Yearbook Season

Just a quick update from the road.

I spend my autumns, besides shooting beautiful fall weddings and events, working for a New England yearbook company. It's loads of fun, I get to travel a lot and work with loads of great photographers (some of whom become my trusty wedding second shooters), and take lots of photos that I don't have to edit, which is always a treat.

Sadly, I can't show you any of the really fun photos I'm taking, because sharing pictures of other people's kids is creepy. (Also, they belong to the company I work for.)

But I thought I'd leave a little note here, to explain why I am so crazy busy in September and October. I make every effort to still respond to emails ASAP (usually successful) and to keep up my rapid editing turnaround (less successful - this season is why my contract says editing may take "four to six weeks"), but sometimes yearbook season will get the best of me.

Anyway, take care all, and happy back to school!

A Very Expensive Paperweight

A few days ago, I had a major equipment drop, the first of my career.

It wasn't a great day.

I was photographing machines for a client (the same folks from All Hail Our Machine Overlords), with my camera on a tripod and lots of lighting gear and backdrops set up. It is, in theory, an exceptionally safe working environment. No moving people, the machines are infinitely patient, the camera is on a tripod. Despite all of that, while I was moving my tripod and adjusting the camera, the camera fell, tumbling forward off the tripod, falling about five feet, and smashed on the floor.

All told, my camera rig is worth about $4,000.

My initial assessment was really bad. The battery grip was in pieces. The body wouldn't turn on. The lens focus and telephoto were stuck. Worst of all (from a certain perspective), I hadn't brought a backup body or lens, so I had to tell my customer, "Sorry, but that's it for the day." (Disclaimer: I only left the backups at home because I thought, surely, nothing can go wrong at such a straightforward shoot. I always have backups for one-shot-only events like weddings.)

When I got home, I was able to revive my camera body. Whew. The lens and battery grip are dead, though, one an expensive paperweight and the other a pile of parts.

Some advice, for anyone who's prone to finding themselves in a similar situation, starting with the most general:

Have a backup plan. 

Thankfully, past me did a good job preparing for exactly such a situation. I have insurance on my equipment, and savings set aside for exactly this kind of emergency. If all of that fails, I have credit and family to fall back on. If I needed to replace the equipment immediately, I have a list of local places at which I could buy, rent, or borrow equipment.

So, business wise, I'm okay. Knowing that was a huge comfort while literally picking up pieces of my camera.

Even if you don't own a business, it's a good idea to take some time and think about where you are most vulnerable to an accident, and figure out how you can mitigate that risk. 

Don't ignore that bad feeling in your gut.

My tripod hadn't felt right all morning. I don't use my tripod often, though, and it seemed to be working, so I carried on. I've since worked out that a key spring in the tripod head had come lose. It's an easy fix, but a critical failure.

First of all, if your tripod feels weird, you should have a hand on your camera constantly until you figure out the problem, and should not use the tripod until it is working correctly.

But more broadly, when something feels wrong, you should always stop and try to assess that feeling. 

The image we did get.

Going forward, I'm in good shape. I was able to return and finish the photos a few days later, and I have a new lens on the way. I've been looking to add an additional backup body and lens to the ones I already have for a while - and while the cost of replacing this equipment makes that a little more challenging, I still think I may speed up that process. I'm going to see, as well, if Canon can fix my broken lens or not.

In short: It was bad, but it could've been worse.

Swati and Saurin

I'm pretty new to maternity photos, but when I get a chance to do them, I jump at it. (Seriously, how great is my job? I pretty much exclusively work with people on their happiest occasions.)

Swati and Saurin are recent transplants from Texas, due next month. They're a sweet couple, and quite frankly their kid has a 100% chance of being adorable.

They brought donuts as well, which, you know, doesn't hurt. I also ran into a couple birders at our second location, who showed me a very rare bird. 

Sunrise, beach, glowing parents-to-be, donuts, and wildlife, all before 9:00 AM? That's a good day.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Shantelle and Al's families are full of big personalities, and when they celebrate, they don't do it halfway.

We met them in Rhode Island for prep photos. The guys, as usual, had it easier, but the girls were on schedule and a really fun group to hang out with.

From there we headed to Blissful Meadows in Massachusetts for the ceremony and reception.

Their ceremony was right up my alley - short, personal, and funny. It was also hot, but considering there was an 80% chance of rain forcast, and we had beautiful blue skies, no one complained too much. I especially liked one detail of their wedding: five white roses, for loved ones who had passed away, carried down the aisle by their flower girls. Or, I should say, flower grandmas.

