My Top 5 Food Photography Purchases of 2018

As much as I like to say that photography is not about the gear, having the right tools certainly makes the job easier and faster. So here are my top 5 food photography purchases of 2018.

DJI Osmo Mobile. I use the Osmo Mobile every day. I do all of my instagram stories, and IGTV post with the DJI Osmo Mobile. It is a fantastic gimbal for phones. The price point is right as well. Also this gimbal has amazing battery life.

Wall Plates. These things are cheap and invaluable on set. I use them as surfaces, and also to mount reflectors to. I honestly don’t know how I used A clamps to hold reflectors up before this. Below is a detail shot of a wall plate and another image of me showing how to tape a wall plate to a reflector doing a workshop.

20in C Stand. While I only have one 20in C-Stand it is one of the most valuable players in my kit. You don’t always need a full size 40in C-Stand. These little guys are the right weight and size for so many jobs. I often will use them to hold on to a wall plate that I will use as a surface. I purchased mine used from a retired photographer it only ran me like $20. You can see one on set holding up a bottle of Rock Town Bourbon below. This bottle of bourbon is actually sitting on a wall plate.

The Zoom F1-LP. This is an affordable wired lavaliere microphone and recorder. I purchased this for a video tutorial series on Adobe Lightroom that I did for The Luxe Academy. I used this microphone in all videos that I produced for them, and I have also used it in a ton of quick IG stories that I have created and on some talking heads interviews. This mic really helped to open the world for video up to me.

Flag Frames. When I worked at Saks 5th Avenue I discovered the beauty of Flag Frames. These little guys are fantastic. They mount to the knuckle of a c-stand and allow you to move around your diffusion panel with ease. I tend to put Savage Translum on them because it is a great diffusion material. Like wall plates these will change the way you work. It makes moving and adjusting flags super easy. You can see a flag fame with Translum diffusion on set here it is on the left side of the image. We were working on a video shoot here and it was the perfect tool to diffuse the led panel.

Conclusion

To sum it up real quick none of these items will make you a better photographer. They are nice things to have to speed up your workflow and to open up some doors. The links in the descriptions are just there for information. I don’t get a kick back of any sort from linking to these products and I am not affiliated with any of the brands.

Nick Bumgardner is a food and beverage photographer based out of Nashville, TN.