-14 days: Equipment

As you prepare for your 365, you may be wondering what sort of equipment you will need. Here are what I consider the basics and helpful extras to have:

A camera. You can get creative with any sort of camera, whether it be on a phone, a point and shoot, or a fancy DSLR. Your skill level, finances, and commitment to photography will probably determine what sort of camera you enter the project with. I'm not here to tell you what camera to use, just to say that your camera is only a piece of equipment, you are the brain and you have the creativity!

Self-timer. Now that I have said what kind of camera you have doesn't matter, I am going to recommend you have one with a self-timer :P A self-timer gives you the option of not having to hold your camera at arm's length for every photo.

Remote. If your camera has the option to be remotely trigger, I highly recommend it! You can get into weird poses and not have to run back and forth to the camera to trigger the timer if you can just point a little remote. Having a remote totally changed my style of photography!

Tripod. You can stack books or DVD cases to get your camera at different heights, but a tripod is not only more portable than a stack of books, it can get much more diverse angles and is more stable.

Editing software. For my kind of work, this is essential. For others, this might not even be necessary.  There are lots of free editing programs if you don't have the money to spare on software. If you aren't sure you will like a paid program, look into a free trial to see if it fits well with you. Also, there are cheaper versions of some programs that strip away the super fancy features of the full program that might be a more pocket-book friendly alternative (Adobe Photoshop, for instance offers the "Elements" version of Photoshop for much cheaper than regular Photoshop).

And now for the extras!

Fun lenses. Having a fun lens or lens extension can add some spice to your photos if you are getting stuck in a rut, just make sure not to over use it!

 

Kaleidoscope-esque extension.

 Fish-eye extension

A stand in. I didn't really have a stand in my first two 365s (sometimes I would take pictures with other people and they would stand in for me, but this was rare), but it would have been very helpful to have when I was setting up my shots all alone. This time around my husband helped me make a portable stand that I can take places and I don't have to waste time doing the "trial and error" method of composing my images.

Props and costumes. Props can give you purpose in a photo. An image of a person sitting at a table doing nothing versus an image of a person sitting at a table with a cup have two different messages. The cup may be a special hand crafted item or it may be the fluid inside the cup that is important (like if the cup has tea versus egg nog). A prop can make an image say more than just "hi, this is another portrait of me," it tells a story, like "this is a portrait of me drinking egg nog from the cup my grandma made me for Christmas when I was 7"

What other things do you think you will need for your 365?