Gear

Canon EOS R5 ×2

My workhorses. I run two of these simultaneously on any expedition or wildlife shoot, one with a wide angle and one with a long lens, because switching glass costs shots. The autofocus is extraordinary: fast, accurate, and intelligent enough to track a bird in flight or a seal hauling across ice without much intervention from me. If there's one piece of kit I'd never compromise on, it's these.

Canon Battery Grip ×2

These are not always in the bag, but I reach for the grips when I'm intentionally shooting a lot of vertical frames, or when I'm heading somewhere that'll demand extended battery life and I don't mind carrying the extra weight. In cold environments, battery drain accelerates quickly, so the grip earns its place on polar expeditions.

Fujifilm X-T30 II

My take-everywhere camera. Small enough to slide into a jacket pocket, but it shoots like a proper camera. It sports full manual control, excellent image quality, and a Fuji color rendering that I genuinely love. It goes everywhere the R5s can't or shouldn't: casual travel days, street photography, situations where a big Canon rig would change how people interact with the scene. Almost always paired with the 27mm f/2.8.

iPhone 17 Pro

In my pocket everywhere, always. I use all three lenses, particularly the wide and the telephoto, and the computational photography is genuinely impressive. Beyond the obvious, I use it for location scouting and, usefully, whenever I'm shooting with the big cameras I try to take one quick shot with the iPhone because it embeds GPS coordinates. Having that location data attached to a reference image has saved me more than once when trying to remember exactly where a particular shot was taken.

Pentax KX

This is the camera I learned film photography with: a proper 35mm film SLR. I shot film on it as a kid, developed it myself, and printed enlargements in a darkroom. I still use it occasionally, not for any professional reason, but because there's a quality of attention that shooting on film demands that I find useful to return to. You can't spray and pray on a roll of 24. Every frame has to count.

Ricoh XR-10

Another 35mm film camera I shoot with occasionally, just for the pleasure of it. There's something about the unpredictability of film, the slight imprecision, the waiting, that keeps me honest as a photographer. Digital is better in almost every objective sense. Film reminds me why that doesn't always matter.

Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM

My widest lens and one I reach for when I want to put the viewer inside a scene with tight spaces, dramatic foregrounds, or environmental portraits. The f/2.8 aperture means it earns its place even in low light. On expedition it's often what goes on the second body when I want wide coverage immediately available.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM

The lens that does everything in the middle. Whether for portraits, street, travel, or general documentary work, the 24-70 range covers the majority of situations where I'm not specifically reaching for something wider or longer. Fast, sharp, and reliable. If I could only bring one zoom, this would be a serious contender.

Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

The telephoto workhorse. Fast enough for wildlife in reasonable light, versatile enough for portraits, landscapes, and compression effects. The f/2.8 aperture is what makes this lens. At 200mm with the background compressed and the subject separated, you're getting images that slower lenses simply can't produce. On expedition this is frequently the lens on my second body.

Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM

My dedicated wildlife lens. The reach is essential when you're working at the minimum required distances from animals. In Antarctica, in wildlife reserves, anywhere you need 400-500mm to fill the frame without disturbing the subject, this is the ticket. It's slower than the 70-200 at the long end, but paired with the R5's autofocus system the results are consistently strong. Extended to 500mm with the 2x teleconverter when the situation demands it, though that does cost you speed.

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM + EF-RF Adapter

Honestly? It's not a great lens. The image quality doesn't come close to the RF glass. But I love the 40mm focal length for street photography. It's close to how I see the world, wide enough to include context but not so wide that it distorts. This lens is tiny, light, and utterly unintimidating to shoot with. Sometimes that matters more than optical perfection. I use it with the EF-RF adapter until Canon builds a native RF 40mm worth owning.

Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM

The 50mm f/1.2 is a special lens. The bokeh at f/1.2 is unlike anything else in the RF system. The soft rendering and the separation between subject and background is something the zooms simply can't replicate. I reach for it in low light situations and whenever I want a more intimate, subject-focused feel. It's heavy, it's expensive, and it earns every bit of both.

Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Primarily a macro lens, though it pulls double duty as a short telephoto portrait lens when I don't need the reach of the 70-200. The macro capability opens up a completely different way of seeing details in insect life, plant textures, or nature — things that are invisible at normal shooting distances.

Canon RF 2x Teleconverter

Used primarily with the 100-500mm, pushing it to an effective 1000mm at the long end, which is extreme, but occasionally exactly what a situation calls for. Also comes into play when I rent fast super-telephoto primes like the 400mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 for specific assignments. The 2x does cost two stops of light and some autofocus performance, so it stays in the bag unless I specifically need it.

Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR

The lens that lives on the X-T30. At 27mm on APS-C it's the equivalent of roughly 40mm full frame — that focal length I keep coming back to for street photography. It's flat, compact, and completely unobtrusive, which matters when you're trying to shoot candidly. The weather resistance is a bonus. The combination of the X-T30 and 27mm is what I take when I want a camera that disappears.

Fujifilm XF 35mm f/2 R WR

A classic focal length in a compact, weather-sealed package. The 35mm f/2 is sharper and faster than the kit zoom and small enough to keep the X-T30 pocketable. I use it when I want a slightly tighter, more compressed perspective than the 27mm such as with portraits, travel scenes, or situations where I want a little more subject separation.

Fujifilm XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ

The versatile option when I want zoom flexibility without carrying the Canon system. Not the sharpest lens in the world, but practical when I need a range of focal lengths in a small package. Primarily a backup and travel convenience option — the primes get most of the work on the X-T30.