Photography Equipment & Product Recommendations
Scroll down for links to some great products that we have written about in the articles. These recommendations are by Jodie Otte, Newborn Photographer of J. Otte Photography.
Inside the Camera Bag
Are you overwhelmed? I’m here to help! …. follow this page for ongoing recommendations. These recommendations can be for any form of photography; however, I’m placing an emphasis on Newborn Photography for the sake of this site. I am currently still shooting with the Nikon D3 and D3s. I haven’t felt a need to upgrade at this time. I believe the lenses are most important now that technology has plateaued a bit.
I always recommend the 50 mm/1.4 lens to new photographers. This should be for your first lens to have the ability to use in low light situations but also to really get to know the relationships between shutter, aperture, and ISO….and let’s not forget that beautiful bokeh you can achieve with this wide aperture!
60 mm 2.8 Macro Lens for Newborn Photography
Are you a lazy photographer like me and hate to switch between lenses for regular images and macro images of newborn babies? Get the 60 mm/2.8. This has always been my go to lens for newborn work. I do not recommend the 30 mm due to distortion on babies.
70-200 mm 2.8 for Outdoor Use
This lens is completely unnecessary for newborn photography unless you are working outdoors. You cannot beat the beautiful images that you can get when you have a lot of room. If you also work with children outdoors, this is a must have. I cannot stress this enough! If you look at my Child & Family Photography site, nearly all of my outdoor images were shot with this lens.
Inside the Office
Business product links – some are our own designs and products, some are not.
Web Hosting
If you are the do-it-yourself type, this is for you!
I’ve been through a lot of different web hosting services, and I have to tell you, so far, I’m really loving IWF Hosting. It’s simple, no fuss, and they include free SLL certificate. You will need to update your website if you do not have “https” prior to your address or you may get penalized in google. We highly recommend WordPress as your platform if you are designing your own websites.
I cannot recommend Pixieset enough for gallery hosting and ordering.
You can either self fulfill orders or use lab fulfillment. They work with quite a few different labs and use stripe for payments. You are able to make packages within the pricing that you customize as well as offer digital downloads as well. It has an automatic watermark features if you are using only for proofing.
Web Design, Management, and SEO services
I partnered up recently to specialize in some options for small businesses regarding web design, management, or SEO services. We are currently updating our website, but Tolt Web Design are offering design services as well as full managed hosting. We also provide services for search enging optimization including full web audits of your site. Stay tuned for more information as we are finishing our template designs especially for photographers!
Photography & Business Product Downloads
These products are from our store and were designed to help with pricing and bookkeeping. We priced our products extremely low in order to try to help the photography industry by educating photographers on business management without price gouging them in the process. The more we all share business information, the better the industry will get.
Email Us
email@jodieotte.com