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22 Gifts for the Photographer in Your Life

Everybody knows someone that is a photographer, and with Thanksgiving wrapped up and Christmas approaching I thought I’d help you out with your shopping list. Here are 22 great gifts for the photographer in your life (in no particular order).

1. Black Rapid Strap: I love mine. The cross body carrying method is 10x more comfortable than a strap around your neck. They have both a women’s and a men’s version (although I just have the men’s. Women’s wasn’t yet created when I acquired mine).

2. Joby Gorillapod: Flexible, lightweight, adjustable, and easy to carry with you on the go. Get super creative and wrap around a pole or a tree for some great stable photography.

3. Add the Joby Ballhead X to your Gorillapod and you are golden. Much easier to move the camera around and fine tune positioning.

4. Digital Timer Remote for your SLR: Allows you to set your shutter on a timer. Also does intervals – I totally use this with my kids when I actually want to be in the photo. Put your camera on a tripod, set the intervals for every 10 seconds and then go about your activity (obviously you have to be fairly stationary). Worked great for coloring Easter Eggs one year.

5. Think Tank Card Wallet: For those wedding photographers that have a ton of memory cards. I love that it has a strap for you to attach to your clothing. Also has a business card slot for easy identification.

6. Eneloop AA Batteries: I’ve lost track of how many of these I actually own. Every photographer needs more rechargeable batteries. Trust me. These are the best.

7. The Capture Pro: For full reasons why should get this, read my blog post here. Its fabulous.

8. The Daisy Grip: I don’t own one (yet) but my child photographer friends swear by them.

9. The Expo Disc: Get perfect white balance in tricky situations. Fabulous for wedding photographers when the lighting can be all over the place at receptions.

10. The F-Stop Watch: Totally on my list.

11. Camera Cookie Cutters: Who doesn’t love sugar cookies?

12. Photo-opoly: Personalized game of Monopoly. I’ve never tried it, but it has great reviews on Amazon! Fun, easy to put together.

13. Going Pro: Scott Bourne & Skip Cohen are two of the greats in the photography world. Fantastic book about taking the leap from amateur to pro photographer. Have it, read it, loved it.

14. Understanding Exposure: For experience or beginning photographers. Understanding your camera, f-stops, and dozens of other topics to get your camera of Auto and have more control over your photos.

15. Camera Charm Necklace: Sparkly.

16. Keep Calm and Snap On Poster: Decorates one of the walls in my office. Kind of an odd size, so I had it matted and framed at Michael’s.

17. The PhotoJojo lens set: ooooh. These are fun! They’ve even added a polarizer since I bought mine. Might be time for a new set.

18. The Slingshot: stabilizing grip for your phone and it also folds out into a tripod! Super useful for video.

19. Canon Camera Lens Mug: My dad bought me one of these for my birthday. I totally love it.

20. Smartphone Attachable Lens – Sony Qx10: One of the coolest innovations for camera phones yet. 10x optical zoom, f/1.8, the lens carries everything it needs inside it and you control it with your phone. You can also find it here.

21. Holga Camera: For those of us that have always shot digital, this is a fun little experiment in film. Don’t forget to also buy film.

22. Camera Shaped USB Drive: Why not?

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Photo Gear Photography

Peak Design Capture Pro Camera Clip V2 Review

Capture is a simple, elegant solution for carrying a camera. Attach the base plate to  any strap, bag, belt, or backpack and securely drop in a camera for hands free movement while on the go. Its brilliant. I can’t tell you how many photo opportunities I used to miss because my camera was in my bag or backpack and it wasn’t worth the trouble to dig it out. Most of the time I didn’t even bring my “big” camera because it was too much of a pain to haul around. Now, I seriously take my camera with me everywhere. I love it. My shoulder doesn’t ache at the end of the night from having it in a messenger style bag (those get HEAVY), and I have taken hundreds of more photos of my kids. It makes me happy.

Receive a free gift when you order a Capture or Capture Pro through our affiliate link.

