I had a serious photography job coming up, my brother's wedding, and I started to realize how much more reliable my lighting kit could be. I had 2 CTR-301 radio receivers and only 1 transmitter. If anything happened to that transmitter, I'd be stuck triggering optically or just shooting natural light.
I also only had 3 old Sunpak 4xx strobes, and I had already replaced one that had failed about a year ago. Sometimes the battery doors jiggled loose, I had broken one foot already, and sometimes they fired full-power even though it was set for less.
It was time to spend a little money on some new and some backup gear. I hit eBay and ordered 2 more YongNuo CTR-301P receivers, another transmitter, and 2 shiny new YN-460MkII strobes.
The radio trigger set tested out fine -- working through walls and across the house, and they inter-operated with my old CTR-301 triggers which have been serving me well for over a year. Once they looked good, I removed the batteries, and boxed them back up for backup.
The 2 strobes were a bit more exciting. I threw some random alkalines into it that were too weak to recycle my Sunpak 433, and it powered right up and I was seeing reasonable recycle times. It's good to know that it'll not be finicky about its batteries. With relatively fresh NiMH batteries, it's still recycling within about 10 seconds from a full-power pop. I had the strobes figured out and tested within about 3 minutes of opening the packaging.
Upon inspecting the user's manual a bit, I realized that these things could be fine-tuned more by pressing MODE and PILOT together, then I could adjust the EV up and down from the original setting in 1/7 stop increments. Nice...not that I'm used to having that level of control.
The S1 slave mode is esay and seems to work nicely enough triggering off bounced light in a small room. The whole thing is dead simple, since it only works with manual power settings -- it's the cheapest new strobe a Strobist could want, I think.
For my final tests, I took them outside, put them on the CTR-301's on stands, and played a bit with my shoot-through umbrella and this tiny flash-mounted softbox I had also bought. In the hand, these strobes feel like their made of thick-enough plastic, and the hotshoe's about as solid as plastic can be and still be thin enough to fit in a hotshoe socket.
I'm pleased so far, and hopefully, they'll hold up as well as my YongNuo CTR-301's are, and I'll still be saying good things about them in a couple years.
Braden brought a couple of his trucks out to the sand court for his four-year photos, and we sat and played a bit while I shot. He also ran in circles a bit to get his mother a bit wound up, but we were still doing fine -- I only needed a few good shots, and I managed plenty.
From my gear bag, I used the small satin umbrella to bounce the strobe onto the scene, often crossing the sun which dappled into our mostly-shaded scene. For Braden, I also packed a bonus toy -- a real folding shovel, so we could do some real digging. This provided a good change of pace, and it was the perfect height to aid in posing his hands when he was seated on a truck.
I had the pleasure of photographing Beth and her family back in the Fall for the Images for a Cure fundraiser, so I was eager to shoot an update image 6 months later (and with her current, less extreme hair style).
Beth and her team will be doing the 3-Day for the Cure fundraising walk -- 60 miles in 3 days in Washington DC on 8-10 October 2010.
Way back in the day, when I used to shoot at clubs and raves, I'd always want a way to share the images with the people I'd meet, but exchanging email could be a bit cumbersome or just be a deterrent.
While I'm not out clubbing these days, I'm still often out at various events, so I still need a quick and easy way to point people to the images, so I just added the Event Code box to the photo site.
While I'm out shooting, I can create an event code (from imagination or using my phone), and then write that short code on my business card to hand out. Then it's really easy for someone to hit my site, punch in the code, and get right to the photos on Flickr or in the Gallery.
It's just one of those little things I've wanted for a while, and now I've finally added it.
2009 was the year people started paying me for photography, but more importantly, each job was a new experience for me.
I started out a nervous wreck with a good game face to do senior portraits with Bridget in Spring, and then a first-year portrait with a friend's son. Both went fabulously, and I learned that I *really* like doing portraits, and this gave me confidence to pursue my personal portrait project later that year.
