Last Post of '08...

I had a pretty good time shooting a party the day after the Christmas holiday.
It was a small party of around 50-75 people, but the place was nice, and the DJ rocked out. It was a nice crowd, too, so no complaints. I was able to catch a couple of cool shots.

I tried getting some lens flare going. It's more difficult that it may seem since the DJ lights are pulsating and moving to different areas. It's a toss up.

The Mariachi's were quite good.

Besides getting home later than I anticipated, overall I think it went well. The 5D didn't let me down, but it did begin to really fatigue my grip. Perhaps I'll have to invest in one of those E-1 hand straps everyone raves about.

I also got a new bag in yesterday. A Crumpler 5-Million Dollar Home. Maybe I'll make my first post of next year a review of this bag. We'll see...

I'm going to be teaming up with a fellow photographer who also happens to be a good friend. He has a few weddings lined up for the new season, and I have some other portrait sessions happening as well. Hopefully 2009 will bring many more interesting experiences and alot more fun!
Until next year,

Lates!

This past weekend was pretty busy. I had two shoots on Saturday to go to. The first was a shoot at a firehouse that I've been asked not to make public. Rest assured though, the photos came out great, thanks to the 5D and a little help from a button-pushing-knob-turner.
(OK, Maybe just a couple.)
That was from about 9 A.M. to about 2 P.M. Lots of fun there. The firemen were really cool even though they had to go on about 5 runs while we were there.

The second shoot that day was a wedding that I was second-shooting for. It went well. It was a nice wedding at a nice location. Can't complain. Half-way through the reception though, we began to print portraits on the spot. This was a little distracting from events going on in the reception, and had us side-tracked for a short time. There is a high demand for portrait prints on the spot. The bad thing is you need at least 3 people to tend to the event. 1 for the computer/printer, 1 for shooting the portraits, and 1 to not forget about the job at hand, which is covering the wedding reception. We only had 2, so it was a bit of a juggle.

On with the pics:
This next photo was taken by our 12-year-old assistant, Megan. She used my Canon XTi with the 50 1.8 lens. I'm impressed. She got several good shots that night.
And now back to the 5D/ 70-200 2.8L IS.
Dancing with the Father of the Bride...
Example of on-site portrait printing shot:
This was the setup: Two White Lightning 1600s, Two 60" shoot-through umbrellas, a Sony Laptop and a huge Epson Printer, off to the right.

It was really alot of fun shooting that wedding, and I hope to do more soon.

Lates

New Gear!

So I took the plunge and made a relatively large purchase. The largest purchase to date in my photographic journey. But with several shoots coming up, and the realization that the XTi would no longer cut the mustard in low-light situations, I had to do something.
I got a Canon EOS 5D. More information on this fine piece of a camera can be found at DPReview. Here's a link to their review: Canon 5D Review.

I can't say enough about it's greatness. Coming from a Canon EOS Rebel XTi, it's a huge step up in performance, usability, quality and...awesomeness.
It makes the XTi feel like a silly toy intended for ages 8 and under.
The Viewfinder is ginormous, the grip fits in the hand perfectly, the controls are great etc. etc...

I'm no longer afraid to shoot above ISO 800. I'm no longer afraid to crop.

The downside is that the images are going to eat up hard drive space like pac-man at a blue-ghost convention...*hammit-hammit!*

They say great images are made by good photographers, no matter what gear you use. I belive that is only partly accurate. Great gear makes great images. Using great gear well statistically yeilds a higher amount of usable images resulting in a higher-quality final product.

Lates

First Blog- Breakin' her in...

So here's the first entry into the Slick Pix blog. I've never used a blog and honestly don't really care for them. But I think it would be cool a few years from now, to go back in time and see what was going on in this period of time.

I thought I would start my first blog by posting kind of a review of a new-ish album company that has partnered up with Smug Mug. The album company is called MyCanvas.

The design software was great. It was all done online and the options were mind blowing. The software could use a few updates, such as organized picture pools, and used-photo memos. But the layout designer was really professional looking and feeling. You can pretty much do anything with it.

I designed the first album as an anniversary gift for some friends. I opted for the 8"x11" hard-bound Leather cover, and 25 pages total.

It arrived 15 working days after I submitted the order. Roughly 3 weeks total, which isn't bad, but could be better. They require 10 working days for printing and binding, and 5 days for shipping. It arrived in a media-mail fitted cardboard box via UPS.

The Album itself was shrink-wrapped in plastic.
The leather feels soft to the touch and smells nice.

The front cover has metallic gold letters on them. They're not embossed, they are either printed or screen-printed on. I'm not sure how they get them on there...








The prints were decent, and the paper is kind of thin, but it has a quality look and feel. If you look close enough, you can see the dots from the printer, or the DPI.

I was disappointed by the thinness of the book, as the photos on their website show thicker books. They must be using sample books with at least 100 pages in them. The pages are thin, but have a nice feel and sheen.

If you open the book up wide, you can see the stitch-binding done in the gutter. Not a big deal, but it does look kind of cheap.

Overall, I was pleased with the book, but I would not be happy if I had to sell it to clients.
They do have a "Premium" line, but it costs as much as some other High-Profile wedding-book providers who have much higher quality.
Stay tuned for an update soon. I Just got some new gear I want to blog about.
Lates

P.S. I don't know what's going on with the spacing and stuff on the layout. It's whack. Hopefully the next one will be cleaner.