Make a Gears List

by Leowell

Everytime I go for a photo shoot, I bring with me almost my ‘full battle gear’. Maybe other photographers would disagree and they’d just bring the essentials. But my own principle is that it’s better to be over prepared than be under prepared. Especially on paid shoots, it saves me a lot of precious time. More often than not, being over prepared helps me gain the trust of my clients when I’m presented with an unexpected difficult situation and I came prepared.

Bringing a lot of gears comes with the risk of losing some of your valuable items. I have already lost one which is quite pricey and very dear to me. So I came up with a very simple and old-fashion system of listing down all of my items in an Excel spreadsheet. I created 3 columns: Gears, Check 1 and Check 2 then I saved a master file with the inventory of all of my photographic equipment. For each photoshoot, I would then customize my gears list (I delete the rows in which I know for sure I would not need, such as studio lights if I am shooting outdoor), print the inventory list and put a check on the ‘Check 1’ column after I have placed the item inside my bag.

During the photoshoot, a lot of things can happen. I would switch lenses, change the batteries of my strobe, etc. Sometimes, I am in a hurry that I don’t have the time to properly arrange them in my bag. There were a couple of times when I left my items on top of a friend’s bag.

But ever since I made the effort to print my gears list, I haven’t lost a single item. After the photoshoot, I would do the same inventory check and tick the ‘Check 2’ column. I found it more efficient to do this while I am still onsite and still have a chance of looking for the missing items instead of checking the items when I get home.

P.S. It’s also a good practice to put your name, address and contact number on your gears list and put it in your bag for emergency purposes. This is especially helpful when you are travelling.

Please feel free to leave some comments on this post and share your system with us.