New Location for the Blog

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Rob Domaschuk

My dear friends (and those who are not yet dear friends),

I am happy to announce that I will no longer be updating this blog. In fact, it shall soon go away! TIME TO CELEBRATE!!

For the past few years, my main site at Rob Domaschuk Photography has been Flash-based. It was fine three years ago before the iPad had been introduced and not many people had smartphone, let alone an iPhone. Fast forward a bit and a lot of people have Apple devices – read, a lot of people have devices that can’t handle Flash.

I’ve also never liked having a separate site for my blog. I’ve always thought my blog should be easily accessible from my main site.

A few weeks ago I built my new site and it’s available on all platforms and devices (including the iPad and iPhone). Since it is built in WordPress, it also means that I can start using a single URL for both my main site and my blog.

That means that this is my last post at domaschuk.com/blog and everything from now one will be at Domaschuk.com. I have already moved the old content over there, too. All the archived, old blog posts can be accessed from my main site. FINALLY

Of course, I will leave the old blog up for a while in case anyone has linked to an existing article.

See you over there!

Posted in Insights | Leave a comment

Light Tent – How To Make Your Own

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Rob Domaschuk

So, over the past several years, I’ve been asked about my own light tent. For those of you who know me, you know that I will spend good money on stuff that “matters” – like lenses, memory cards, tripods, etc. Stuff where owning the best you can afford matters. But there is another category that falls under the phrase “light don’t care.” This is where a lot of my DIY ideas come into play. No need to spend a lot of money on an official photography accessory if I can make it myself for a fraction of the price and have it perform equally as well. My light tent is one such project that I love to show off.

You can make your own light tent for about 1/5 of a commercially-produced item. Here’s a 36″ square light tent from B&H. It’s the Interfit Cool-Light tent with lightsand costs $250.

Interfit Light Tent

This light tent from Interfit is an excellent product but you can easily make one that's just as good with a small investment of time and money.

Don’t get me wrong, if you want to spend the money, this is definitely a worthwhile light tent to own. But why not make your own and, at the same time you’re saving all that money, you also get to learn the way light behaves as it passes through the nylon.

For all of you who have asked my to share the materials list for my light tent, here you go.

Light tent material list:

  • Three 10′ pieces of ½” PVC pipe from your favorite home improvement store. These should be about $1.25 each for a total of $3.75.
  • Eight 3-way ½” PVC corners. I couldn’t find these locally, so I bought them online from Flex PVC for $0.97 each. They’ve gone up a bit in price and are now $1.12 each. I paid a total of $7.76.
  • Two yards of a quality black velvet from a fabric store. It only needs to be 48″ wide and, armed with a 50% off coupon, I paid about $15 for this.
  • Three yards of a white nylon that’s 48″ wide. Again, using a 50% coupon, I got this for about $2.50 a yard or a total of $7.50

Total material cost was about $34. That’s over $200 less than the Interfit model. Ah, but that model includes two lights. Fair enough. Let’s continue the material list:

  • Two 75W clamp lamps for about $6.50 each, adding $13 to the total.
  • Two 300W (equivalent) CFL bulbs for about $5 each for a total of $10.

Alright, so the added $23 for lighting brought the total up to $57. That’s still a helluva lot cheaper than $250!

Light tent instructions:

  1. Cut the PVC pipe into 12 30″ lengths (Fig 1)
  2. Assemble the PVC pieces and corners into a cube (Fig 2)
  3. Drape the white nylon over the sides and top, securing it with something like large binder clips (Fig 3)
  4. Hang the black velvet from the inside of the frame at the top of the rear and let it sweep down and out the front of the frame (Fig 3)
  5. Clamp the lights outside the box on the sides to provide even light coming in from both camera left and camera right.
Rob's Light Tent

FIG 1 - The pieces of my light tent: 1) 8 3-way corners 2) 12 30" pieces of PVC 3) 2 yards of black velvet 4) 3 yards of white nylon

Rob's Light Tent

FIG 2 - The light tent assembled into a cube

And that’s all there is to it. I bought an inexpensive tripod bag for about $10 on clearance and that’s what I keep the whole rig in. I fold the material and store it in one-gallon plastic food or freezer bags to keep the dirt off.