This is what we normally look like on outings. We have a small day pack with the baseplate attached – which bag totally depends on the adventure of the day. Lately its been my Osprey DayLite bag which I absolutely LOVE.  The bag has enough room for our Platypus Water Reservoir (we love this more than a Camelback bladder but that’s another post), snacks, and our first aid kit. We’ve also used an REI Flash 18 pack (pictured below) and with the added support of the stabilizing pad from their Capture P.O.V. Kit. It works well with our Fuji X-T10 camera and lens.

You can check out why we switched from Canon to Fuji here.

Tips for Pros: While most of my use is day to day outings with my kids, I have used the Capture while on a paid photo gig in the past. When I’m out with a client by myself, I typically do video & stills. My 7D sits on the capture on my belt ready for video and I have my 5D Mark II on my Black Rapid Strap around my neck. Works great. I’m sure there are at least a dozen other ways you could integrate the Capture into your shooting gig.

You don’t need a crazy camera set up to enjoy use of the Capture. Use it with your point and shoot camera (free up your pockets for other things), a small dSLR, or any other camera you have. Its not the weight or size, its the accessibility. I have hundreds more photos of our outings because my camera was within easy reach.

Here you can see the two different pieces of the system.

I also use the Cuff  hand strap. Its small, lightweight, unobtrusive and gives me that added sense of protection (I’m known to drop things) when I’m using my expensive camera. I don’t always put it around my wrist, but the thing is so darn light that its not worth the effort to take it on and off so it just dangles when not in use.

Peak Design offers two different camera clip systems: The Capture and The Capture Pro. I’ve used both and like them equally. I’m not known to carry around a tripod, but the Pro version does have a solid aluminum construction that makes it more durable for carrying around heavy equipment. If you do a lot of tripod work, you actually have different options for the PROplate that can work directly with your tripod system. Peak Design also has a Lens Capture if you switch out your lenses frequently and one for binoculars as well.

We have used the P.O.V. Kit mentioned earlier with our GoPro while out mountain biking. Its a great alternative to a helmet mount or chest strap and combined with the stabilizing pad can generate smoother video. We just recently acquired the GoPro Hero 5 Black and I’m super stoked to test it on my next ride.

No matter the adventure or the type of camera Peak Design has got you covered.

Also check out our review of the Peak Design Field Pouch & Slide Lite Strap here.

Editor’s Note: This was originally published in November 2013 and has been completely updated and revamped for accuracy & comprehensiveness. This post also includes affiliate links.  Purchases made through our unique links will provide us with a small commission that will go toward keeping the blog running.  Thank you for your help!

Categories
Photo Gear Photography

Which Camera Lens Should I Buy?

Which Camera Lens Should I BuyI get this question a lot. Second only to which camera should I buy? So I thought I’d share my favorite lens for those of you looking to upgrade beyond the kit lens your camera camera came with.

As far as consumer cameras go, they’ve gotten really good. Being familiar with the Canon line, I typically recommend anything from the Rebel line (like the Canon EOS Rebel T3i). They have plenty of megapixels, do really well in low light, plus a myriad of other features.

But, there’s only so much you can do with a camera. The BEST way to get better photos is to upgrade your glass, ie your lens. Better lenses have a fixed aperture setting, meaning that no matter where you zoom on the lens your aperture remains the same.

PLUS (and this is my favorite part) an f/1.8 or f/2.8 lens is more creative. The lower number means less in focus so you can focus on a small part of your photo and blur everything else. There’s also a bunch of technical reasons I can get into about how your lens is really the sharpest a couple of f-stops above its lowest, so shooting an f/1.8 lens at 3.5 is better than shooting a 3.5 lens at 3.5, etc. but we won’t get into that. Let’s go with it really is just fun to play with. Be careful though especially when photographing people – sometimes you can get one eye in focus and the other out if they are not on the same plane. 🙂

On to the lens: This is the Canon 50mm f/1.8. Its lightweight, costs about $100 and is nicknamed the “nifty fifty”. If you are looking for something slightly better, the Canon 50mm f/1.4 is the one I have in my bag. Its better built, focuses faster, and has better glass (sharper images). It usually runs about $300 so it all depends on how deep your pockets are.

Here’s a photo taken with the 50mm f/1.4 last May at Cara’s Buzz Lightyear birthday party:

5d Mark II
ISO 400
f/3.5
1/250

Example of Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens