NZ Trip – What worked and what didn’t

July 28, 2025September 3, 2009 by Dan Carr

I’ve seen similar post on a couple of other photographers blogs before and always found them to be interesting and useful. When heading off on a long trip it can be tough to figure out how much gear to take and in what combination. On my recent trip I had to do just about every type of ski photography you can imagine. Backcountry skiing, heli skiing, daytime and night time park shooting, product shooting and portraiture. I was trying to accomplish this with only 2 pieces of checked in baggage (32KG each) and one piece of hand baggage and that …

Flying with an Elinchrom Ranger

October 10, 2023August 29, 2009 by Dan Carr

This morning I was woken up at 4am by someone hammering on my front door. I was ecstatic. Why? Because the guy who was banging 7 shades out of my door, was also carrying my pelican case full of flash equipment that I had last seen at Queenstown airport in New Zealand 4 days ago. If you own and travel with an Elinchrom Ranger (or similar batery powered flash) then you would be advised to read on. Let’s face it, if you put a Ranger through an x-ray scanner at an airport , it’s going to trigger some alarms. And …

Portable Storage – LaCie Rugged drives

July 28, 2025July 20, 2009 by Dan Carr

I just picked up another LaCie Rugged drive for an upcoming trip to New Zealand so I thought I’d take a second to post about them. The Rugged line of drives from LaCie are designed with the traveling photographer in mind and are encased in a protective rubber shell. I have been using a 120gb Rugged for about 2 years now and it has been faultless so far. If you take a look at the larger version of the photo on the left you will even see a sizable dent in the case on the top but still it keeps …

Think Tank Wired Up Collection – Review

July 30, 2025June 26, 2009 by Dan Carr

This Month, Think Tank Photo will be releasing an entire new collection of camera bags designed specifically with the Multimedia photographer in mind. With the advent of cameras such as the Canon 5dMKII and the the Panasonic GH-1, more and more photographers are being asked to shoot video and/or audio on photographic assignments. More to shoot means more to carry and these new bags are designed specifically to meet the new challenges associated with multimedia shooting. If you decide to purchase any of the bags, Think Tank has a special offer on at the moment. If you go to their …

Pocketwizard TT1 Review

July 28, 2025May 11, 2009 by Dan Carr

Be prepared… this is a long one. A few months ago I wrote a post HERE about a couple of exciting new products from LPA designs, the makers of the pocketwizard triggering system. If you are entirely unfamiliar with these products i suggest a quick read of my earlier post as there is a bit of assumed knowledge. I’m not initially interested in the wireless ETTL modes for these new models so i just bought myself a TT1 transmitter to try out the Hypersync mode which supposedly allows you to achieve a much higher x-sync with your strobes. Unfortunately I …

Tested my 85mm lens.

July 28, 2025April 8, 2009 by Dan Carr

When I sold my 70-200 2.8L IS to get one of the newer, sharper f4 versions I also picked up a Canon 85mm f1.8 to use for shooting portraits and lifestyle stuff. This week I have been shooting with Kaya Turski , fresh off her win at the European Open and with an x-games medal in her pocket she is finally putting injuries behind her and skiing really well. As well as some skiing stuff, I also wanted to get a few headshots and portraits of her as i’m sure magazines are going to be needing this stuff next winter. …

70-200 f4 L IS – Initial thoghts

July 28, 2025March 30, 2009 by Dan Carr

Those of you who follow this blog will remember that a couple of weeks ago I sold my beloved 70-200 2.8 L IS lens. The lens that has shot the majority of my ski photos for the last few years. I replaced it with it’s smaller and lighter brother the 70-200 f4 L IS. Having spent a couple of weeks using it now I thought I would confirm my initial suspicions. I LOVE this lens. As I sold my old lens I have no way of doing any direct comparisons but if that’s what you want to see then check …

Out with the old and in with the……..smaller and lighter.

July 28, 2025March 19, 2009 by Dan Carr

I think over the last 3 years, about 75% of the photos i have shot have been with the Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS. So today I sold it. Wait….what!??! Yep, it’s gone. You see I was thinking about it, when do I ever shoot that thing at 2.8? I’m always outside and 2.8 is quite a narrow DOF to hit a moving target with when you are not using auto focus (I don’t like using AF). The few times i did use it at wide’ish apertures where for portrait type stuff and then that was mostly at between 70mm …

What’s in the bag? – Part 1 – Lighting kit

July 28, 2025March 14, 2009 by Dan Carr

Ok guys, you asked for it….. I’m always getting people wandering about the gear I use so without further delay here is part 1. A quick video to show you my lighting kit in my Pelican 1610 case. Below is also a list of whats in the case and some photos too. Bonus! In the case:

Ode to the Sigma 15mm Fisheye lens

October 10, 2023February 10, 2009 by Dan Carr

About 3 years ago when I decided to start taking my shooting seriously, I also decided that I was going to need a fisheye lens. What action sports photographer doesnt have a fisheye right? Being a Canon shooter gave me two options, the Canon 15mm Fisheye or the Sigma 15mm Fisheye. At the time I remember reading something posted on the website Wheels And Wax.com saying that the two were nearly identical in image quality. I had just bought a 70-200 2.8L IS so I though i’d save the money and buy my one and only non-canon lens with the …

Winter gloves for photographers – The POW Photog

March 25, 2024January 31, 2009 by Dan Carr

Another question that comes up quite often from readers of this blog and visitors to my site is “what gloves do you wear when you are shooting in the snow?” I’ve seen this question discussed on several other photography websites too, it’s not just ski and snowboard photogs who are in need of a decent pair of winter shooting gloves. Of course the problem is that we want to stay warm but also retain the use of our finger tips for operating the camera controls and most importantly, the shutter button. Wearing a think pair of winter gloves, it’s all …

What kind of memory cards do I use?

October 11, 2023January 26, 2009 by Dan Carr

Here’s a quick post on a question I get asked quite often. What kind of memory cards do I use? I exclusively use the Sandisk Extreme III memory cards. When I first got into photography I had the 2GB vesrsions of this card and I have never experienced a single failure. I think it’s safe to say that most photographers pick one type of card and unless they experience any failures, most likely stick with that type/brand for a very long time. The thing that initially attracted me to these cards was that they are rated down to -25 degrees …