The whole thing takes just a few minutes to assemble but I get some absolutely beautiful results from my homemade light tent. Definitely a “light don’t care” moment and I get professional results while saving almost $200.

 

The light tent completely assembled

Okay, I don’t save the $200, I just spend it elsewhere!

Do you have your own DIY ideas? I’d love to hear them, just leave a comment.

The results from shooting in the DIY light tent

Posted in Photography Tip | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Art vs Artistic – When Did The Two Become Separate?

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Rob Domaschuk

We all know that art is subjective. Hell, we all know the line “I may not know art but I know what I like.”

On the third episode of Polarizing Images, we talk about the importance of prints and we lament how people just don’t put as much value into physical photographs as they once did. The printed photography seems to have lost its value.

Is Art Losing It’s Place in Homes and Collections?

So that got me thinking. Although we don’t see as much artistic works in our lives, I’ve been seeing a trend of people referring to their style of work (yeah, primarily talking about photographers) as being artistic.

Art prints allow for further exploration of the original piece

This is an art print created from a photograph I took using an alternative printing process. Because the result is from a physical process, this piece would never have happened if I had not committed the piece to paper

So how the hell did we arrive at this place where we don’t value art but, at the same time, feel that it’s okay to call our work artistic? I don’t know – perhaps I’m off-base with the assumption that, culturally, we don’t value it like we once did. I know the sales of my prints have dropped substantially, established art galleries are closing their doors after being open for many years… There certainly seems to be enough anecdotal evidence that art sales are declining.

So, yeah, how can we refer to ourselves as artists or photographers producing “artistic” work when the role of art in our lives is minimal? And which came first? Is there less emphasis on the work of others now that more people are producing their own works of art? I hope not because, as I’ve said in previous posts, my own work has gotten better because I’ve learned to appreciate the photography of other shooters and it pisses me off that so many of my peers are dismissing the works of others for no other reason than the people they ignore are fellow photographers and are seen as “competition”.

I’m all for art and shooting stuff that can be described – either by yourself or others – as artistic. But for God’s sake, let’s stop separating the two and be willing to embrace art again as a noble pursuit and watch our own artistic work improve at an exponential rate.

 

Posted in Insights | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mentor – Getting Guidance in a World of Competition

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Rob Domaschuk

Finding a mentor amongst the assholes

Continuing my recent trend of taking inspiration from other people for my blog post, I was reading Kriss Abigail’s latest blog post. The one part that really stuck out for me, and is something I’ve complained about for quite a while now, is the reluctance of working photographers to mentor. She wrote:

One of things that I noticed when I went looking for a photography mentor was how many of them were unwilling to teach me. One point blank told me that I was competition. In the land of “I have a camera, so I’m a photographer.” he considered me competition.

There are a lot of people out there that think the same way this guy did. I guess in most retail/business situations, those who sell the same service or product that you do are considered competition. But, in my experience, that just doesn’t apply… aw shit, it can’t apply to photography and art.

First of all, if I take four other photographers to a spot to shoot something like a fountain. We are going to end up with five very different images. Why, because more than anything else, style is the predominant difference between each of us. In fact, I’ve said that defining your style is so important that my friends and family pretty much roll their eyes in that “<sigh> yes, Rob, style is important” kind of way. If style is that much of a separator, then I can give anyone all of my knowledge and tips without having to worry that someone is going to take much business from me.

Hey, if a client prefers my style over someone else’s, that client will hire me. If they prefer another photographer’s style over mine, then they are not going to hire me. Whether or not someone has learned my technique carries a negligible risk to me.

