What’s in Your Bag, Cliff Mautner?

While it may look like I take too much gear to a wedding, I honestly use just about every single tool at my disposal.

The eight lenses in my bag are all utilized at one point or another on a wedding assignment. My Nikon D4S cameras are my workhorses, and I’ll sometimes go to my D750 if I need to shed some weight. I have backups to the backups for just about everything, because you just never know what you’ll face during a wedding. When asked about the most crucial tool in my bag, I avoid the answer. There’s not a lens in my kit that I’d do without. Each has its own personality and its own way of producing the look I’m after.

The high ISO performance and responsiveness of my camera bodies are incredible and allow me to shoot in impossible situations. My PocketWizard’s AC3 zone controller gives me the ability to control my SB910 speed lights in 1/3 stop increments with the flick of my fingertip. My SD-9 battery packs give my flashes superb recycle time. My flash bender modifiers help me control the direction and dispersion of my speed lights.

It’s kind of like an orchestra—without one instrument, the music would suffer. That’s how I feel about my bag.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the Clif Bar.  

Photo © Cliff Mautner

CAMERAS

2 Nikon D4S bodies
1 Nikon D4 body
1 Nikon D750 body
1 Nikon D800 body

LENSES

AFS-Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G
AFS-Nikkor 16-35mm f/4.0G
AFS-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
AFS-Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G
AFS-Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G
AFS-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G
AFS-Nikkor 24-120mm f/4.0G
AFS-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G 
(I also take a backup Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR lens and leave it in the trunk of my car since this lens is imperative.)

SPEED LIGHTS

4 Nikon SB910s

MISCELLANEOUS

3 Nikon SD-9 Battery Packs
SanDisk CF and SD cards
Sony XQD cards
ExpoImaging FlashBender light modifiers 
A few sets of PocketWizards: Mini TT1, Flex TT5 and AC3 zone controller
Bogen Monopod for a flash stick
Powerex AA batteries
Maha AA battery chargers
CR-2450 batteries as a backup for PocketWizard power cable
Nikon D4S/D4 battery charger
4 additional D4S/D4 batteries
Super clamps
Dual flash holder for when two speed lights are needed for more output
GL-1 Gunlight
Ice Light
Profoto B1 Backpack Kit
Medium-sized umbrellas for B1, for lighting family formals indoors
Reading glasses—when I periodically need to see what I’m doing
Advil gel caps
Clif Bars
Apple—it must be Honeycrisp!
Listerine Strips
Old, filthy, faithful 25-year-old Domkebag for some stuff

Cliff Mautner, voted one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world by American Photo, is a Nikon Ambassador, two-time WPPI Grand Award Winner for Photojournalism, IPC-United Nations Leadership medal recipient, and 2014 WPPI Lifetime Achievement Award Winner.

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