I love traveling to Civil War battlefields. My favorite time to be on a battlefield is an hour before sunrise and an hour after sunset. These offer the best opportunities for great photos. As an avid freelance photographer I enjoy working with light, shadows, clouds, sky and the scene to get just the right picture. I always shoot RAW. Like most photographers, the majority of my pictures are not truly “special.” Many pictures are inevitably taken to get just the right scene, the right light and the right use of shadows. I rely heavily on my equipment to capture these often fleeting moments. Below is a list of the gear I consider indispensable when I am in the field.
If you are interested in viewing my photo collection, much of it is available at my Flickr site: Mike’s Flickr Site. Additionally, my company’s website is TML Photography Concepts, LLC.
- Canon 5D Mark II camera body with full frame 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor and ISO range from 100 to 6,400 expandable to 25,600
- Canon 7D camera body with 18 Megapixel C-size CMOS sensor and ISO range from 100 to 12,800
- Canon Rebel XTi camera body with 10.1 Megapixel CCD sensor (back up use only)
- Canon EF 50mm f1.2L USM
- Canon EF 17-40mm f4L USM lens (I use this to capture a wide variety of landscapes and it is without a doubt the most versatile lens I own)
- Canon EF 24-105mm f4L USM lens
- Canon EF 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (a great all around lens)
- Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS USM lens (an awesome lens to reach out to distant objects – while still being quite fast, gathering lots of light)
- Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM ultra-wide zoom lens
- Canon EF 1.4 extender
- Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash
- Canon RC-5 Wireless Remote Controller
- Cokin filters (I enjoy the flexibility of the gradient ND filters in capturing sunsets and sunrises)
- Manfrotto tripods, mono-pods and heads
A Note About Photo Editing:
Photo editing is important. Editing software will not make a poor photo great. However, it can improve the balance of a photo. I use two software packages to adjust white balance (sometimes the camera chooses the wrong setting making photos too cold or too warm), remove dust and add watermarks to my photos.
- Adobe Lightroom 3.3
- Adobe Photoshop CS2 version 9.0.2
When converting RAW files to monochrome (B & W), I use NIK Software’s SilverEfex Pro 2. I’ve tried many different types of software for monochrome conversion and it is the most versatile.