Then there was the reception. The DJ's practically had to herd people back to their tables for dinner, or else everyone would have just kept on dancing. It's a ton of fun when a wedding has so much energy that it literally shakes the building.

Parabéns no seu casamento, Shantelle and Al!

FODSLR Macro Extension Tubes

This is a bit of a product review (unpaid and unsolicited), which is not something I typically do here, but some photo friends of mine have found informal versions of this on Facebook useful. So if you're just here for beautiful wedding photos, feel free to skip it. No hard feelings.

...

Still here? Cool. Let me tell you about FODSLR Macro Extension Tubes.

Macro extension tubes turn a regular lens into a macro lens. They are a lot cheaper than a dedicated lens, but also have some small technical trade-offs that I won't go into here. They come in "smart" and "dumb" versions, depending on whether they let your camera talk to the lens (to change your aperture and auto-focus) or not. These FODSLR (a brand name, apparently?) tubes are smart. (Dumb ones are a waste of time and better avoided.)

These are also remarkably cheap. I picked them up on sale for $25 - since the price has gone up and down, but I've never seen it above $40 (half the "list price" of $79.99). $80-$120 is a more common price for this sort of thing.

That said, there are some quality-consistency issues. My first set, two of the tubes would not come apart. A friend who bought these on my recommendation has also found his a bit "sticky". I returned mine (yay free shipping and free returns with Prime!), and the second set they sent are perfect. Take from that what you will.

I like them. A lot.

Of course, these tubes don't work in a vacuum - they're just one tool to add to your toolbox. The nice thing about extension tubes is they have no glass in them, so they are as good as the camera and lens you put them between. (The above photo also benefits from a professional speedlite, the DJ's up-lighting, and whoever lit about a hundred candles on the table.)

That said, these are straightforward to use. I'd recommend using lots of light so you can stop-down your aperture a lot.

Then just play around and have fun!

All Hail Our Machine Overlords

No, this isn't a post about the rise of digital cameras.

I am primarily a wedding, event, and portrait photographer, but once in a while it's fun to step way outside that and do something really different. 

This past week was one such chance. I periodically photograph machines for a family friend's company. They make custom and small batch machines for small manufacturing companies. (This time, many of the machines were for screen printing.) It's an interesting challenge - the machines are very cooperative subjects, so I get to spend a lot of time refining the lighting and set up.

They're also a lot of processing on the back end, since I don't actually own any 10 x 30 foot white backdrops. I take 5-10 photos, moving my backdrop along the back of the machine, and combine them later into one single photo. 

They come out pretty handsome, I'd say.

We've Moved!

This past Friday, my girlfriend and I moved into a new place!

We're still in Vernon, CT, and I will still be working all around New England.

Now just a bit more unpacking to do and things can get back to normal around here...

200

On my birthday this January, I decided to do a photo-a-day project. It's not my first (I actually completed one in 2011) but it seemed like a good way to make some work through the winter doldrums and to experiment with some new things. On August 2nd, I hit 200 days!

Our cat doesn't look sinister at all... I don't know what you mean...

Some, like the above, have been taken while experimenting with my primary work camera, but not many - the 5D is big, heavy, and most importantly, expensive. So I like to leave it where it's safe most of the time.

Instead, I took the approach that the best camera is the one that is always with you, and bought a Canon S110. I've previously owned two S90s (and broke both of them), and love this one as much as I loved those. They're small, light, and extremely capable. Best of all, with a little reshuffling and a wallet downsizing, the S110 fits in my pants pocket. I literally carry it everywhere.

I'm so glad I do, because there are so many photo opportunities that I would miss out on if I had to rely on my cell phone. (It tries, admirably, but it can only do so much...) 

It's been so much fun. I love breaking it out to catch sudden moments (so many sunsets, as well), and it's cheap enough that I am willing to take it places it might get damaged.

Like in a kayak.

It's also been a great motivator to experiment with new things, try out new angles or new techniques that have subsequently made it into my professional work. The project (and the surprisingly good macro system on the S110) prompted me to add a macro tube for my professional gear, which in turn provided a few days worth on photos as I systematically photographed every tiny thing in our apartment. Now I'll be adding shots like the one below to all my future weddings.

But the best part, by far, has been all the photos I love, photos of loved ones or special occasions, that I probably wouldn't have bothered to take if not for the looming daily deadline motivating me to get my camera out and just try it. See what... happens.

You can see all 200 (and counting) in my Flickr gallery. At this point, I doubt it will be a year-long project. Rather, I'm planning just to make it a part of daily life indefinitely.

I recommend it, even if you just use your cell phone. Even if you aren't the best photographer. It's like a quick, daily journal entry that will make you look more carefully at your world.