Another phrase I like to use on a regular basis is one I stole a long time ago. Someone deserves credit for it and, in my heart, I am grateful to them for coming up with it. I just wish I knew who said it. Anyway:

New photographers talk about equipment
Professional photographers talk about technique
Master photographers talk about light

So, when I hear someone protecting their technique, I chuckle. I used to get pissed off about it and rail against them but, in the context of the above, it just demonstrates that they’re stuck at the “professional” level (and that’s not a compliment). Look at all the great photographers who willingly and eagerly share their knowledge or mentor others. Ted Forbes has his video podcast, there are countless interviews available on YouTube with Ansel Adams (here’s part 1 of a great four-part series), and Henri Cartier-Bresson even held teaching seminars. Joe McNally offers several learning opportunities, Moose Peterson has a mentoring program and, while I am nowhere near on their level, I offer classes and, through this blog, offer some tips and techniques for free.

The Bridge - this was shot during a class where the instructor was a mentor as well as photographer

This was shot during a landscape photography class I took several years ago. Sure, I had to pay for the class, but the instructor was incredibly giving with his time and that had as much an impact on the success of the class as the actual content did.

Let me boil it all down to this – Art, IMHO, only advances when we share our talents and our skills amongst ourselves.

There are a couple of photographers who don’t share their secrets and I’m cool with that because they’ve spent a lot of time developing techniques on their own. It’s the shooters who take some classes and read books or watch videos (in other words, learn everything from others) and then “guard their secrets” that really chafes my ass!

If you are a new or emerging photographer, don’t stop seeking a mentor just because you run into one or two ass-hats. Frankly, use that as a filter – if someone answers you like the jack-wad answered Kriss, then consider yourself lucky in that you just dodged a bullet. That’s not the kind of person you want mentoring you anyway. After all, being a professional means more than making photography your profession. It means accepting the responsibility and challenge of (eventually) mentoring those who are coming after us.

So, to Kriss and all the others, don’t give up on learning from others. A lot of us enjoy it and we realize that helping others in their art vastly improves our own.

Posted in Insights | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Remarkable Importance of Having Ritual

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Rob Domaschuk

A Remarkable Challenge for 2012

What does opening a bottle of wine, a photography vlog, my favorite food blog, and the word remarkable have in common?

Quite a bit, actually.

Let’s start with wine (always a good idea, regardless of the context). I love wine. I love finding new wines I’ve not tried before and, slowly, I am working on getting rid of my snobbishness when it comes to boxed wines. Okay, I’m not working too hard and that and I sleep fine at night believing that boxed wines, and their regular drinkers, are inferior.

But I digress.

I have, however, been willing to try new packaging such as screw top caps. I understand the problem with cork taint and how that’s virtually unheard of with a screw top. But what I miss is the ritual of uncorking a bottle of wine. The slow draw of a blade around the foil, the insertion of the opener’s screw and the soft *plop* sound as the cork comes out. I’m sure it’s all in my head but I want to truly believe that the wine will taste better because it’s been opened with a sense of reverence and ritual.

Ritual can mean so many different things

Ritual can mean many different things to people but, in the end, it is about approaching the task with a sense of reverence and intent.

What prompted this thought was listening to a fantastic video podcast called the Art of Photography by Ted Forbes (if you’ve not had a chance to watch/listen, make sure you head over to his site and catch a couple of episodes!). In the latest episode – as of this blog post – is number 79, Remarkable. It turns out that he and I share similar roots, having grown up in the Episcopal church and used to attending Christmas Eve services that were full of ritual. And then, years later, returning to the church for another Christmas Eve and finding that the ritual has been diminished. I don’t know if it’s a result of time passing, the economy, or just new attitudes and a preference for the low-key, but the ritual is not there like it once was.

