Review of the Paul Buff Lite Mod System. Part 1

Review of the Paul Buff Lite Mod System. Part 1

Hello all I know its been a minute since I've last updated this blog. Alright, its been almost 2 years but life calls and unfortunately gets in the way of things.  On a brighter note I'm back with a short review of the of the Paul Buff lighting modifiers.

Now I've always wanted to use a set of barn doors and a snoot and colored gels etc... and that is exactly what I will be doing in my next blog post. 

This one will just be a short brief look at the various items.

So, I got a great big box weighing in at almost ten pounds, and packed to perfection by the fine people at Paul Buff/Alienbees. This is an image of what came in my box (minus the snoot box).

I said for just about $300 bucks no small amount of chump change, but in the larger picture of photography a small amount which can easily be recouped via actually attempting to sell some images or via resale.  I decided to try two of the Paul Buff Lite mod unit main frames,2 of the barn doors and also the snoot attachment. 

Now for build quality I will say that everything seems to be well made. The barn doors and snoot fit onto the main frame unit by just sliding into place.  Again, this works fairly easy. Never owning any other moonlights but Alien bee's,  I could imagine that a Profoto would go on a bit smoother but again not a deal breaker or a p.i.t.a in anyway.

The Barn doors feel great they open and close easily and I don't feel as if they will be an issue.  The snoot has a build in grid.  If you do need or want a tighter beam of light you can add one of Paul Buff grids directly into the main frame unit to tighten the spread of light further. 

The main frame unit also has to slot holders ie.. the unit can hold a set of barn doors and a grid behind it or a snoot with a grid behind it. 

I chose to order these grid holders from Paul Buff's Website.  I never bothered to look or read the site I'd been eye balling them for years always assumed they were metal, but they actually are paper. Not a deal breaker they are simply used to hold the gels in place.  I skipped buying the gels from Alien Bees/ Paul Buff and just picked up a standard gel pack set from B&H.

I believe the gels are pretty much the same. The gels will be much bigger than what can fit inside of the main frame unit and much bigger than the Paul Buff gel holders, some cutting will be required.

Gels are much bigger than needed but nothing a little cutting wont handle.  you can also use/save the excess for any flash units you may have.

This bottom picture pretty much shows how much gel you will have left after your done cutting to size.

So how do you review a light mod system, well again this was just a quick nuts and bolts now comes the hard part taking picks :-)  I actually have about 2-3 shoots in mind which I hope to get to so I can post the follow up as soon as possible.  But if anyone has any questions please feel free to reach out. 

I will also include a link to all the items in this review below.  Please keep shooting, learning and growing.

Link to Paul Buff / Alienbee Lite Mod System

Alien Bee Paul Buff Lite Mod System


Lee Color Effects Lighting Filters Basic

Composite Images To Feed Your Photographic Soul

Hello, and welcome to another post.  Recently, like I've discussed before, I've really started to move away from just taking pictures of pretty girls.  I mean taking pictures of beautiful women are great, but it starts to become very boring after awhile. It starts to feel as if my photographic soul is being sucked out of me one beautiful model at a time.  After the initial Strobist years it just all started to feel like the same thing. Let's also not forget about the constant ups and downs when trying to obtain a model from model mayhem.  You can literally spend a work week trying to get in touch with a model, then setup a shoot.  After that, you will more then likely have to contend with trying to get wardrobe, makeup etc. The list goes on and on.  I still enjoy it, but creatively my soul is somewhere else.

In searching to see what got me excited again, I started looking at works by Brooke Shaden, Joel Grimes and other conceptual & composite image photographers.  But the true moment of clarity came when I stumbled upon Phlearn.  Phlearn and the teachings of Aaron Nace were like a breath of fresh air.  He's teaching style and all in one format was great.  His tutorials and images quickly inspired.  I knew that if I took sometime to learn some of what he was teaching, I would have a new outlet to express my photography.  Did I mention just a few years back when I was learning skin retouching I promised myself that was hard enough and I would stop there.  However, thankfully Aaron brings a level headed well balanced teaching approach that makes Photoshop seem rather approachable and even easy at some junctures.  After watching Aaron do his Photoshop thing, it also lead me to seek out other photo manipulators.  This search also led me to the work of the very talented Calvin Hollywood and Glyn Dewis.  These guys are like the special forces when it comes to creating surreal photo composite images.


