McBain Blog

Capture the Earth Without Costing It. Small Photography Shifts, Big Impact.

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:13:10 -0500

Photographers share a unique bond with nature. We see a lot of beauty, and as we honour Earth Day, we’re reminded that our cameras do more than capture landscapes – they help us advocate for them. Earth Day isn’t necessarily about perfection– but it is about awareness. It’s an invitation to move beyond the lens and consider how we give back to the environment that provides us with as much inspiration.

Below, we highlight 5 ways you can start making an impact in your craft:

1. Support Sustainable Gear

Every purchase sends a message when you choose which camera bag, accessory, or piece of equipment you welcome into your family. Buying accessories or camera bags made with recycled materials encourages companies to produce responsibly while also lowering the carbon footprint of your creative work.

There are a few names in the game that center their products around sustainable materials and practices. When shopping for camera accessories or bags, here are some environmentally conscious brands you’ll want to keep in mind:

LoweproLowpro explicitly states its environmental responsibility policy as part of its brand values. They launched a Green Line of camera bags, where products feature a green line logo to indicate their sustainability level, showing how much recycled or responsibly sourced material is in each product. They measure sustainability using standards like GRI 301-2, which tracks the percentage of recycled yarn in fabrics. They have also transitioned to PFC-free water-resistant coatings, reducing harmful chemicals in production. Some Lowepro bags are made with as much as 75% recycled materials including the packaging. They also use solution-dyeing processes that reduce water use by up to 80% compared with traditional dyeing.
Peak Design
Peak Design’s sustainability efforts are supported by several independent certifications and memberships, including the Certified B Corporation (meeting high standards of social and environmental performance). They have measurable targets to improve the sustainability of their products, with a projected 90% of their primary fabrics to come from recycled materials by 2027. Peak Design has taken rare steps to measure its entire carbon footprint and offset it since the company began. They actively fund and advocate for environmental and conservation causes through nonprofits such as The Conservation Alliance.
Urth
Urth gear is designed with sustainability in mind. Their backpacks are made with approximately 70% recycled materials (especially recycled nylon), which helps divert textiles from landfill without compromising durability. Tree planting is a core part of Urth’s sustainability strategy, where they plant one tree for every product sold – contributing to ecosystem restoration. Their strategy is to offset the carbon impact of production to create a net-positive effect on the environment. They also continuously search for low-impact materials, refining their designs to minimize material during production. Urth’s packaging avoids single-use plastics, using recycled materials instead. It’s a mission with purpose.

2. Recharge, Recycle Batteries

Between Cameras, flashes, and accessories, photographers go through a lot of
batteries – especially on long shoots. One of the easiest ways to make a small environmental impact is by taking care of your batteries. Here are a few tips to maximize your battery health:

Charge Before They Are Empty
Lithium-ion batteries last longer when they’re topped up before hitting 0%. Try recharging when your battery charge cycle is hovering around 20-30%
Avoid Overcharging
Leaving batteries plugged in overnight is occasionally okay, but consistently doing so can shorten their lifespan.
Rotate Multiple Batteries
Cycling through your batteries helps them wear evenly – and ensures you’re never caught without power.

And finally, when your battery reaches the end of its cycle, it’s important to be mindful of how you dispose of it. Many local recycling depots and electronics stores accept used batteries, keeping harmful materials out of landfills.

3. Print with Purpose

While photo printing isn’t free from enviromental impact, when done with intention and care, you can easily reduce clutter and waste. Here a few tips you can follow to keep your environmental footprint in check when printing:

Curate your Photos
Instead of letting thousands of images live unseen on hard drives
1. Curate and print your favourite
2. Choose quality over quantity
3. Use labs and materials that prioritize sustainable practices when possible
Look for Energy Star & EPeat Ratings
Many Canon printers (especially larger formats like imagePROGRAF) have ENERGY STAR and EPEAT Gold certifications - meaning they meet internationally recognized standards for energy efficiency and lower environmental impact.
Refillable Ink & Recycled Materials
Look for MegaTank/MAXIFY printers that use refillable ink tanks – a big sustainability benefit if you print often.
Canon Recycling Programs
Canon offers cartridge and hardware recycling programs to keep consumables and old devices out of landfills.
Choose your Paper wisely
Printing on FSC-certified, recycled, or sustainably sourced photo papers dramatically improves the environmental footprint of your prints.

A thoughtfully printed image is more likely to be treasured—and far less likely to be forgotten.

4. Rescue Your Film, Preserve Your Memories

Remember that film you dropped off for developing and/or scanning? It’s still in the dark about what’s next - literally. Every captured moment forsaken, abandoned to a life of eternal obscurity. Snapshots of your life- just vanished! Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but you would be shocked how many rolls of film get ghosted after being dropped off.

And while we’d love to hold onto every roll indefinitely, abandoned negatives must be binned after a certain period to keep our lab space running efficiently. We can only hold onto negatives for so long before we are required to dispose of them. Your negatives have gone through a long journey behind the scenes. Bringing them home is a small way to complete that story.

