Hey Ya'll! Happy Friday! Hope you've had a great week. This week I want to talk about the things I take with me every day. The things that I don't leave the house without. Whether I'm going to the store or to a camera meeting or just to go downtown.  I have seen many of these types of videos on the inner webs and I may have done one or two myself. But things recently have changed so I thought that I would make this blog to update the things that I carry everyday. I'm wondering if you carry sort of the same thing. Things that you can't leave the house without. So here I go with my list. Let's start with the most obvious.

My Phone. Since the invention of smart phones I seem to always have one with me most of the time. It's like I can't go into the back yard without having my phone with me. Thats crazy right? But that's how it is. Our email is on them, its a phone, its a music player, you can watch how to videos on things your working on and of course its a camera . It holds documents, photo's, credit cards, plane tickets , schedules, grocery list almost everything that used to be paper or plastic is on these devices. You can check the weather and even the radar for up coming storms that are approaching. They do almost everything for us. The phone that I carry is the iPhone 16 pro.  I'm not one to update my phone every year I tend to keep until they are way out of the newest. I did have a iPhone 14 but changed cell phone companies and got the newest one when I changed a year ago which was the iPhone 16 pro. I like everyone else have to keep this important item protected I've just changed mine to an Orange colored case (my favorite color) . One just off of Amazon nothing special but it is orange!

The next item isn't  a necessity in this time and age is my wallet. In years past I was like the typical guy with every card, receipt, business card and money that I could jam into it. It was so thick that when I sat down I leaned to one side. LOL They were either bifold or trifold and were very big and bulky made of leather. The one I have now is slim and sleek and doesn't fold. It has slots for credit cards, place for ID's and a tiny slot for some cash.  I carry one debit and one credit card with me. All of my other cards are at home locked up. I have an America the Beautiful card to get me into all of the National Parks. I keep my drivers license and my Military Retiree card in the ID slots. I carry one or two business cards incase someone wants to check out my photography site. Built into this little wallet is a place for an Apple AirTag .  I think this is great so if I ever misplace it I can easily find it. Love that it has this attached to the wallet. I have AirTags connected to lots of stuff like camera bags, travel luggage, and even my car keys so I can find things if they go missing. Next item on the list is a watch.

If I don't have a watch on I feel naked! I'm old school and grew up in a time that didn't have cell or smart phones or even digital anything and if you wanted to be home on time you needed a watch. So I've worn a watch since I was a wee little boy. The longest I've gone without is during basic training where jewelry wasn't allowed. But of course we were told when and where to do everything so really didn't need one. I have gone through many watches in the past and really only changed if I wore one out. Never really expensive ones until lately when they started to do more than just tell time. Now watches can do a lot of stuff from count your steps, monitor your heart rate, weather, altitudes, monitor email and text messages, GPS even answer your phone. The last watch I had was a Garmin and what I really liked about it is that it could monitor my heart rate, steps and of course time. It had GPS built in but I didn't use too much. I liked that I could charge it up and it lasted a week and a half . Recently I have switched to an Apple Watch which syncs up perfectly to your iPhone and does all kinds of stuff. I have the newest one a series 11. I have many watch faces saved and can changed between them depending on what I need. It monitors health , steps and my activity well. I have an orange band on it. (of course) I have a couple of orange bands which are easy to change out so I can switch between them. I always have it on and only take it off in the early morning just to charge it and its back on again.

The next item on the list of things is my Keys. We have lots of keys in our lives. House keys , car keys, car key fobs, keys for this and that . Lots of keys. Now if I carried every key I have I would look like the school janitor with a big ring of keys on my belt. So I don't. I usually only carry the key/fob of what car I'm driving. All my other important keys stay on a keyring that is placed in one of my cars that I can get into without a key by either using a phone and a remote app or as in my last car a key pad on the side of the car that I could use to get into.  That way when I get home I can just open the car with the big ring of keys and open my door. I could probably get a door key with a key pad but I haven't yet. I use a key chain that has an Apple AirTag attached to it so I can find my keys if I misplace them. 

The next item is because I'm a photographer and I wear glasses. It's a microfiber cloth. That may sound a little strange but I don't know how many times I've had to lend it to someone who either needed to clean a lens or their glasses. I started doing this many years ago and have preached carrying one with you so I make sure I have one with me when I leave the house. I always say that every good photographer should have one in their pocket.

The last item that I have with me is the newest member of my camera family is my Leica D-Lux 8 point and shoot camera.  Back when I worked I carried a little Nikon camera  with me and I switched to a Canon G7XII in 2018 and have just changed to the Leica. It goes with me when I leave the house. It has a 24-75mm full frame equivalent lens and a Micro 4/3 size sensor. To me this is the perfect focal length and I really love this little camera. It not only looks good but is simple and the images I get with it are fantastic.  I won't go into all of the specs that will be in another blog. I also carry a CPL (Circular Polarizer Filter) with me to cut out reflections and make colors punch a little.

So those are the 6 things that I take with me whenever I leave the house. What are yours?  What about ear pods, chap stick, or Pen and Pad what's your EDC? Until next week get out and shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link