I thought it would be helpful to create a resource page that anyone interested in photography, travel or blogging can use to see the products and services that I personally use and recommend. This list will be evolving as I find new tools that are worth being mentioned.
Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links which simply means that I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links at no extra cost to you so if you are interested in purchasing any of these items, please consider using these links – as it will help support me as a creator at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
CAMERA & LENSES
Sony A7 camera body
This is a full-frame mirrorless 24 MP camera that shoots incredible photos and it’s also really good for HD video (even though I don’t use it as a videocamera).
Sony 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 zoom lens
When you want something light, resistant, compact, sharp and fairly cheap then get this lens. If you want even more sharpness and a nicer contrast then I would recommend the Sony 24-70mm F4
.
Samyang 14mm F2.8 wide angle lens
This is a lens that comes with a Sony E-mount so it was a perfect fit for me as I won’t need an adapter to use it with my Sony camera body. The Sony mount version has no electronic communication with the camera which means that everything is manual. You need to manually focus and manually set the aperture.
AERIAL EQUIPMENT
DJI Mavic Air (Fly More Combo)
Such an incredible piece of equipment for photography and videography. So small and compact, easy to carry with you while travelling and on a daily basis in your backpack. Great quality for still images and videos. I highly recommend getting the Combo Pack as all the extras that have been included are things that you need and make the whole experience just better. You get two extra batteries, that makes three in total, giving you a much greater flying time; two more pairs of propellers; battery charging hub, a battery to power bank adaptor and a handy travel bag to put it all in. I use everything and I’m glad I bought everything I need from the beginning.
PolarPro ND Filters (Cinema series)
These are great quality Mavic Air filters. ND filters are used to reduce the amount of light which enters the camera to enable a longer duration of exposure. Easy to use and able to produce beautiful imagery, ND Filters are a great addition to any aerial photographer or videographer’s kit.
ACCESSORIES
SanDisk 64GB Extreme SD Memory Card
SanDisk 64GB Extreme SD Memory Card
The second purchase after your camera has to be a memory card. No choice. So invest in a good one when you start. This one it’s a really fast memory card with tons of space which is especially important if you’re shooting your photographs in RAW mode (and you should) or recording video. If you have room in your budget it might even be worth it to buy a couple of these to keep in different places in your camera bag, just in case.
Camera battery charger for Sony (plus 2 spare batteries)
If you’re using Sony cameras you know that they don’t come with a separate battery charger but you directly plug the camera on the source of power which is extremely inconvenient as it means that you can’t use your camera while you’re charging the battery. That’s the reason why an external battery charger is very much needed. I found this on Amazon and it’s perfect; small, practical to carry and it can charge both batteries in under two hours. This particular one comes with 2 additional batteries.
Manfrotto MK Compact Action
A very well made tripod, at an affordable price, from one of the most famous and reliable tripod brands. What I really like about this tripod is the quick release attachment, not the usual heavy metal plate but a small pin. It’s compact and light, perfect to be carried around.
Manfrotto PIXI Mini Tripod
If you get into photography you’ll realise you need a tripod. This is usually a bulky and heavy piece of equipment to carry around with you, specially if you stay out all day while travelling. I love my mini-tripod, I always have it in my camera bag and it’s great when I want something to hold my camera for long exposures. It has a practical design plus it’s very stable and sturdy for its size. The only downside is the fact that you can take only landscape format photos as the head does not rotate allowing the camera to be in a vertical position. The best alternative would be the Manfrotto PIXI EVO 2
which I think will be my next purchase.
Meike MK-930 II Flash
It’s a good flash to start with if you are a Sony user. It’s a flash with a really good power, good price but beware, it only works in full manual mode, no TTL for this model.
Marumi filters
I personally own and suggest the following filters: Marumi Exus UV Filter
as a protection for the front of my lenses. Marumi Exus Circular Polariser Filter
to be able to darken the sky, have a better control over reflections or eliminate the glare from the surface of lakes or the sea. Marumi DHG ND64 filter
and Marumi DHG ND8 filter
, ND filters reduce the amount of light entering the camera enabling you to take a long exposure shot even during the day.
Lowepro ProTactic BP 350 AW II
The biggest carry-on size bag that used to house all my camera gear during a photo-shooting. I sold it when I left Australia to travel long-term as it was too big and heavy for this kind of travel but I found it perfect to bring everything you need on a shooting.
PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY
Huawei P40 Pro
One of the best camera phones on the market. I’m absolutely blown away by the quality of the images I can capture with both the 40MP ultra-wide camera and the tele-camera that can achieve a 5x optical zoom (125mm equivalent).
Moment Wide 18mm Lens
I’ve used this lens for 3 years when I had an iPhone 7. It’s super easy to screw it on the phone case, which btw is rubust solid, and the images you’ll get with this will be sharp and with minimal distortion. Great small piece of glass to always carry in your pocket.
