11 Photography Items You Should Never Pay Full Price For

Here are a couple of more items Jim suggests in his article.

I really like his ideas on travel and he goes as far as setting up trips with some of his readers so they can all visit far off destinations and shoot together.

Also when it comes to batteries I never buy name brand.

TRAVEL FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Amount I saved: About $2,000 per trip

This is–by far–my favorite hack on this page. Last year, on one of our completely free photography workshops, we traveled to Iceland to photography the amazing landscapes. The cost of the trip from the United States? $699 which included flights, lodging, and some meals!!! It sounded too good to be true at first, but I’ve gone on several of these trips now and I can assure you that it is not a scam.

How do we get such amazing deals? We travel using Living Social escapes. Here’s how it works. Living Social is just like Groupon (which also has travel deals, though not quite as good). You look for deals that are only available for a few days. I regularly see trips to Iceland, Ireland, Costa Rica, and other popular photography destinations for under $1,000 including flights and lodging and sometimes a rental car.

There are a couple limitations: trips leave from popular airports, but you have to buy airfare to get to the start point if you aren’t near one. Also, rates are based on double occupancy so you’ll pay a bit more if you’re traveling alone. Even considering these limitations, I saved thousands of dollars off what I could find on Expedia and other sites for some of the trips I’ve been on.

DSLR BATTERIES

Amount I saved per battery: $33.26

I like to have a lot of batteries for my camera. I’m always on the go and sometimes forget one on the charger, or run out of battery on a shoot. The problem is that camera batteries from Nikon, and Sony often cost about $45. Canon batteries are often even more.

If you shop on Amazon, I find batteries from third-party companies that often cost a lot less. My preference for third-party batteries is Wasabi, which I’ve bought from quite a few times, but there are other good ones as well. These batteries are not only less expensive, they often give better battery life than the name brand battery.

Keep in mind when doing this that camera manufacturers may not honor the warranty if a third party battery is used, and it is the battery that causes the problem with the camera. This is possible, but I’ve purchased dozens without issues, and if you read the reviews on Amazon, there are some third-party batteries that get better reviews than the name brand battery.

Read about the rest of these items on the original article over at Improve Photography

Source: Improve Photography