The last week of school!

WooHoo! This is the last week of school!

For all my classes this week, we will be doing review, and having fun. For my Wednesday and Thursday classes, we will be having potluck. Please make sure you bring something. We need drinks, snacks, munchies, pizza, etc. If you bring soda, please make sure you bring some cups.

And it's your last chance to turn in images. Make sure you bring them in.

The last couple of days have not beeb great for shooting. We got a break today, And had some good light. I had the opportunity to work with Carmen again (my Thursday class knows Carmen). We went out to my not so secret anymore spot in Duarte. Got lucky too, the river was flowing. Carmen is a lot of fun to work with, and is game for wearing 4" heels, and standing on rocks in the middle of the lake. I haven't had a chance to go through all of them, but here are a few from today. All images were shot with the Canon 5D MKII and the 70-200 f/2.8 IS

This first shot was taken with the Westcott Apollo 28" softbox. All the rest of the images were available light, except where noted. Read more

Why is your photography so expensive?

Why is your photography service so expensive? I get asked this a lot. But is it really all that expensive? Let's dispel a few myths.

•  JcPenny, Sears, and that place in the mall are only $50
• Yes they are. They are also cookie cutter. Same lighting, same backdrops, and the same props are being used to take hundreds of family portraits. And the advertised rate on the web site is a "teaser" made to get you in the door. If you want some wallet sized images, or more than 1 image, or a few 5x7's the price increases pretty quickly. And want a full res digital file? Good luck. If you want a unique location, or change outfits during the shoot, you need to call me.
•  My cousin just bought a really nice camera.
• While it's true that in capable hands, even the cheapest DSLR's are very capable of taking quality images, the key is "capable hands". Costs for cameras at the entry level will continue to come down. The camera is only part of the equation. Do they understand lighting? Posing? What about difficult scenarios like a poorly lit church that doesn't allow flash? It has never been about the equipment. It has always been about the person behind the lens.
• Regardless of what I charge you for your family portraits, you are still getting a great deal.
• If you book me to do a 2-3 hour portrait session, my job isn't over when you leave. I have equipment costs and upkeep, educational expenses, gas, insurance, etc. If we are shooting on location, I will have an assistant. I have left my house a 1/2 hour to an hour before the shoot to set up, and I will leave a 1/2 hour after you to tear down. When I get home, I will have several hours organizing, editing, archiving, and proofing your images. When the job is complete, I may only be making $25-$50 an hour. Does that sound like a lot? What would you pay yourself if you were running your own business? Again, we work with quality, not quantity.
• It's all about the post processing
• Yes, your cousin may have a great camera. You may even have one too. But DSLR's very rarely output perfect, ready for print images. They need some finishing touches, color correction, black & white conversion, cropping, blemish removal, etc. This takes time, and needs to be done properly.
• Experience
• Have an uncooperative child? Want to shoot at sunset on a beach? Want to change your eye color from green to blue? Want a family portrait taken at your family reunion? With all 150 family members? Yeah, we can do that.
• I don't compete on price. I compete on service and quality
• I won't compete with cost. So what do I offer? Service. I will help you organize your shoot. Need a make-up artist or want a hair stylist? I can recommend that. Don't know where to do your shoot? I have locations for urban, natural, beach, etc. They are MUCH better than the pull down screens at Sears. Need wardrobe suggestions? I can help there too. I will help you every step of the way. Getting married? I can help organize your day, give you suggestions, put you in touch with just about any kind of vendor you need. And if I don't have an answer, I will find it.

Many of us photographers still value our work, and the effort, experience, talent, and creativity that goes into it. There are customers that understand that, and also value those same things. When you find them, you need to keep them. Consistent quality, and great service does that.

Carmen at the Gas Station

We have had a lot of fun in my Thursday night class this semester, haven't we? This past week, I actually took the opportunity to take some shots, as we were using the Westcott Apollo softbox again (I love that thing!), we had a great car, we had a fun set, and we had Carmen. I am really hoping that I see some cd's from the students. It's getting harder to get models, as they all say the same thing, "we never get that many images". I know, I sound like a broken record.

Several of these shots were taken at high ISO with available light. So, what did you get from this shoot?

And attention students! Do you want your images seen by thousands of people? So do I. But if you send me your single favorite image that was shot in my Thursday night class, I will post it here on this blog for all 10 of you to see ;-) Here is what I need: 1 image sized at 800 x 800 at 72 dpi. Please send it to me at frankwisephotography at geemail.com (please note the purposeful misspelling of geemail) I only want 1 image, and it needs to have been taken during 1 of my Thursday night lighting on location classes. Deadline for this is Friday, 6/11/10.