STUDIO TECH
Apple MacBook 13-inch with retina display
If you are working with images I think investing in a MacBook is the way to go. We all know it’s a high-performing, light-weight, on-the-go laptop with fabulous battery life. However one of the most important features for a photographer is the retina display that makes the MacBook the highest resolution notebook ever. You will see your photos much more clear and sharp and better colour-accurate displayed.
WD Elements External HD 2TB
Again another must-have to store all your photo and video files. It’s small, light and fast. If you can just buy it with the maximum space available so that you won’t need to buy a second one anytime soon.
Wacom Intuos Pro Small Pen Tablet
A practical tool if you do a lot of retouching in Photoshop. The ease of using a pen instead of a mouse to draw as well as the customizable buttons on the tablet can improve your speed and quality of your editing flow.
TourBox Controller
TourBox is an advanced controller for Photoshop, Lightroom, SAI, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, AE, AI, and any other creative software. It is specially designed for photographers, designers, illustrators, animist, and any other digital creators to improve their workflow and get rid of too many keyboard shortcuts.
If you want to try it out I have a $10 discount that you can redeem with the code TB2020060205DAC
Squarespace
Any creative needs a portfolio to collect all his body of work and I think Squarespace is an excellent website builder for photographers and others who want to showcase their images.
EDITING SOFTWARES
Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop
Photoshop is just an incredible tool. If you’re interested in getting it I’d suggest using the free trial first to give it a go and see how you like it. Same for Lightroom, another must-have software to enhance and perfect your photos in post-production. Adobe motto “create anything you can imagine” really summarises what you can do with Photoshop. I highly suggest you the Creative Cloud Photography plan so that you can get both softwares for a good annual price.
Luminar 4
Luminar 4 ranks amongst the best photo editing software you can get right now. One of its unique features that I use the most is the AI Sky Replacement tool that will automatically detect the sky, create a mask, and then you can replace the sky from a list of saved sky photos. Furthermore, relighting is automatically applied: the color of the sky will be applied to the rest of the image. This feature saves photographers a considerable amount of time because it’s completed in a few seconds.
Luminar 4 is a software by Skylum. They also developed the HDR photography software Aurora HDR and AirMagic for one-click quick and easy aerial photography editing.
ONLINE EDUCATION
Skillshare
Creative types can turn to Skillshare to learn all sort of skills related to their life and work, from running an online business to video editing. I personally use it as a student to learn new skills and as a teacher to share what I’ve learnt about photography. Trough my link you can have the first 2 months for free and you can get access to all the lessons, mine included. Just look for ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHY / Learn How To Take Photos Of Any Building.
Udemy
Udemy is another educational platform that offers lessons about a great range of topics. The difference is that you buy only the single curses you’re interested in leraning from.
Moment Lessons
Moment teamed up with some creators to bring to life a series of lessons about photography and videography with plenty of extras added.
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
N26
N26 is a mobile bank based in Germany and their account is perfect for travellers. You get all the protections of a traditional bank, except with N26 everything is controlled from within an app on your phone. You can send and receive money, set up savings accounts, buy travel insurance, lock and unlock your card, you even get an IBAN number to use. The account is connected to a free debit Mastercard, which gives you no foreign exchange fees regardless of which country you use it in, and free ATM withdrawals across Europe. It is hands down the best bank account out there for travellers – and it’s free!
The sign up process is done all online – you can register for your free account here. A European address is required.
Amazon Kindle
Since I got it, it’s always with me. I can have 1,000 plus books on a Kindle that weighs about the same as a deck of cards. I can also read as much as I want (the battery lasts weeks!) no matter where I am.
World Nomads Travel Insurance
World Nomads is the best global travel insurance I know of. Booking is seamless and the prices are some of the most competitive in the industry. You can also book/extend while you’re on the road – something many companies do not allow, and one of the main reasons I use it so often. I highly recommend buying travel insurance any time you travel and World Nomads is my preferred choice.
BLOGGING TOOLS
Bluehost
Why choosing Bluehost? They offer a really easy way to set up and run your blog on WordPress. Bluehost has free domain name registration, is super affordable, and is the perfect place to start. You can start a blog for just $3.49/month when you sign up for 36 months and if you decide that it’s not right for you, they will refund any portion of it that you have not used. Pretty good eh! Plus they have a great customer service. I rely a lot on it and instead of spending hours googling for a solution to any issue I may have I simply use their 24/7 live-chat service and I always got my problems solved. So, Bluehost is really really recommended!
After you install WordPress into Bluehost you officially have your own blog. At this point you need to make it pretty. It’s time to pick your theme. WordPress has tons of free WordPress themes to choose from, however if you’re looking for a premium one, then check
Elegant Themes – This is the current framework I’m using. It’s also a bit cheaper than the other premium themes listed here.