Chip Litherland is a self-diagnosed color addict. Pretty much sums it up. He is also an award-winning photographer based in Florida, with over a decade of experience working in photojournalism. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and ESPN the Magazine, and his work has appeared in TIME, The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, among others. His work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International, Best of Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Southern Short Course, and the National Press Photographer’s Association. Since his departure form newspapers, he has been tackling the marketing, advertising, travel, and wedding world with the same passion as his editorial work.  His newest venture is FOCUSED, a project challenging 200 photojournalists, including 30+ Pulitzer prize winners, around the globe to using only one click of the shutter on a single roll of film to create one compelling and lasting frame.  Chip is married to his lovely wife, Elaine, and they have two beautiful daughters together. He is on a 12-step-program to break the cycle of addiction to random gratuitousness in his work, filling rectangles with extremely anal, over-saturated compositions, and consuming his weight in Chipotle burritos.

I’m not a gear head.  At all.  What I do care about is making photos and having gear that makes that fun, as well as having the gear to make the resulting images have the look that fits my vision.  I love to travel light and avoid zooms whenever possible.  Primes are sharp, quick, small and most of all they force me to get closer.  All that being said, I recently switched from Canon to Nikon, after an unfortunate H20 incident left me with a change to rebuild.  I saw it as an opportunity to build a new kit the way I wanted and with what I wanted.  I try to buy most of my gear used when I can, not only because of the cost, but because honestly all of this gear are just tools.  The picture matters, not what it was made with.

Here’s the rundown of what keeps my back hunching and wallet slimming:

- Nikon D800 – truly a beast of a camera, grip is too expensive, Nikon
- Nikon D700 (2)
- Nikon SB900 Speedlites (2) – apparently you can use them to shoot in the dark, who knew?
- Nikon Sync Cord
- Nikon 18mm f/2.8
- Nikon 24mm f/2.8
- Nikon 35mm f/1.8
- Nikon 50mm f/1.4 – my favorite lens right now
- Nikon 85mm f/1.8
- Nikon 70-200mm II f/2.8
- iPhone (yes I use it)
- ProMaster LED-120 Plus Litepanel Pro – for ambient shooting and blinding
- Think Tank Photo Camera Strap v2.0 (3) – Double sticky!
- Think Tank Photo Pixel Pocket Rocket (2) with tons of 8GB and 16GB cards – I shoot on smaller cards because big cards freak me out.  Never want to loose one.
- Moleskine Notebook/Pen – sketches, random walls to shoot against, intersections to stalk
- Pocket Wizard 801-130 Plus III Transceiver
- Think Tank Photo Retrospective 5 – best bag ever – love it
- Think Tank Photo Airport International v2.0
- Rubber Band Ball – Stress reliever, weapon, my Macgyver item of choice
- 2.5 Gallon Ziploc Bags – Emergency rain gear
- Energizer Ultimate Lithiums by the case
- Can of red paint and paintbrush – just in case