Another year, another Black Friday is almost upon us. I’d like to add to the list I started last year giving you some more ideas for gift giving if you own or know somebody who does own, a digital SLR camera.

More Great Photography Books

Bryan Peterson is back this year with a follow up book to his very popular Understanding Exposure, called Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second. It picks up where Understanding Exposure left off about how to best use shutter speeds in photography. The tandom together will quickly get you “up to speed” in learning photography.

Scott Kelby released Volume 2 of his Digital Photography Book series earlier this year. I call it a series now as he has announced there will be a Volume 3 coming out sometime in 2009. The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2, delves more into the use of flash in digital photography de-mystifying a subject many try to avoid. Volume 2 revisits Travel, Wedding, Landscapes and Portrait photography in Kelby’s unique, one page = one topic format. If you need to know something fast, The Digital Photography Books are excellent learning references.

I reviewed one of this year’s best selling photography books last Spring, Joe McNally’s The Moment It Clicks has been on Amazon’s top seller list the moment it was listed. If you are interested in how this working pro did his magic over the last 20 some odd years, you’ll find this book a real treat.

More Great Photography Stuff

Last year I glanced over external hard drives. The newest dSLR cameras being brought out today produce larger image files than ever before. The best way I have found to handle this was to purchase extra storage space. Since I use a laptop, I opted for an external hard drive by Western Digital called a MyBook. They come in various sizes at excellent prices. Last year I bought a 500GB (Gigabyte) version which worked perfectly with my Apple laptop. This year I’d recommend the 1TB (1 Terabyte= 1,000 Gigabytes) MyBook for less than $200.

You know I’ve raved about my Nikon 18-200VR lens here in the past. This year, Canon released their version called the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Standard Zoom Lens. If you are looking to lighten your camera bag when you travel, these two lenses will fit the bill for Nikon and Canon dSLR owners.

A great lens to have in your bag is what’s called a “Nifty-Fifty”. A Nifty-Fifty is a 50mm fast prime lens with apertures opening up to f/1.8 and cost around $100 or less. Here are links for Nikon and Canon versions. These are great lenses to use in low light and night photography as well as in dark rides where flash photography is not allowed. Being a prime lens, they tend to be much sharper than zoom lenses.

Speaking of bags and other photographic accessories, Barrie, Lisa and I have listed some of our favorites in the All Ear’s Amazon store.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving but get some rest to hit up the stores and malls early on Black Friday!