Luke Sharrett is a Washington, D.C. based contract press photographer for the New York Times. He covers politics inside the beltway at the White House, Capitol Hill and wherever else the campaign trail takes him. When not photographing political events, he can be found eating cheesesteaks, doing pushups, and watching trains.
I commute to assignments in and around Washington, D.C. on my bike and underground on the Metro, so packing light is a necessity for me. When it comes to gear, my philosophy is “Less is more…more or less.” Working in Washington means passing through lots of magnetometers and x-ray machines on a daily basis, so being able to stash my cameras in my backpack is a lifesaver. It saves them from wear in tear and nasty falls off conveyor belts. The Think Tank padded belt offers great support for my lone Newswear pouch (I like Newswear’s simplistic, stripped-down approach over Think Tank’s bells and whistles). Shooting with only prime lenses provides restrictions that I enjoy and makes me use my brain much more frequently than I used to with an all-zoom kit. The 5D MarkII’s give me just enough frames per second and I’ve never come close to filling an 8 gig card shooting jpg on tight deadlines (I kissed RAW goodbye and have never looked back). A Verizon MiFi card allows me to transmit anywhere with a cell signal from my laptop. Last, but not least, a frequently replenished supply of Clif Bars keeps me going when I have to skip meals. My kit is pretty minimalistic, but I like it that way. It keeps me focused on timing photos inbetween Nancy Pelosi’s blinks.
Gear List:
- 2 x Canon 5D Mark II‘s
- 2 x SanDisk 8gb cards
- Canon 24mm f/1.4L
- Canon 50mm f/1.2L
- Canon 135mm f/2.0L
- Washington Press Credentials
- Metrorail SmarTrip Card
- Macbook Pro w/Lexar Firewire CF reader and Verizon Wireless MiFi
- Cliff Bar Peanut Butter and Pretzel Trail Mix bars. (Yum!)
- Trusty iPhone 4
- Mountain Equipment Co-op Darwin 2 Backpack
- Think Tank belt w/Newswear medium pouch
[...] take to the various events they photograph. Some of my favorites are posts by Mark Rebilas, Luke Sharrett, Jamey Price, and Jared Wickerham. As a self-proclaimed “gear nerd” I love seeing what [...]