if i ever utter these words again from my keyboard, i highly recommend you stop listening to me, unfollow me, de-friend me and unsubscribe from my email list. i will have officially become full of you know what. i’ll go so far as recommending you ignore anyone else when they tell you what’s in their bag, or that as a ____ photographer, you must have piece of gear _____.
“the single most important component of a camera is the 12 inches behind it.” - ansel adams
if we try very hard to remember back to our biology classes where we learned about vision, we’ll recall that the eyes take in the light into tiny receptors, pass them to something called an optical nerve, which passes all this “data” to the brain. the brain is actually the thing that puts together all this “data” into the scene we actually see. and no two brains work the same, which means we all “see” differently. the scenes and the subjects in scenes that move me will be different than those scenes you see, and the subjects in the scene that you see. when someone tells you that you have a great eye, what they’re really saying is your mind works similarly to theirs when it comes to the scenes you’ve photographed.
and what does this have to do with what lenses and filters are in my bag? pretty much everything. i photograph with the equipment that helps me produce images that my mind finds compelling and interesting. and you should photograph with the equipment that helps you produce images that your mind finds compelling and interesting. the odds that both our minds are going to find the same exact scenes and see the same subjects in those scenes are extremely slim. what you really need to do is get out and make photographs - all kinds of varying photographs with all kinds of different types of lenses, filters, flash settings, etc. and then you’ll have all the information you need to find out which gear produces the most compelling images to you. if you use what i use, (or anyone else uses or tells you to use) you may just make images that are of no emotional consequence to you.
by all means, if you’re new and looking for recommendations for potential lenses to try, look to these people explaining what’s in their bag. give their recommendations a try, but try some other stuff too - things they didn’t recommend. and once you figure out how it is that you “see” and know what it is you’re passionate about photographing, spend time focusing on how you see - maximizing your vision of the scene. the lust for new gear isn’t going to make you a better photographer, and having the recommended set of lenses, filters or strobes for your preferred photography genre(s) isn’t going to make you a good photographer. the end goal should be to find and use gear that makes images that provide your mind with an emotional tug.