5. Sell, Trade-In, Trade-Up, or Donate

When we go buy new gear, we put so much research, discipline, and intention into making sure we stretch every last dollar, and we purchase in ways that align with our ethics. I wonder what the ripple effect would be if we were equally intentional about the gear we left behind. That camera sitting on the shelf? The lens you upgraded from last year? It’s sitting in a drawer or box that could fuel someone else’s creative journey! It’s time to give it a second life or ethically dispose of it.

Trade-In or Sell

McBain offers a really great Trade-In program that will give you a fair appraisal on so many pieces of equipment, you’d be reckless not to explore this. The program allows credit to be applied to future purchases on your account, while our Red Deer branch lets you explore a cash exchange option.

Recycle/Donate

Edmonton offers an array of Eco Stations and Electronic Depots to drop off old gear that is easily accessible within our city limits:

City of Edmonton Eco Stations:

Strathcona Eco Station: 5150-99 Street NW
Kennedale Eco Station: 5355 127 Avenue NW
Ambleside Eco Station: 14710 Ellerslie Road SW
Coronation Eco Station: 11440 143 Street

Specialized Electronic Recyclers:

Electronic Recycling Association (ERA): Accept old, broken, or working cameras, focusing on refurbishing for community donation, or safe recycling
Find Retail + Donation Centre: Partners with eCycle Solutions to accept various electronic devices
Quantum Lifecycle Partners: focusing on secure data destruction and component recover

Retail Drop-Offs:

London Drugs: Frequently part of the Electronic Recycling Association network. They offer in-store drop-offs for small electronics, including cameras, under their waste reduction program
Staples: Often have electronics recycling bins near the entrance for cameras and small peripherals.

Donate:

Rare Earth Outreach: Accepts donated cameras to deliver Photography Programming for groups with limited access to equipment.
More Than a Fad Thrift Store: a local thrift store accepting donations to support community initiatives.
Bissell Thrift Shop: Accepts cameras and other household items to support community services.
Edmonton Photographic Historic Society: Accepts vintage or historic camera donations.
Inclusion Alberta: Camera Donations and funds are used to directly support children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families.
Find.: Will accept Antiques & collectibles for gear. A social enterprise providing furnishings free of charge to individuals & families that are newly rehoused.

Our Final Thought

Photography is all about preserving what matters—moments, people, places.

Earth Day is a reminder that the world we capture deserves that same care and intention. And while no one gets it perfect, small, mindful choices in how we shoot and care for our craft can add up to something meaningful over time.

5 Sigma Lenses to Inspire Your Holiday Photos

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:30:51 -0600

Michael J. Fox once said, “Family is not an important thing; it’s everything.” Walking the frosted paths in silence while watching the leaves gently fall, I am most reminded of family. There’s something about a vibrant tonal tapestry blanketing the earth that reminds me that even in the muted carpet of withered foliage, there is beauty in every leaf from every family tree. And the paradox of strength and fragility all the same lures me to want to capture every single moment for exactly what it is: everything.

I could lead you down a poetic bunny trail with this, but at the heart of capturing your best family moments is the lens through which you see them. To capture the breadth of everything family these holidays, I’d encourage you to look to Sigma. I’ll bet I can personally match a memory for every lens!

One of my earliest holiday memories is the chaotic frenzy of cousins that I’d get to play hide-and-seek with. I can’t help but envy all the photographs missed of the sharp-angled positions we’d contort our bodies into trying to remain unseen. If someone had a Sigma 16mm Prime f/1.4, the perspectives they would have captured would have been incredible. It’s a fast lens and performs amazingly in low-light conditions, which would have boded well for sunset documenting our fast agility in racing to “Home Free”. Even Sigma’s 18-50mm f/2.8 would be a reliable contender too and would be a great bridge from chronicling your children’s hide-and-seek adventures to candid photos around the dinner table given its focal range and portability. Its autofocus system is also fast and quiet which makes it a win for both still photography and video.

If most of the holiday action will be indoors, and you want to find a merry medley between group photos and intimate portraits, I can’t cheerfully endorse Sigma’s 24-70mm f/2.8 anymore. I’ve photographed entire weddings with this lens alone. In the spirit of holiday magic, I see this lens not as “an important thing”... but as “everything”. Do you want sharp and versatile? This is it. It’s the lens that lets you zoom in or out - depending on the chaos- and keeps it consistent across its zoom range with beautiful depth of field control.

Personally, while I loved the chaos of family and holidays, I found stealing quiet moments of retreat necessary. Sometimes I’d just sit in a sea of screaming children as if I were paused in time while everyone else was in fast-forward. It's in these moments, that I was able to lean into my prime artistic instincts with Sigma’s 85mm f/1.4 prime. There’s something about standing still, zooming in and the blur of distractions that brings creative vision into full view. There’s a reason they call this lens “Portrait Perfection”. Its high optical performance delivers the sharpest images with minimal distortions. A fast f/1.4 aperture means the bokeh you’ll get in subject separation will lend itself amazingly to creative compositions. It really is the artist’s lens.

