This video by FotoTV features “microstock king” Yuri Arcurs leading a workshop and imparting all sorts of useful tips that you’ll find useful even if you have no interest in doing microstock — things like working with models and capturing emotion. Get out your pen and paper and start taking notes!

(via f stoppers)

If you’re looking to buy used camera gear on sites like eBay or Craigslist, a trick you can use to find a good deals is to search for listings that contain spelling mistakes that keep most people from finding them (e.g. “Canom” instead of “Canon”, or “Mikon” instead of “Nikon”). With less exposure — and therefore less competition — you may be able to win the auctions at far below the item’s value.

Obviously searching for various typos by hand isn’t very efficient, so there’s special typo search engines designed to do the hard work for you. A few that you might want to try out are: FatFingers, TypoHound, TypoBay, and TypoBuddy.

(via Phototuts)

Image credit: keyboard shenanigans by cc511

Having a camera with you may get you better customer service at places like restaurants, retail stores, and hotels. Consumer advocate Christopher Elliott writes,

The last thing employees want to see when they’re delivering a substandard product or service is a shutterbug. If they think you might take a snapshot, or a video, of their incompetent actions, they’re far likelier to do the right thing. The presence of a camera alone is often enough. Try it sometime.

If you already carry a camera with you everywhere you go, then you’re already set! If you don’t, you might want to think about bringing one along whenever you’re in need of customer service.

Try These 5 Secret Weapons For Better Customer Service (via Lifehacker)

Image credit: Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-D Lens by Harshit Sekhon

Reddit user acts541 tried creating a time-lapse video of a flower opening and learned a valuable lesson in the process.

Think your camera gear is safe in your zippered bag just because you have have sliders locked up? Think again. This video shows how easy it is to break into a zippered bag without leaving a trace.

Yet another reason you should try and keep your gear in sight at all times.

Thinking of buying a love one a digital photo frame this Christmas? You might want to reconsider. A recent survey of 2,000 people by the British Video Association found that digital photo frames were the most unwelcome gifts, followed by foot spas, blenders and digital organizers.

More than a third of those surveyed said they simply didn’t have time to use the gadgets they had received, while 23 per cent didn’t see the point of some of them. The survey found that 18 per cent of those who rarely used their gadget gift simply didn’t like them, 10 per cent couldn’t be bothered to clean them, while seven per cent had not read the instructions or didn’t know how to use the device. [#]

Have you ever received a digital photo frame that you never ended up using? (I have)

(via Steve’s Digicams)

Image credit: digital photo frame – hanging by m a r c

Here’s a quick tip by Vimeo user Braxton McCarthy: use rubber bands when panning and tilting on a tripod to make the movement smoother.

(via Photoxels)

Here’s a quick photo related life hack: if you have a lens filter that just won’t come off, try using a rubber jar opener to do the task. If you don’t have one already in your kitchen, there might be cheap ones at your local dollar store!

(via Pixiq)

Here’s a useful idea related to the memory card recovery tutorial we shared yesterday: if you’re ever confronted by someone who forces you to delete your photos (and our magical photographers’ rights gray card doesn’t work), go ahead and delete them! What most people don’t know is that deleted photos can easily be recovered afterward. Even photos on a memory card that’s formatted and completely wiped can usually be restored.
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Here’s an eye-opening look at the world of food styling and photography, where Elmer’s glue is used for cereal milk, hamburgers are filled with sponges, brownies are sprayed with WD-40, and salad is padded with mashed potatoes. Food stylist Kim Krejca and photographer Rick Gayle discuss some of the tricks and techniques used to make food look as appetizing as possible while keeping it realistic. It’s an episode from Adorama’s How’d They Do That? series of videos.

(via f stoppers)