Considered before as one of the most expensive hobbies, photography has drastically changed through the years and people can have more access to this hobby through their smartphones or, for a higher selling point, cameras. Generally, photography involves a vast range of categories – aerial, portrait, architectural, event, and fashion. But, one of the most exciting and enjoyable categories is outdoor photography.
Photographs taken from cameras are one of the purest memories that you can grasp through pursuing your photography hobby. In order to capture those picture-perfect moments of your life into your camera, you’ll need the best camera accessories to accompany your device, such as those available from PhaseOne cameras and accessories in Australia.
If you’re up to the challenge of outdoor photography, here are a handful of essential camera accessories you need:
Tripod
As a commonly utilized camera accessory, tripods are one of the best companions of a photographer. If you plan on taking outdoor photography, bringing a tripod with you is a must. While they can be heavy, bulky, draws out more attention, and inconvenient to carry, having this as your camera equipment will be definitely worth it due to various advantages that it can offer.
Generally, tripods are three-legged, portable stands or frames for your camera that serves as a support for your camera while taking shots. When faced with different circumstances of taking pictures and videos, your tripod can help you take the best shots by supporting your position and offer different angles.
Moreover, one of the greatest advantages of bringing a tripod in your outdoor photography adventure, if you’re going alone, is the opportunity to get yourself included in the shot. Although, you can ask anyone to take the picture for you so that you’ll be included in the shot, but this is more convenient when you’re only using your smartphone to take the photograph. Remember, your camera is expensive and you wouldn’t want to risk losing it by letting a stranger hold it.
Fortunately, this is the perfect time where your tripod will become your photographer. You can simply set-up the tripod on your desired spot, place your camera, adjust your desired options, and don’t forget to activate the timer depending on how much time you need to get ready in your position.
Camera Bag
To offer protection to your seemingly expensive camera and equipment, especially when going outdoors, you’ll definitely need a camera bag to store all your photography essentials. If you’re going for a trip and decide to take your camera with you, one of the biggest mistakes is to place your camera on your regular luggage together with your other things.
Instead, choose a camera bag that’ll maximize the most space on how big your camera is and how much equipment you’ll bring. Since camera bags come in different colors, shapes, and sizes, the most important factor to consider in choosing a camera bag is the one that screams your style and confidence.
Photography beginners and professionals alike meet at the same pedestal when it comes to taking care of their camera and equipment: its safety. One good way of ensuring the safety of your photography essentials, both protection against damage and safety from theft, is to purchase a camera bag with anti-theft specifications.
Spare Batteries
Upon purchasing your camera, one of your first responsibilities is to understand the fundamentals behind your camera, especially how its power works. Fundamentally, there are two options in digital camera batteries, and you should follow one of them depending on your camera model and unit: rechargeable AA batteries or NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydride) or specific battery packs made from Li-Ion (Lithium Ion).
When you’re packing up for outdoor photography, whether you’re going for short distances or a long journey, you should always have spare camera batteries depending on how long you’re going to spend time outdoors. Ideally, fully charged camera batteries can capture 400 to 500 pictures, but utilizing the camera’s video mode will consume the battery life faster.
If you’re not making the most out of your battery life despite taking care of it consistently, here are some tips that you can follow before going outdoors to improve your camera battery’s life:
- Make use of battery saving and optimization settings in your camera, like the eco mode, metering timeout, and mirrorless camera instead of the electronic viewfinder
- Since camera batteries die faster in a cold environment, always keep your batteries warm when not in use
- Take note of old batteries as they tend to lose their ability to hold power over time, you can label them using tapes and markers on how old they are to keep you reminded
Remote Shutter Release
Despite using a tripod in ensuring blur-free, steady shots in your photographs, you can still obtain unwanted motion blur upon using the shutter button in some circumstances. During these moments, you’ll need to have a remote shutter release to enhance your outdoor photography.
There are hundreds of remote shutter releases that are available in the market, but some of them may not work with your camera. So, before buying one, make sure to consult your camera’s user manual first or bring your camera with you once you visit physical stores. If you’re purchasing online, check out the product details and specifications or ask a few questions to the seller.
If you consider utilizing these techniques in outdoor photography, you’ll definitely need to get your camera a new remote shutter release:
- Using telephoto or macro lenses: Maximizing your outdoor photography experience usually involves nature photography. When dealing with these subjects, you tend to use telephoto and macro lenses to zoom in and magnify your subjects, like wildlife, landscape, and sports events.
