When I was first really starting my business and shooting weddings, I noticed another photographer had a second shutter button on the bottom of her camera and it made her camera look legit. You can bet I thought that was probably the coolest thing ever, but I wasn’t sure what it was called. Like we all do, I turned to google and ended up finding out about battery grips. At the time when I looked into the Nikon battery grip version for my camera, it was a bit out of my price range, but I found an off brand version (Meike) on Amazon that would work with my camera and it was $35!!! It was a steal. When it got there, I realized that there were a few extra benefits for the battery grip than just to make your camera look huge, although that is a big benefit in my opinion 🙂 First off, it is so easy to use! You just screw it onto the bottom of your camera. The battery grip still has a tripod mount in case you need to use your battery grip and a tripod. Second- you can have an extra battery in it to make it so you have to switch batteries less. It comes with two options for batteries that make it possible to use an additional camera battery or AA batteries depending on what works for you. I actually don’t use it with the extra battery- it’s a battery grip, I know, but I just used it for its shutter function. It also makes shooting portrait (vertical) images so much easier for me because of the additional shutter and dials to change the shutter and aperture. Instead of turning your arm to use the regular shutter button, it makes shooting portrait feel like I’m shooting landscape. Four years ago, when Logan and I were dating, we think he popped something in my shoulder out of place and then it popped back in. It has really ever been totally back to normal since then- don’t worry I still love him 🙂 Because of that I don’t like turning my arm to shoot vertical images for a whole session or wedding, so the battery grip made the need to shoot portrait much easier on my shoulder.

As I started using it, I noticed that my portrait images became straighter and less tilted, which means less time editing- SCORE! I also used to shoot mainly landscape (horizontal) for the fact that I seemed to always tilt the portrait images. This battery grip made me fall in love with shooting portrait in a way that I hadn’t before. I also had people comment on the size of my camera and that it looked legit. That made my confidence increase back then because people thought I looked legit with my big camera- silly I know 🙂 Each time I have gotten a new camera, I had also bought a battery grip because I love them so much- with Logan’s camera we do not use a battery grip because he doesn’t need the vertical shutter release. If you struggle with tilting your portrait images on accident or want it to be a little easier on your shoulder check into a battery grip for your camera! Plus, it makes your camera look like a beast and we all want our cameras to look like that, right?! 🙂 Let me add a little disclaimer, it is an adjustment and you have to get used to using that instead of continuing to use your regular shutter, but I love it and for me it is really comfortable and easy.

To find a battery grip that works with your camera, type in google battery grip for (insert camera body name here)! That way you can see off-brand versions pop up in Amazon and the Nikon or Canon version as well!