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I was going through my stuff the other day and I started thinking about things I find essential to every landscape photo shoot I go on (other than the usualย camera body, lensesย and tripod). It was actually pretty hard to come up with a list of stuff that I always take with me and use just about every time. The way I started thinking about it was this: what if I only had 60 seconds to grab my essential gear. Besides grabbing the camera, lenses, and tripod, what things would I make sure I had with me. So I cameย up with these 3 essential things for my landscape shoots. Here goes:

1. Lens Filters

There’s certain filters that you simply can’t recreate well in Lightroom or Photoshop. For me, I always have my filter pouch with me and it’s got my circular Polarizer and my neutral density filters. I don’t use graduated neutral density filters anymore (I wrote more about why they’re dead to me here), but I always carry at least a 2, 3 and 4 stop ND filter with me. I use the ones from Tiffen and they even come with a pouch. And polarizers are essential so I always have mine with me. I personally use the B+W Circular Polarizer. It’s a little more pricey than some of the cheap ones, but I’ve had mine for nearly 10 years so they last.

Here’s a link to the Tiffen filters I just mentioned.

And here’s a link to the B+W Polarizer

2. Cable Release

I shoot a lot of long exposures so a cable release is essential if your shutter speed goes over 30 seconds. Under 30 seconds, I can get away with the self-timer on my camera, but anything over and youโ€™ll need your cable release (unless you have one of those new Canon 7D Mark IIโ€™s that have it built in, but I donโ€™t) ๐Ÿ™‚

3. Lens Clothes and Wipes

This one is huge for me. If youโ€™re shooting outdoors, some of the best weather to shoot in is when itโ€™s stormy out. Thatโ€™s where you can get some spectacular light if the clouds break. Plus, I like shooting waterfalls and on the beach a lot, and Iโ€™ll catch a lot of spray off the water. In fact, the photos I posted from Oneonta Gorge a few months ago were a perfect example of this. After every shot I had to wipe away the mist from my lens,ย and I ended up going through two small towels to help keep it dry.

Anyway, the point is that I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have a lens cloth and some wipes in my bag. Any cloth will do. Iโ€™ve even taken a small towel from my hotel bathroom on shoots with me. But a towel will only do so much so I always carry lens wipes too. I use the Hoodman Lens Cleanse wipes. They come with wet wipe that helps get any junk off the lens, and a dry wipe that helps dry it off. Iโ€™ll actually put โ€˜em back in the package and reuse during my shoot (although Iโ€™m pretty sure youโ€™re not supposed to – but it works for me) ๐Ÿ™‚

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