Dixie Dixon
Fashion | Last Updated: April 4, 2024
I currently shoot internationally for advertising, editorial, and fashion clients such as Virgin, Nikon, Disney, Florsheim Shoes, Magpul, Profoto and etc! I love bringing each brands personality to life in my imagery and for me the connection is everything! I go to great lengths to connect with the people I work with and am inspired by their energy. It is a creative high for me when I am around passionate, genuine, and creative folks!
I started taking pictures when I was just a little one. As silly as it sounds, I was an only-child and I found that I could entertain myself by posing my stuffed animals around the house and make pictures of them. Guess you could say they were my earliest of subjects!
I was given my first real camera, the Nikon FG film camera at 12 years and I was in love! Photography for me felt a little rebellious and I really liked that about it.
I’ve always been a Nikon girl and totally obsessed with the Nikkor glass and their gorgeous image quality so one of the biggest highlights of my career was becoming a Nikon Ambassador of the United States this past year. Nikon is an amazing company with truly great people at its core so I’m honored to get to work with them!
Gear-wise my first digital camera was the Nikon D70s Camera- it was 6 megapixels at the time and I’m still amazed at how well it performed & 50mm f/1.8 lens. That is literally all I had during the first couple years of shooting… then I started growing my equipment as my biz grew.
I’ve owned the Nikon D200, Nikon D300, & Nikon D700 and then upgraded to the Nikon D3x when I booked my first campaign.
Now my main workhorses are:
Cameras:
Nikon D800
When I need the HUGE file size for large format printing- I shoot this a lot in fashion and advertising as well as for video. The detail is insane!!!
Nikon D4S
When I need speed- the perfect camera for shooting lifestyle, movement and swimwear, I am blown away by how fast it is.
Nikon Df
When I shoot personal work- I really do love this camera, and the look and feel of it reminds me of my old Nikon FG, for some reason I feel like I’m getting back to basics and the core of why I got into photography in the first place.
Nikon D3X
Still love this camera.
Nikon 1 AW1 for my lil vacation camera! It’s shockproof and waterproof too!
Lenses:
I do own a couple zoom lenses but for some reason I rarely use them. I love the primes for their insane sharpness and simplicity so guess you could say I am my own “walking zoom”.
Nikon 35mm f/1.4G
This lens is perfect for lifestyle group shots and full body fashion shots where I want to capture a lot of environment in the background.
Nikon 50mm f/1.4G
I used this lens most often when I first started out and I still use it a lot for full body fashion and waist up shots.
Nikon 58mm f/1.4G
I just got this lens and whoa its sharp! 58mm is actually what the human eye sees naturally so its a nice focal length to have in your bag. Just a little longer than the 50.
Nikon 60mm f/2.8D
This was my first macro lens and I still use it for product stuff. I usually like the 105 Macro for shooting beauty like lips, nails, and eyes.
Nikon 85mm f/1.4G
This is one of my FAVORITE lenses- great all around for portraits, super sharp and blurs the background nicely.
Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Macro
This is my favorite macro lens! Perfect for shooting close-ups of the lips and etc without being to close to your subject.
Nikon 135mm f/2D
This is an amazing headshot lens and creates a BEAUTIFUL bokeh in the background. It’s from the film days but I still use it often because it has a certain quality I love and the defocus ability.
Nikon 180mm f/2.8D IF-ED
It’s the second lens I ever owned and I still use it All the time for gorgeous headshots. It’s truly one of my all time favorite lenses and one of the most overlooked and underrated in my opinion. The focal length is nice because it has this flattening effect on the face and is very lightweight.
Nikon 200mm f/2G ED VR II
This will be my next purchase! I just rented it the other day and OMG it rocks!
Lighting:
Love the Profoto line and their shaping tools.
Profoto D1’s for in studio.
Profoto B1- great for location shooting without cords- I just fell in love with these.
I also use constant light often so I’ll rent Profoto HMI’s- looks like natural light and they are very powerful.
For portable constant light, I love the Profoto GL1 Hotlight for a warm look and the Westcott Ice Light for a cooler toned look.
Pocketwizard Plus X ‘s to fire the strobes.
Sekonic light meter (Sekonic L-758) – I use this in studio a lot, I’ve had it since I started.
Storage:
I am obsessed with backing up since I’ve learned the hard way on that one!
G-Technology makes the very best drives and I currently use the:
G-Dock – for on set backup- it makes two duplicate backups on set via thunderbolt.
G-Speed Q ’s- they are huge capacity enterprise quality drives set up as a Raid- I have two of these and one is an archive drive with all of my raw files and one is a working drive. Then I have another one at a different location for safety.
I also have a bunch of G-Drive slims and some of their Raid drives for video editing.
Business Cards and Promo Materials:
Black River Imaging Loft line- I totally love these because of their thickness and beautiful presentation!!!
Portfolios:
Graphistudio- I design my portfolios online through their software and upload the order and they print and bind them in Italy. Love the glass covers and their minibooks to leave behind with potential clients.
Post-Processing:
Apple Macbook Pro and IMAC- they run all the programs I need very quickly– I’m passionate about the Apple products-they are completely worth the investment… plus they’re powered by the super fast new Intel Core Processors.
IPAD to shoot tethered to on set and iPhone of course.
Adobe Photoshop CS6 for retouching- a must-have.
Hats:
Can’t overlook this one, ha! I am passionate about hats and have a ton of these Brixton Hooligans ;)
Sheesh thats a lot of gear.. Ha! Keep in mind that you can make amazing images with the simplest of gear… I literally started with one camera and one lens and got by just fine… I rent gear a lot per job and have grown my equipment as my business has grown.
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