While we never profess to knowing exactly what is going to happen over the course of the year just ahead of us, it is always fun to speculate on some of the trends we think might make a headline or two over the course of the next 12 months.

Photographer J. Henry Fair has essentially set that expression on its ear with his series of aerial photographs called Industrial Scars. His collection of environmental images, taken from a small plane, have been put together in a 204-page coffee table book and do the exact opposite of what the aforementioned expression suggests, instead revealing the horrific details of what we are doing to our planet.

We’ve rummaged around a bit of late and picked out a few truly fun and affordable photography-related jewels for you to stash under the tree (or in a stocking) that are sure to put a camera-ready smile on any shutterbug’s face.

I’m going to take stock today of some of the things I am most thankful for - with a bit of a photographic spin on them.

TIME magazine has put together what they are calling 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time and the countdown begins in the November 17th issue.

Ok, so that last five or six years have seen the smartphone eat into camera sales in a huge way. No need to go in the statistics here, as it’s just been ugly for camera manufacturers.

Walking the aisles at this year's PPE we were treated to all manner of new and unique photo gear and we’ll spotlight a few of the items that grabbed our attention this year in the paragraphs below.

While we’ve seen some truly radical changes in the camera market over the last two decades - from film to digital to smartphones (and some pretty cool stuff in between), camera lens technology hasn’t really followed suit - at least not to the extent cameras themselves have evolved.

Ok, so you’re a photography traditionalist and always felt most comfortable heading to a photo specialist for all your photography needs. Over the last 10-15 years a funny thing happened on your way to the photo specialty retailer.

There are a ton of imaging industry organizations doing all kinds of wonderful work that generally flies under the media radar. We recently told you all about one such group, the Josephine Herrick Project and their amazing work spent educating students who have not had the opportunity to learn the communicative power of photography. Just an incredible story.