Welcome to my favorite equipment page!This page includes both my photography equipment as well as a few of my favorite kitchen gadgets.
CAMERAS
Many, many people have asked me what camera I use in my food photography, especially at restaurants where the lighting is really dark. I've shown below the two cameras that I use.
I received the Sony DSC-RX1R as a Christmas present from Bryan in 2012 and it has been my go-to food blogging camera ever since. Although it does not have a removable lens, the fixed 35 mm f/2.0 Carl Zeiss lens is an excellent lens and takes phenomenal pictures. It's one of the smallest full frame sensor cameras of which I am aware. I bring it with me all the time and most restaurant shots are taken with this camera.
I've provided a link above to the newer model of this same camera, the Sony DSC-RX1 RII {affiliate link}.
(2012 - present) Canon 5D MKIII (newer model: 5D MKIV)
When I know I'm going to a special event, or if I know I'll be in a very challenging light situation, I will bring this camera along. I swear, it can almost take pictures in the dark. We bring it along with us on all of our trips, and it's really versatile. It's biggest (and only) drawback is that it's HUGE. It's still worth it, though, This is an amazing camera that really takes seriously good photographs. I usually bring this one when I travel and I use it for most landscape and city shots, as well as action shots that require the zoom lens.
I've linked above to the Canon 5D MK-IV, which is the newer model of this camera. Bryan has this camera, and it works beautifully. These days I carry around the larger camera less often, though I still bring it on certain types of photography-focused travel.
Bryan's Favorite Point & Shoot Camera
Bryan uses a pretty snazzy point & shoot camera. I have to say, I'm really, really impressed with this little Sony camera. It's small enough to fit inside his pocket, yet takes quite impressive food photos in pretty dark lighting. This is definitely Bryan's travel camera of choice for his business trips, and he takes it with him everywhere he travels.
Another present from Bryan (such a generous guy!), this is my favorite all-time lens as its zoom range is versatile. Although this lens doesn't quite have as low light capabilities, it has a wonderfully versatile zoom range and can still handle reasonably low light due to the fact that it has stability control. It is my favorite travel camera.
Bryan's favorite travel lens is the Canon 24mm f/1.4 wide angle lens. It takes wonderful sweeping shots of landscapes and cityscapes, and performs beautifully in low light conditions.
After raw files leave my camera (yes, I don't advise shooting in jpg! Please shoot in raw if possible!), I use Adobe Lightroom to catalog and work up my images. I recently started using Creative Cloud Lightroom with 1TB storage because I really needed to have my photo libraries available on the road (I was traveling so much), and it’s been pretty good so far! In general I find Lightroom pretty intuitive and user-friendly. There are little sliders on the right side which allow you to fine tune parameters such as exposure, color, and clarity. Finally, there are all these plug-ins you can get that allow you to automatically upload to Flickr or post to your favorite blogging software all in one step. Definitely a time saver!
BLOGGING TOOLS
For blogging, I current use the Feast Design Plugin {Affiliate link} and their WordPress theme by built on the Genesis Platform. I use WPEngine {affiliate link} as my hosting service. WP Engine is expensive but their service is excellent. I’ve found the overall product to be good, so I’ve stayed with them despite the cost.
Get 2 months free hosting with WP Engine on any shared annual plan {affiliate link}
KITCHEN
We absolutely love our espressos and cappuccinos. We drink them every single day. We were sooooo lucky and found our first machine (a Jura Capresso F9) selling at Costco for about 40% off retail. Sadly, we haven't seen it since that one time. This trooper of a machine served us faithfully for eight (!) years. We then gave it to my brother-in-law, who repaired it and it’s still going strong! It is Swiss built and super reliable. We love that it's completely automatic (everything from grinding, tapping, removing the grounds) and you can choose whatever type of beans you want to put inside. No K-cups needed!
This machine is quite expensive, but we've definitely gotten our money's worth and we absolutely love it. The espressos that it makes have excellent crema. The cappuccinos are solid as well. I would highly recommend it!
After moving to Hong Kong we bought a newer E8 version. At first I missed the manual milk foamer in the old version. However, the newer milk foamer is easy to use and convenient if I need to make a lot of milk-based coffee drinks (say, at a party). In the beginning I didn’t like the necessary 2-3 minute daily milk system cleaning, but I’ve gotten used to it, and overall I love the new machine as well.
I have an older model of this rice cooker and I love it! It makes perfect rice every time. I also like how it has settings for different kinds rice, and you can set different types of timer options. Seriously, after having tried one of these rice cookers, it's hard to go back to a normal one. 🙂
Bryan got me a Lello 4090 Gelato Pro Quart Ice Cream Maker
The version I bought doesn't seem available anymore, though this seems to be the newer model: Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5Q Ice Cream Maker.
Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron French Oven
I can't believe it took me this long to appreciate how awesome cast-iron Dutch ovens are! I finally bought my first Le Creuset piece the summer of 2010 at an outlet store. I am still amazed at how evenly it heats everything and how well it retains heat. Seriously, it has made stir frying a breeze. I love the versatility of this pot. Yes, it's heavy and a pain to lift up, but it's totally worth it for the performance. It has become one of my default pots of choice whenever I want to stir-fry! Perhaps I'll look into a cast iron wok next!
This little gadget is surprisingly useful for so many things! Of course I use it to zest my lemons, but I also use it for shaving cheese, as well as chocolate! It's quite sharp, so be careful! We recently bought another OXO microplaner, which is even easier to use (wider!) and more comfortable to hold.
Looking Back . … Into the Archives
(2009-2012) Canon 5D MK II
(2009-2012) Panasonic Lumix GF1
