Hi Friends,

I cannot believe that 2018 is starting to wrap up! It’s crazy! We’re almost halfway into the last month of the year, so I thought I would do a round up post of favorites! I’m starting with photography tools and will also have a post of business tools, as well as organizational ideas for the upcoming year! I’ll share things that have been tried and true for me, so hopefully, they can help you as well! They make amazing gifts for any photographer in your life!

There are some Amazon affiliate links in this post that help support my business.

For all photographers or people who want an awesome external hard drive!

1. Samsung SSD 1T

I’ve done an IG Story about it when I was traveling, but this little hard drive is my favorite.

What is SSD?
SSD stands for solid state drive, which makes it sturdy. Not only is it sturdy, but it’s also fast and compact in size which makes it a perfect travel companion. It also is a bit more pricey than non SSD drives. I have a hidden talent for breaking/courrpting those drives so the SSD has been a wonderful and welcome upgrade. (I’ve also seen a blogger have one of these SSDs gorilla taped to her laptop for a number of years and it still functions fine.)

Also!!! This is on sale for $50 off what I purchased it for a few months ago! I still have no regrets! 

For any photographer on the go

2. Peak Design Sling Bag
I love any bag with a lot of internal organization. So all the Peak Design bags are right up my alley! My favorite everyday bag is the sling because it’s just the right size for people on the go. I used to want to bring ALL THE THINGS, but my shoulder didn’t love all the weight involved.

Since getting more familiar with the gear that works for me and only bringing what’s necessary has allowed me to streamline what I bring to shoots!

For the Portrait Photographer

3. Expo Disc
This little device is my (not so) secret weapon to getting awesome skin tones for portraits all day, every day. It will even give you wonderful skin tones in terrible lighting conditions. See dark rooms with standing lamps as the only source of light. It’s so so good. It saves me time editing and playing with sliders back and forth to achieve awesome skin tones.

What it does:
It gives you custom white balance in a photo which gives correct skin tones without having to spend time in post processing to get it right. I’ve thought about buying another one of these and leaving them in my car because I get so upset when I forget to pack one for a shoot!

For the food photographer

4. Tether tools

What is tethering?
If you’re familiar with tether ball from grade school. It’s similar. You have two items connected to each other. It items in this scenario are your camera and computer. They have corded and cordless options. Right now I have the orange cord and it works wonderfully.

I connect a Tether tool from my camera to my computer with Adobe Lightroom, so I can see what I shoot right after I shoot it on a bigger screen. It allows me to play with items in the frame, move them around and nail to exact composition that I want!

Before I used to take photos and wish I had done something a little different. Now I have a instant feedback of how the photo looks so I can adjust to my heart’s desire.

PRETTY PLEASE: make sure you get the right cord for your particular make and model of you camera! 

I hope that round up with helpful for you! These are honestly things that I can’t see myself not using because I like them so so much!

Enjoy!