Recently I have been faced with some down days in my life.  I'm not the type of person to call a meeting and have a crying, hand holding and hugging session.  But like all people we need to find a way to express ourselves. I found solace in starting a project52.  With my project 52 I will take one photo a week for one year.  At the same time that I started this project 52 I also picked up Glyn Dewis new book The Photoshop Work Book.   This book is filled with some of Glyn's awesome images. All of the included images are broken down in detail from start to finish.  Glyn also has several companion videos on his youtube channel.  Armed with these newly acquired Photoshop tools, and the pain I was carrying around, it was time to put pen to paper.


I've studied and played around with many of the Phlearn tutorials, maybe even worked a few of them all the way out from start to finish, but never whole hardheartedly worked on bringing one of my own visions to life.

With so much pain of loss and despair going around in my head I wanted to convey this in my image.  I came across a photographer Michael Herb Michael Herb Photography  on Flickr. He had an image in my eyes that captured everything I was feeling at that time.  Michael Herb is a super talented photographer who has more talent in his Wacom stylus than I have in my entire body.  He seems to be a really cool guy.  I wrote him and explained how his image encouraged and inspired me, and he showed nothing but love in his response.

To start my first full composite image I would need to take an image that captured the emotions Rumbling around in my head.  So with no Model Mayhem, I settled on the only model who could really capture what I was feeling, myself.

This is the raw image that I would use to create my photo which is very similar to Michael's without being the same exact image.  My girlfriend to my camera left, is the best model in the world.  She's always on time knows exactly where to stand and doesn't go crazy if I don't have images ready for her in 2 days time.

Next I would need to remove my self from the background.  If you have access to any of Scott Kelbly's books he has a great short and simple video which really made me think differently about the pen tool.  Aaron Nace gives several explanations of the pen tool and how to use it, but seeing the short  Scott Kelby video really made me think about using it.  The tool is scary and foreign at first, but once you get the hang out it, you will probably want to use it for most  cutouts.

With the look and feel I had to also find a matching suitable background.  That also was made possible via Michael Herb.  Please checkout his companion website layerJunkie  for all of your composite image needs.  He has a good selection of sky images, fire, backgrounds and textures.  This dark ominous sky fit my current situation to the letter, and after seeing his image knew that I needed the same or similar background.

Next was to add myself  to this sky scene.  Which from this first picture that the lighting on me totally does not match this dark and dreary backdrop. I'm still very new at this but playing around with some hue/saturation & levels adjustments did the trick

 Even with the hue and saturation levels adjusted.  This picture still needed something else.  Unfortunately Michael Herb didn't have rain brushes on his site, but I was able to find some on Deviant art. However, most of these brushes still just did not give me what I wanted, so I was forced to search and learn how to create my own rain brush.   I believe that while creating these types of images learning one thing leads to another and so on.  This actually adds to the excitement of creating these images. It also keeps you in a constant state of learning and discovery.   With a few more nips and tucks the image was complete.  My first full composite was complete.  I cannot take credit and say that the conception was mine, but the feeling and emotion behind the shoot was.  As most photographers we tend to imitate, assimilate and hopefully we can move on to the innovation stage.  I myself have a project in mind which is a wicked mixture of both.

During this project I've learned that personal work will often be the work that moves people.  I've been on Flickr for well over 6 years.  In that time I believe the most views I have ever got on the life of a picture may have been a thousand.  Those pictures are all mostly pictures of lovely young ladies in typical beauty situations.  This self image born of emotion an creative emptiness made Flickr explorer with well over 5000 views in one day.  So, when your favorite photographer tells you that you should always try to fit time in or work on personal  projects you really should. You never know what or where working on what really drives you and gets your fire burning will take you. Please keep shooting, learning and growing

Link to Full Size Image on Flickr: Weathering The Storm 

Looking At The Paul C. Buff Foldable 35" (Medium) Octabox

Hello, and welcome yet again to another Paul C. Buff or Alienbee ,as some of you might call it, review.  I will try to keep this brief, or at least not as wordy and off topic as I usually tend to blog.

