My Gear #31 - Niklas Bartsch

Hello everyone! First off, my name is Niklas! I'm 16 years old and am currently in grade 11! I live in the beautiful Calgary Alberta Canada and I love enjoying the Rocky Mountains by skiing / snowboarding, and downhill mountain biking! I'm very close with my family! And of course, i'm a loyal "NIKON Guy"!

So from being quite young, I was always interested in capturing special moments through images, and loved playing with the family camera! In July of 2009 I purchased my first camera, the bullet proof Nikon D80 with kit lens, the Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6. It served me very well for three years, but it was beginning to fail me.

I then purchased the Nikon D800 last August along with the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8. The D80 is now my backup and is very rarely utilized, and the D800 is my main body. And wow, does it ever provide!

I bought the D800 because of its enormously over pixelated sensor, which is wonderful to have as you can crop to your hearts content! As well as then I could use it in DX crop mode, still at a suitable resolution and get another frame per second for sports. I currently don't have a "genre" of photography that I am specifically interested in, so this camera has shot anything from a snowboarding competition, to landscapes in Hawaii, to the broken and beautiful streets of New York City for me.

I use the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 paired with the D800 because it is robust, sharp, has wonderful bokeh, and is an awesomely fast lens! Its currently on my camera about 85% of the time (and the other 15% is with the 50mm f/1.8 but i'll get to that later), because it's my only all around piece of glass. I'm certainly yearning for more reach at times, so i'm seeing a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 in the future! But for now, I certainly can't complain with the combination of the D800 and the 24-70mm. It does just about anything and everything I require it to.

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 is quite nice as well! At times I really enjoy putting that on my camera, and going for a walk. This is because with a fixed focal range, it makes you look at things from different perspectives as well as notice different things in your environment. The bokeh on this lens is also very fun to play with!

I have a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod, and it is wonderful! I bring it along with me most of the time, as well as my Manfrotto 679B monopod. I love shooting long exposures of light trails, the ocean, and anything else that provides a nice blur to photographs so it is essential for my shots. I use this tripod for all sorts of things, but one thing that I really like it for is its articulating stem, as it can be mounted right side up (conventional), upside down, or horizontally which is useful when shooting in restricted areas and its definitely come in handy a couple times.

I always carry my Nikon SB-900, because although I prefer using natural light as much as possible, it is definitely needed in some situations when you just need that extra fill.

I forgot to include a shot of my bag, but I primarily use a Lowepro Passport Sling as I am able to fit pretty much every piece of equipment that I own into it, and it is still fairly comfortable for it being a sling bag. Its super durable, strong, and fairly well padded! When skiing, biking, hiking, or any other "physically demanding" activity, I use a no-name back pack that I picked up a couple of years back.

Some other things that I always carry are: Giottos Rocket blower, Lens Pen, spare camera batteries, and a card reader.

What I included in the write up is my most used equipment, I have other things that I carry along but it completely depends on what i'm shooting.

I hope this helps everyone!

Happy shooting to all! And like Matt says "Get Your Gear Out!!!" :D

Thanks for a great, clear and quality image Niklas - and for taking the time to explain why & how you use your gear. It is great to see someone your age so passionate about photography.

If you would like to get involved, PLEASE follow all the instructions here.