Hi everybody. Welcome to Episode 43 of the Photography Explained Podcast. In this episode, my step-by-step guide to how I prepare my photography gear. Snappy title eh?

I’m your host Rick and each week I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help you and me with our photography and no more.

I’m still having to read that out – I can’t remember it yet!

I’m a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience which I share with you on my podcast.

I am finally getting to the point where I’m happy with the subject matter and the things that I’m going through, I think these step-by-step episodes (excuse me banging my mouse on the desk, this microphone picks up everything) are going to be really helpful.

So yep, happy with stuff at the moment. And I’m delighted to be on episode 43.

The answer

I prepare my photography gear systematically to ensure that I’m always fully prepared for a shoot, here are the 10 steps that I go through.

1. Decide which gear I need.
2. Pack spares in a separate bag
3. Clean everything
4. Charge my batteries
5. Format memory cards (and put them in yellow case)
6. Choose a bag
7. Pack the gear I need
8. Pack the spares bag(s)
9. Pack the other odd stuff
10. Check the other stuff

Excuse me (coughing), I still don’t know how to edit audio by the way.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

Number one, decide which gear I need.

Now I have quite a bit of photography gear and I use about 15% of it probably. I use the same camera lens and tripod combo on most commercial shoots.

So what I do is I get the gear that I need, and I put the rest into a separate bag, so number one is to decide which gear I need.

Number two, pack the spares in a separate bag.

Now the spares will be anything critical, like another camera and lens which mean that if my main camera fails, I have a full backup so I can carry on, and nobody would ever know any different.

The spares go in a separate bag and the separate bag also goes in my car.

Number three, I clean everything.

Everything apart from the camera sensor – I will come on to that in another episode. I clean the front and rear lens elements of every lens that I’m taking. I clean the front and rear lens elements of every lens that’s in the spare bag.

I clean the LCD screen, the viewfinder, the camera body, my glasses, my contact lenses, and my face, everything gets cleaned before it’s put away (including me).

Number four charging batteries.

Now I go on a shoot with four batteries. I only ever (normally) use one battery, I’ve got to be honest with you. Every now and then on a long shoot, I’ve had to use two batteries but never ever more than two. So if two batteries die randomly, I have two spare spares – and that’s for each camera

Five – format memory cards (and in brackets, it says here and put in yellow case).

Now this is important.

It’s all important but this is one that you might not have thought about. I format all the memory cards (note to self add this to the list – backing up memory cards – how I do it).

I format memory cards using my camera – my Canon 6D if I’m going to be using that, or using my Olympus EM5 if I am going to use this.

I always format the cards in camera, which is the best and only way you should do it. Please just believe me on that.

I put one card in the camera, they are either 16 or 32-gigabyte memory cards (good quality at that). They’re not huge. They don’t need to be (one for another time).

I’ll probably take eight memory cards, one in the camera and the other seven I put in a waterproof case with a yellow trim around it.

Now why am I being so specific? Because when I am on a shoot, at a point during the shoot I will take out (phone ringing even though put on Do Not Disturb. How did that work? Turns out it was not on Do Not Disturb – operator error!).

So during the shoot, I will take a card out of the camera. And I will put it in another hard, unbreakable waterproof SD card holder case.

This one has a red trim. That means I know which are the blank formatted cards, and which are the cards with images on them. Now I do this all the time. If I’m going on holiday, I will do that every day. So every day I’ve got the cards with the photos in the safe. And I know where my memory cards are, this is how I manage data.

Why such small memory cards?

The reason I only use small memory cards is that on a shoot, I probably won’t fill up a 16-gigabyte card. In fact, thinking about it, I never do. But after a couple of hours, I will probably take the card out, put another one in, and start again.

So if a card randomly, or disastrously fails, I am not losing everything.

Okay, managing data is one for another time.

Number six, choose a bag.

(Post-recording note – I have many camera bags)

Now depending on the job I’m doing that will dictate which bag I take. For construction and architectural photography, I use the Peak Design Everyday backpack. I am not being paid to say that – it’s just a great bag. I don’t carry a lot of gear, and I need it in the backpacks so my hands are free so I can get up scaffolds, move around the place, and what have you.

