5 Pieces of Photography Gear to Spark Your Creativity

When the weather is colder and the days are shorter going outside to shoot may become less appealing. A good way to combat a winter rut is to try something new and shake up your photography routine. I have put together a list of 5 pieces of gear that will help spark your creativity.

 

Lomography x Zenit Petzval

The Petzval is a recreated version of a classic 19th-century portrait lens for modern SLRs. Characterized by a brass barrel and drop in Waterhouse stops, this lens will give you a feel for the golden days of photography. We carry this lens in Canon and Nikon mounts.

Suggested Use: The Petzval lens is so fun for portraits, yielding swirly bokeh, field curvature, and vignetting great for a dreamy feel in your photographs.

 

Canon Powershot D30 Underwater Camera

The Canon D30 is a waterproof point and shoot camera. It’s small and durable, making it an easy and fun camera to carry into any situation.

Suggested Use: Normally used in a pool or at the beach during the summer, but can also be used to create interesting effects without compromising the integrity of the camera body. Stick it in a fishbowl, smear the lens with Vaseline, or use the macro mode in any messy or wet situation.

 

 

Nikon Coolpix P900 

The Nikon P900 is a 16MP point and shoot camera that can zoom from 24-2000mm, with a 332x digital zoom.

Suggested use: While this is a great walk around and family camera, it also gives anyone the ability to photograph the moon or spy on folks a few blocks over. (Seriously, it even has a moon mode.)

Between the small 1/2.3” sensor size and lack of RAW shooting, these images won’t be largely editable. And the image quality at the long end of the zoom isn’t the sharpest. That being said, you can’t beat the zooming power in such a small package and such a low price.

 

Pixelstick LED Lightpainting Tool

The Pixelstick is a light painting tool designed to read images from a memory card and project them into a long exposure image. It also has pre-programmed light patterns to create many different cool effects.

Suggested use: Anything goes here. You can upload a logo, photo, or any image and use it in a long exposure or time-lapse. We channeled out inner children with this toy.

 

Circular North Star Effect Filter

The North Star Filter from Tiffen creates multiple points of light, or “stars,” streaking outward from a central light source. This filter comes in a rotating mount for critical placement of the star effect.

Suggested Use: This is a great item to add a little magic to some of your photos. It attaches to the front of the lens and rotates similarly to a circular polarizing filter to adjust the look. It can give a very romantic feel, but can easily be overdone.

Trying something new is often all it takes to add a bit of excitement to your shooting and ignite new ideas. These are a few I find fun, but simply shooting with a different camera system can be enough to change your view and your photos.

 

Sarah McAlexander

LensRentals.com