Dan Carr

Professional photographer based in Yukon, Canada, and founder of Shutter Muse. His editorial work has been featured in publications all over the world, and his commercial clients include brands such as Nike, Apple, Adobe and Red Bull.

F-Stop Kenti Photograpy Pack Review

by

The Kenti photo pack is another addition to the popular Mountain Series of bags from f-stop. These bags are designed specifically with outdoor, nature and adventure photographers. Compared to the other Mountain Series bags, the Kenti has some very different design features, namely, zippered access to both sides of the bag. Two camera bodies with lenses already attached can be quickly reached and stowed away again in record time. If speed is important in your photography then you should definitely read on. Bag Design & Features Without a water bladder in the bag the Kenti is a very comfortable pack. …

Read more

Canon Vs. Kenko Extension Tubes

by

Extension tubes are a useful accessory that allows you to shorten the minimum focus distance of a lens by moving it further away from your camera’s sensor. In other words, it allows you to get closer to your subject and often create macro-like images without the need for a dedicated macro lens. If you aren’t yet familiar with extension tubes, I would first encourage you to read my guide: The Ultimate Guide to Extension Tubes. Having read the guide, or perhaps you already know all about the tubes already, you’ve obviously come to the conclusion that you’d like to buy …

Read more

New Peak Design Everyday Backpack, Tote and Sling

by

UPDATE These new bags were funded via Kickstarter and are now available on the Peak Design store. At the end of 2015, photography accessory manufacturer Peak Design launched their incredibly popular Kickstarter campaign for the Everyday Messenger bag. Before the campaign was over, they’d raised over $4.5million and broken some serious Kickstarter records! This week their back at it again, and now they’re looking to expand their photography bag lineup by introducing the Everyday Backpack, the Everyday Tote and the Everyday Sling. Being the kings of Kickstarter, they set a $500,000 goal and promptly blew through that (and the $1million) …

Read more

Think Tank “My 2nd Brain” Laptop Bag Review

by

NOTE: Sadly this bag has been discontinued. I liked it a lot, so I’m hopeful that they will eventually launch a new version but for now I would direct you to the Think Tank Retrospective 30 for 15″ laptops and the Retrospective 7 for 13″ laptops. The Best Laptop Bag for Photographers? For a lot of photographers, being on the road is part and parcel of the job and that means having a way to easily carry around a laptop, along with hard drives, power cables, memory cards holders and maybe even a Wacom tablet. There are camera bags that …

Read more

Lowepro Highline RL x400 Travel Roller Bag Review

by

Lowepro’s First Travel Bags Lowepro have been making photography bags for decades, but recently they launched a series of travel bags that applies their knowledge to a new market. I was particularly interested in the Highline series, but it must be underlined that the Highline backpacks in that range are not camera bags at all. They have no internal padding for camera gear whatsoever. It’s a Lowerpro bag, but not as you’ve seen before! At the top of the Highline series is the x400 roller bag, and this one instantly peaked my interest for a number of reasons. The backpacks …

Read more

Cloud Cover Forecasting for Photography

by

Cloud cover can make or break many kinds of outdoor photographic opportunities and that’s why the website Clear Dark Sky should be bookmarked by any discerning photographer. This website, originally intended for astronomers, will give you a cloud cover forecast for a specific time and location. Whilst most people will immediately imagine using this to predict clear skies at night for astrophotography, there’s no reason why you can’t also use it to predict days of overcast conditions which are often preferred for wildlife and macro photography. As you can see from the screenshot, the simple charts manage to pack in …

Read more

Perfectly Clear Summer Sale – Save $50

by

Perfectly Clear makes a bundle of Lightroom and Photoshop plugins designed to speed up your editing workflow. The Perfect Eyes and Perfect Skin plugins are designed to make killer portraits with a minimal number of clicks, and the Perfect Exposure plugin can help with all kinds of images. Whilst many plugin providers aim to give you more control over your editing process, Perfectly Clear has always aimed at the other end of the spectrum: Do as much as possible with as few clicks as possible. This can be a massive timesaver for event and wedding photographers who are potentially churning out …

Read more

Brand New Gear Guide Launched

by

I’ve always maintained a Gear Guide as part of this site, a collection of pages that detail all of my photo gear and explains why or how I use certain things. It’s not necessarily intended to be a guide for exactly which things you should buy, because of course I don’t know your budget or your requirements; however, it has always been one of the most visited sections of the site. I’m pleased to announce today that this section has gone through a total redesign, something which took me over 150 hours of work over the last couple of months. …

Read more

MindShift BackLight 26L Outdoor Photography Pack Review

by

MindShift Gear have been extremely busy recently, to the benefit of all those that like to be outdoors when they take their photos. If you aren’t familiar with the brand, MindShift is the sister company to Think Tank Photo, except that they concentrate primarily on camera bags for outdoor, adventure and wildlife photography. Their patented Rotation 180 system (see here in R180 Trail review) put them on the radar of lots of photographers, myself included, and they released a strong series of bags based around that unique rotating system. The original R180 Pro (review) is probably still my favourite, and …

Read more