I had been looking at and researching octaboxes for quite sometime.  I had narrowed it down to the pcb octabox or the Apollo orb.  I have one friend who uses his Octabox religiously Mad'art Photography .  After working with him and his octabox I knew I had to have one.  I also have another friend who had the original Apollo orb (I believe they make all of the umbrella ribs out of fiberglass now) which gives a nice light but seems kind of flimsy on the build quality.  However, the Apollo orb seems great when it comes to versatility.  The orb gives you the option of using either an alienbee /Studio light or a Speedlight.  I chose form over function. 

I picked the 35" Paul Buff Alien Bees  Octabox because a lot of my shooting tends to take place while out on location.  Sometimes I have help, other times I'm alone.  Looking back I should have just picked up the 47", as it couldn't be that much bigger or unwieldy to handle alone.  For now I will just use what I have and make do. 

When the box arrived I was expected something much heavier, but to my surprise the box was packed with the accompanying grid which still didn't add to the weight. 

 

The octa comes out the box inside of a black holding bag for the Octabox.  The bag is kinda of flimsy but in no way a deal breaker.  I would however suggest maybe spending a few bucks to buy some material and take it to your local tailor or cleaners and have them sow you a bag.  I would have one made a little bigger than the octa to make it a bit easier when putting it back inside of the bag.  

The octa also comes with an outer diffusion panel and an option internal diffusion panel to further soften the light.  As for the option diffusion panel love it, but hate the snaps.  I'm not really sure, but the snaps are relatively small and I have to struggle to unsnap them.  Which leads me to believe that I will sooner or later brake or snap one off. 

  I love Paul Buff's umbrella and thumb screw design.  All you need to do is push down on the thumb screw towards the center of the Octabox , slowly and carefully allowing the box to naturally expand.  When you reach the center and here the snap, twist the thumb screw to lock in place and your done.  When I originally bought a giant alienbee/pcb softbox and octabox I hated it.  I hated the box so much that soon after I purchased it I tried to sell it.   I still can't give the octabox away ( I recently just tossed in the trash).  Build quality of the older Octabox was great, but playing around with those tension rods proved to be dangerous for me.  A few months ago I tried to set up the old octabox and nearly took my eye and ceiling light out.  That was about it for me. For the photography veterans who had to deal with that on a regular basis, god bless you pioneers and brave souls. Thankfully we now have the Paul Buff umbrella style design and many other similar designs where not as much play is needed with dealing with the tension poles.



Quality of light

I hope to do a few shoots personal and paid hopefully over the next few weeks to detail my use of the pcb octabox.  Ive taken a few shots with my favorite model so far but nothing to fancy.  I really must say that I love the quality of light.  I had initially done test, and as a disclaimer none of my test are brick wall scientific.  Because I don't know how to and I think for me would take most of the fun out of it.  I did do some measuring which I had intended to show  and explain in full detail, but someone accidentally deleted a few of the pics :-)

As a breakdown I will explain what I did do :
using the rule of thumb I picked up from Zack Arias that the light should be no further away from your subject then twice the diagonal of the face of the modifier.  Desmond what the hell are you talking about?  Ok what I did was simply tape a tape measure and measured a diagonal across the face of the octabox.  Lets say it measured 3ft.  I then double it and I should be able to have the soft box about 6 feet away from my subject and still maintain that "Octabox quality of light" before it starts to look more and more like a point source of light. 



This rule should also come in handy to help you decide which size soft box, octabox, umbrella or any lighting modifier that you will need.  Shoot in your living room studio often? is your living room a small box like mines? then a small 35"octa is great.  Do you on average shoot 1-2 people at a time in a small space? then a small octa is great.  Do you tend to shoot 3-7 people at once? Then its time to start stepping up the size of your light modifier.  You physically will have to have the light moved back 5-7 feet to get 4-6 people into a shot and have the light ratio remain constant across the frame. 

But here are a few shots with some the testing that I had started out to do before I accidentally started deleting some pictures. 

In all, I think its a great modifier, and one I will use often.  From the few quick test that I have done, I really like the look that I can achieve with the egg crate grid attached.  I did this write up because I've been able to find some stuff on Paul Buff's Octabox but nothing that really spoke specifically to the  35" Paul Buff/Alienbees Octabox or anything other then general info.  I'm sure this is not the best review out there and leaves much to be desired, but I hope it will be a little helpful to someone who was in the same boat as myself trying to pic out a Paul C. Buff/Alienbee Octabox.