So, it was listening to Ted’s vlog that triggered my thoughts about ritual and what it means to me to have it missing from my day to day life. I’m not talking about ritual strictly in a spiritual or liturgical sense, just the willingness in my life to accept the informal as normal and I think this has certainly had an impact on my photography. I dunno, maybe making a big production out of shooting comes with its own risks and issues such as it just becomes too much effort to drag everything out to take a few shots. But, I know that keeping it so informal has removed a lot of the enjoyment in the act of photography. And, for me, that’s the basis of Ted’s challenge to be remarkable.

I mean, really, if the act of creating the image loses value in our mind, how can we truly place value on the resulting image?

For those of you who listen to Polarizing Images (thank you!), you know that the last episode we did was about stagnation and that I’ve been struggling with this lately. ALso, I’ve been trying to figure out now only how to get past it but also what could be the underlying cause of it. It was right as I was coming around to asking the greater “why” question that I watched Ted’s episode. And then that puzzle piece fell into place. You all know that I rail against photography becoming a commodity and how such a low opinion of the final image is a huge detriment to the art of photography but it’s been eye-opening to realize that, possibly, that’s the exact same way I’ve been approaching the act of photography.

So there you have it, through listening to people whose intelligence and insight far exceed my own, I think I’ve been able to figure out my stagnation, in part, may be due to a lack of ritual in taking photographs.

Oh, yeah, and a shout-out to my favorite food blogger Linda over at Salty Seattle. This week’s post is about change and she even uses the word stagnation. Perhaps it’s because it’s the new year and many of us are looking forlornly at missed opportunities in 2011 or leaps of faith not taken. Maybe it’s not that morose and, instead, an eager and hopeful look toward 2012.  As I read Linda’s post, I was happy to read that I am not the only one who struggles with hitting that artistic block. But she also recognizes something that is also just coming to light for me. In her words, “change is brewing.” And maybe that’s stagnation is really all about – the calm before the new storm. I sure as hell hope so.

For me to overcome the inertia and bring about that change that’s brewing, I am going to start reintroducing some ritual into my shooting and take that leap of faith.

Wanna know what I hope to get out of this? Well, for that I am going to go back and paraphrase Ted: It is our responsibility to be remarkable. So that’s my next thing to figure out – what can/will I do in 2012 that will be remarkable and bring about change.

Thanks, Linda, for your dedication to your crafts and to you, Ted, for your willingness and courage to challenge fellow photographers to be remarkable. I owe you each a drink!

Posted in Insights, podcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Suffering from Stagnation as an Artist?

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Rob Domaschuk

Just a quick note to let you know that Tony and I released episode 8 of Polarizing Images last week. I love the topic: stagnation. I’ve been shooting for quite a while and have thousands of slides and a magnitude more of digital files. After a while, every artist starts to have doubts about what they are doing. Am I shooting the same stuff time and time again? Have I stopped pushing myself to move into new and innovative areas? Am I stuck in a rut and am struggling to break out of it?

These are pretty common questions for any artist, myself included. As this sense of stagnation kicks in, it becomes even tougher to get back on track.

So, 2012 is the year of getting it back. Of getting back into photography for the sake of art and taking a leap of faith and shooting for myself; like I used to and what brought me into the world of professional shooting all those years ago. The podcast and this blog post are kind of my ‘starting line’ for 2012 and a promise to myself (as well as the readers of this blog and listeners of Polarizing Images). Feel free to keep me honest!

The result of stagnation

For any variety of reasons, you may find yourself producing nothing!

And episode 8, Stagnation, talks about. Have a listen, leave a comment, and remember to sign up through iTunes. Even though we’ve already recorded the podcast, I have no doubt that it’s a topic that we’ll re-visit a few times. After all, as Tony continues his journey as a photographer, he will be finding himself facing these same issues.

Keep your eyes on this blog as, in the next couple of days, my post will be based off of a fantastic vlog that I watched last week.

Cheers and, of course, keep shooting in 2012 – don’t let yourself fall into a period of stagnation.

Posted in Insights, podcast | Leave a comment

New Camera? Take It With You!

