As a photographer, having useful photography gear is ESSENTIAL. It is no secret that there are SO MANY OPTIONS of gear out there.

I’m a firm believer that amazing gear doesn’t make an amazing photographer and that once you understand manual mode, light, and composition you can take pictures with anything and have it look amazing!

However, you obviously need gear. I do get asked this a lot… “Ashley, what is your must-have photography gear??”

Well, I’m here to tell you the 4 gear essentials that I need in order to do what I do as a family photographer!

LET’S TALK ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR, FRIENDS

#1: CANON R6

I just upgraded recently to mirrorless, before I had a 6D Mark ii.

I love the sharpness of this camera! The only thing I have had to adjust a tad is my editing since the colors of the mirrorless are a little different than the 6d Mark ii.

#2: 50MM 1.2 LENS

This is my baby!

I have other lenses, but this is the one I use the most. It’s on my camera 99.9% of the time. I love the way I don’t have to be as far back and can still interact with my clients, but it also doesn’t distort the face.

#3: WD PASSPORT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES

Y’all I keep everything!

I’m so afraid to delete things so I need good externals to help store all my raw and edited images. Make sure you get two, one for your main and one to back it up in case something happens to the main one. I usually get them off Amazon, you can check out my full amazon must-have list HE

RE.

#4: HONEYBOOK

I know this is technically a program and not the gear, but I can not run my business without Honeybook!

It keeps all my client contacts organized plus it stores all my contracts AND collects all my payments. I’m able to send session guides, questionnaires, and pre-written emails. It’s the perfect little assistant!

You can try it for 50% off with this LINK.

For more of my favorites and must-haves, CLICK HERE.