Equipment
Feb 1st, 2008 by Paul Bilodeau
Hi Jim, thanks for the comment. Jim asked:
What kind of equipment did you bring with you to use? Is there a particular photograph you hope to make while you are at the Super Bowl?
Let’s just say I looked like a pack mule walking through the airport when I came into Phoenix. I actually had to ship even more gear to myself because I could not carry it all. To answer your other question: I would love to get a great action picture that no one else has taken during the game; but to give you an idea of how hard that is, I called the NFL to find out how many photogs are covering the game. According to Darlene Capior of the NFL, 4,786 credentials have been issued to the media — which is a record. Unfortunately, she could not break that number down and tell me how many still photographers are covering the game. My guess is that of the 4,786, more than 1,000 would be photographers, but I do not know for sure. Let’s just say that there will be a lot of photographers in the University of Phoenix Stadium, which makes my goal really hard.
Here is a list of equipment I brought with me to the Super Bowl:
1 Voice recorder
2 Video cameras
3 Nikon camera bodies. 2 D3s and 1 D2H.
5 Camera lenses: 400mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, 14-24mm f2.8, 17-35 f2.8 and a 24-70mm f2.8.
2 Flashes
1 Laptop computer
1 Air Card (This allows me to send pictures to the paper when I am not near an internet connection)
7 CF cards (digital film)
1 1.4x extender
1 Camera battery charger1 150 GB drive to back up my pictures
1 CF card reader
2 Backpacks
12 AA batteries for flashes and other electronic devices