Home Studio Photography compiles an invaluable collection of tutorials, quick tips and step by step instructions to building your own home studio on a shoestring budget. Not only is this book a goldmine for the starving student, the skills it teaches are valuable for any photographer who wants to spend their money wisely, or needs to modify the light when they haven’t got exactly the gear they need with them at the time....

Once I was expecting my bags, upon my return from a recent trip to Argentina, and I was ready to leave the terminal area at the Miami International Airport (MIA) I was requested, by a customs officer, to a manual and thorough search of all my belongings. I didn’t think twice and followed the agent into a small office next to the baggage claim area. Sure, I produced all my baggage claim tickets which were neatly arranged on my passport back jacket, but the officer’s attention was centered on just my luggage....

I recently built this DIY 180 orbit rig from available camera accessories. To make shots like this. You might think why not just use a turntable, well I don’t like the look of only the product spinning while the background is static. While moving the camera around the subject gives a much more dynamic look in its entirety. With this setup, I can even orbit around tiny objects using a macro lens....

As my love for photography has increased over time, so has my love for manual focus lenses. Lenses such as the Samyang 135mm f2 provide unsurpassed sharpness and image quality, at a price much lower than its autofocus counterparts. Often you also save weight and size when switching to a manual lens. I switched my Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART for a Voigtländer Ultron 35mm f1.7, and got a lens that was just a fraction of the weight and size while maintaining comparable image quality and low light performance....

I’ve been through various iterations of location backup workflows over the years. When I started out with DSLRs back in 2002 I was using the Super DigiBin, which allowed me to pull files off my huge 128MB CompactFlash cards and back them up onto a (for the time) ridiculously huge 20GB hard drive. Things have come a long way in the last couple of decades since I relied on that Super DigiBin....