Before continuing down listing of the selected items for the gift guide, figured I’d share a list of links to some of the better companies with great Black Friday deals, to give you a head start before things run out!
Many of the items have been called out in the first 3 Holiday Gift Guides!

So tomorrow as you spend 1/2 day at work, or flying to see folks, get a bunch of your gift purchases sorted

Twelve South
Lume Cube
Peak Design
SmallRig
Manfrotto 
Aperture- a great place for photobooks!
BH Photo
OWC
Adobe
Spider Holster
Atomos

More detailed list calling out some cool items coming tomorrow!

Every photographer I know has multiple bags, for multiple situations.
Or is it truly a Goldilocks and the 3 bears situation? What looks great, may not be best in practice .
And how do you buy one for someone as a gift?

Just got notice that Peak Design is having a 30% off sale!!

After trying out a TON of these for walk-around, the best bag out there is, hands down, the Peak Design Everyday Sling

Another great bag in their line-up that has added space, like for a laptop, with plenty of room for gear, is the Peak Design Everyday Messenger .
That is a great way to have your portable office with you to post as you shoot. Plus it seems to have more of an office look to it, than a gear bag.
About $220 BIG 11 hour limited time sale at BH! ends tonight!!
Like I said, different bags for different uses.
And easy call for anyone on your gift list is this Tech Pouch
This has all the right places to put your goods, and is always part of my travel pack. Put your wires, connectors, chargers, SSD drive, all the tech you need, into one organized pouch.  $60

Onto how you hold your camera. On your shoulder, in your hand, in a bag?
Peak Design strap and updated connectors.(they are on V4, all good, just get better)

Basically you easily attach the low profile anchor mounts to the camera, and securely clip in the strap. Another design feature is this easily adjustable clamp on the strap. Best I’ve seen, and it always locks securely to the chosen strap size.

And as i believe that I should have my camera in my hand at all times on the street, I depend on a wrist strap. Once again, many have been tried, and the best out there, and the only one I depend on, is
SpiderLight Hand Strap,  they have a Back Friday sale right now

Tripods
So many choices and how to decide. I have way too many, but like the bag choices, the right tool fro the right job, applies here as well.
Here are some great choices:
Peak Design Travel Tripod/carbon brilliant compact design, utilized every bit of space. I would still go for the carbon fiber model as you want to lighten your carry load a much as possible.

Sirui Monopod, with a fluid head is a great choice https://store.sirui.com/products/sirui-p-204sr-multifunction-einbeinstativ-alu-mit-va-5-videoneiger-psr-serie Also converts to a table top tripod.

$136, and add a fluid head if you are a run-and-gun videographer

Manfrotto also has a Black Friday sale starting now!

Manfrotto/BeFree has all you need in a short package Befree-Advanced. Perfect for the backpack

• High-performance photo/video kit in an ultracompact size
• Sony’s Alpha dedicated plate maximizes camera stability
• 3-Way Fluid Tripod Head, fully foldable handles, 13lbs payload
• Compatible with Arca-swiss and Manfrotto 501PL video plate
• Optimal combination of portability, solid footing, and easy set-up

Manfrotto quick release head, in their newly launched MOVE series of products. All designed for speed of operation. You can either connect the 2 parts and get 360º rotation, or pick a spot and lock it in. Fast movement between tripod, monopod, or gimbal.
You have seen the quick release flat connectors. This is a new take, and has a huge payload capacity at about 45LBs,

Platypod – a needed bit of kit for a fast, easy way to set your cameras, or speedlight.Basically, a solid plate with the right holes and tripod type mounting screws, with well designed slots to allow you to put your camera or speedlight where you need it.

Platypod is available in all kinda packages, depending on your needs.

More gifting ideas on the way!!

Black Friday Deals are in force, and I’ll try to do a separate post for all.

OK, I don’t usually share just one item on the gift guide series, but due to the time frame, here we go:
The Fuji Instax Wide printer, is one of the most fun and useful tools I have seen this season. What I love about this product is the personalized creativity you can add to it. Check out the short tutorial below.