Update:  This is an old blog post which I never got around to sharing.  I just wanted to add a few pics that were taken using the Octabox in the real world.  Hope this can help someone.  Again keep shooting training and practicing

A Semi Successful Solo Shoot

Last time we left off I was explaining the pitfalls of a not so successful 1st photo shoot. The shoot discussed here is not my second solo shoot since my colossal blunder, but the second interns of actual full moving parts, ie,.. makeup, stylist etc..

Securing A Model 

With this shoot the first thing I did was seek out a reliable model who I have worked with on a previous shoot.

Enter stage right Samara.  A talented young lady with a killer smile.  I had worked with her a year or two earlier on the pic posted about and wanted to work with her again.  So now I have the model in the can lets move on to step# 2, lets secure some help.

Securing Help

I preach in my last post about doing stuff on your own, well that's the major stuff like booking a model and hair and mua etc... Now to help with the nuts and bolts of carrying and helping you wrangle equipment and catch stuff that you can't see, and art direct :-)  you most definitely could use a second set of hands.  In comes Steven a brilliant second photographer and  God send.   Steven is an indispensable and invaluable friend, and photographer. You couldn't ask for a better friend or fellow photog to work with.  Pardon Steven below as he's dealing with some really harsh mid day sun right now.

Having A Working Concept

So with experience with working with many models and combing the pages of model mayhem I have found that people like to have direction, a feel of where the shoot is going before they get on board.  When I first started to seek out models the only direction I had is need pretty lady, bring light make picture. Ok, so maybe not so Neanderthal, but I just wanted to light and shoot never really thought of what to shoot or what I wanted the picture to say or express other then lets make some nice lighting.

So when looking for your inspiration to create a concept look at fashion or any magazines for that matter.  Look around at whats going on in the world or in your personal life. What would you like your image to convey?  What are you trying to say.  In the case of this shoot I had come across a series of pictures with long blowing dresses or fabric.  It then hit me that I wanted this type of infinite dress look and feel to the images. So I went about finding and looking at pictures creating a type of mood board to work with.  This way I now had something visual for myself,  the model and makeup artist.

Finding Someone To Bring Your Idea To Life

Now that I know what I had in mind the next step was to bring the dress/concept to life. This part can be tricky or expensive depending on which avenue you travel.  It just so happens that I have a friend who is a wonderful up and coming designer check out her work if your in need of something custom or designed specifically for a shoot House of Iso  .  If your not lucky to have a designer I would checkout etsy  your maybe able to find someone locally via craiglist or maybe a nearby fashion or design school.  You may be able to find someone thrifty and just buy some fabric and have it shaped into a dress, anyway you try you should come out a winner just for the effort alone.

Securing Hair/Makeup Artist

I usually work with a great makeup artist who unfortunately was unavailable for the shoot.  So I again let my fate lay in the hands of finding someone on model mayhem.  This time I was however prepared to pay a few to insure that someone would almost indefinitely show up.   I posted a few casting call and got nearly 20+ replys in about 2-3 hours.  I can't really explain why I chose the makeup artist That I went with  Mua Wendy ,but I think it was something in her reply that said take a chance, and I must say it was one well taken.  Her work and willingness to get fully involved with every aspect of the shoot was far beyond my expectations.  I think we all had a great time shooting this day as we formed a genuine bond. These are the type of relationships you need to try and form as a working creative. This way hopefully everyone can push one another and further advance everyone's cause.  So now the dress is designed the makeup artist has an idea of what you have in mind and the actual wardrobe you are almost there. 

Choosing A Location.  

This dress shoot could have pretty much been pulled off anywhere, and was almost done at the beach, but I digress.  However, when in a big city like Nyc try to choose the path of least resistance, central park.  In Central park there are no worries of fines for putting down lightstands or looking like a professional shoot etc.  No need to run and gun either.  You can setup with little to know resistance and for the most part not to many on lookers as this is fairly typical in nyc.  

Success & Failures During Shoot

One thing I learned from my old mentor Lou Garou Madart-LouGarou  is that you really should take 5 to maybe 10 frames and move on.  If you don't have the shot by then your probably not going to get it. You should move on to the next pose, location or look.  I unfortunately neglected this rule.  Partly because the plan I had in my head I did not right down and we had so much fun that we pretty much stayed in the same location for far to long.  I initially planned to have some shots located by the castle in central park and a very thick wooded area, but we wound up staying around the opening shoot location. So, try to make a plan of the places and ideas you have in mind flesh it out on paper (old-school) or on a tablet etc.. and share it with your group so that you guys can stay on schedule.

For me failing to complete all of the shooting locations and fleshing out all of the ideas I had in my head was the biggest failure.  But again, the knowledge that I gained from everything the shoot did not accomplish was a success. Before I continue to go on and on becoming ever so long winded I will end here and post some pics from the shoot. 

Please keep shooting, learning developing and growing in your craft and all that you do. 

The Endless Dress

The Endless Dress  

    

Avoiding Pitfalls During Your 1st Solo Photoshoot

The Strobist Groups 

I've found that working with other more experienced photographers has been a god send.  Especially at the height of the entire Strobist craze(2006-2010).  There were always groups of photographers willing to pool together resources ie, exotic lens and flashes you have never seen before or would probably never venture upon otherwise. With so much already in place, for the most part all you really had to do was show up with some basic strobist knowledge and your camera. There more then likely was a model (No need to worry if no model were on hand you would just shoot each other) and on those extra special meetup days perhaps someone was able to wrestle up makeup and possibly hair. Your job was  basically to show up, share if you got'em and shoot.

The Workshops/Shoot Groups

My second and probably most enjoyable meetup for me is the workshop type of meet. Pay your pound of flesh, bring your camera and shoot. The workshop, depending on the fee and setup, usually will have hair and makeup ready for you. There will almost more then surely be 2-3 people with some higher level of expertise guiding the workshop, and giving you and the model directions on how she should pose, where the light should be and how you should take the image for the best results.  The only downside is usually your standing on a line waiting your turn to shoot, or there are a bunch of photographers all standing around trying to get the models attention all at the same time. If you see the correlation between the two examples, bring camera and shoot not much else need apply.

The Self Setup Photoshoot

Having been involved with both types of shoots mentioned above at one time in my photographic follies, I still worked very closely with some good friends during the duration of my photographic years. My friend pretty much always got the model and had either hair and makeup artist ready to go.  This is excellent until the time comes for you to stand on your own two feet.

I believe I've blogged about this in the past but I'm not to sure, so I will touch on it briefly.  In a nutshell my 1st solo photoshoot was a disaster.  I located a model (Which trying on model mayhem can be a job and a blog post by itself), makeup  artist and hairstylist. There were a few weeks of trying to wrangle everyone's schedule etc.. I finally get everything together and the very last minute ( I mean five minutes before the makeup artist should be arriving) the makeup artist now tells me that she's out of town and won't be able to make the shoot.  From that moment the hairstylist doesn't want to do any work and the model also is not feeling up to the challenge.  Did I mention that I also had another model en route about 4 or 5 friends who I also wanted to share the experience with?  Yeah it was a total disaster.  

This experience shook my confidence to say the least. At this point I was ready to give up on photography all together.  I'd just wasted money renting a small but thankfully affordable studio, lugged a ton of gear across town and invited friends who at the last minute told the shoot was off and just most likely destroyed some great relationships that I had been working on putting together for a few weeks.  So, after sitting around and feeling sorry for myself, I decided that it was time to dust of the hurt and push forward.  I vowed to learn from mistakes made from the last shoot.

Mistakes learned From Failure  

Make sure everyone is in the same geographic location 
They say if you learn from your mistakes then there is no true failure.  The first Lesson I learned is to make sure everyone is in the same time zone, coast and hopefully the same state and Provence.  Granted, things happen. Things come up and people make excuses when they want to get out of things. However, I totally believe that the makeup artist was where she said she was. She claimed that her flight from L.A had been delayed and would not be able to make it.  The shoot was in nyc. That's fair. Everyone has a career and things and places to go and do, but if you have a shoot the next day it would make sense and seem professional to tell the photog that your working out of town.  If she would have  shared that key info with me I would have thanked her and found someone else as a backup or moved on completely. It may sound silly but try to make sure everyone is in town and or has any travel plans just prior to your shoot. It could save you a world of headache and disappointment.