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Rob Domaschuk

Well, it’s a couple of days past Christmas now and, hopefully, you have gotten some new gear or even a new camera. Whether it was a gift from someone else or a gift to yourself, there comes a sense of renewed energy and interest when you get to play with new stuff.

I know, I know… we always talk about how a photographer should be able to shoot with anything and it’s not the equipment, but sometimes we need to get that new camera body or lens to renew our excitement and interest.

But, if you did get something new, don’t forget to take your gear with you! I try to take my camera with me but it is so easy to get out of the habit. And, as long as you’re not missing any shots, you don’t think about it. It’s like insurance – you don’t need it until you do need it. And, when you see that great shot and you don’t have your camera with you, you’ll be regretting it for a long time.

Trust me.

It must have been about six years ago now. I was walking down the road in Solana Beach (California) shortly before sunset. The sun was low on the horizon, coloring everything with that beautiful golden hue that can only be found at that special time of day. I passed a barber shop and, having a nap on the bench outside, was a old-time barber. He was dressed in his crisp, white barber jacket, sleeping contentedly outside the shop, bathed in that beautiful light. At the time, there was a national photo contest going on with Americana as the theme. I don’t know if that picture would have won but I have little doubt that it would have placed. Between the setting, the light, and the subject, it would have made a great shot.

Yup, would have.

A little earlier in the day, I decided that I didn’t feel like taking my camera bag with me. So, there I was, presented with this amazing scene and my camera bag was in my hotel room, half an hour away. Six years later, I can still see that scene vividly in my mind and I can still feel the regret of not having my camera gear with me.

By not keeping your camera with you, you end up with no pictures.

If you don't take your camera with you, you're going to end up with a bunch of nothing. Not a good start for a budding photographer's portfolio!

And, six years later, I still find myself forgetting to take my camera bag with me. I’m not sure why this is, whether it is a bad habit I need to break, or if I don’t like the extra weight, or what. But suffice to say that I still find myself forgetting to bring my camera with me. It’s something I’ve promised myself to work on in the new year and I would certainly appreciate you folks reminding me to do that.

But the real point of today’s post is to urge you, me, all of us to remember to keep our cameras with us. The camera is our most important tool. Without it, everything else about our photography is rendered meaningless. We can always delete bad pictures but it’s a rare chance to be able to recapture a scene after it’s happened.

This is actually a good jumping off point to talk about the next episode of Polarizing Images. Tony and I are talking about stagnation and what it means to find yourself bogged down in the details of running a photography business – from the marketing to sales and from printing portfolios to creating your brand – that you neglect the one thing that brought you to this point: photography.

I can assure you that I have felt stagnant lately and I am hoping that the podcast with Tony will help flesh out some ideas on how to get over it.

If you have ideas, I would love to hear them!

Posted in Insights, Photography Tip | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Travel: Why Do Photographers Feel Such a Need?

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Rob Domaschuk

I didn’t start out researching Monet or travel photography. Really, I didn’t. It’s strange, though, how a simple search for one piece of information reveals other things that sends your brain reeling into new directions. It’s unforeseen and, often, once the new thought grips you, you just can’t let it go.

I’ve learned that when this happens, the best thing for my sanity is to drop what I am working on and get it out while it’s fresh. In fact, the last time this happened, Polarizing Images was born.

So here’s what I learned: for the last 40 years of his life, every scene that Monet painted

If a haystack like this was outside your front door, would you photograph it? Would you even *see* it?

could be found within a couple of miles from his front door. His haystacks were actually were visible from his house. He didn’t feel the need to travel much further than his locality to find fresh subjects.

As I thought about that, two questions popped into my head: Why do we, as photographers, feel the need to travel to far away places and how do we recapture the fascination and beauty of our local surroundings?

I hear it time and time again: someone says they want to get into travel photography and, when asked why, tell me it’s because they are tired of shooting the “same ol, same ol” and wanted to shoot something exciting and fresh.

Fair enough.