My Mom and I approached my grandparents about shooting some environmental portraits, and they readily agreed. Taking an afternoon to talk with my grandparents and get my grandfather to dig out all his shop toys he's collected over the years yielded some of my most valuable experiences of the year and images for a long time to come.
Over the summer, I decorated K-Prep Learning Center when they expanded with images from my Toy Project. Some of those images were made on-site or specifically for display in the classrooms. I still very actively contribute images to the toy project.
I also had a couple people approach me about decorating their homes with some of my previously made work, so I ended up taking some time to identify and think about Fine Art photos. By this time, I started to get the hang of framing and presenting images. It's interesting to have someone acknowledge my images of pretty things -- landscapes and macros.
By Fall, I could try anything, so I signed up to be a photographer for Images for a Cure after hearing about it from a podcast interview. I figured out some session fees (which were donated), booked 2 family sessions, and made some prints -- they trusted me, I got to make some more portraits of which I'm really proud, and the families liked my work enough to buy a good number of prints. Most importantly, I got to practice my craft in a way I would not usually had I not been pursuing it somewhat professionally. I love working with people and making portraits.
The final bit of craziness for the year came when I got to second shoot at a wedding for Steve and Sharon! I got to work on more portraiture and event coverage with a more seasoned wedding photographer in a setting I don't get to shoot every day. The whole event was one challenge after another, but we just ran with it, and had fun. I could not have asked for a better introduction to wedding photography.
I'm not sure what 2010 will mean. It'll be hard to match the pace of last year, and I'm not sure it would be the plan. I'll try to make it more of the same -- portraits, a wedding or two for family and friends, and I'll likely be presenting more work to be sold as fine art. I anticipate learning a bit more about design that happens around my photography -- I have much to learn there.
I recently started wondering, "Why am I working my way closer and closer to professional photography?" I love my day job, and I don't need or want 2 jobs, so why am I so driven to pursue this?
Practicing and mastering a skill is greatly rewarding, but I can do that without getting paid, so why do I feel like I need to turn photography into a legitimate job? Some of these jobs are really hard work!
It's nice to have the hobby pay for itself (at least a little), but I realize that access has become most important to me. I get access to people and places -- when people see me as a photographer, I'm invited to make portraits or to capture events. I get to decorate people's homes or contribute to a larger project with my images. I get to practice my craft without having to recruit participants, and when I do recruit, maybe people are quicker to say "yes" having seen some previous work. People give me their time and expect good things.
I love the story of the guy who gets into the concert by offering images to the band in trade. He got in, and he got to shoot! (I hate that I can never get a camera into a show.) David Hobby even got into CERN. Sometimes, I just want the chance to shoot a friend or a stranger -- as long as it matters to someone, even if it's just me.
So, here I am, working to promote and price and show my work in any way that makes sense just to ensure that I'll be able to make some more interesting images tomorrow, and to hope they're worth something to someone.
I've started posting this list around, so I may as well put it here too. I'm looking to sell a few things I'm not using. Offers and trades are welcome.
includes battery, meter works, auto, M90, and bulb mode, tested working.
includes battery, meter works, auto and manual exposure, tested working, very clean.
will test soon, fits FE and others (not EM)
Tested on Nikon D90 and D40 for manual focus and manual exposure, clean.
a fixer-upper. Focuses noticeably short of infinity (to about 30m). I don't care enough to take it apart yet. Very clean and reasonably sharp at f4 in distances it can focus.
works fine, but front thread is dented, so no filters will mount.
AF/AE on Nikon with AF motor in body. Clean, hood, box. I always used it at 300mm, so I replaced this with a 300mm prime.
MF and ME on my D90. Very clean and smooth. I almost want to keep it, but I already have a couple 50 f/1.8 lenses laying around.
