I get asked this question a lot. I am not really a gear kinda girl, and I really do like to keep things as simple as possible, so I have purposely kept my camera kit to a minimum of what I need until I feel like there’s something essential that would really add to my work.

I feel like it’s a huge advantage having a smallish camera kit – I can move around really fast, and it simplifies the process for me.

Here’s what I generally carry in my camera bag for portrait sessions:

My trusty DSLR – Canon 5D Mark 2

A few fixed focal length lenses – 50 lens / 35 lens / 85 lens. Prime lens produce amazing image quality, and they force me to keep moving around (which, let’s face it, when it comes to photographing kids, I am going to be moving around a lot anyway) and get creative looking for ‘the shot’.

Occasionally I hire or borrow other specialist lenses such as the 100mm macro or the 16 – 35 mm beast of a wide angle lens when a project calls for it.

A flashgun.

Silver and white collapsible reflector. I use the largest size which I can easily carry, which is 120cm. On occasion I use a second reflector which is gold or black. These are by far one of the most useful ‘low tech’ tools in my kit. It’s amazing how much light you can bounce around with a simple disc.

Lens cleaning cloths / batteries / lip balm / tissues / spare memory cards.

Rapid strap camera strap for hands free and speedy movements during shoots with small kids, or when I simply need to speak with my hands, ha!

My lovely old school Minolta film camera or my new addition, the Canon 1V.

Several rolls of 35 mm film

And finally, everything is stored in my Built Camera Bag (these have actually been discontinued by the New York based manufacturer, but you can still get them on Amazon). I love firstly that this doesn’t look like a camera bag; it’s discreet and doesn’t yell that it’s filled with expensive equipment. The bag is well padded, and has customisable internal sections so I can reconfigure the internal dividers easily to securely hold each item.

I do keep some more weird and wonderful items in my camera kit too, you can read this post over here.

Ps. These behind the scenes images were shot by the lovely Nikki Cooper and Kelly Swan