As the saying goes, “Luck favors the prepared.” That’s Marcus Bell’s approach to packing his gear for a wedding. He uses three small bags. Here’s what he places in each:
Main Bag • Spare batteries • Breath freshener (“A courtesy,” he says.) • Air brush and lens-cleaning cloth • Two Canon EOS 5Ds • Two main lenses: 28–70mm f/2.8 and 85mm f/1.2 • 70–200mm f/2.8 lens for ceremony • Epson P4000 downloader (carried in pocket) • Point-and-shoot 8MP camera for backup (surprisingly, some of the
album images get made with this camera) • Digital flashmeter • Flashlight for looking through the three bags • Stain Stick and spare cloth (to get any stain out of the wedding dress)
Waist Bag (Worn All Day) • Secondary lenses (35mm f/1.4 and 17–35mm f/2.8) • Crochet hook (sometimes need to help fasten the bride’s dress) • Arctic Butterfly (a battery-powered sensor-cleaning brush) • Small handheld video light (battery powered) • Extension tube for closeups • More spare batteries • 30GB worth of CF cards, 4GB capacity each
Backup Bag • EOS 1D Mark II • 85mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.4 lenses
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• Tele-extender (rarely used, but kept in the backup bag nonetheless) • More spare batteries • Charger for batteries • Timetable sheet for events and instructions on how to get there
