Tyler McKay (@Tylersjourney) is a street, architecture and cityscape photographer from Toronto who likes to seek out adverse weather conditions and capture vibrant tones within the scenes he captures. “Living in a fast-paced city like downtown Toronto, it’s important for me to always have a lightweight camera that has great low light capability as night photography is one of my biggest passions within big cities,” he says. “I was shooting with the Sony Alpha 7 II since 2016 then finally replaced it for the Sony Alpha 7R III in 2018. It is literally the perfect camera for me, with it’s great dynamic range for night photography and small form factor – it allows me to always have it with me. My main focus is running around the streets in the rain capturing street photography and also urban exploring to capture epic cityscape images.” Learn more about the Sony gear you’ll find in McKay’s kit below.

See which three G Master lenses this street and cityscape photographer keeps in his bag (they aren't the lenses you might expect).

Cameras 

Sony Alpha 7R III: 90% of my photography is shot in extreme low light conditions at night that is why the Alpha 7R III is the perfect camera for me with its amazing low light capability and 42MP sensor to retain all the detail within the scene. I’ve found even when shooting in really dark conditions I’m still able to retain the detail in the shadows because of it’s great dynamic range.

Photo by Tyler McKay. Sony α7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 8-secs., f/7.1, ISO 125

Lenses

Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master: This is my go-to lens for cityscape photography as it gives me a good mixture of reach and always gives me extreme sharpness throughout the focal length. It’s good to be able to have a bit of zoom to play around with for cityscape scenes to get that perfect composition.

Photo by Tyler McKay. Sony α7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1.6-secs., f/5, ISO 320

Sony 24mm f/1.4 G Master: This lens is super important to my night time street photography, the low f/1.4 Aperture really allows me to shoot in the darkest of conditions while still maintaining at least a 1/125-sec. shutter speed to capture people's movement without blur and most importantly without having to raise my ISO to high. It’s small form factor allows me to be lightweight and quick with my captures as beautiful moments in the streets can pass you by quickly and you always want to be ready.

Photo by Tyler McKay. Sony α7R III. Sony 24mm f/1.4 G Master. 1/250-sec., f/2, ISO 500

Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 G Master: Without the reach this lens provides me I’d never have been able to capture some of my favorite images I’ve ever taken which are Sun Alignments. The reach this lens provides allows me to shoot from 15km away easily while compressing the scene to make buildings and the sun appear much larger. Not to mention the lens is incredibly sharp to capture all the detail in the skyline.

Photo by Tyler McKay. Sony α7R III. Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 G Master. 1/1250-sec., f/9, ISO 100

Accessories

Peak Design Camera Strap: Being comfortable and fluid with your camera is very important. The Peak Design Camera Strap allows me to have the weight of the camera around my neck all day without problems. That way when it’s needed it can be easily slung around when needed to capture the moment.

Anker Power Bank: Always good to keep your phone charged for long days out in the city, one less thing to worry about having this on me.

Microfiber Cloth: I always keep a few of these in my bag just in case I need to wipe my lens safely.

Zeiss Lens Wipes: Several of these are always in my bag because lens spots are always the worst so I try to keep my lens as clean as possible.

Microfiber Cloth: I always keep a few of these in my bag just in case I need to wipe my lens safely.

Giottos Air Blower: Good to quickly blow dust off your lens or gear, also handy to blow rain drops off your lens, a little trick I picked up.

Pixel TC-252 Intervalometer: I’m in love with capturing time lapse so it’s always handy to have a good Intervalometer. The reason it’s important to have this particular one is it doesn’t trigger the AF focus response in camera as long and allows me to manually switch my camera settings between images for perfect day to night timelapse.

Sony SD Cards: Sometimes I run out of space if I’m doing lots of timelapse that day so it’s handy for me to always keep a few extra SD cards handy in my bag.

Hand Sanitizer: Safety measures are the most important thing to keep us all safe so I always keep hand sanitizer in my bag when needed.

See more of Tyler McKay's work on Instagram @Tylersjourney.