It’s the season for vacations, outdoor activities, and picture taking. Enhance your shooting experience (and take better pictures) with these cool photographic accessories!

Summertime is peak picture-taking season, and adding a few well-chosen accessories to your photo outfit is a cost-effective way to take your picture-taking experience to a new level of convenience, performance and just plain fun. Traditional items like camera bags, belt packs, travel tripods, flash units, brackets, filters, and lens-cleaning kits, and the other less conventional accessories detailed below are great items to take along on your next family vacation, fishing trip, or hike in the woods. However, it’s also wise to consider your particular picture-taking plans when selecting specific accessories to enhance your shooting experience. If you’re in the market for a new point-and-shoot, a longer zoom for your DSLR, or just a high-capacity, high-speed memory card to capture sports action in HD video, adding suitable accessories to the mix can make your purchase a lot more rewarding and fulfilling. 

To give you a better idea of what’s out there in accessory land this summer, we’ve compiled a list of tried and true items and some innovative ones for your consideration. While we couldn’t possibly cover this vast and fascinating topic in this small apace, the twelve items covered below are definitely a good start. We hope they’ll get you thinking creatively about how to enhance your summertime picture taking fun. Good shooting! 

2011 Summer Accessory Roundup

LensPen SideKick: It’s a cool new screen-cleaning tool specifically designed to remove fingerprints from touch screens and LCDs without tissues, cloths, or liquids. Each pad gives 150 cleanings. MSRP: SideKick, $14.95; package of two cleaning pad replacements, $9.95.

Sunpak PF20XD Flash: This powerful compact flash unit can be used as a conventional shoe-mount flash or can be triggered via its built-in slave with cameras lacking a hot shoe. It has a guide number of 66 (in feet), a built-in wide-angle diffuser said to cover wide-angles down to 24mm. Other features: Auto mode with 3 f/stops; manual mode with 5 settings; effective range 2.3-23 feet. It comes with a flash bracket and is powered by 2 AA Alkaline, NiMH, or NiCd batteries. Street price: $37.50.

Vista Voyager TG: This sturdy, lightweight 4-section travel tripod is ideal for people on the go. It has a 2-section Quick Lift center post, folds to 21 inches in length with head attached for compact storage, extends to 62 inches, weighs in at only 3.8 pounds, and comes with a convenient TriggerGrip ball head for quick, easy adjustments on the fly. With a load capacity of 7 pounds, it will accommodate a DSLR with a long tele-zoom. Street price: $134.95 with padded carrying bag.

Giotto’s Lens Cleaning Kit CL 1001: It comes complete with Multi Optical Cleaning Solution for all glass and plastic surfaces, a microfiber cloth, a retractable brush, ten 100% cotton swabs with paper shafts, and a Small Giotto’s Rocket Blaster blower made from natural rubber that has a unique inlet valve design that makes it suitable for cleaning dust off sensors. Street price: $18.00.

Domke F-5XB RugggedWear bag: This high quality multi-purpose lightweight bag is compact outside, but amazingly commodious inside with internal measurements of 9.5 inches wide, 4 inches deep, and 6 inches high. It will accommodate a full DSLR outfit and has convenient pockets for cell phone, MP3 player, and accessories. Other features: 5 compartments, non-slip Gripper strap, fashionably “distressed” look, environmentally friendly, weather-resistant RugggedWear construction. Street price: $79.99. 

Zing Medium Camera/Electronics Belt Bag: A sleek, elegantly simple pouch with belt loops, oversized Velcro-secured flap, and reinforced construction, it will hold a compact point-and-shoot camera, mini-binoculars, cell phones, and personal accessories. Dimensions: 4x6.5x1.5 inches. Weight 2.5 ounces. Street price: $10.99.

Kodak Solar Charger KS100-C+2: This cool gadget lets you harness the sun to power up any USB-chargeable device like an MP3 player cell phone or iPad, to provide up to 33 hours of additional run time. Removable rechargeable AA cells in the power pack provide a great power alternative for any AA battery device, and can be charged via sunlight, lamp light or USB-to-USB cord. Other features: Solar and device charging indicator lights, foldout stand. Street price: $29.00.

Tiffen 4-filter kits: Virtually all your customer’s filter needs are covered at once with these high-performance, screw-in optical filter kits. They include a Digital Ultra Clear to protect expensive lenses, a circular polarizer to eliminate reflections on water or glass, bring out clouds and enhance color saturation, an Enhancing filter to make reds oranges and earth-tone colors “pop” in scenic shots, and Tiffen’s exclusive 812 Warming Filter that adds a pleasant touch or warmth to portraits and corrects the blue cast encountered in flash shots. Street price: $119.95-$309.95 depending on filter diameter.

Steadicam Smoothee: This ingenious gimbaled video stabilization device is patterned on the renowned $60K Steadicam rigs used by Hollywood cinematographers, but this one is a lot more affordable and designed for the Apple iPhone 4, 3Gs, and FLIP Mino HD. It lets almost anyone shoot super-smooth professional looking handheld videos right out of the box, and can be mounted on a any standard tripod. Dimensions in operating configuration: 8x14.5x2.5. Street price: $179.99.

Novoflex SP Stativ suction mount mini-pod: This clever little sucker (pun intended) mounts on virtually any flat horizontal or vertical surface, and provides a sturdy ball head for mounting almost any camera—even a large DSLR. Its rated load capacity is a whopping 10 pounds! Street price: $65.99.

GEPE CardSafe Extreme Memory Card Holder: Designed for optimal protection of precious memory cards during transport or for safekeeping, it has an innovative MultiCard insert that accommodates a wide variety of card types efficiently It’s weatherproof and waterproof to 10 feet, has a reinforced lock with stainless steel pins for long life, and is constructed of super strong polycarbonate. Street price: $28.99.

OmegaBrandess B-Grip Belt Grip: Made in Italy this ingenious gadget provides a secure, easily accessible perch for a DSLR. The base attaches to a waist belt or to the belt provided and the quick-release plate attaches to the camera’s tripod socket, providing instant access to the camera. A triple safety system prevents accidental release, and the camera is held firmly in place in lens-up- or lens-down position. Street price: $54.95.