WHAT’S IN YOUR CLOSET?
VINCENT LAFORET We asked our friend Vincent to reveal some very personal things about the items in his EQ closet. This is what we found. Words and photo by Vincent Laforet How do you select the gear that you have? I do an obsessive amount of research on any piece of equipment that I buy. I combine word of mouth (and give it the most weight) from trusted sources, with press reviews, and blogs and comments on the web (I give those the least weight, but still look there for the negative reviews others may be hiding). By the time I’m ready to purchase something, I generally know more about the product than the product rep does. I started doing this when I was fifteen, well before the Internet— I’d hang around my local camera store and help people out. Now that I look back at that time, I’m surprised the salespeople didn’t kick me out of the store! We all became friends actually; I still stay in touch with one today, eighteen years later, even though the camera store is long-gone.
The oldest item in your closet that still works is:
Leica M6 and Hasselblad X-Pan. I also have a working Graflex camera, if you want to go real old school.
Your point and shoot of choice is:
Canon S95—truth be told, I use my iPhone the most, and my Leica M9 second.
Vincent Laforet: www.laforetvisuals.com
2. For stills, a Hasselblad H4D for landscapes and portraits.
5 things that you love, that are not in your EQ closet: 1. I miss my saxophone. I used to play it and the piano through college… then life took over.
2. A rebreather to go scuba diving for insane periods of time. 3. A second rebreather for my son to take him along—in about five years when he’s old enough. 4. A time machine so that I don’t have to fly on commercial flights ever again. 5. A barrel of Maker’s Mark; bourbon is my drink of choice.
the 17” MacBook Pro with SSD, and the new 11” MacBook Air right now.
Right now that’s likely the RED Epic in the video world, and my 500mm lens that I use for aerials and almost any shoot when I can.
video.
3. A Canon 800mm because I love to shoot sports and subjects with ridiculously long lenses and take huge risks on getting a special image that no one else has seen. Keep in mind that I shot for fifteen-plus years with a 400mm or 500mm, so I need something with a little more punch than most.
3 pieces of EQ you could not live without: 1. Canon 5D MKII 2. Leica M9 w/ 35mm f2 3. Some type of MacBook—I use
1 piece of EQ that sets you apart from other photographers:
3 items you wish were in your closet: 1. A set of Zeiss Master Primes for
The smallest item in your closet is:
That sounds terribly personal. SD cards, I guess.
The most expensive item in your closet is: A RED Epic Cinema Camera.
3 pieces of lighting EQ in your closet that you use on almost every shoot: 1. Profoto Beauty Dish 2. Lite Panel 1X1 LED Light 3. Not lights but diffusion and
Resource’s favorite thing in Vincent’s closet is the toilet (haha). And the Stones painting is wicked.
gel for lights. It’s all about the small details you add in front of the light to shape, diffuse and color the light.
TECH: WHAT’S IN YOUR CLOSET?-”Vincent Laforet” Page 53