A problem many people have is that you never know what you’ll run into – when vacationing in southern Europe, or needing Hawaii photography tips, it is likely already too late to remember that you needed an extra memory card/stick, a spare battery, or can’t take a picture that doesn’t shake like Jello. This is where accessories come in – they can help to complete a picture-taking experience by giving the one thing you didn’t know you needed so you can get the perfect shot or the job done.
| Perhaps the accessory that gets the least respect by amateur photographers is a carrying case or bag. Ironically, this is the easiest way to not only protect your investment, which can easily cost up to or over $1000, but to also bring along all the spare parts you may or may not need on that particular day. With extra pockets, slots and a good solid strap, you can make sure you haven’t left anything behind and can still keep your hands free when trekking around on a mountain. Of course, it’s also the easiest way to identify a tourist in a foreign land, but everything has trade-offs. |
| Tripods are commonly used to minimize tremor associated with night shots, long zooms or professional portraits where as much time is spent organizing the audience rather than simply capturing a scene. For the budget- or space-conscious, buy a fist-sized beanbag or hacky sack and bring it with you – it makes a very flexible mini-tripod. Even some professionals will use them in awkward situations, like positioning the camera on a rock, ledge or other precarious positions. The moldable shape and portability make it the perfect must-have accessory |
| Lenses are often overlooked by all but professionals and serious hobbyists, but they do have applications with the lucky owner whose camera allows for those upgrades. Wide-angle lenses and telephoto lenses can be used well in nature scenes, conjuring up visions of the Grand Canyon or safaris along the Serengeti. Filters are inserted in front of the lens itself and distort or affect the light coming through to the camera’s light sensor. A polarizing filter, or polarizer, for example, filters light as it angles further away from straight ahead, and as a result gives truer tones to objects in its field of vision – which really helps to take the glare off of sunny days. In many cases, these effects can be reproduced with software programs that crop an image, tweak the colour spectrum, and otherwise alter the image, however, generally speaking, the less editing you have to do of your pictures after the fact, the easier photography will be for you. |
| When traveling to Hawaii or just heading away from home for an afternoon, plan on having a travel pack of accessories: additional batteries or a charger in case your camera battery dies on you, an external flash, and an extra memory card/stick or two in case you run out of room (many photographers find a good mix with large, medium, and small sizes a good fit – the large card/stick is the main storage used 95% of the time, the medium serving as backup with enough space to hold a day’s worth of pictures, and the small card/stick big enough for half a dozen shots in an emergency). |