Here’s One Photographer’s Camera Kit at the Kentucky Derby

ESPN photographer and Nikon Ambassador Bill Frakes is covering his 35th Kentucky Derby this weekend. This crazy photo shows the absolutely massive camera kit he’s bringing to cover the famous horse race.

Frakes will have nearly 50 DSLR camera bodies (split between D5, D810, and D500 tiers) and a huge number of lenses of all types at his fingertips to capture every newsworthy moment. He’s planning on setting up and using each of the cameras.

“This is the entire collection of cameras… except for my handheld,” Frakes writes. “I’m pretty sure I have everything I need.”

There’s also some gear not seen in the photo: Frakes will be using 35 Manfrotto magic arms, some tripods, and many superclamps to position the cameras and hold them in place.

“No idea how many [photos] we will shoot,” the photographer said in response to a question on his Facebook post. “As you know with remotes you have to be prepared to cover a lot of possibilities — the horses didn’t tell me who is going to win. With multimedia the number of frames used is significant.”

And if you’ve ever wanted to see hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Nikon camera gear arranged neatly on a table, now you have.


Image credits: Photograph by Bill Frakes and used with permission

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