Sometimes, though, stepping away from the chaos isn’t enough to catch your breath. Sometimes stepping outside entirely is what you need to zoom out. Family is as much the place(s) that we root ourselves in as it is the people we build relationships with. When you zoom out to photograph your family’s homestead with a Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 lens, you’re taking it all in and saying “This is us. We lived here. We loved here”. This ultra-wide lightweight lens packs ultra-wide love because it really does capture the expansive scenes of not only your home and neighbourhood, but it creatively allows you to silently take a step back and soak it all in while the lens brings it all together to warp your memory in a bow.

However you’re reflecting on family this season, remember to just soak it in and capture it all at every angle. And let Sigma do the rest.

» Shop Sigma Lenses

How To Master High Speed Sync For Action Shots

internet@mcbaincamera.com — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 16:59:05 -0500

Head image by Matt Hernandez. Sony Alpha 7R V. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/1600-sec., f/4, ISO 200

Capturing peak action is an incredible photographic feat. An image of an athlete frozen in a dive, leap, swing, or other movement is peak eye candy for viewers and photographers alike. However, capturing that action can become technically difficult. You’ll need a high shutter speed, which may require boosting the ISO, unless you bring in lights, which can get complicated quickly. Alpha Universe sat down with sports and senior photographer Matt Hernandez (@MattHernandez) to learn how he uses high speed sync with off camera flash and his Sony Alpha 1 to freeze action.

Photo by Matt Hernandez. Sony Alpha 1. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/600-sec., f/8, ISO 400

Why Use High Speed Sync?

High speed sync allows you to use a shutter speed that is above the normal flash sync speed on most digital cameras. There are a few other ways you freeze action or lower your shutter speed. You can use flash duration or neutral density filters. While both are solid options, flash duration is better for indoor shoots, if you’re shooting an athlete outdoors, high speed sync allows you to underexpose the background of the image for a more dramatic effect. Neutral density filters, which essentially work as sunglasses on your camera, allow you to lower your settings to the maximum sync speeds, but your shutter speed isn’t going to be high enough to freeze action. So both roads lead us back to high speed sync.

Set The Basics

Shooting with his Sony Alpha 1, Hernandez has a few rules that he always follows when shooting an action portrait. First, he says that your base shutter speed should be 1/1000-second, that should be fast enough to freeze most action. Next, he sets his aperture. “A lot of my action shots I'll shoot at 24mm or around that because I want the background to be really prominent. And if you’re shooting like that, f/5.6 to f/8 is where you’d ideally like to be.” This aperture helps make sure the subject is sharp. However, Hernandez says that with the focus tracking on the Sony cameras, he could stop down even lower and doesn’t have to worry too much about sharpness. For example, in the image below, Hernandez used high speed sync and was at f/2.8 and "because the autofocus on his Alpha 1 is so good, the image turned out sharp."

Photo by Matt Hernandez. Sony Alpha 1. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/8000-sec., f/2.8. ISO 64

Finally, Hernandez recommends shooting on flash, though he told us that since he recently got the Sony Alpha 7R V, he’s been really impressed with its auto white balance.

Setting High Speed Sync

Depending on which lights you’re using, you’ll set up high speed sync in the menu system. On his YouTube channel, Hernandez shows how you do this on a Westcott light.

Once you’ve dialed in your settings, you’re ready to capture action! For more inspiration on this technique, check out Hernandez’s Instagram account (@MattHernandez). And to learn more, check out his YouTube Channel.

This article was originally posted to Sony Alpha Universe on March 7, 2023

See How These Photographers Make Creative Imagery With Long Exposures

internet@mcbaincamera.com — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 15:52:36 -0500

Check out how these Sony users couple long exposures and the right subject to their advantage then head out and experiment for yourself.

When Things Just Line Up: See How Autumn Schrock Created This Moon Masterpiece

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 16:08:33 -0600

Astro and landscape photographer Autumn Schrock explains how she builds stunning images through multiple shots to showcase the beauty of the place.

Perfect Exposure Every Time: Understanding the Scale

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 10:50:19 -0500

A slightly more in-depth explanation of understanding exposure, without taking an entire course dedicated to the subject!

Landscape Photography 101: Everything You Need to Know in One Place

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 08:00:00 -0500

Landscape photography isn't as simple as you may initially think, but this article will break down everything you need to know about getting those stunning images!

6 Tips for Beginning Wildlife Photography!

Wed, 04 May 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Getting started in wildlife photography can be daunting with so many new things to learn, so here a few helpful tips to get you going!

Getting Started Editing Your Photos

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 12:40:00 -0600

Editing digital photos is one of the most significant challenges to wrap your head around while learning photography. The most common question is where to start?

Winter Photo Ideas: Frozen Soap Bubbles

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 10:18:00 -0600

Are you looking for something to photograph during this cold winter?