Today I’m excited to be sharing with you a little “behind the scenes” look at my very simple photography setup. Below is the equipment I’ve been using for the past 5 years, as well as a few tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.

My Photography Equipment:

I’ve been shooting with the (very affordable) Cannon EOS Rebel T1i for the past 5 years. I’ve learned so much about photography with this camera and continue to grow every day.

Wanna hear something crazy…? These photos were shot with the SAME EXACT camera and lens ↓

And these…

And these, too…

Practice and patience are seriously your best friend when it comes to improving your photography! In the past 5 years I’ve taken thousands of photographs and I try to learn something from every shoot. Like anything, improvement takes time and hard work, so be kind to yourself and remember to have fun. Strive for progress, not perfection 😉

Which brings us to my lens. I shoot all of my photos with this Canon EF-S 15-85mm lens and I love, love, LOVE it. While this lens is on the expensive side, it’s worth every penny! It’s a high quality wide angle telephoto lens that works great with my crop bodied camera. The image color and quality this lens provides is simply outstanding!

This lens allows me to snap super sharp photos be it from a distance or from reeeeeally close up.

Now, let’s talk about photo processing. I’ve only been editing my photos in Lightroom for a year but I’m already a HUGE fan girl. Lightroom allows me put extra life into my photos by adding color, contrast, and so much more. You can purchase Lightroom or you can “rent” it for $9.99 a month.

While I don’t like to over process my photos, I almost always add color, contrast, and sharpness to my images. Here’s an example of how a few little changes can make a BIG difference.

Photo #1 is the raw image straight from my camera; Photo #2 is the same image after I edited it in Lightroom. For this image I increased the exposure, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. It took less than a minute and, as you can see from the image above, made a huge difference to the finished photo.

The final MUST have items in my photography setup are a tripod and memory card. And while they may not be very exciting, to me, they’re totally essential! I have been using this SILK PRO 700DX tripod for the past two years and would purchase it again in a heartbeat. It was extremely easy to assemble and is a total workhorse. It’s tall, solid, and sturdy. What more could you want from a tripod?

As far as memory cards go, there are tons of options out there! I use this 64GB SanDIsk because it has plenty of room for my RAW files.

And that’s it! These 5 simple tools are the foundation of my photography setup. I will add more tips and tricks to this page as they come to me, and feel free to ask me any questions in the comment section below. ♥ – Ashley