A list of my most used items in my camera bag.  Almost all of my equipment was purchased used, either on EBay or through Amazon.  I only really buy major upgrades when I think I really need it.  Other than that, I’ll buy lighting equipment, or DIY some light modifiers, which is very satififying, considering some of the modifiers these companies charge a lot of money for can easily be made by even the greenest DIY’er (I.E., me).

Main Camera Body –  I finally took the plunge and upgraded from my beloved Nikon D90.  I recently purchased the D7100.  I felt like it was a legit upgrade to the D90.  It does everything the D90 did, but just a little better.  Adding up all the little things, it makes a big difference.  However, even now, in 2014, the D90 is still a fantastic camera for a serious enthusiast, I love it.  I plan on adding my own D7100 review to the site soon.  I have no regrets purchasing it!

Primary Lens – Nikon 50mm F1.8D AF lenses  The classic nifty fifty.  I bought this bad boy for 90 bucks on EBay, used.  Super sharp and fast.  It’s the older version, but if you have a DSLR that has an internal motor, you’ll save around 70-80 bucks.  I use this for portraits and macro shots mostly.  It’s a prime lens, so no zoom, you’ll have to move around to get the correct perspective.  I think every photographer should have this lens, or the similar F1.4 version.

Secondary Lens – I got rid of my Quantarry 17-55 as part of the package when I sold my D90, and replaced it with a decent all around lens, the Nikon 18-105 mm – f3.5-5.6.  Brand new the lens is about 400 bucks, I got it for a great price on EBay, around 150.  This is a fun lens.  It can go wide enough for landscape shots, and can also go in for some nice portrait shots, as well as some close up/macro shots, since the minimum focus distance is 1.5 feet.  Throw Nikon VR on there, and I’m able to shoot a few stops more than without it.  It almost makes up for the lens being so slow….who am I kidding, it doesn’t.  But it’s a nice feature none the less.  I use this lens just as much as the 50 mm these days.

Nature/Telephoto Lens – Nikon Zoom-Nikkor 70 mm – 300 mm F/4.0-5.6 AF G  Although I love portraiture more, I do take a fair amount of nature/wildlife shots.  I just can’t afford a fast 300mm lens.  This one cost me $76 on EBay, and it was worth every penny.  It’s quite a slow lens, but the image quality is very good for such a low price.  Highly recommended it you are looking for an affordable telephoto.  Amazon currently has it for about 160 dollars (as of 10/2/14), although you can probably get it cheaper on EBay.

Main Speedlight – Nikon SB-700.  Outstanding flash.  I admit I splurged a little on this one.  I really wanted to experiment with Nikon HSS/Auto FP, and there were only a few off brands that were able to do it with a D90.  I found it used for 250 dollars used and am loving it.  it’s a lot easier to navigate the menus than I thought it would be.  If you don’t need all the bells and whistles, the next flash is pretty solid and a heck of a lot cheaper.

Secondary Speedlights– Yongnuo YN-468II.  I can’t say enough good things about this flash.  If you are just starting out with off camera flash  and don’t want to sink a ton of money, this is a fantastic flash.  It’s 100 bucks on Amazon, and worth every penny.  Yes, it’s a Chinese flash, which I know some are leary of because of quality control concerns, but I assure you that it’s good quality.  I’ve dropped it 2-3 times with no issue.  On top of the durability, it has just about every feature a budding strobist could want including 2 slave modes, TTL compatibility, full manual control down to 1/128 and decent power with only about 2 seconds recycle time using NiMH batteries.  Strangely, I don’t normally see these used on EBay too often.  Either way, it’s a great flash at a great price.  Grab one!

DIY GoBo and Snoot – Very cool light modifiers, I plan on posting how I made mine in the near future.

Gels – Rosco sampler pack.  Great value if you want to experiment with adding/correcting color to your speedlight.

I also have a few light stands, gaffer tape, ringlights and other doo dads that I’ll eventually add here.