Nice Photo Mag’s Creative Photographer’s Unlikely Holiday Gift Guide

Posted by Zeke Kamm on 11/27/08 • Categorized as The Latest

I’m guessing there are going to be about a million holiday gift guides on the net popping up in the next few days. Their may even be a hundred aimed at photographers. But here at Nice from time to time we like to think outside the gift box. Hence, the Creative Photographer’s Unlikely Holiday Gift Guide. It’s a list of gifts for the photographer you love – or feel obliged to give a gift to this holiday season. Without further ado… the list!

Photographers and pocket knives, it’s like peanut butter and pocket knives, or green and frogs. Huh? Having a pocket knife handy has scraped my butt out of a dozen or more jams while on a shoot. I’ve used them for anything from carefully trimming loose threads off the model’s outfit to cutting the rope I was forced to use to tie a tree branch back out of a shot. I’ll be doing a post about the many photography related uses for a handy pocket knife, but that’s for another time. If you’re going to get one this holiday I recommend the Boker Keycom. This is an itti bitti (I’m talking just 2 1/4″ long closed) pocket knife that is both stylish and functional. It is equally at home on your keychain or in your pocket thanks to the included clip. This is a quality knife. Not a toy. I think it’s the best you can buy for the money. They’re available for between $15 and $30 depending on where you look. I recommend getting it right from the designer Chad Los Banos. His wife sells a few a month on the CLB ebay site to help raise money for local stray cats and dogs. Of course, if you want one bad, and they don’t have any available they are available at almost any good knife shop. You can even get the Keycom through Amazon.

Black Foamies. Maybe some white ones, too. These are like sheets of paper made out of foam. Very handy for DIY photogs. Why would you want these? Check out my Loupededoop post for just one use. They’re also great from making cookies, snoots, gobos, etc. Get a photographer a stack of black foamies, maybe some tape, point them over to DIYPhotography.net, and stand back. Good times.

Flashlight: In this recent post about light painting I hinted at my addiction to quality flashlights. If you didn’t pick up on my obsession, hooray! I’m getting good at coving it. Ahem. In my opinion, if you can see, you can benefit from having a flashlight on you at all times. Of course if you’re a photographer, there are other reasons. Finding that lost ¼ cto gel in the bottom of you bag for instance. Did you know even an $8000 1Ds Mark III can’t focus in complete darkness without a little help. That’s where your handy flashlight comes in. Now, you can use a .99 cent piece of junk or you could show that you’re classy (and obsessed with flashlights of all things) with this $60 number: the Nitecore D10. $61 with free shipping through Amazon. Super bright. Batteries last a LONG time. There’s even a little brain in it for switching to multiple brightness levels. I have this light in the CR123 (a different type of battery popular among fellow flashlight aficionados) and LOVE it. The D10 uses the easier to find AA battery. I strongly recommend using slow discharge rechargeables. Don’t know where to get a great deal on those? Fortunately their next on the list.

UPDATE: These batteries SUCK! The ones I have will no longer hold a charge. I DO NOT recommend buying these batteries or anything from All-Battery.com. Here I am. Batteries! A photographer can never have too many rechargeable batteries – read my post “Melvin - A Simple Guide To Rechargeable Battery Management” to see why. I found this killer deal for AA slow discharge (pre-charged) 2300 mah NiMh batteries for under $1 a cell when you buy 4 packs of 4. As of now they have free shipping on the deal too! I bought 48 bats. Most of them had sat around on their shelf long enough that there wasn’t much juice left in them when I opened the packages, but after a fresh recharge they were running top speed. Very nice. They also have a deal for 20 of the same pre-charged AA batteries and a 10 bay smart charger for $33 plus shipping. I haven’t used this charger, so I can only vouch for the batteries, but they have great customer service, so if you don’t have a nice charger it may be worth giving this one a try. If you order before 12/31/08 make sure you enter COUPON CODE “battery12″ for an additional 12% off! UPDATE: The deal was down and now it’s back up. Get it while you can (probably no rush, actually). Thanks. — the management.

Reading is fundamental, right? I could recommend technical photography books, or creative photographer’s books of work out the wazoo. But I don’t think any of those would help you more creatively or business wise than the book How to Win Friends and Influence People available on both Audio CD and Book: Some folks see the title and think this book is about tricking people. Well, I doubt you’d think that once you read it. I think the title of the book would be more accurate if it was called “How Not to Be a Dick”. I honestly believe the world would be a better place if everyone practiced the concepts in this book. It would almost certainly be a more understanding and tolerant world. If you ever deal with another human in the course of your life be it through business, pleasure, or grocery shopping, I think mastering or even attempting the concepts in How To Win Friends would bring you increased success but more importantly I think it would make you more nice. And who couldn’t do with a little extra Nice?

What’s the matter, you want your brain to shrink up and get all raisiny? Heck no. Stay hydrated. Oh, you drink from those clear plastic water bottles? See you in the morgue! Not only are they terrible for the environment, they leach petrol chemicals into your water. I never leave the house without my medical grade stainless steel Klean Kanteen filled with filtered water. I don’t want raisin brain. You?

Props: Yeah, you’re a bit on your own with this one. Of course, for some tips, check out my post Giving Props.
Last but not least something is coming very soon, a top secret project from the creators of Strobist.com and NicePhotoMag.com. I wish I could tell you what it is, but it’s a secret. Hopefully we’ll have pre-orders opened before Christmas and ship by mid January. Stay tuned.

Nice!

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