Try not to bring every piece of gear that you own
For the shoot that never happened, I believe I came with everything and the kitchen sink.  I had softboxes, grids, beauty dish, strip lights, octaboxes.  Not to mention all flavor of lightstands and every lens that I owned at the time.  It was heavy, difficult to carry and had to make several trips back and forth, and lets not forget the fact that I never got to use any of it.  one-hundred plus pounds of gear went unused that day. What did I learn? Well, firstly you should have some idea of what you would like to accomplish during the shoot day and what modifiers you will need to complete the task, and that doesn't mean every light modifier in your arsenal.  I would say for a first shoot, 1-2 light mods at best.  This will force you to learn to work with what you have and keep you on track so you can only stray so far off the grid.

Consider not buying gear for awhile and put money towards the shoot 
Now this may be a hard one for many.  Some people may not have the extra funds or would rather buy another piece of gear.  My friends, with all the gear and lighting crap that I have, I have yet to make a picture or series of images that has bought riches and celebrity to my door.  Maybe the credit card company and bill collectors.  You can have all the gear in the world but if you have just that extra pop of something it may just push your image(s) over the edge.

That extra that I speak of is hair and makeup and possibly a stylist.  If your a female photog with a sense of fashion or a guy with a sense of fashion for the most part you can wing the clothing, but hair and make up can add that 3rd or 4th dimension to your images. I see it this way, had I spent less money on gear and put a few $$$ aside to actually pay for hair and makeup I'm pretty sure that makeup artist would have showed up that day or would have provided much better and timely info about her whereabouts.

 My mistake was the great "TF" Time for prints or Time for F*#k .  You probably wouldn't believe the horror stories I hear all the time about  tf shoots, mines included. However, once money is involved, The dynamics start to change. People will more than likely be reliable. If you can, it may cost a few extra dollars, but try to find someone who can do hair and makeup this way you need only rely on a single individual as opposed to two.  On my second shoot which to me was a semi success, I had a dress designed and a makeup artist.  We were in contact during the entire planning of the shoot up until we meet at the shoot location.

If your pressed for cash and are unable to afford hair and makeup, I would still try to find someone on model mayhem, but try to meet them before hand to get a sense of what type of people you are dealing with. Do they seem reliable?  did they show up on time at your meeting? Also, if you can try to find people they have worked with in the past and see if you can get any info on them or there work and or reliability.

Closing Thoughts  

As first mentioned it can be a god send working in strobist type groups or with friends and workshops, but this gift can also be a curse.  You should try and do them all, but you should also start slowly to venture out and try working on your own shoots.  I believe you will learn so much more about the workings of photography and the industry.  Working on your own will at first produce some failures which will only serve to make you a stronger and more resilient person and photographer.  Also, if you are in a group setting or with friends try to step up and take the lead sometimes.  Give the model direction or try to get the stylist or hair and makeup for the shoot.  I learned a lot from my friend and mentor over the years, but I always hid behind his shadow during shoots.  This aided in handicapping me for awhile, but I now shoot mostly alone or with the aide of a good friend or assistant but I take the lead. If just one person reading this finds this helpful or has been in a similar situation then putting these words to screen were well worth it.  Take care and remember keep shooting learning and growing.
 

F^&K It. Life Is Short And Unpredictable

Hi, I know its been awhile since my last post. But like all things we get busy and life is full of distractions. You know like way to much porn, either gear or otherwise :-) . Then there's the constant hanging out in photo forums instead of shooting. Don't let me get started about projects that you kick around in your head and never start.  But as we enter the second month of 2014 with broken self promises try to find something to remind you to push on and live life the way you want.  For me, it came in the form of a fellow photo whom I don't know personally and have never seen his work until today.

