Unlocking inspiration: inside Rosie Hardy's creative kitbag

Creative portrait photographer Rosie Hardy was placing herself in otherworldly scenes far before AI art existed. For over a decade, Rosie has been creating whimsical, fantasy portraits – and for her, it isn't just about the outcome; it's about the process.

"Pretty much every piece of work that I create is some kind of emotional catharsis for me," she says. Her "visual diary" began in her teenage years when she developed alopecia and lost her hair. She found comfort in creating self-portraits, uploading them to Flickr and becoming the platform's third most followed account, behind NASA and the White House.

Now, she shoots professionally – both commercially for brands and privately for weddings – but maintains her personal work and presence with more than 180K followers on her social channels, and almost 6K subscribers on YouTube, as creatives are keen to find out the process behind her sometimes surreal and often sublime images.

Although she's a professional with years of experience, Rosie still describes her kitbag as "a simple one" – and she hasn't forgotten where it all began. "I started with an APS-C camera and an embarrassing fact is that I didn't know, for about a year, that lenses came off," she says. "I thought if you wanted a new lens, you had to buy a whole new camera!"

There's a serious lesson in the anecdote. Rosie strongly believes that you don't need a lot of money to create and have fun. "Not everyone starts out with a huge budget; not everyone can afford to build a set out of all kinds of interesting things," she says. "I think being self-sufficient – whether it be just shooting yourself and not models, or getting your friends together to do the job of a make-up artist – is a great way to start."

Following her creative editing tutorials for the Canon Europe Learning Series, we asked Rosie about her go-to kit.

Looking at the surrealism of Rosie's images, it is easy to assume that most of this is created in post-production, but she emphasises that this isn't the case. "It's important to get as much in-camera as you can – even if it's just shooting separate elements and then blending them together afterwards," she explains. "In the AI era, it's imperative to make something look realistic."

Camera capability has completely changed Rosie's shooting experiences over the course of her career. "I used to set the 10-second timer and then run into the frame and hope it was in focus," she says. "To get 10 shots would take me 10 minutes, and it was really problematic." Previously, she needed an external remote intervalometer to control her camera, taking high-res images one after another, but with the launch of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, the intervalometer became in-built. "I use the intervalometer and the tracking focus all the time. It just makes life so easy to be able to walk into the shot wearing a ballgown and know that your camera is going to track you wherever you move."

Alongside the EOS 5D Mark IV, Rosie has been shooting with the Canon EOS R5, and has also worked on projects with the EOS R6 and EOS R7. She has four main requirements of her kit choices: durability, low-light capabilities, reliability, and size and weight. "I'm always shooting when I get a day off," she explains. "I can't choose whether it's raining or windy or stormy. I want something that's going to survive. Canon cameras have always provided that for me."

She also requires reliable camera performance: "You have to get things right without fail, including having a really accurate autofocus. There's nothing more frustrating than shooting on a self-timer, embarrassing yourself in front of people for five minutes, then coming back to see that they're all out of focus."

Finally, size and weight matter in her camera choice. "They have to be easy to carry around. If you're going to be lugging a big camera up a hill, you want something that's not going to break your back," she says. "Mirrorless cameras are great for that."

And when it comes to camera recommendations at lower price points? "I would recommend the Canon EOS R7 – it's brilliant," Rosie says. "It's got enough megapixels and good low-light resolution."

"I look for an aperture of f/1.2 or f/1.4 because I'm a sucker for things looking really creamy, with a lot of depth of field. I like prime lenses a lot," Rosie says. "In terms of focal length, my preferences would be either a Canon 50mm [such as the Canon RF 50mm F1.2L USM] or a Canon 35mm, although I have been using a Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM quite a lot lately."

For those looking for a more accessible lens, she recommends the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM. "The EF version saw me through many years. If someone was looking to shoot the sort of work that I shoot, a 50mm is a really good place to go – if you've got an APS-C camera, the smaller sensor boosts the reach of your lens, so drop that down to a 35mm."

Rosie's kitbag also includes affordable tripods – "I want something easy to replace if it goes off a cliff!" – plus duct tape, which in early days was used to tape her camera to the ceiling for bird's-eye shots, and a whole lot of props.

"We could do a whole interview just on the props," she laughs. "I've trawled marketplaces over the years and antique shops, collecting anything that tells a story. If I'm feeling a bit uninspired, I'll just go to my unit and have a look around and see where it takes me."

But Rosie's need to maintain that level of relatability and realism feeds back into her prop choices. "I don't think I do well with something like a sword made of snakes, for example. But a giant teacup, I can work with because I think that's something that people see in normal life."

"When you're putting your photography kit together, whether you're a beginner or an expert, I think it's important to figure out what your go-to pieces are," Rosie says. "You don't need to complicate things for the sake of being professional or being good at something. You can have a really simple kitbag and still create fantastic work."

There are things to consider, but no matter what your kit, it's the ideas that count. "The most important thing is the vision that you want to bring to life, to tell a story," explains Rosie. "Then find a camera that's reliable, enjoy it and have fun. Worst-case scenario, you have a fun story to tell; best-case scenario, you get a great picture."

For more inspiration and advice from Rosie and other content creators, check out the Canon Europe Learning Series playlist on YouTube.