10 years ago.  When you are shooting film you really need to know what you are doing since there is no immediate feedback.  Also a “large” photo shoot involved less than a 100 images.  These factors made my progress slow in improving my photographs.  Fortunately for me and many photographers digital photography came along.  With my first digital camera a Nikon D80 and a great lens for learning photography, the Nikon 18-200mm VR zoom lens,  I could take hundreds of photos and learn from what works and what doesn’t.  I also spent hours reading up on photography techniques.  I have learned a lot from websites like kenrockwell.com and photographylife.com.  I am also very fortunate to be surrounded by great photographers that share a passion for photography and don’t mind sharing techniques.

As technology has improved and as I got better at my art, I realized I would like to upgrade my camera.  When the D7000 came out a friend purchased one and let me experiment with his.  It was such a huge improvement over the D80 I knew I had to have one.  So in May 2011, I purchased one for myself.  I’ve now taken just under 14000 photographs with it.

I also realized I wanted a sharper/faster lens than the 18-200 zoom I was using.   I first purchased a Nikon 50mm f/1.8D to do better portrait work, which I then upgraded to the 50mm f/1.8G.  When I upgraded my camera in May 2013, to the D800, I purchased the 85mm f/1.8G to go with the 50mm for portrait work.  I knew I wanted a zoom that was very sharp yet reasonably affordable.  After many reviews and reading I decided on the 24-120mm f/4 zoom from Nikon.  This has been an excellent lens for my general photography.  Now as I have ventured into wildlife photography I recently obtained a Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S lens to gain that reach so necessary with wildlife photography.

Like most photographers I suffer from Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS), so the list of desired lenses and accessories is constantly growing!