It’s an instant printer that connects easily to your phone, via Bluetooth and a free app,  a great size to hand out, 2.4 x 3.9″ , Fuji has increased the peace with the addition of this very cool item to the Instax line-up!

As you gather with family and friends as we emerge from our pandemic cocoons this year, you may want to hand out an image IRL.

But wait there’s more!

Not only can you print out your faves from your phone, you can add a QR code that can link to a website,  an audio file, locations, custom sketches that you create!

While first working through this printer, I made a print with a QR code to my website.
As a test.
That evening, I ran into an old friend who asked what I was up to. I shared some of my recent and vintage work on my phone, and they let me know what a fan of Springsteen they were. I shoot a lot of rock and roll, so shared some of those mages.
I printed them a vintage image, below, with a QR code link to my website.

Go ahead! try it! Scan the code!

SOLD!!
Next up is recording a holiday message to my daughter on a pic of us from wayback.

So multi use, too much fun, too much usefulness, unique, custom handout.
Pick one up and make sure you get a bunch of film! You’ll be using it!

It comes with a stand, wrist strap, and the built in rechargeable battery last for about 100 prints.

About $150 USD! 

Are you back on the road, or still rocking the home office?
Or maybe slowly getting back to the office?

We have some products to call out for the gift guide this year no matter where you are working from!

For the content creators we have add-ons for your laptops when out in the field:

For the first time, we have a card reader dongle that has a slot for CFast cards,CF cards (for you old school folks SD cards, micro-SD cards, and MS cards!
The EZQuest reader is a USB C, so compatible with all your newest gear. One slot for each card format, and it lays flat, depending on your computer.
The big news is, of course, the versatility for the reader.
$60

If you don’t need all of the card reader capabilities, you def need a few extra ports!

This little beauty from OWC,The Travel Dock give you an extra USB-C (or use for pass through power, 2 USB-A, and an HDMI port to hook up an extra monitor. It’s the old packs small, plays big. Perfect travel companion.

$55.
And of course you can also hook it up to your current iPad.

Add on an OWC Envoy Pro SSD external drive,
and you’ll get blazing fast speed, Up to 980 MB/s Data Transfer Speed for your mobile editing. And you can use it to record directly from USB type C cameras to this, as an external drive. WiIP67 waterproof rating means it can survive for up to 30 minutes in 3.3′ of water. Loved the included software for back-up.
The include connection cable has USB-C and USB A ends.
Best news is that it doesn’t get overheated!

Prices are coming down , and keep an eye out for Black Friday deals. The 1TB is currently about $230

For the home or rad, this folding laptop stand is the best!
MOFT-Z 

I bring this into every company I go to and it sits in my apt loaded with a laptop otherwise.
Folds flat so easy to transport. about $50

If you are an iPad person, or just prefer that screen for you workflow or entertainment flow,
The good designers’ at Twelve South, have come out with a smart, well made, iPad holder, that can be used on a table top OR clamped onto a ledge, to hang down to you preferred level.
The Hover Bar Duo Comes in at about $80
It even has a digital pen well, when used in the desktop mode.
Heavy base, so you know it won’t tip over with the weight of a full-size iPad.
It’s a simple , and super useful product with a good price.

This is the company that came out with the best thing in flying,
As most of us are using Bluetooth headsets, airlines have not yet caught up to this trend. The AirFly is not just what you want, but what you want to give as a gift!
Forget recording the events on the plane and just sit back , relax and wear your personal head set watching a free movie

It’s the AirFly!

Between $40 and $60 dollars.
A great tool for anyone using BT: Plane, Gym, Car, even your new vinyl turntable.

I don’t travel without it.

Speaking of your Bluetooth earbuds, The best case I have found comes from Catalyst.