Seven – pack the gear I need.

I only take on shoots the gear that I need.

Actually, I need a separate episode, don’t I on the gear I take on an architectural photography shoot?

You might be surprised by how little I take

Number eight – pack the spares bag or bags.

Everything else goes in these. And it’s normally left in my car. So it’s within reach if I need it.

Number nine pack the other stuff.

When I say other stuff, this is stuff including things like a painter’s pole, in case I need to stick my camera five metres up in the air, and a pair of waders in case I need to stand in a river. That kind of thing.

And for construction sites, this all needs to be packed away. So it’s not just about the photography gear, the photography stuff is quite easily managed.

Number 10 check the other stuff.

So I was going to talk about this, and I’ve decided that this will be a separate episode on its own. So I’m talking to you about things like the weather, distance, traffic, parking, etc.

So that’s it, I’ve cut myself a little bit short then. What I’m going to do in a future episode is that I’m going to talk about the gear that I use on a commercial shoot. And also the spares that I pack.

And I have already planned this one and drafted it, how I set up my camera.

Important Stuff

This is important stuff because this is making sure that we have a system and are always prepared for any shoot. Since I’ve adopted this quite rigid system, I’ve never had a problem.

When I forgot my spare batteries

Apart from one shoot where I forgot the spare batteries. I’d driven for an hour and a half. There was a battery in the camera, and I remembered that all the spares, which are charged one after another very very methodically and logically, were in my office at home. So I had one battery. I had no way of getting to a shop to buy another battery because these are quite specific things.

That’s why a battery grip, which is a pain in the behind, is so useful. It gives you the ability to power something like a Canon 6D using AA batteries.

Sounds like a good backup plan, a backup to a backup. So apart from that most times I’ve got everything absolutely fine. I’ve never had a problem.

One line summary

Follow my steps and how I prepare my gear and you’ll be fully equipped and ready to anytime you want to take photos. I’m going to read that again because I’m not reading off the page.

Okay, let’s try again.

Follow my own steps on how I prepare my gear and you’ll be fully equipped and ready to… I’m ready to… The sentence doesn’t make sense, does it?

That’s just rubbish. I should do better. Follow mine. Right, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna close my eyes.

Follow my 10 steps and you will always be fully equipped for any shoot at any time and never have a problem with gear.

There you go. That’s better. See, sometimes it’s better if I just speak it out of my head. Very rarely is that the case.

Okay, what do I want you to do now?

My voice is going a bit deeper and gravelly here which is a bit unusual for me.

1 Let me know your thoughts on Twitter.

My handle on Twitter, is it handle, name, title, thing is @rickphoto

2 I didn’t say that was number one. I am still making that mistake as well.

Number two, subscribe to my podcast if you enjoyed this episode. This helps me and I bet you can’t wait to hear more of my error-laden ramblings.

3 Number three – rate and review my podcast.

Again. If you enjoyed this episode, this helps me if you leave a nice review that is. If you thought it was rubbish, I’d rather you didn’t leave a rubbish review. But it’s up to you.

4 Number four, tell someone you know about my podcast.

This also helps me and if you do, I will be very grateful.

Next episode.

Okay. As I alluded to at the beginning, this is turning out to be the series of episodes I wish I’d done at the very beginning.

Still, that’s life. That’s learning. It’s all fine. I’m getting there in the end.

So PE44 of the Photography Explained Podcast will be my step-by-step guide to how I set up my camera.

Boring but important.

Thank you

Thank you for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. Check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography, where you can find out all about me and my architectural and construction photography work, as well as my photography blog where you can learn lots more about photography, and me if you want to.

Photography Explained Podcast website

Also, please check out the Photography Explained Podcast website, where you can find out how to ask me a question, find the list of episodes (which I updated this morning so I know it’s up to date), and also the things I’m going to explain in future episodes.

This episode was brought to you very much by me finally being totally happy with what I’m creating in my podcast.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to me, and for giving me 12 and a half minutes of your valuable time. And I will see you in 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.

Let me send you stuff

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.

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