An interesting race ended with Barack Obama winning by a landslide. I know that this has nothing to do with photography but how can I not blog about the single biggest event in our lifetime? Congrats to President Obama.
This is by far the most interesting election I've witnessed in my life. Both candidates, Obama and McCain have their strong points and their weaknesses. Personally I don't care who you vote for, I just care that you vote for someone. If you are legally allowed to vote and choose not to, your voice isn't being heard and your opinion after the fact doesn't count. Voting is a privilege so please take the time out of your do to do so. I'll be casting my ballot when I get off of work. What about you?
While Saturday was great because I got to shoot, Sunday has been slow and boring. I woke up at 7am, retouched and edited pictures from three shoots, archived them, and sent them to the clients. Boring, time consuming stuff. I didn't finish until 11am. The highlight of the day for me was the Baltimore Ravens game. They played the Cleveland Brown and beat them 37-27. Now what do I do with the rest of my day?
Normally I'd say that waking up early on a Saturday morning is just wrong. However if I'm getting out of bed early to do a photo shoot aka "work", I don't mind at all. Yeah, I'm still tired but I enjoy shooting so much that it doesn't feel like work and I won't notice the missed sleep until late in the day. Today's shoot lasted about 2 hours and led to some great pics. There was only one model but she had a seemingly endless amount of outfits with her. If I'd had more memory and a spare battery I could have easily shot for another hour. Some pics from the shoot and all of my others are posted at Flickr so click here to check them out.
Yeah I know, just last week I was all settled on the new Canon 5D. Then the realization that it's nearly $3000 just for the body has sunk in. I have decided to save for the Canon EOS 50D with a Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. This kit is only $1600 and wouldn't take me nearly as long to get. Any extra money can go towards a battery grip and an extra battery. So there, it's settled and my decision is final. I'm going to focus on getting the 50D and then I'll have my Xti as a great backup camera.
I've had a few models and photographers ask me what I shoot with so I figured I'd answer it here. The basics in my kit are listed below. I have a couple of other items that I use from time to time but these are my standbys.
Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi) Camera Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM Telephoto Zoom Lens 58mm UV Filters 58mm Circular Polarizer
Anyone that knows me knows that I love just about anything Apple makes. I was an avid PC user and Windows lover until I was forced to buy a Mac notebook for art school. After a week of using my new Mac I found it hard to use my PC for anything other than playing computer games. Now the new MacBook Pro is available with a glass screen and touchpad and I want it. I dare anyone to find a PC notebook that looks better or has the longevity of a Mac.
This weekend we'll be shooting at home. No, not at our house but around the city we live in...Fredericksburg, VA. It's not a big city but it's in a great location. Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD are a short drive to the north and Richmond, VA is an even shorter drive to the south. Old Town Fredericksburg is a great place to shoot and isn't far from the Rappahanock River. Shooting here is always fun and we don't have far to go to get home when we're done.
People say that things slow down for a photographer in the fall and winter but I can't tell. We've been shooting nearly every weekend since September and are booked through the end of November. We have potential clients asking to schedule us for shoots in December and once we work out the details we'll be booked solid yet again. I'd say that's a great way to close out the year!
I currently shoot with a Canon Rebel XTi. It's a great camera and with good glass and some skill you'll take some amazing photos. The XTi is a prosumer camera and while it's much more advanced than your typical point and shoot, I'm quickly out growing it's capabilities. I was originally eyeing the Canon EOS 50D as my next camera body but I have settled on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. It cost quite a bit more than the 50D but it'll be worth it since it's a full frame digital camera, meaning I can finally shoot in full 35mm with no crop to my images. If you're not familiar with photography that probably means nothing to you but those of you that do shoot seriously know that it makes a difference. Anyway, it's $2700 just for the body so I'll be saving my change for awhile before I get my hands on this one. I'm taking donations if anyone wants to help. Click the link to check out the preview on Digital Photography.
Thanks to the rain we had to cancel our shoot on October 25th. We will still be shooting on Sunday, October 26th. This is the first time in a long time that I haven't been happy to see rain in the forecast.
We'll be in Richmond, VA on October 25th and 26th to shoot some up and coming models. I've never been to Richmond but my wife went to college there. I'm looking forward to experiencing the city and taking some great pics. Of course the new pics will be posted soon so be on the lookout.
On the weekend of October 11th, we held a shoot at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We did two shoots and both turned out well. The Inner Harbor provides a beautiful backdrop as there's an abundance of places to shoot. A great city, great food, and most importantly great models made the shoot fun. Check out the pics here.
Our subject for this shoot was not a model but had a blast modeling for us and is someone we'd love to work with more in the future. The pics turned out pretty good as well. For this shoot, I took the pictures while my wife assisted. All in all, it was a good day of work and will help us build a great portfolio. Check out some of the pics at our Flickr page.
