Photography Resources I use

Welcome to the Better Digital Photo Tips resources page. It's a list of the photography equipment and  educational resources that will help you improve your photography. You need the right equipment and the right knowledge to get better as a photographer.

I personally use all of the trusted photography resources listed on this page and I believe you may benefit by using one or more of them too.

Wow, times have changed! Before photography school my photography education came from Popular Photography and Modern Photography magazines. I used to attend used camera trade shows, or order equipment from mail order catalogues, or sometimes even buy from brick and mortar camera stores.

Now everything is online. You have more choices, cheaper prices, and the convenience of getting a photography education and ordering camera equipment while sitting in your chair. Life is good!

Here are my bestie photography resources:

Some of these resources are intended for professional photographers, but are great for beginners too. Just because you're only a beginner photographer or are a photo enthusiast doesn't mean you won't be interested, just realize that some of them might be overkill for you. Often you'll find more affordable options with some of the vendors I recommend.

Understand that I've had a lot of experience using a large variety of sources for photography information and cameras and accessories and I've found these resources helpful for me. Your situation may be different than mine.

Only take advantage of them if your interested in the photography equipment, or they will help you to improve your knowledge, skills, and the resulting photographs you take. 

adorama

Adorama has been a dedicated retailer of cameras, photo gear, and other electronics for over 40 years. In my experience, they're prices always match other sources.

They often carry very specific photography gear that you won't find at Amazon or other massive online retailers.

The most recent purchase I made from Adorama was a versatile photographer's clamp, the Wimberley Plamp II.

You can visit the site 24 hours, seven days a week, search products, and read the reviews. Or, call during business hours and talk to a real, live person.

amazon prime

No matter where you buy your camera gear, Amazon is the absolute, hands down best place to read reviews about almost any piece of camera equipment. If it's highly specialized camera gear you should go to a dedicated camera retailer, like Adorama, B+HPhoto, or Samy's, although you won't get nearly as many reviews on products as you do with as Amazon.

If I've been an Amazon Prime member for quite a few years. If you don't do much online shopping, Amazon Prime won't make sense for you. For me, it's a great deal. In addition to me ordering items, my wife, my daughter and sometimes my son also order through my Amazon Prime account. They keep their own credit cards on file, so it's a no brainer for us, often ordering over 30 orders per month.

I order all kinds of household, books, and personal products in addition to most of my camera accessories using the benefits of Amazon Prime.

Membership has its privileges. With an Amazon Prime membership you enjoy several benefits:

• You get free two-day shipping.
• Prime Music includes two million songs.
• Prime Video means streaming movies and TV shows.
• Shopping. Exclusive products and deals
• Prime Photos. 
• Prime Wardrobe

You get a lot of benefits across several different platforms. I like the fast free shipping and watching the free movies more than anything else. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime recently went up in price.

It's still worth it for me, because my wife and I buy household items, clothing, gifts, nutritional products, and doggie treats, in addition to photography gear, so it's a no-brainer. If you rarely order from Amazon, you're better off skipping the prime membership and just ordering when needed.

As an Amazon affiliate I may receive a small commission from qualifying purchases, at NO added cost to you.

You don't have to be an Amazon Prime member to read all the camera equipment reviews and opinions.  

backblaze

I switched from shooting film to shooting digital fulltime almost 20 years ago and I've likely tried to use 6 or 7 different methods of backing up all of my photos-and other files too. None of them were automatic.

My son did all the research on the many options out there and narrowed down to 3 that he recommended to me. I evaluated the three of them and settled on Backblaze as my system to backup all of my images and other important documents.

I can't put into words how happy I am with the choice. It was such a hassle for me to schedule my backups and then manually follow through on a weekly basis. Now, it's done automatically, continuously, in the background and I never even have to think about it-It just gets done automatically by Backblaze. Done!

creative live

CreativeLive streams educational videos on just about any photography topic you can think of-and many others you haven't thought of. The best part: you can watch a lot of the material for FREE.

That's right! The thing to do is to watch the free videos when they stream them, or watch the chapters of the full video series that are free anyway. The alternative is to pay for them and then you get to watch them whenever you want, for the rest of your life.

I'm thrifty just like you and I've watched a lot of the free videos, but I choose to purchase sometimes too. One of the favorite ones I purchased was "Art Wolfe's Secrets to Incredible Nature Photography."  

Visit Creative Live.

Free Photography Videos:

ThinkTank Photo

ThinkTank specializes in high-end cameras bags, cases, backpacks, straps, and related gear for professionals. My most recent purchase from Thinktank was the perfectly sized airline travel bag.

If you want protection, quality, and function, and you don't want to lose sight of your camera gear when you fly, you might want to check out their gear.

As a reader of this Digital Photography Tipswebsite you can receive a special gift for any order over $50 with ThinkTank. It's a good deal for you. The consumer reviews of their products are very high. Here is the link to their web site: ThinkTankPhoto

---

---

DPS: digital photo school

From the Granddaddy of photography educators, Digital Photography School offers courses,  Photoshop plugins, and eBooks. I've enjoyed many of their well written eBooks on a large variety of photography subjects.

Click here to visit Digital Photography School.

ebay

Ebay is not my number 1 source for photography anymore, but I still buy certain products here. I included it here because it might be a good place for you too. When I first started my photography business I couldn't afford new cameras, new lenses or new lighting equipment.

As a matter of fact, I just purchased another Novatron light set on Ebay to use as back-up. Ebay is great for buying used camera gear. You can save quite a bit of your money by buying used instead of new camera gear.

Two Ebay buying tips:

1. Check out the feedback of the seller before you buy.
2. See what the return policy is for the item you're interested in. Most sellers give a full refund for 30 days-you only have you pay for return shipping.

My recent searches on eBay: folding benches for group posing and a plastic spillway for my backyard pond. Surprisingly enough, my most recent eBay purchase: a capacitor for an old ceiling fan. 

---

---

DPREVIEW

If you really want to geek out and invest an hour or more investigating a new camera purchase, DPReview is the place to visit. I frequent quite a few different camera equipment review sites, but I always find myself using DPReview as the most valuable. Thorough and well illustrated with photos, you'll get all the technical advice you could ever ask for. Visit dpreview.com.

keh camera

I've ordered used camera lenses from KEH both directly from their website as well as through Amazon, which is a secondary channel that they use to sell camera gear.

KEH buys and sells a ton of used camera gear. What I like about KEH is the excellent condition of their used equipment. They've specialized in buying and selling used photography equipment for many years, so there's a trust factor that comes into play.

I also like to save money on equipment by buying used. Visit KEH.

I BUY FROM KEH
CHECK OUT THE QUALITY

final remarks on digital photography resources

My favorite resource to use for investigating photography gear is Amazon. I feel like I'm getting genuine reviews from regular photographers like me and you. I often-but NOT always-buy my camera accessories from Amazon, because of all the reviews they have. 

I hope that you find these digital photography resources as useful as I have. Nothing is perfect, but these resources have been helpful for me over the past 20 years or so.

Let's face it, the goal is to use the right equipment, enjoy the experience of taking photos, and getting great images in the end, right?

Have a blast. Keep shooting. 

ABOUT BRUCE LOVELACE

Bruce is the publisher of this website. He is the author of the book "Improve Your Photography Instantly."  Read more on Bruce on his Bio Page. He's been known as The Traveling Photographer ever since 1994. Read more about this website.

View some of Bruce's photos on Instagram.   Visit the Facebook Page. Watch him on YouTube.  Bruce runs photo workshops for kids and adults, and provides one-on-one photography coaching.

Digital Photography Education Location on Google My Business