Solid construction, well designed, and you can wirelessly charge the airpods, or use a cord to charge, 330ft Waterproof Total Protection Case for AirPods Pro, Secure Locking System, Full-Body Protective Rugged case for AirPods Pro, Shockproof

It comes with a carabiner  but I just put in my bag.
I have tried many of these, and this one has the best features I’ve found.
A gift, stocking stuffer, or for yourself, a def buy at $50

For the home office, make sure you have an upgraded camera like the Logitech Brio.

Built in laptop or tablet cams are terrible and this unit , hard to get during the pandemic is a solid 4k camera with adjustment tools for lens angles. Show as much or as little of your environment.

Of course you’ll have a Lume Cube Led light,  suction cupped to your laptop for added illumination.

Big sale happening right now!

Keep coming back for the rest of the lists!

It served me well.
For over 10 years my Mac Pro tower was my daily companion.
Photo editing, video editing, and those oh so long hours looking at social posts I didn’t need in my life.
With 2 screens and the ability to plug in a myriad of external drives, it was an upgradable powerhouse.
And I say was because, well, it was time to be replaced. Didn’t want to but had to.
Programs were no longer able to upgrade from the old Tech.
And the number of crashes were killing me.
What to get?
Apple had just come out with the cheese grater tower, with a $6k starting price. Nope.
So, I was on the hunt for a previous model.
EBAY? CraigsList?

Sure, some of the specced out packages looked good, but who were the sellers? Lots of positive feedback, read well, but this would be a substantial purchase.
I was concerned.
So I went to OWC site, also known as MacSales and started to wander around.
This company is reputable, I trust them, and have done business with before, but never on this large of a purchase.
I made a few calls to sales and the tech dept, gingerly describing what I needed for speed, RAM, etc.. They answered all patiently, made suggestions, but never a hard sell.

I have to say, I was not disappointed with the conversations.

Relieved, actually. This was a lot of dough, and I was looking for some competent advice.
I also wanted to be assured that what I would get, was warrantied, tech supported, AND returnable. Just in case.

After much deliberation, I went with a Mac Pro trash can. You know, the one that is a cylinder, and looks sleek? The one I bought was new/old stock, IE brand new, never opened, except to spec it out for my needs.

Once I got it, the good techs at OWC gave me step by step migration instructions so could get all material transferred over to my new computer, from the old. Easy Peasy!

Then I came into some other issues: Cables to connect things, as this unit is a Thunderbolt 2, and USB computer.
I had way more things to plug in, than outlets on the new unit.
Once again, I consulted with OWC and got a Thunderbolt 3 dock.

I know, I know, 3, not 2?
Well, some of my newer devices were UBC 3 and USB C.
It did require getting some adapters to go from the unit to the computer.

Now, the Mac Pro, while sleek looking, has a spiderweb of cable coming from it, and I wanted a bit more of a cleaner look.
I called them for any possible solutions, and they had a simple one: get a longer cable between the dock and the computer, and hide the dock! Genius!!

With all of my calls, they wanted to make sure totally happy was good with my purchase, and they had a new idea:
A dongle that I could connect both of my monitors to, and only take up ONE outlet!! Yes, 4K compatible.

Had to have. I know more pluggable things are coming, so I’ll take any extra outlets I can!
One thing to note is that you need to add a keyboard and mouse. I just used the one from my older Mac Pro, and life is good. Did treat myself to wireless keyboard when i wanted to use my TV as the monitor.

One of the last things I purchased was a warranty, that included the cost of shipping.
Being an Apple products owner for years, I know this is a good investment, and like I said, I trust OWC.

What’s the upshot of all of this?
If you are going to replace a computer, or buy another, put your trust in OWC to make your purchase.
With great customer service, tech support, warranty avail, and all of the extras you may need to customize your rig, you can’t go wrong.
They help you get what you need. Try that with EBAY.

And yes, I bought the computer with my own money.
This is not a sponsored post.
Hopefully just a helpful one. OWC made it easy

NG: shortly after the new Mac Pro came out last year, they introduced the M1 chip. Felt like I dodged a bullet. And save a ton of dough!