My Gear #25 - Jim Fidler

I am an Aussie teaching at an international school here in Beijing and one of my roles is to coordinate the Middle School Yearbook. This involves the preparation of the yearbook with students every year. I take the majority of the photos and teach the kids to take the rest. I attend all events including Performing Arts, sports, cultural and academic. About 70% of the photos are taken indoors as Beijing's weather can be brutal during the winter months. Obviously most of the photos are of people so I needed fast lenses to capture the light with only the occasional fill flash used. As I have all my equipment purchased for my use by the school, l I am very lucky that I can purchase such high quality gear. We have NIKON cameras across our large school. I had always been CANON until I submerged my CANON D300 in Lake Nanaimo,  BC Canada 5 years ago so now it is all NIKON.

After much research I was able to build a set of gear that would meet the needs of predominately indoor photography without flash. It was hard work photographing sports in gyms with my trusty old D80 as the light was terrible so I went with the D700 as it was noted for its great low light performance. It has been awesome using up to 5000 ISO,  still little grain and stopping the action.

My main walkabout lens is the unbreakable 24-70, a beast! I use the 50mm1.4 prime for all portrait work, crystal clear. The 70-200 is such a fantastic piece of glass and so good in the gyms , theatre and outdoor events. I also use the 17-35 as a walkabout lens as it great for all the group shots I take. Last year I took delivery of the D5100 with the 18-200VR lens. This is mainly for my students and for quality video. I am not much into video but the kids have learnt to use it well. This set up is also very popular with colleagues who often borrow it for holidays and weekends as a travel set up.

I use the Fast Access camera strap which is so much more comfortable to use than the standard NIKON strap. The Fast Access strap is all quality and I use it all the time and is well suited to the heavy lenses I use with much less strain on the old neck. I have the robust Manfrotto tripod which is excellent for my portrait work and some low light work on camps and trips as is the Dingshen monopod.

I bought the Speedlight SB 800 early on and still use it if I need flash fill on the longer lenses. Of course there are the extra CF cards and spare battery along with the cable for downloads. I have a Sandisk card reader but that only works for Sandisk CF cards so from now on that is only brand of card I purchase.

Finally the TENBO bag. This bag is so good. I have carted it all over the world for the past three years and is as good as when I bought it. Great storage with all the right pockets and a top opening zip giving quick and easy access to the bag contents. All the zips are bullet proof and the covering is water resistant. Highly recommended.

Having all this great gear gives me so many options and I am now back into the 50mm as my walkabout lens as it makes me think more carefully about what I am doing.

I love my work and so lucky to have such quality gear. My recommendation re gear is know your needs, do the research, talk to people and spend wisely. My experience is with photography equipment you get what you pay for.

Thanks for sharing your gear with us Jim.

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