On this job in Malta and Sicily, I basically ditched all my lighting gear—and I mean it. The entire shoot was 100% daylight: no lights, no modifiers, not even a bounce or fill card. We originally rented a few things (tube light, some bounce/fill, etc.) thinking we might augment certain scenes, but once you’re actually running around internationally with a small team and a ton of moving parts, big setups just aren’t realistic. It was me, Sam producing, Tom shooting photos, and Larry filming BTS, plus Dylan on the ground as our fixer/PA/first-AC helping with lens changes, batteries, and filter swaps. The bigger takeaway is you don’t need a ton of fancy gear to make great-looking images. For me, it comes down to three things: location, understanding the light, and lens/framing/composition. We’d literally hold off on shots until the sun moved into a better pocket, then place talent where the daylight worked for us. And on the camera side, we kept it simple—handheld or sticks—usually wide lenses to set the scene, then tighter handhelds (58/37/85) and even a 135 for deep compression, rack focuses, and clean frames that don’t feel “run and gun” at all.