Best of Strobist: 2013 Edition

The end of the year is a great time to take a moment to reflect on what you have learned and/or accomplished in the last 365 days. Traditionally on Strobist, we take the last few days to look back, to buy a little family time and plan for the next year's adventure.

2014 holds some big changes for me. And because of the format and project changes coming up, this may well be the very last "Best of" post I'll ever write. So let's get on with it…

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Dan Winters: Road to Seeing

UPDATE, March, 2016: The price on Road to Seeing is steadily creeping up, which points to a diminishing inventory. When it's gone, it's gone. And then it's gonna get hella expensive.



I am at a loss for a quick way to describe Dan Winters' just-shipped book, Road to Seeing. That's because it defies nearly any category of photo book I have seen to date.

It's nearly 700 pages long, and is far and away the deepest journey into the photographic process I have ever read. It includes technique, but in the context of the journey covered in this book technique is almost an afterthought. And appropriately so.

Best way I can put it: Road to Seeing is not so much a book as it is a mentorship.

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A Guide to Choosing Photo and Lighting Gear

NOTE: If you are just starting out and looking for "Strobist Gear," you should head over to the detailed information on building your first lighting kit in Lighting 101.
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The Gear Guide, indexed below, is meant to be a roadmap for photographers who want to plan their overall photo gear needs — and especially as it pertains to lighting. It is designed to help you avoid costly mistakes.

That said, the gear you choose is a very personal decision and no one can make that call for you. But what I can do is to show you what choices I have made for myself, and why.

Your choices may well be different. Perhaps way different. And that's cool. For myself, the choices listed below were hard-won by the experience of 35 years as a photographer, with 20+ years as a staff newspaper shooter.

Translation: Grad degree from the School of Hard Knocks. My choices may or may not be exactly yours, you'll likely not go hugely wrong having been guided by them:


1. Cameras
2. Lenses
3. Speedlights/Triggers
4. Big Lights
5. An "In-Between" Light
6. Light Stands
7. Soft Modifiers
8. Hard and Specialty Modifiers
9. Tripods
10. Cases and Carts
11. Put an AirTag in Your Camera Bag
12. Books and More

Why I Moved Comments to Twitter

The traditional blog commenting format may be convenient, but it is in many ways a broken system.

The last couple of posts have been an experiment of sorts, deigned to help me regain some of my sanity. I have turned off comments and instead created a Twitter hashtag around which to group post-related discussion.

And if the early results are any indication, things are already getting better. Here is why I am not going back.

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Fuji Follow-Up

It's been two years since I fell down the Fuji rabbit hole. It's been a wonderful (and public) experience, and I probably get asked more questions about Fuji than anything else.

So today we're taking a small side trip from lighting and heading into mirrorless. Apologies to the uninterested. I'l be back soon. But for those considering a foray into Fuji, I hope you'll find this helpful.

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