A couple weekends ago, I setup a sort of photo booth for a kid's birthday party a couple weekends ago. With Claire's help, I shot nearly 30 quick portraits, processed them, and printed the 4x6 copies on-site to be used in a crafty framing activity.
To make the project work, I recruited Claire to give me a hand talking to people and printing, and I picked up the cool little Selphy CP770 printer. We setup a backdrop and a few strobes to give me some options while shooting, but I shot most of the portraits with fun angles requiring the kids to sit or for me to stand on the chair. I also mixed it up a bit with some more normal portraits.
Some people seemed convinced that I could have used a second printer, but that's just because the printer was the boring part to watch. The real bottleneck was my trying to switch between shooting and processing, since I was the only one who could do it. Next time around, a second photographer would make it easier -- I'm too much of a control freak to let suggest that I should shoot and let someone else process, though it's a really the most efficient way to split the work.
The whole thing was a great challenge, especially in managing time, but I love how it came together in just 3 hours. I also shot a few group shots, but those didn't need to be delivered right away.
A paying job is always a good time to shop for new gear, right, so I picked up a Canon Selphy CP770 dye sub photo printer for a birthday party photo booth project.
Amazon/Adorama had the best price
This one worked wonderfully on its most basic settings. The option to "Show Info" with the photos caused the printer screen to show a question mark instead of the image, so I disabled that. The "Image Optimization" option also did a surprisingly good job of normalizing my images, which is good for general use. In the end, though, it removed the moody shadows and contrasts that I intentionally included in my test shots, so I disabled pretty much every option and ran it in its most basic mode. I like control.
The dye sub cartridges and photo paper packages are pretty convenient, and the color reproduction came out as I expected. New supply packs include 4x6 photo paper and dye sub cartridges. A pack for 108 prints
I'm expecting that these dye sub packs don't "dry out" or anything like that, so I'm hoping this printer will be worth having, unlike any inkjet printer I've had in the past.
Once it's all assembled and powered on, I just copy the processed photos from the computer onto an SD card, pop it into the printer's built-in card reader, and tell it to "Print All Images", or pick them individually.
Claire finds it easy to use, and Paige already has her eye on this thing. I'm sure she'll be using it soon.
Someone on the non-metering lens Flickr group asked for notes on switching from a D40 to a D90, and given the non-metering context, I felt particularly qualified to answer. Here's a copy of my response:
I switched to the D90 a week ago after my beloved D40 went into a creek. I've found with all my ME/MF experience of my old prime lenses, I could pick up the new body pretty quickly. The extra buttons are nice to have, but many of those added buttons are useless too -- metering modes, focus modes, etc.
I chose the D90 over the D5000 for the better viewfinder, though it still only has the green focusing dot , upon which I continue to rely. The D90 viewfinder *is* pretty big and bright, so I expect it *is* helping me focus a bit. I did see some missed focus that surprised me in my first day out with the camera, but I seem to have adjusted by now -- I'm not sure what was going on there. It may have been the switch to my backup 50mm Series E which caused it -- my first one went in the creek the previous week.
Chimping on the new LCD led me to under-expose my photos quite a bit initially, because the display was so bright. Once I backed down the display brightness, and started to use the nicer histogram displays on the big D90 screen, I was exposing well again.
I did stumble upon one non-AI Nikon lens that I have laying around which I can't mount -- a 55mm micro. I had never really used it with my D40 either.
I ended up using the same raw processing software (rawstudio on Linux) and even the same camera profile I used with my D40, and the look of my photos is the same as with the D40.
Photo processing is a bit slower having to work with twice as many pixels, but the good news is that I'm finding I have to run noise reduction much less frequently! ISO 800 is looking quite nice.
Check my photostream, and you may not be able to quickly notice the switch to the D90.
My only reservation has been giving up the D40's faster flash sync at 1/500 sec. The D90 only does 1/200 sec, so I anticipate having to pump up my strobes a bit next time I shoot with them outdoors.