Equipment

I frequently am asked about my equiptment. Good equiptment gives you the chance to make a good photograph. You must do the rest. I use exclusively Nikon® equipment. That is not to say that other manufactures don’t make excellent equipment. This is the list of my current equiptment. You need only to buy the equiptment  that you need to take the images you like to make.

Remember, the camera is only the vehicle that captures the image. Our eyes see what the camera captures. Having the best gear, without the vision is useless. It is important to develop your personal vision and only then worry about acquiring top rated gear. I always remember how I felt when I was asked if my camera takes good pictures, or when someone said that I must own a expensive lens lenses. 

Tripods 

I almost always use a tripod. Handheld shots, when not using flash are few. My main tripod is a  GITZO® 3541LS  6Xcarbon fiber tripod along with a GS5121LVL leveling base which greatly aids in making photographing panoramas.

I recommend a good quality, ball head. I currently am using the BH55 from The Really Right Stuff®

.I use ThinkTank backpacks to carry equipment in the field.  Normally I use either the Airport Antidote® V2.0 or theStreetWalker® Pro in the field. These packs have the best back support, harness and strap system available; therefore they are extremely comfortable on my back all day in the field.  Both are legal carry-on for airline travel within the US.  When I'm working strictly from my vehicle I keep some gear in an and the Airport Acceleration 2.0 pack (also legal and a nice big pack for air travel). When flying with lots of gear, I use the Airport Security™ V 2.0, whichlike all my bags are USA carry on legal sized bags.At times when I only want to carry one lens for specific uses I carry the Digital Holster™ 50. It holds a camera body and a 70-200 + Hood in position nicely.

When shooting from my vehicle I always use the Window Mount with my BH55. from KIRK PHOTO 

FILTERS & Hoods:

Singh-Ray Warming-Polarizer
Singh-Ray 2 & stop graduated & 3 stop hard Graduated ND Filters
Singh Ray 3 stop Reverse Graduated ND FIlter
Singh-Ray 8 stop Vari Pol. Filter
Nikon Circular Polarizers and Lens Hoods for all Lenses
Nikon Remote Releases 

MACRO:

NIKON 200mm f4 Macro.
 

I use the focusing rail syatem available from the REALLY RIGHT STUFF

I will at times use a Nikon 5T or 6T or Canon 500D Dioptors to gain closer magnification.

ACCESSORIES:

FLASH:  NIKON SB900
Photoflex® LiteDisc diffusers & reflectors (various sizes) 

Walt Anderson Better Beamer Flash Extender 

I use the complete set of LENSBABY products 
 

MISC ACCESSORIES:

2 chamois
Lens cleaning cloths
Large bubble dust blower
Sensor cleaning material
Leatherman™
Small screwdrivers
Toothbrush
Insect repellent
Small first aid kit

IMAGE  PROCESSING

I currently am using the following software: Details of my worksflow are found in my current E-Book, Series 1 for sale here on this site.

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Aoobe Lightroom3

The full offerings from NIK SOFTWARE ( VIVEZA 2.0, Define2.0, Sharpener Pro 3.0, Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Silver Efex Pro 2.0 for B & W conversion)

I used Breeze Browser Pro to do my initial sort and edit, then move into Bridge or Lightroom for more editing as well as Camera Raw conversion.

Eye One Display2 from X-rite monitor calibration systems are used to calibrate my 2 monitors.

Epson Printers along with either Ilford Gold Fiber SIlk  or Epson Fine Art Matte Paper are used for printing.