Nikki Incandela Photography: How To Choose Photo Equipment

As my Photo Tip for this newsletter, I've set up an Amazon storefront in order to help you narrow down the choices of photo equipment, storage, learning materials, software and other fun stuff! I've also added notes to many of the products to assist you. Please feel free to give me your feedback on the storefront I created to let me know if it's easy to follow, or if you have any suggestions that will make shopping there more clear.

The Categories that are set up for you to shop are:
1- Photography Equipment
2- Photo Storage
3- Software
4- Apple Computer Products
5- Books
6- Fun Stuff for Kids!

Here are a few quick tips for you when purchasing some equipment:

1- Megapixels: This is always a question for everyone when purchasing a camera! Here's the deal - megapixels only matter based on how large you will be enlarging your photos, that's it! So if you just want a basic camera that'll take good photos, you only need 5 or 7 megapixels. It's obviously fine if it's more than that too.

2-Speed: It's important when purchasing a point and shoot to ask the sales person about the speed of the camera (especially when photographing children!) Most cameras have a delay, but there are cameras out there that are faster so you don't miss capturing the moment. I invested a lot of money into my equipment for the purpose of photographing kids and I needed a lot of speed. If you are into photographing landscape, you don't need a fast camera and the same equipment I have. It all depends on what you plan on photographing.

3-Battery Life: When purchasing a new camera ALWAYS buy an extra battery that way you'll always have a fully charged battery waiting for when your battery decides to die in the middle of an event or important moment. Forget to charge your battery before heading out?? Yup! Well, no more worries now that you'll have an extra one ready to go!

4-Memory: Always invest in a memory card for your camera that is at least 1GB so that you have enough room for all of your images.

5-Purchasing a nice lens: If you're buying an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera body and purchasing a nice lens to attach, always do the following:

Purchase a UV Protection Filter. It will not only protect your lens but will make your images look better by cutting down the Ultra Violet light that gets into your lens! UV light can cause a low-contrast haze that diminishes details in your images and the saturation in the color of a scene.
Use the lens hood that comes with your lens to keep out unwanted extra light that will be registered by your camera and adjust your camera settings inaccurately when shooting on auto mode especially.