Once the lenses zoom in, even the slightest movements will result in motion blur. Remote shutter releases offer great assistance when it comes to this photographing technique.
- Capturing light painting: One of the greatest photography
techniques that you can do, even as a beginner, is light painting photography.
Light painting is extremely simple, but the only struggle that you might face
is controlling the shutter release built on your camera. You can use a remote
shutter to have it under control.
When you want to capture a certain subject against a background of motion blur, your camera shouldn’t move or else the subject will be blurry as well. With the help of a remote shutter release, you can capture your subject while being surrounded by moving lights against a dark background.
Some light painting photography applications are writing words and drawing shapes using a light source and shooting vehicle tail-lights against the night city.
Waterproof Memory Card Case
As a photographer, you’ll need to have storage for your images and videos and transfer it into your computer. The role of memory cards in photography shouldn’t be overlooked, as they serve as secondary and tertiary backups of photographers, most importantly when shooting outdoors without any access to other devices.
Memory cards also guarantee that your images and videos stay safe and will not be corrupted. To accompany your memory card, you should also purchase a waterproof memory card case to avoid your memory card from getting lost, scratched, and especially, getting spilled or wet due to various outdoor activities.
Buying a waterproof case also helps your memory card to have a longer life. It’s much more recommended that you don’t buy memory cards with large capacities because once you lose it, you’ll lose everything. Instead, buy memory cards with reliable capacity and store them on your waterproof case.
Ultra Wide Angle Lens
To unleash the greater potential of your camera and outdoor photography skills, engage in using ultra-wide-angle lenses to capture dramatic and dynamic landscapes. Ultra wide-angle lenses are considered the holy grail when it comes to landscape photography due to its full coverage and excellent quality in capturing a grand nature scene.
Shooting wide-angle sceneries with ultra-wide-angle lenses can be quite tricky as you might compress various elements together and create asymmetry within your composition. To solve this issue, make sure to know what your foreground, middle ground, and background are. Furthermore, take a look at these handfuls of tips in shooting with ultra-wide-angle lenses:
- As much as possible, get low and near interesting subjects involved in your foreground to establish a stronger impression. Wide-angle lenses are best for creating exaggerated and unusual perspectives at near-far landscape compositions.
- Master the “Art of Inclusion,” where unnecessary elements should be immediately excluded in your composition. Ultra wide-angle lenses mean that they can capture as many elements as possible, but you should still exercise control in adding elements and subjects in your composition.
Microfiber Cloths and Lens Dust Blower
In outdoor photography, expect your camera lenses to get dirty and wet due to external environmental factors. Having dirty camera lenses can hinder the quality of your photos and videos, which ruin your outdoor photography experience. So, you should always keep them clean and dust-free with microfiber cloths and lens dust blower included in your photography essentials.
When packing for outdoor activities, always carry a lot of microfiber cloths in your camera bag. They’re affordable and handy to fit inside your bag. Once your lenses become wet or dirty while shooting, simply get a piece of microfiber cloth and wipe your lenses clean.
For an extremely dirty camera lens, or during occasional cleaning, use a lens dust blower to thoroughly clean your lenses. Don’t forget to clean your lens cap, too, since there’s no point in cleaning your lenses if your lens cap remains dirty.
Collapsible or Foldable Reflectors
Going to photography lighting tools, reflectors are powerful lighting equipment that can either make or break your photography. Most photographers utilize reflectors indoors, especially during portrait shoots, but they can be equally used in outdoor photography. For your next outdoor photography adventure, purchase collapsible or foldable reflectors to have convenience in carrying them.
Natural light tends to become your paint when it comes to outdoor photography, but they can be exaggerated during moments where it’s extremely bright outside. This is where reflectors become useful. Amidst strong natural light, reflectors will give you the ability to control your photos with a calm, soft light.
Reflectors help prevent dead-eye syndrome in outdoor portraits, which is characterized by dull eyes and deep shadows in the eye sockets, to take dramatic to simple portraits with beautiful emotions.
Conclusion
As a photographer, bringing camera accessories in outdoor photography journeys can be quite difficult and demanding. So, you should select the best ones that can assist you depending on what photography you want to focus on during your outdoor experience.
With the help of a tripod, camera bag, extra batteries, remote shutter release, waterproof memory card case, ultra-wide-angle lenses, microfiber cloths, lens dust blower, and collapsible or foldable reflectors, you can make the most out of your outdoor photography using your camera.
