Ally & Nicholas

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We’re Ally & Nicholas. We’re a husband and wife wedding & lifestyle photography team who eat more tacos than the average person probably should. We adore love, passion, travel, tea, Mexican blankets, Turkish rugs and all plants. Everyday we wake up feeling so incredibly grateful for this life and to have a career that allows us to be a part of so many happy days. Meeting inspirational couples and families and capturing their life moments means everything to us.

We are Canon shooters and love Canon. All of the equipment we have chosen to use helps us be quick and efficient on a wedding day, as well as helps us achieve the natural timeless look we like. We use all L series prime lenses with the exception of one telephoto lens.

This is the gear we bring to every wedding (some accessories and backup equipment not shown). For lifestyle sessions or engagements we typically only use our Canon 5D Mark III camera bodies, the Canon 50mm f/1.2L and the Canon 35mm f/1.4L. Sometimes we may bring lighting, tripods and other accessories depending on the type of session we’re capturing.

We both typically have two cameras for an entire wedding day. I carry two 5D Mark III camera bodies with the Canon 35mm f/1.4L and Canon 85mm f/1.2L and my husband Nick typically carries the Canon 50mm f/1.2L. At certain points of the day he will also carry the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L. We may switch sometimes depending on the scenario, lighting and shots we have in mind. For close detail shots we both use the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM.

The flashes we always carry with us on wedding days (as well as lifestyle shoots, just in case) are Canon 600EX-RT. We have one Canon 400EX II as a backup flash. We are natural light photographers and try to shoot in natural light as much as possible. However, light isn’t always on our side so it’s important we’re prepared. Most receptions require flash so we always carry flashes on each camera body during the reception.

In addition to our flashes we also carry an LED video light , which is the Neweer 160 LED CN-160 Dimmable Ultra High Power video light. We also carry the Westcott Ice Light. We prefer the video lights at times for dancing shots, nighttime shots and some portraits. We like to have both video lights as backup in case anything happens with our flashes as well.

Another essential in our kit is backup camera and flash batteries as well as chargers. We’ve tried a bunch of different flash batteries and find Duracell rechargeable batteries to be the best, which we actually buy at Costco (because we love Costco). You can never be too prepared for a wedding! The day can change so quickly and ensuring we have proper lighting for all situations is so important to us.

A card case is another piece of equipment we never leave without. We always carry it with us. We shoot dual and carrying a ton of extra memory cards with us always. When we fill cards we put them in our case right away and keep it on us at all times.

Bags we keep pretty simple. We both prefer backpacks as opposed to over the shoulder bags. We find them easier to bend and move with.

I have this awesome little bag I bought in this boutique shop that I store backup equipment in on a wedding day. I love it because it has so many little pockets to store things and its super lightweight. I usually carry items for our couples as well such as their cell phones, lipstick/makeup for touchups, bobby pins, Tide to go, Kleenex, etc. We don’t want our couples to have to worry about anything or have them keep personal items in their pockets. Plus, we like to help as much as we can on the wedding day to keep our couples relaxed.

Nick carries our LowePro Pro Runner 350AW backpack with backup gear and personal items as well. We love our LowePro backpack because we travel a lot for work. It allows us to store a lot of equipment and has a pullout to cover our backpack if it rains.

All of our bags are fabric and lightweight (so are our BlackRapid harnesses). Our health is super important to us. We want to be able to move well when we’re old and grey. Our job requires us to be very active and we can’t afford to miss important shoots.

I personally find leather straps and bags to be quite heavy and they bruise my collarbones so we don’t have any leather gear. We love the look of it but for us it just isn’t functional. As long as our equipment allows us to be efficient and stay healthy that’s all that matters!

www.allyandnicholas.com

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