As a street photographer, there are many different tools of the trade but people always seem to gravitate towards making their kit as simple as possible. If I were to boil Street Photography cameras down to one ideal setup it most likely would be a Leica rangefinder accompanied by a 35mm lens. This has been a key setup for decades for many photographers and in this day and age, it's not hard to have a similar setup for much less money. The following is what I call my daily carry. This allows me to keep a very small amount of gear on me, yet be able to capture good detail with a great camera that won't attract too much attention but still have the ability to edit and post photos on the spot with ease. Everything could actually be carried in your pants pockets (not including the camera) or a jacket with little to no difficulty.
#1 Fujifilm X100 - The OG
This is by far the digital camera I have had the most love for over the years. I have owned 3 of them because every time I think I want to sell it, I just find another reason why I need it again. The original has it's quirks but most of them can be looked over once you understand the camera. The way I shoot this camera most of the time, is I set my ISO to 400 or 800 and then focus my attention on solely adjusting the aperture and shutter speed just like you would in a film camera. High ISO can be a fun thing to play with but I feel the sensor has an organic feeling to it in this range. It really pays homage well to grain and it's use in photos. I am a photographer that believes that grain is your friend and can help create some amazing photos. The autofocus is plenty fast in good light and when paired with the optical viewfinder, shooting an image quickly is not a problem in any way.
Of course there are much newer options out there, but this camera has pedigree and after trying literally every single X-series camera out I can definitely say it does not shoot or create images like any of the others. Great skin tones, leaf shutter, and at only $400 for a decently used model it's hard to beat.
#2 Transcend Micro USB Card Reader ( $10 )
This little guy is the cat's pajamas. For many of my cameras, I have the ability to just transfer via Wi-Fi from the camera to my phone for instant upload, but I have been looking for a streamlined way to do the say for my other cameras as well. I originally researched the Eye-Fi cards but I wasn't happy with the write speeds and the spotty bad reviews nailed the coffin shut. It's around the size of a Square card reader with three inputs: USB, SD and Micro USB with a short stubby cable that connect the reader via micro USB to my smart phone. With the small size it makes it a really easy thing to carry in your pocket or jacket. Not a bad price either!
#3 BLU Studio Energy 2 ( $129.99 )
Other than cameras, I am not much of an electronics guy so don't expect some crazy in depth review of this device coming from me, but I will say that if you are a storage hog and use your phone constantly throughout the day, this phone is perfect for you. It has all the things you would expect from a smart phone: 1080 screen, great volume for watching videos, easy to understand Android Interface that has been modded by BLU to make the transition from an iPhone that much easier. I love my iPhone 6 Plus and I still keep it for certain things but this is my phone and let me tell you why this is perfect for me.
The phone has a 5000 MA battery in it which I have found means I can heavily use the phone for a bout two days straight before it gets dangerously low to dying. I could never do that with my iPhone. Usually that thing would die about 3/4 of the way through day 1, but now I carry a phone that I know will pretty much always have enough charge for me to work with it. It also sports dual sim cards for those that run both a personal and business phone or an extra plan for data only and expandable memory. With a micro sd card installed I can pretty much guarantee that I will have enough storage for whatever I am working on plus a few movies and plenty of music.
BONUS - Editing Apps
VSCO - This is the be all end all for me. I use the VSCO app constantly to get the look I am going for and to keep the tone of my work consistent. I do use the presets but I also tweak every photo in some way through the more detailed editing processes.
Snapseed - This is most likely the most powerful editing app for smartphones today. If I need to clone something out or change my crop to something more customizable to a hundred other things, I go straight to this app. One thing I am finding very helpful is the ability to mask all of the modifications I make. Using the layers menu, there are tons of ways to change around the intensity and location of the edits.
What is your daily carry? Let me know in the comments!
