Artomology Photo tips – top 10 photography tools ( part 2!)

Here is the continuation of my essential kit:

5. little flash – Canon Speedlite 270EX
This small and light flash is a cracker!  If I need to pop just a little bit more light into some shadowy recess of the universe, I can. It has a diffuser and I can angle the head to bounce the light from another surface and on to my subject. I wish my fancy macro flashes were more portable, like this one. I usually only take them with me if I have a string of sherpas to help hump them up the mountain…! I am hoping that this is the next area to get some technological advance. Smaller, lighter flash technology is needed for naughty, hand-held photogs like me!

6. Cleaning cloths:
i have a nifty souvenir microfibre glass cleaning cloth with a map of New York on it for the back of the camera and a little pack of lens cleaning tissues.

8. Water in  spray bottle:
i can drink the water, spray it on my face if it’s hot and spray it on a surface/ flower to deepen its colour if I want. Sometimes spraying a beetle will also prevent it from flying off as they like their wings to be dry before heading off into the wild blue yonder!

7. Headache pills:
Looking through a little viewfinder with one eye open and the other scrunched up for hours on end and not drinking any water is a sure-fire recipe for massive headache. I often don’t even realise how much pain I am actually in, until I resurface into the real world from hours spent gazing at my magnified view of ladybirds and flowers.  Nurofen has saved me many times!

9. Spare film:
Sandisk Xtreme series IV 16GB card in the camera and 2 x 8GB cards in the bag – just in case…

10. iphone:
I can play music, set a timer ( I lose all sense of time when I have found an engaging bugject), and call in an emergency.

There! my top 10 essentials! Actually there is one last – A good camera bag, but this deserves its own post!