A funny thing happened...

A funny thing happened at the Quincenera yesterday... But you'll have to read further to find out what it was ;-)

I shot the beautiful Ms Emily's Quincenera yesterday. I have done quite a bit of modeling work with her mother, and when her mom asked if she wanted a photographer for her Quince, she said absolutely, but I want Frank! Things like this make me happy.

28" Westcott Appollo Softbox

I just received my 28" Westcott Apollo Softbox late last week, and aside from a brief use on Thursday night, actually got to practice in a more natural situation today with my favorite model. Set up couldn't be any easier, as it is an "umbrella style" softbox, meaning it opens up just like an umbrella. The softbox attaches to your stand via the umbrella holder on the flash bracket, or through the umbrella hole on your studio strobes. As the flash unit mounts inside the softbox, TTL communication is impossible, and requires the use of radio triggers like Pocket Wizards or an inexpensive solution like those offered by CowboyStudios.

I tend to be an available light shooter, so when I use light modifiers, it is generally to "enhance" a portrait, so the image doesn't scream "FLASH". As you will see in the sample images below, the effect is subtle, basically just giving a little pop to the skin tones, and creating a nice catch light in the eyes. The images were shot between 10:30 and 11:30 am, with the sun directly overhead. I choose a spot in shade, and the available light was actually quite nice, and certainly usable, but then I wouldn't get to use my new toy. I was looking to balance the available light with flash, so I metered the area we would be shooting in. As I wanted to use flash, my determining factor was my shutter speed, I needed to keep it under 1/200 sec, and ideally for me, 1/125. With that consideration I was metering between f6.3 and f9.0 at ISO 200. I was shooting with the Canon 5D MKII and the Canon 135mm f2 L lens, a favorite lens I don't get to use much.

Gotta get out of my Comfort Zone

Sometimes I feel like I've been cruising on autopilot. Just doing things the way I always do them, getting the exact same results, not really pushing, not really stretching. Sometimes, it's just because I'm way to busy, with way to many commitments, other times, it's due to laziness. When that happens, it's time to give myself a challenge.

For those of you that are familiar with this blog, you know I am a huge fan of David duChemin, and of course his $5 ebooks, which are available here. His first 2 ebooks, "Ten" & "Ten More", are still my favorites. He provides exercises in them to stretch your skills without buying gear. And one of those exercises is to shoot for a day with only 1 lens, at 1 focal length.

The new Westcott Apollo Softbox

Those of you in my Thursday class know that I bought the new 28" Westcott Apollo Softbox. And you know that because we used it that night of course. Here are a couple of test shots that I took with it. It will take me a little time to get used to it, but I think I am really going to like this unit. We were just using 1 light, and obviously it was dark, so this wouldn't be my typical or ideal use for it, I would prefer to use it in open shade much earlier in the day, but again, I just got it about 2 hours before these shots were taken ;-) I will do a much more thorough review on Faded & Blurred very soon.

The first shot is  of Herman in the parking structure after the jump:

"Something to Believe In"

A week ago on my Facebook page I posted a video of Bret Michaels performing "Something to Believe In". The video used to be embeddable, but that functionality has been removed. It's a great song with a poignant message, but it never mentions anything to actually believe in, it's more about the search. So here's my list:
My daughter's "Proud Face", the sound of my son's laugh, the twinkle in
my wife's eyes, the power of photography, the small of a woman's back,
Apple products, dreams, goals, http://fadedandblurred.com/, that I
still haven't hit my peak, http://lifehacker.com/, the words "I'm
sorry", the Yardhouse, Newcastle beer, Dr. Pepper, the Coke at
McDonald's, wasabi, my children's future, my wife's shoulders, Christmas Eve, Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours", Plavix, the smell of wet concrete, fresh cut
grass, the Arboretum, Dodger Stadium on opening day, the Seahawk's
chances this year, the laughter when Beth, Laurie, and Sue are together,
my friend Tommy, spay & neuter, Star Wars, Kevin Smith, , Rolling Rock, the Thin Man series, my 40's, Metallica, the ability of a great song to transport you right back to a particular time or event in your life, the power of passion, and the list goes on. 

What are some of yours?

 If anyone from Thursday nights class is interested in the softboxes used in the video, here they are:

Westcott Apollo 28"

Westcott Apollo 50" 

Westcott 60" umbrella

 Coming up this week in school:  

Monday: "What do you give the client?"

Wednesday: Photographing the bride and groom. Please bring images of Craig on cd!

Thursday: We need models