Photo Accessory News

There is only one photo accessory that improves 100% of your images: the tripod. However, traveling with an extra set of legs can be cantankerous. Ask any centipede. Our friends across the pond have a couple new products that eliminate the temptation to leave the tripod at home.

Over the past 72 hours I’ve removed 19-inch-deep snow from my driveway and spent three days and nights without heat or lights. Things were so bad my faithful dog ran an ad in the newspaper looking for a new home. I don’t know what I did to irk the snowplow driver but he neatly sealed my drive with a four-foot wall of solid ice. And did I mention that four of my trees fell from the weight of the snow, one narrowly missing the house? So in the wake of this madness I did the only thing a sane person would do: I made of list of the new camera stuff I want to get if the sun ever shines again in New Jersey.

Most photographers have experienced the trauma of being on a daylong shoot, draining the camera's battery, and discovering that their spare is sitting on a charger at home. There’s not much you can do about that, unless you check out the video below.

There are two important facts about flash photography that everyone should understand: The first is that a simple external flash mounted atop a camera (or used remotely for even better results), can make a huge difference in photographs when shooting indoors or out. Number two is that the use of an accessory flash is much easier than most photographers think.

You need a tripod. If you shoot video, panoramas, fireworks, time exposures, selfies or macro work in addition to general picture taking, you may even need two tripods. Selecting a tripod that matches the way you work is important, and not at all difficult if you approach it in the right way.

Landscape shooters tend to be among the most stalwart of photographers, often carrying heavy tripods, and backpacks bulging with cameras, lenses, and other gear, on long treks into the backcountry. In the video below, a British pro reveals what he considers to be “the best accessories for landscape photography.”

Every so often we come across a quirky photo accessory that’s truly different, like the wearable umbrella known as Nubrella we wrote about that keeps photographers and gear dry while shooting in the rain. And now there’s the soon-to-be-released Velbon Chairpod, a hybrid tripod/collapsible stool contraption for supporting both a camera and your posterior.