I can not recommend local camera stores enough. Sure the local stores may not have the absolute lowest price, but there is great value in these stores. Most stores put on events in the community to teach and give you opportunities to use your cameras or borrow equipment. I have helped put on workshops and seminars at a variety of stores around the southwest. These include B&C Camera here in Las Vegas, Pictureline and Pixels in Salt Lake, Tempe Camera in Tempe, Greg's Camera in Tucson, and Nelson Photo, OPT, Tuttle Camera, and Pro Photo Connection in Southern California.

Liberty Safes are awesome. They are built here in the United States. It's important for people with expensive items like photographers to have a safe as I learned in January of 2015 when my home was broken into and all my camera stuff was stolen. I bought the Franklin in the white color like you see in the picture. I personally think this safe is one of the most beautiful pieces of furniture in my entire house. I bought mine locally from Nevada Safes.

Having a good and easy backup is critical thing to have. There are only two types of hard drives. Those that have failed and those that will fail. I have had a hard drive die and Backblaze sent me my data on a hard drive so I didn't lose anything. This service costs $5 a month. If you use the link here you get a month for free.

These cards are genius. It is the base for my project this year. These cards will help you get past that mental block of having nothing to shoot. Besides the basic cards there is also a deck just dealing with Macro photography. Each deck of these cards are done as a Kickstarter project. After the Macro cards are out he plans on starting a Kickstarter on Phone Photography Cards.

This is the printer I use to print all my photos. It is a great printer. Besides just printing prints up to 13" wide it also prints of disks. This is something that you should buy at local camera store. Sometimes they offer discounts on the printers if you buy a new camera body.

Red River paper is my favorite photo paper company. They are the only type of paper I use. I recommend the first time you order from them is a Sample Pack. They have so many different surfaces that it is the easiest way to pick what you like. They also sell specialty papers like a double sided glossy paper that I use to make calendars and scored paper to make cards with. It is very satisfying to see you work on a piece of paper instead of on a screen.

This is the best book I have read about posing people. It has examples of how to do it right and how not to do it. At the end of each chapter there is some discussion questions and pictures if you have a group of photographers reading the book.

This is the ultimate book for any creative who wants to understand the copyright laws and registration process in the USA. Every photographer should have a copy.

In this book Joe McNally takes you through a bunch of photos and takes you though the lighting and story of each one of them. Joe is one of my favorite photographers. He is highly entertaining and relays information clearly.

Learning to retouch portraits can be tricky. This book is clear and easy to understand. Scott writes in a witty way that is easy to understand.

Peter is a head shot photographer from New York. This book describes how to take great head shots and how to interact with people who generally aren't in front of the camera.

In this book you will learn how to use Lightroom CC. Scott is pretty witty which makes the book easy to read.