Dan Carr - Shutter Muse Founder & Chief Educator

New Peak Design Everyday Backpack, Tote and Sling

August 13, 2024July 15, 2016 by Dan Carr

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) …

Think Tank “My 2nd Brain” Laptop Bag Review

August 12, 2024July 8, 2016 by Dan Carr

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 …

Lowepro Highline RL x400 Travel Roller Bag Review

August 21, 2024July 7, 2016 by Dan Carr

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 …

Cloud Cover Forecasting for Photography

July 17, 2024July 6, 2016 by Dan Carr

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 …

Perfectly Clear Summer Sale – Save $50

April 14, 2022July 5, 2016 by Dan Carr

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 …

My Photography EDC Kit – 2020

January 17, 2020July 4, 2016 by Dan Carr

EDC or Everyday Carry is the stuff that’s always on me. Cameras and lenses are specific to the task at hand, but amongst those items, this is the kit that’s always in my bag or pocket.

Brand New Gear Guide Launched

June 30, 2021June 25, 2016 by Dan Carr

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. …

MindShift BackLight 26L Outdoor Photography Pack Review

August 18, 2024June 8, 2016 by Dan Carr

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 …

My Backup Routine – Early 2016

July 23, 2024April 5, 2016 by Dan Carr

When I wrote this popular post last year, I promised I’d keep it running as a series to document any changes I make. I’ve made some sizeable updates to my computer system since the last one. Always learning, always improving…

How To Calculate Field of View In Photography

May 10, 2022March 29, 2016 by Dan Carr

Field of view is a lens characteristic that is directly related to the focal length of your lens and determines how much you can see with a lens. Here’s how to calculate it, and some common values for a variety of lenses.