My Favorite Documentary In-Home Newborn And Family Photo Session Equipment

Many people ask about the gear I use for in-home family and newborn photography sessions, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse into my treasure chamber:NIKON D750 CAMERA BODYThe D750 camera body combined with the 35mm and 24mm 1.4 lenses are a great combo for low-light situations like dark rooms, indoor lights and births – as well as tight spaces.I used to bring two D750 bodies to every shoot, so I could switch between two different lenses quickly. This way one camera functions as a backup incase the other one stops working, too. Which brings me to the...LEICA QThis little thing has a fixed 28mm 1.7 lens, and is SO LIGHT! So I decided to replace one of my heavy Nikon cameras with this nifty thing, which has been amazing especially during long sessions. It also has macro capability, which is awesome for baby toes and other details you wish to document.LENSESI like working with prime lenses (lenses that don't have a zoom), because that forces me to move my body closer or further instead of fiddling around with a zoom. I'm not big on massive zooms anyway, because I feel like the closer I am to the action the more the pictures will feel like they're taken right in the middle of the action, instead of observing from further away.NIKON 50mm 1.8The 50mm is a great (and cheap!) basic lens, that'll result in pretty flattering images of faces because it doesn't distort the scene much. The only trouble is that I like to include more in my pictures that just faces, so I only put this lens on occasionally or in bigger rooms.SIGMA 35mm 1.4This is by far my favorite lens – it might as well be glued onto one of my cameras. It distorts the scene a bit more than the 50mm since it tires to include more environment into the picture, but that's also why it gives you a feeling of being right there.SIGMA 24mm 1.4This wide lens is a really handy tool for small spaces! However, it distorts images a lot more than the 35mm and the 50mm, getting closer to a fish-eye effect than the other lenses.CAMERA STRAPSI prefer wide straps (2+ inches), so that they'll even out the weight of the cameras on my shoulder. Capturing Couture has some wide ones with fun patterns, and I'm also a sucker for leather straps.CAMERA BAG

A padded leather messenger bag by FeatherTouch – it fits my two camera bodies and all my fave three lenses.

WHAT ELSE IS IN MY CAMERA BAGSpare batteries, many many memory cards (64Gb), lens cleaning supplies, a notebook with scribbles about the family I'm meeting, snacks and a good luck charm I got at a photography conference I attended recently.I hope this has been helpful to you!