Wedding Photography Equipment – what I use

I’ve been a professional wedding photographer for almost 10 years now, with 2 of those years being full time. Those of you who I’ve met would know that Im a bit of a gear head – I love upgrading my cameras and getting my hands on the newest little toys about to better aid me in creating my art. I figured I’d do a little run down of all the wedding photography equipment I might take with me to cover a wedding. This illustrates the kind of investment needed and expertise needed to be a successful wedding photographer.

Wedding Photography Equipment

1. USB charger

To make sure things like my phone (which I use to pilot my drone), 360 camera and osmo pocket hold enough juice to get through the day

2. Spare batteries

Spare batteries for my Nikon, Fuji and flashes. This isn’t an accurate depiction of all the spare batteries I carry 🙂

3. Camera strap

Back in the day I would carry my two main camera bodies around on each shoulder using the camera straps they come with. This resulted in a bad back after a full day’s wedding coverage so I now use a much more ergonomic strap system that allows my two main camera bodies to hang either side of my body, and also allows me to walk about hands free.

4. DJI Ronin SC Gimbal and Fuji XT-3 Mirrorless camera with 18-55mm lens

For when I’m asked to cover a wedding as a videographer, or create a short highlight film I’ll have this on me along with my little osmo pocket to create very high quality, stabilised footage.

5. DJI Osmo Pocket

A tiny little stabilised by gimbal video camera that I use to produce simple short videos for social media. The quality of this little thing is phenomenal too! Just not too great in low light situations.

6. Remote Controclled timelapse tripod head

A simple tripod head for use with my phone to create simple timelapse video footage.

7. Insta 350 oneX video camera

I use this at every wedding to produce the most incredible 360 degree virtual reality footage of the wedding ceremonies I cover. This is so that the bride and groom can attend their own wedding as a guest!

8. 2x H1n Zoom audio recorders

To record the vows and audio during a wedding ceremony that I’ll then use in any video I produce. Not pictured are the microphones and cables.

9. Nikon D850 Camera body with Nikkor 70-200mm lens

The most expensive part of my wedding photography equipment is this camera and lens. This camera is absolutely amazing!

10. Nikon D810 Camera body with Sigma 24-70 ART lens

The workhorse camera body which I use to shoot the majority of my wedding photography with due mainly to it’s more diverse lens I tend to have on it. As far as wedding photography equipment goes, this is what I would be using the most, and the body certainly shows signs of use!

11. 2x Yongnuo YN660 IV strobe flashes

2 simple on camera strobe flashes – I tend to have only one connected to my Nikon D810 during the day, but I alsways have a second as backup. These things tend to break fairly often, and it’s not because of the brand, I’ve actually gone through more Nikon branded flashes than any other.

12. DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone

My fun little toy which I use for video and still photos. As a photographer having a drone and being an accredited and insured operator is a wonderful point of differance between myself and other photographers about. It also allows me to create some wonderful shots from vantage points that would be impossible otherwise.

13. Manfrotto befree GT tripod

A nice light little professional standard tripod which goes with me wherever I go, although I tend not to use it much at weddings. it’s great on hikes thougfh, small, lightweight and supports larger cameras.

14. Mono pole for 360 camera

This is what I set up my 360 virtual reality camera on to capture a wedding ceremony.

15. Drone alternate pole

A 4m long extendable pole I use in instances where I would like drone footage but am otherwaise unable to fly in the area due to either being illegal or unsafe. This is a fun thing to have, as out of all my wedding photography equipment, this is what gets the most quizzical looks when I bust it out and wave it around with a camera on top!

16. Chasing Innovation Gladius Mini UAV (Underwater drone) with tether

For all the underwater weddings I cover! (duh!)

17. Little bag

This is what I carry my backup stuff in. My 50mm lens, backup batteries, cables, flash, 360 camera, etc. Not pictured is a a backpack I sometimes use when I need more carrying space.