11 Essential Photography Gear Items Every Beginner Photographer Should Get. Hi and welcome to Episode 119 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on I need your help. I need your questions to answer. More on this at the end, but please have a think while you listen to this splendid episode.
Here is the answery bit
I am going to tell you 11 essential bits of photography gear that will get you going taking great photos. They are
- A tripod
- Hurricane/ brush blower
- Pec Pads
- Lens cleaning solution
- Spare batteries
- Memory cards
- Memory card cases
- ND filter
- Book
- Camera Bag
- Another lens
Ok – this is my list after all – I am sure that there are those who will disagree, but that is fine.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
Now let me quickly go through each of these.
1 A tripod
Yes, a tripod. Check out episodes 95, 96 and 97 where I tell you all about tripods. I try to use a tripod for every photo that I take.
And in an upcoming episode, I will tell you how to choose the right tripod for you.
A tripod is in my opinion one of the best investments you can make if you are serious about your photography.
2 Hurricane/ brush blower
These cost less than a tenner and are dead handy for blowing dust and debris off your precious camera and lens.
3 Pec Pads
I use these to clean the front and rear lens elements. And the LCD screen and viewfinder.
4 Eclipse Lens cleaning solution
I use this with the Pec Pads. This is the cleaning solution that I apply to the pads to clean those very important front and rear lens elements. Very important to keep these clean. And very important to clean them safely.
5 Spare batteries
I have four batteries for each of my cameras, and I take all four batteries with me whenever I take my camera out, which is every time I go out.
Why 4? No real reason. I once used 2 batteries on a shoot, so figured that if I had another two batteries I would be covered if both batteries failed.
And these batteries live in slots in my camera bag so they are stored safely and properly protected.
6 Memory cards
Spare memory cards. Imagine running out of space on a memory card. How awful would that be? They are relatively cheap these days, and I have lots of them.
How big are my memory cards?
I only have 16GB and 32GB memory cards. Well, I don’t take that many photos, so I don’t need any bigger. On a commercial shoot, I will usually take no more than 100 photos, often much less. And on say a two-week holiday I will change the card every couple of days so if there is a problem with a card I have not lost everything.
No, I do not recommend getting a massive memory card and putting a full holiday’s worth of photos on it. Or getting say a 512 GB card and just adding to and adding to for a matter of weeks/ months.
No, I use small memory cards and look after the cards properly.
7 Memory card cases
Talking of which. I am desperately sad and obsessive when it comes to looking after my memory cards. I have a hard, waterproof case (with a yellow waterproof seal) that I put blank, formatted memory cards in. And at the end of a shoot or a day taking fun stuff, I will put that memory card in another hard, waterproof case, this one with a red waterproof seal.
And when I have imported the photos into Lightroom I put that memory card into a soft case in a desk drawer until I am ready to format it and put it back in the hard, yellow case.
Yes, I really do this.
8 ND filter
What is an ND filter? Simple. It is like sunglasses for your camera. It reduces the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor.
ND stands for neutral density filter by the way.
Why do I recommend this? Well, I still carry mine with me everywhere and wish I had one years ago. With one of these things, you can use a slower shutter speed as the filter is reducing the amount of light getting through to the sensor.
I have a 10-stop neutral density filter. That means that when my camera is saying that the correct shutter speed is 1/60th second, for example, put my 10-stop neutral density filter on and the shutter speed is an amazing 15 seconds!
I wanted to introduce one funky thing in this list – I will talk about these wonderful things in a future episode (I have just decided).
9 Book
A book? Yes, a book. A book about your camera. Buy one book that best teaches you how to use your camera. Don’t buy two or three books – I did that. And do you know what? I thought that having three books on my camera would make me the best photographer ever. But it didn’t. They looked good on my bookshelf, but I didn’t read them.
Now? I have one book for my Canon 6D and one book for my Olympus EM5.
And yes, I have gone through both of them. And they are sat there on a shelf in my office ready for me to dip into whenever I need to know something.
Buy one book about your camera and work through it with your camera.
10 Camera Bag
Check out Episode 98 – Which Camera Bag Should I Buy? 7 Things For You To Think About.
All I want to say here is that you need to get a bag that protects your gear, a bag that is comfortable to carry, and a bag that you can get stuff out of and back into without any hassle.
The priority of a camera bag is functionality and protecting that precious gear, not how it looks. And no, these things are not cheap but think about how much you are prepared to invest in a camera and lens – the right bag will protect that gear, and protect your investment.
Buy the best bag that you can. And no there is no one perfect bag. Well, I haven’t found it yet. If you have let me know.
11 Another lens
Yes, another lens. Now this is such a broad subject I will cover it in the next episode, cunningly titled “I Have A Kit Lens – How Do I Know Which Lens To Buy To Progress My Photography?”
See this stuff is not just thrown together.
The talky bit
I don’t want to overcomplicate things. I want to tell you what you need to know, which I hope helps you, and means that you can focus your efforts elsewhere, hopefully on taking photos, and learning how to take better photos at that.
That is what photography is all about. It is not about gear. Sure you need stuff to take photos with, and stuff to help you take better photos, but this is your starting point.
I spent many, many years buying this bit of gear, that bit of gear. I spent forever looking at gear, thinking that if I got all the best gear then I would be the best photographer.
And the opposite happened. I spent less time taking photos, and when I went out taking photos I had so much gear that it actually hindered me.
Less is more. This is what I do. Oh sorry, I will come on to that revelation in a bit.
Sure get gear if it will help you, but only if it will help you. I only buy gear these days if
- What I have is broken
- Something will help me take better photos
- Something will help me take photos that I cannot take with my current gear.
And that is it.
And there is also my 12-month rule. If I don’t use a piece of gear for a year I sell it. That simple. If it has been stuck in a box in my garage for a year I clearly don’t need it.
Photography is about drawing with light, not about having all the gear under the sun.
If you are into gear, and enjoy looking at, buying and playing with gear that is fine, there is nothing wrong with that. If that is what you want to do then go for it. But this will not improve your photography. Again if this doesn’t bother you fine.
But if you do want to improve your photography gear is not the answer. Going out more and taking photos is the answer. Practise, practise, practise.
What do you think?
If you don’t agree with my list then that is just fine. Let me know what you would have put in this list and I will gladly create another episode with a listeners top whatever number photography gear essentials. Actually, that’s a great idea, so please let me know what you would put on such a list.
What do I do?
I use all of the above. That is where the list came from. See this list is not created from a search in Google – this is what I do. This is the gear that I take with me whenever I leave my house. Yes, every time I go anywhere this is what I always have with me.
That is why I call this my essential photography gear.
And no I am not being paid to tell you about this stuff. But, if you went to the gear page on rickmcevoyphotography.com and clicked on one of the Amazon links and bought something then yes, I would get a commission from Amazon. But that is as far as it goes. This is stuff that I have bought with my own hard-earned cash and use all the time.
Next episode
Get your question answered.
Get your question answered. Or questions. You are not limited to one question here.
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions. Not mine. So please get in touch with your question, and not only will I answer your question, but I will give you a shout-out on that episode, which is nice. Just head over to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
OK – I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out the podcast website, which is photographyexplainedpodcast.com/.
This episode was brought to you by a Co-op sausage sandwich with Ketchup added. Very nice. And a nice coffee sat here in my self-made soundproofed emporium.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
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And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