Anthony Carbajal for all intensive purposes appears to be an excellent west coast wedding photographer who appears to have been shooting for a much shorter time then I, but appears to have more talent in his finger than I've been able to muster with my lacking flickr stream in 7 years.  The point here is Anthony has just been diagnosed with ALS. which will soon rob him of his photographic talent, and most unfortunately his normal way of life.  So I ask the question what the fuck are you and I doing?  We may never reach Anthony's level of photographic excellence, or we may not strive to, but are we leaving life to its fullest?  Are we fleshing out those photographic or other ideas swimming around in our heads, or are we just letting them drown in a quagmire of excuses and waiting for tomorrow to come.  My friend tomorrow may never come or it may come with exemptions or limitations.  I haven't written in quite sometime but reading about Anthony's story has again encouraged me to push forward.  Time is short and the promise of a full healthy life to waste on stagnation can be ever shorter.  Find the extra 10mins or 15mins to start your project.  Go find that lake, stream or prop reclaimed wood, or grab that friend  that you keep toying with the idea to shoot and just do it.   

I truly believe Anthony Carbajal will be my inspiration for sometime to come.  I don't want to go on in circles so I will leave off here.  To find out the full story on Anthony and how the photographic community is stepping up to help a fellow brother-photog in need please follow the links to the Slr-lounge full article.

wedding-photographer-diagnosed-als

Anthony Carbajal Website

Should photography just stay a love obsession or a career ?

This picture was an add in after the fact.  I had all ready written a long drawn out blog post that turns into one of my normal rants. It really should have been sweet and to the point. I digress again, pardon me. This pic is from the Nikon D800.  I've done some editing and frequency separation and skin color toning on this. I'm in the process now of trying to find a workflow to use regularly, as my workflow is usually all over the map 








Hello all. its been quite a while since my last post.  To keep with the theme of things the d800 is doing great.  Since the purchase I'm starting to learn a lot more about dynamic range and recovery.  I've seen and now understand about shooting to the right and being able to save a picture.  I've also decided to switch gears.  I believe my photography may start to switch more so towards family and friends. Trust me the beautiful ladies are great, but its not really what I think I want to do, or what I really want to express in my portraiture.  I need something else.  I'm not quite sure what it is I'm after but when I find it I will post and share :-) . 

     Also, Photography is great, nice fantastic a passion, but one that does not pay the bills.  I recently read an article on Scott Kelby's site by one of his guest bloggers, Ron Martinsen.  In a nutshell Ron talks about his experience and having spoken with full time photogs who find it hard as hell to make a living in this industry. So, quitting your full time gig to pursue a career in photography may not be the best idea.

      5 years ago you couldn't tell me that I wasn't going to ditch my job and become the next Zack Arias, David Hobby or countless other photographers.   However, after countless failed model mayhem attempts, cancelled photo shoots and yes paying jobs I've realized that this is probably not what I would want to do in a full time capacity.  The paying jobs of course are the things that interest me not, weddings, events,  baby showers etc... These all seem to be the money makers but its not what I want.  Its also not steady money.  So 5 years one marriage and a few grays later, I need to be realistic.  I don't have the time on my side to continue to pursue photography so aggressively.  I have a family bills, and other things to make me crazy.  I implore no one to give up on their dreams, but try to look at the balance of where you are in life and where you want to go. By no way am I giving up but I do need to weigh my opportunity cost of photography vs my stable job (stable at the moment anyway). I did say job.  At this point it pays the bills, and quite regularly I might add.  Some may say that if you feel that way, then you really do need to go all in on photography but at what cost? 

     I think the above paragraph speaks to answer the question of the overly saturated photographer/photography market.  Everyday there are a few 100 entering the market, and the next day a few more are leaving.  There are people who enter much like myself full on, but things happen, shit happens, life happens.  And I think overtime photography for most people who lack the skill, time or duration to see it through and learn the craft will also be washed away when the tide comes in.  That tide will be different things for different people but it will come.  I myself have become obsessed with photography, If I were to count the man hours of videos, books blogs, b&H visits shoots, etc... I should be well on my way to working on a masters degree in photographic arts.  But I will continue to shoot because it's something that I love, but chasing the big white one I will no longer as there are greater things at risk.  If the success or recognition does come in some way shape or form, I will welcome it, but take it with a grain of salt. 

     As usual I've gone off on a rant again. Thankfully for the most part no one reads this blog :-) but again its a cathartic experience for me.   As usual keep shooting learning and practicing.