Carla Step’s Shoot Day Must-Haves

When I’m preparing my backpack for a long day at work, I try to make a selection of the really important materials to avoid carrying more weight than necessary.

The materials can change depending on what I’m going to photograph or where it is, but there are a series of essential items that always travel with me. These are:

Is a quick solution for a lot of things for example, when you need to mark a spot for the model or hang something on a wall — so I always try to have it in my case.

I always bring a blower to remove dust, a brush & microfibre cloths with me on a shoot. I wear glasses and get them dirty all the time from contact with the viewfinder. I used to always lose my microfibre cloths, until I began attaching them to my camera strap.

I really love this strap because it’s comfy when you’re carrying your camera for a long period of time. Also, I really like the quick release system which allows me to remove it when I need to work with a tripod.

I bought a little SD card holder in Japan, which has four card slots. It’s very handy and I love it. It’s always important to have SD cards organized and safe.

I use a tethering cable to connect my camera to the iPad or laptop in case I need to shoot directly to a bigger screen.

I always carry my essential filter kit in two sizes for my main lenses. This kit has a UV Filter Plus+, which helps me protecting the lenses, two ND Filters Plus+ (ND8 & ND1000) that blocks different stops of light and helps me have more control on the effect I want to achieve, and my favorite one; the CPL Polarizing Filter Plus+ that cuts reflected light and boosts all the colors in the image.

I bring these to transfer my photos easily if I need to while on a shoot.

I always bring a water bottle with me, the lighter the better. Also, a wireless speaker — it makes for a more comfortable and fun environment. A hair clip is also handy when you have long hair to pull your hair back while on a shoot. Hand sanitizer is always nice to have on you, so you can clean your hands quickly when you’re working long hours and you don’t have access to water and soap.