But I usually like to respond that we live in Chicago, a major international city with renowned architecture and parks, a beautiful waterfront, and great urban landscapes. A city that people travel to from all over the world… to photograph! So, if people are traveling to your backyard to photograph the very city that you live in, why are you so bored with it?

Brad and Todd Reed, a father and son photography team in Ludington, MI, produced a book called Ludington State Park, Queen of the North. While it’s filled with beautiful imagery, it’s a part from the introduction that sticks with me:

Like so many other lifelong Ludington residents who live within minutes of this place, we came here on occasion. This world-class gem, considered by millions of people to be the queen of Michigan’s state parks, lies in our backyard. Yet we did not truly know her well. And since we did not know her, we could not love her the way generations of families who have camped in her woods year after year.

I have to admit that I often have the same thoughts myself about being here in Chicago; that familiarity breeds boredom (not contempt).

Then, a few months ago, I was walking through the Morton Arboretum with my three year old son and something happened. He was excitedly pointing at things like odd-colored leaves, or a big twig/small branch that had fallen down, or a bird flying by… And I thought to myself that, just for five minutes, what I would give to see the world with the same sense of amazement and wonderment that Luke was showing.

The funny thing is, it wasn’t his first time to the park. It wasn’t his first time to see leaves or branches or birds. But it sure seemed like it.

Alright, so I love to cook and one of the things I make is pasta. A pasta roller, eggs and flour are nothing new to me, so what is it about a still life that lets us see the everyday in a new light but not landscapes?

So that’s my goal – to see my world, my immediate surrounding, with the same sense of awe and wonder that’s exhibited by a child – to see the familiar anew.

But how? That’s the next part of the equation, isn’t it? I know that the saying goes you have to admit to a problem before you can solve it but I am not sure that makes the answer any easier to figure out. I know what I want, I beleive I know what is lacking, but how to figure out how to resolve it?

I love to travel and, I too, am re-energized by new sights. Maybe Monet had it right – just force yourself to keep going out and working in a local area. Perhaps… perhaps in a short amount of time I’ll be able to see what the tourists and artists see. Or, as the Reeds suggest, I just need to get to know Chicago again.

How would you handle it?

Posted in Insights | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My Five Favorite Non-Photography Photography Accessories

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Rob Domaschuk

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my five favorite photography accessories. This week, I’m going to list my five favorite accessories that I use in my photography but are not designed for it. For those of you who know me, you know that I love DIY stuff. As I like to say, ” light don’t care.” If I can build it for less or figure out how to use something unusual to get a shot, I will. It’s the best way to learn some of the technical side of photography when you have to figure it out.

Anyway, without further ado, my five favorite things to use in photography that weren’t intended that way:

  1. Stanley FatMax 4-in-1 Rolling Toolbox. Said it before, I’ll say it again – hands down, this is my favorite non-photography accessory I’ve ever bought. No, I would never check it as baggage on a flight, but considering that I paid about $70 for it instead of a couple of hundred for a comparable Pelican case, I’m pretty damned happy with it.
  2. Vodka. Oh yeah, I’m serious! Great for cleaning lenses or getting sticky tape residue off of surfaces, vodka is a great all-purpose solvent and cleaner. Oh, andat the end of the day, a misting of dry vermouth and a couple of olives rounds out this accessory’s full potential!
  3. Clamp lamps. $7 each at any home improvement store. Pair them a 300 watt equivalent CFL bulb and you have a perfect lighting solution for small objects. I use three of them for most of my commercial shooting. I set them up on either side and above my light tent for the softest, most even light I could ask for. Remember, light don’t care that it’s coming from a $7 light instead of a $100 fixture.
  4. Spring clamps. Cheap, ubiquitous, and available anywhere. These are the workhorses of any studio or landscape photographer. If you need something to be held in place, these are your go-to clamps. Don’t pay more than a dollar or two for these but you do want to have a dozen or so lying around.
  5. PVC! Again, take a trip to your favorite home improvement store and pick up a bunch of this stuff. From backdrop stands to light stands to large reflector frames to anything else you can imagine. Besides being cheap – not inexpensive, cheap – the pieces fit easily together, the corner fittings are so snug that you don’t need to glue any of it together so that it all disassembles as easily as it assembles.  If you’re not using it, your photography is suffering!
Posted in Insights, Photography Tip | Leave a comment

