Buffy Goodman

Hi! I’m Buffy and I live in Canada. My cake is wedding photography, with family photos and editorial commissions as occasional delicious frosting.

I enjoy photographing alternative weddings, I photograph lots of multi-day Sikh and Hindu weddings, and lots of same-sex weddings. My clients choose me because I’m weird, I think.

What’s pictured here are the things I travel with, take to every shoot, and in general can’t live without. (Also, my cat, who loves wearing tracksuits and is a minor internet celebrity.)

After doing this for 17 years, I have a whole lot of gear, both film and digital. I’ve always shot Nikon. I’m not a gear head, and I don’t upgrade until it’s necessary, so my stuff is all beaten up and seasoned with some extra awesome. There is butter chicken sauce embedded in one of my lens grips from a wedding and I think it’s there for good (delicious!)

My cameras are Nikon D4 and Nikon D750. I really love how fast the Nikon D4 is, and I love how light the Nikon D750 is.

Nikon 35mm f/2.0 and Nikon 85mm f/1.8 are more or less permanent fixtures on these 2 cameras. I also have the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 but that thing is huge. The lowest aperture I’m typically shooting is at f/2 so why spend hundreds of dollars more for heavier lenses which I won’t use at f/1.4 anyhow?

In a PERFECT world, I would have two Nikon D5’s. Please, kind sirs/madames, give me $14,000 tax-free as a gift, or how about two free cameras because I am so awesome and great (hiiiiii Nikon!!!)

I use a HoldFast Money Maker, like every other wedding photographer on here. To be honest, I felt vaguely nauseous at the hipster-tax price of this thing, but it’s been great and is super comfy.

I also have a Fuji XT-1 and a couple of lenses which I use for travel and personal stuff. Sometimes I whip out my Nikon F100 and shoot film! I just bulk ordered a ton of film and plan to have some fun this summer.

I also own a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8VR, Nikon 50mm f/1.4, and a Nikon 60mm f/2.8 micro – I’ll switch these guys in as pinch hitters to spice things up, but 99 per cent of the time, the 35/85 focal length combo is aces.

I also have 2 AlienBees B800s, and a handy Profoto B2, as well as a billion modifiers and softboxes/octoboxes/stripboxes which I use for commercial work. I whip ‘em out at weddings when I’m shooting with an assistant, and I have spare time to set up lighting (kind of rare). I love the look of beauty dishes and molas and fancy fashion lighting – they make couples feel like total rockstars, and can make an uninspired portrait setting more interesting.

I almost always use off camera lighting at receptions. At a typical reception, I often have only 5 minutes to set up lighting. I use Nikon SB910 speed lights and Manfrotto 367B Basic Light Stands – I can put two of these up in a room within literally 2 minutes to light a reception space, with the help of Magmod gels and grids.

AlienBees 800s with 7” reflectors and grids are handy too when it’s a large room or more light is needed.

I use PocketWizard transceivers because I’ve been using PocketWizard products for like 15 years, but I’ll likely switch that out in the next couple of years to a different system.

As for bags, I use a LowePro X200 to haul my gear around local weddings – I’ve had the same bag for almost 10 years. It’s big and tough and awesome. I like wheels.

I fly with a Think Tank Airport Accelerator.

My Alien bees and Profoto kits live in Pelican rolling cases (the models I have are 15 years old and they’re no longer made). I love that Pelican’s products are literally indestructible and I’ll never have to buy new ones.

www.buffygoodman.com