Dan Carr

Founder of Shutter Muse, full time photographer and creative educator. Dan lives in the Canadian Yukon, but his wanderlust often sends him in search of images all around the world to meet the needs of clients and readers alike.

Adding Camera Gear Storage to my Photography Adventure Trailer

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I know that plenty of you are following along with my project of building the ultimate photography adventure trailer. Many of my previous updates to the base trailer (Taxa Tigermoth) centred around getting the solar power and general electrical systems up to scratch, but I’m really happy with how that’s all working now so it was time to move onto new projects. I just pulled the trailer out of winter storage and my first task was to improve upon how I store camera equipment when I’m on the move. I toyed with the idea of adding a huge sliding drawer …

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Adobe Changed the Default Lightroom Raw Sharpening in V7.3

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I noticed that in the latest update to Lightroom, Adobe is now applying a default sharpening amount of 40 to Raw images, instead of the previous 25.  It has been 25 since Lightroom first came to market I think. I think in most cases this won’t cause people any issues because in theory you should be treating sharpening on a case-by-case basis anyway and adjusting the sharpening and sharpen masking for each image.  It’s just something to be aware of… My guess is that they have done this because the default 25 setting was less perceptible as photo pixel dimensions …

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New Camera Bag Buyers Guide…Sort Of

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A little humour to brighten up your day. I juts published a new camera bag buyers guide on Shutter Muse that I think a lot of photographers can relate to. If you fancy a chuckle, head on over and take a look.    

Canon M50 – The LP-E12 Battery Monster (and a Cheap Solution)

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I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to Canon’s previous mirrorless cameras, but the M50 had enough features to get my attention so I’m continuing to evaluate it alongside the 5D Mark IV that I use on a daily basis for work. So far I’m enjoying having a second small camera in my bag that uses the same lenses as my primary camera (with an adapter), but the battery life of the M50 is quite poor. If you come from a DSLR, the decreased battery life of mirrorless cameras does take a bit of getting used to! It’s rare …

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Adobe Now Supports Canon CR3 and C-Raw Files from the M50

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Adobe released a gigantic Creative Cloud update today with a ton of new features, some of which I want to delve into with some specific posts in the coming days and weeks. However, one thing I wanted to mention right away is that Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC and Camera RAW are now fully compatible with the Raw files from Canon’s new M50 mirrorless camera. I’m currently testing this Canon M50 mirrorless camera myself so I have been waiting for this to happen, and I’m really pleased to see that Adobe put this release out just a few days after …

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Think Tank Launches New Affordable Storyteller Bag Series

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Think Tank Photo have a pretty steady stream of new product launches but this one caught my eye due to the low price points. The new Storyteller shoulder bag series features three bags, and prices start at just $64.75 for the Storyteller 5 and go up to $84.75 for the largest Storyteller 10 bag.   The bags look great for a mirrorless setup or a small DSLR with a couple or three lenses. All of them feature an elasticated water bottle pocket on one side, as well as mesh battery and memory card pockets inside the lid. The Storyteller 8 …

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Canon 100-400 IS II – Aperture Vs. Focal Length

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It’s rare that I go anywhere without the Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS II in my bag. It’s a versatile and extremely sharp lens that’s just as capable at capturing detailed landscapes as it is with wildlife. One of the reasons I love it is that it fits such a large zoom range into a relatively small package, although at 5.1lbs you’ll definitely notice it in your bag after a long day. The reason that it’s possible to get such a wide range into a small lens is of course because this lens has a variable aperture. At 100mm, the

Keep Those Feet Dry During Your Photo Road Trips

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Wintery photography road trips in the Pacific North West usually involve a lot of getting in and out of the car at various locations, and trudging through wet snowy forests. Having wet boots and cold feet sucks, so I recently purchased an awesome set of portable Travel Boot Dryers from Dry Guy that can run off the 12v power outlet in your car. This nifty product has a little fan in each heating element and it gently blows warm air through your boots or gloves as they sit in the back of the car or the passenger footwell. Given the

Gear Check: Think Tank Logistics Manager 30 – The BIG One!!

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I’m writing this from a hotel room in the Canadian Rockies, having just pulled in after a 1000km drive from my home in British Columbia. I did the drive in a day, with a few stops along the way to photograph a couple of cool landscapes and a turkey vulture that I found in a tree along the way. It’s alway hard to know what to bring with me on these trips. Which lens will I need? Should I bring a small flash or my big one?  What about video gear? Will I have time to make a video or

Beautiful Metal Prints!

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I recently had some metal prints done by a specialist printing company in Florida called Shiny Prints, and the results were fantastic. I’ve written a much more in-depth post about their services and they results I got over on Shutter Muse, but I just couldn’t help sharing a quick note about them here too. This is the first time I’ve had my work printed on metal and I was really blown away by the final look of the product, particularly the Frame Mount glossy prints that I received. This definitely won’t be the last time I get something from these

Gear Check: UniqBall iQuick Plate

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I came across this interesting ballhead accessory when I was writing a guide about L plates for Shutter Muse. Typically an L plate for a camera is a big bulky thing that wraps around the end of a camera to allow you to switch between portrait and landscape orientation very quickly. One of the disadvantages of the traditional design is that the plates can be quite heavy, so I was intrigued when I found the iQuick plate solutions that are being manufactured by UniqBall. At first glance these iQuick plates appear to be pretty typical universal Arca-Swiss plates for use

New Elinchrom Transmitter PRO = Skyport Plus HS

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Elinchrom launched a battery flash system called the ELB500 TTL. As the name suggests, this is a TTL capable 500w/s portable strobe unit and it’s the first TTL unit that Elinchrom have produced.  I’ve used Elinchrom gear for many years, and currently have an ELB400 in my kit, along with the Skyport Plus HS, which handles the wireless control of the flash. Alongside the release of the ELB500, I noticed that they were also talking about a TTL capable transmitter called the Transmitter PRO. Confusingly, it appeared to look identical to the Skyport Plus HS and for a while I