Time for Christmas Shopping

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Rob Domaschuk

So, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have just come and gone and, if you’re anything like me, the purpose of those two days is to act as an alarm that Christmas is almost here and I should start to think about Christmas shopping. I know, the real point of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is to do the bulk of your shopping. But, since I hate dealing with crowds (seriously, a mall at this time of year gets me out of the spirit faster than anything else), I am not going out on Black Friday and too many sites experience slowness and outages to make Cyber Monday a pleasant, crowd-free experience.

So, I use that as my cue to start thinking about the shopping.

And, as I said, if you’re like me, you are experiencing the same thing. In that vein, I thought I would give you some shopping ideas for the photographer in your life – ideas for any budget.

Under $25:

WhiBal G7 white balance card. Essential for setting exposure and white balance, I carry a studio version of this card in my bag. Get the white balance and exposure set right the first time. And, when you don’t, easily adjust it in Photoshop later on.

 

The Photographer’s Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion, Fourth Edition. Whether your photographer wants to sell their work or get it displayed in art galleries or art shows, effective self-promotion is crucial.
Portfolio for iPad Most of us would never take just the iPad to a client or gallery meeting, but sometimes when you’re out, you run into a potential client or curator who is interested in seeing your work. You may not have your printed portfolio with you but you’ll likely have your iPad. So why not have a decent portfolio app?
Tamrac N-5055 Shock Absorber camera strap Just quickly – that strap that came with your camera needs to be replaced ASAP? Why? Do it and you’ll see.

Under $100:

Harbor Digital Design’s Ultimate Light Box Kit. A must-have accessory for your camera’s flash. This add-on accessory will diffuse the flash and reduce the intensity of the light. Definitely an important thing to use when shooting indoors!
Light tent. I do a lot of product shooting for commercial clients as well as my own still life work. Almost all of it (at least 99%) is done inside of a light tent. This setup allows the photographer to reduce, or even eliminate, shadows and harsh directional light, leaving the subject bathed in a soft white light.
Stanley FatMax 4-in-1 Rolling Toolbox. I would never use this if I was flying somewhere and had to check my gear, but for local work, this is one of the best things I have ever invested in. Plenty of space to carry a myriad of accessories as well as multiple extension cords, cables, gaffer tape, light bulbs, and more. I drive a mini-SUV and this easily stands vertically in the back. It’s light, strong, and the large wheels makes it easy to roll from location to location.
Gold archival DVDs. Regular CDs and DVDs just don’t have the longevity necessary to store your data safely for more than 10 years or so. You may think that’s long enough, but when you try to load images you shot 12 or 14 years ago and the CD has oxidized, you’ll wish you had used these.

 

Over $100:

Adobe Lightroom. 95% of your edits can be done in Lightroom (everything but the super-creative stuff), plus excellent cataloging of your images. This is the go-to application for digital photographers.
Tamrac 5549 (Adventure 9) Backpack. Every photographer is a member of the bag-of-the-month club. But, time and time again, I go back to my backpack. You don’t need to get this particular model but I’ve found that Tamrac is hard to beat when it comes to great quality at a great price. Just remember that us photographers are obsessive about filling our camera bags full, so the larger the bag, the heavier load we carry.
A new camera! Whether you want to buy a dSLR, point & shoot, hybrid, or ILS (interchangeable lens system), if your photographer has been a good boy or girl this year (or naughty in a good way), why not reward them with a new camera body? Sony, Canon, Nikon, Sigma… Hard to get a bad camera these days. For information and suggestions on how to select the right camera, check out this article I wrote last year!
Posted in Insights | Leave a comment