Lee in York's photostream  

It's been a while since I last did this and there are more things that have changes than have stayed the same.

Right, from left to right, top to bottom, roughly at least!

Velbon RUP-43 monopod. Simple, effective, light and sturdy. Comes with built in ball head which makes it very flexible.

Manfrotto 190cxpro3 tripod with 496rc2 ball head and optional shoulder strap. I originally bought this tripod with the 460mg magnesium three way head, which although probably a touch lighter was a real faff every time I wanted to make the slightest adjustment.

Apple MacBook 2.7 i7 with 8GB of RAM. I love this machine. It's awesome!

iPad 2 16GB wifi. Great for showing off your photos.

iPhone 4. So many uses in the field with all the amazing photo related apps you can get.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 with metal adaptor tube and lens hood. If you are going to have a point and shoot, why not have a decent one! This one fits the bill nicely.

Manfrotto video light. Cheap and cheerful. Better suited to the little camera than a DSLR.

Crumpler Pretty Boy BackPack XL. A nice combination of camera bag, laptop bag and somewhere to keep your lunch.

Nikon SB900. How do they get that much light in there?!

2x Nikon SB600. Great for travelling light of on a stand commanded by the SB900.

Nikon SB400. No real reason for owning this other than is was cheap and it's actually very good all things considered.

Selection of Cokin and screw on filters. I don't believe in going overboard on filters and for the most part I think you can achieve almost anything with a CPL, ND and a grad ND. These give me a degree of flexibility even if I don't use them much. For everything else there's Lightroom.

Gorillapod SLR zoom. Comes in handy from time to time, even if only to hold a flash.

Random cleaning essentials. Never go out without a rocket blower, lenspen and a microfibre cloth.

Crumpler Pretty Boy 4000(XL) shoulder bag. Just enough for the camera with a lens and either a second lens or a flash. Ideal for days when you want to be a tourist.

Nikon D90 with handstrap and detachable neoprene shoulder strap. Love this camera. Had it a few years and although I'm seriously tempted by the D7000 the D90 keeps surprising me with what it can do when pushed.

Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8 (On camera). Every now and again I get a chance to shoot something important like a wedding and end up renting a 24-70. I recently saw this in York Camera Mart, used for £249. I figured it had to be worth a go. It's bloody brilliant! A proper pro lens. No regrets at all.

Nikon 70-300mm vr. I had the older G version of this lens and was always disappointed with the results. This was a game changer for me. It's stunning.

Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Marco. The lens responsible for getting me up close and personal with spiders and bumblebees. The only non-Nikon lens I own and given the results it's given me I see no reason to change it.

Nikon 16-85mm vr. I used to have the 18-200 vr but I found it to be a touch soft, especially compared to the 70-300 vr, and despite being an excellent all rounder I wanted something a bit better. It took months of reading reviews, (Thanks Ken Rockwell!) before giving this one a whirl. A year later and it's my goto lens for most things. It's wide enough for so many occasions and enough zoom to not have you reaching into your back for the longer lens too often. Highly recommended.

Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AFD. It's cheap, it's awesome. Need I say more?!

Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AFS. Fast, quiet, a bit wider than a 50 for those tight spots. I wasn't sure about this one when I first got it but when I've been tight for space this has really performed. Excellent lens and great value.

Cheap Macro Tubes. Before I bought the Tamron Macro lens I bought these to use with my 50. They are great but you need to work your camera fully manually and use trial and error to get the result right. If that doesn't phase you then go for it.

Holga plastic lens. Cheap bit of fun for making your expensive DSLR look like a broken piece of crap from the seventies.

Jessops 2x teleconverter. Honestly, it causes as many problems as it solves. It sounded like a good idea at the time to get me closer to small garden birds but you lose so much detail and have to faff about to get the focus right. You're better off shooting with the lens without the extender and cropping in post.

Batteries. Finally rechargeable batteries really perform. I remember buying them in the eighties and they were hopeless. I use enerloop type batteries as the hold their charge for ages in your bag. the brands I like are Extreme and GP recyko. Both have worked well for me.

Memory cards. I prefer Sandisk Extreme 3 cards and go with 16GB as that gets me 1000+ RAW files on one card. I have a Lexar pro card but for some reason in the back of my mind I prefer Sandisk.

Spudz 18% grey microfibre cloth. It cleans your lenses, comes in a pouch and you can use it to set your white balance. What more could you possibly ask for?!

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Cortinas and have owned several 4s and 5s. Imagine how pleased I was when Vanguards started producing these.

I thought I'd share this iPhone snap of the set up used to achieve some of my waterfall pictures.

For the geeky ones among you, the camera is a Nikon D90 with a Nikkor 16-85mm vr lens. Screwed to the front of it are an ND8 and a CPL. Mounted to the front of that is a Cokin ND8 and an ND grad. It's a bit Heath Robinson but I don't often use filters so I have to improvise. The result of all that glass is the ability to do 30 second exposures in bright sunlight. I hope you'll agree the results are worthwhile.