Archive for the ‘gear’ tag
Review: Manfrotto Lino PRO Field Jacket
Manfrotto Lino Pro Field Jacket
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Manfrotto’s wildly expensive yet impressive Lino Pro Photo Gloves. As expected, the gloves performed quite well. Now that you have your hands taken care of while your shooting, what about your body? As it turns out, Manfrotto has a complete line of photo vests, light jackets and heavier jackets. In this post, we’ll check out one of the heavier jackets that Manfrotto offers, the Lino PRO Field Jacket. Click on through to see what we thought of it.
What’s In the Bag? Lester Jones: Street Style Photographer
Upon seeing all of our, “What’s in the Bag?” features, photographer Lester Jones contacted us wanting to share what he carries. Lester is the creator and owner of, I Dig Your Sole Man: a website where he showcases the some awesome street style of urban footware. “While I love the beautiful work of The Satorialist, Garance Dore, Scott Schuman, and Jak & Jill I always felt a bit alienated as I do not understand and appreciate satorial fashion that well, so I decided to fill a massive space in the street blog community by starting the world’s (to the best of my knowledge) first ever sneaker based street blog. My work looks at how sneaker style is something we can all relate to, with our footwear representing a clear story about who we are, and in a short space of time my work is developing a big global following,” says Lester. “The body of work has evolved from mere sneaker shots to become a credible destination for people who like a unique take on all forms of urban style, which includes portraiture, reportage and videography of people, events, products, places and more, and I do it all with quite a modest array of kit!”
I got to talk to him a bit about what’s in his gear bag.
What’s In My Bag: The Travis Lawton Version
What's In My Bag
Just over 4 years ago, I fell in love with photography. I, much like many new photographers, fell into the gear-pit. More gear equals better images right? Not quite. One thing that exacerbated this situation is that I had a good job with good pay. For many new photographers, money is what prevents them from going out and stocking up on gear that they want. Instead, they are forced to intimately learn their existing equipment and make it work.
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m upset that I had the ability to purchase a lot of gear in the beginning, however, I feel it stunted my growth as a photographer. Instead of really learning how to use my gear, I would quickly move onto the next thing, the next lens. Now four years later, I have learned how to control gear-lust and how to appreciated my equipment. I’ve learned how to massage my current equipment to do what I want instead of going out and buying something that could do it better. So now that I’m older and wiser (photography-wise), what is the equipment that made the cut and constantly resides in my bag?
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Review: The Profoto D1 Studio Kit 500/500 Air
Sometimes our readers ask for us to review higher end gear. With that in mind we decided to test the Profoto D1 Studio Kit 500/500 with Air. It’s fairly undisputed that Profoto is the best-of-breed for studio lighting and chances are pretty high that if you walk into a professional studio and rent their gear you’ll be handed Profoto power packs and heads. They’re reliable, consistent, fast, durable and include every feature the demanding professional expects. They’re not as well known for their more portable monolights, so how let’s see how they stand up.
Note: A rep from Profoto just read my article and sent some corrections and clarifications. Edits are in bold.
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Tips For the Person Being Forced Into Shooting A Wedding
I’ve encountered a lot of this recently amongst friends, readers, and the like: being asked to shoot a wedding but not having the experience. Everyone in said person’s family and immediate circle says, “Oh, you can shoot the wedding! You’ve got the gear! We won’t have to pay a pro!” Many times, even if you say no, you’re still pushed to do so. The reason for this is because most of said people don’t understand just how much thought, care and work goes int photographing a wedding.
While I recommend that you tell them, “Go find a professional,” here are some tips for the person that’s forced to shoot a wedding.
Editor’s Note: Though we’ve taken a recent turn catering to the street photography crowd, we’ve got loads of resources on shooting weddings. They are listed throughout this piece.
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Ten Ways to Take Better Photos Without Spending More Money
No matter what your photography knowledge level or equipment are, you can take better photos today than you did yesterday without spending a dime. Every one of my suggestions can be applied whether you’ve had professional training or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re using a $100 point-and-shoot or an expensive DSLR. Geared primarily towards amateur hobbyists, perhaps those of you with more experience can get some ideas as well. Here are some suggestions that are independent of gear.
