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

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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Without Reservation: A Recommended Gear List

This is something I get asked about a lot, and its inclusion on the site is far overdue. The following is a list of gear in which I have complete confidence, and would recommend wholeheartedly to any photographer.

The Without Reservation list will be kept up to date going forward, so these are all subject to change at some point in the future. But as of now, this is the go-to gear that I rely upon day in and day out.

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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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The Updated, Essential Strobist Bookshelf

A great photo book (whether lighting or otherwise) is an amazing value. You get to rent someone else's brain for the price of a good dinner. And depending on who's brain you're renting and what you do with the info, the return on investment can be hundreds or even thousands of time what you invested.

Now more than ever, it is a wonderful time to be a lighting photographer. I have long maintained a book list on Strobist, but it has gotten out of date. Today I am correcting that with a tight list of books that I can absolutely recommend for photographers who want to learn.

The list includes just five books on lighting, a book on the interpersonal aspects of photography and a massive, magnum opus that is not even out yet. (But I've seen it!)

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How to Gel a Beauty Dish, v.2.0

One thing I have learned about light and lighting: there's always different—and often better—way to do something.

A few months ago we ran a piece on gelling various soft light modifiers, wherein I listed my go-to ways to color soft light. But someone in the comments offered a different way—a way better way—and I have been using it ever since. Here's what he suggested.

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