This is a multi-purpose blog entry...

The first: If you are not yet listening to the podcast "The Candid Frame" hosted by Ibarionex Perello you are missing some great stuff.

At least once a month (sometimes more) Ibarionex will interview the worlds
top photographers and is kind enough to share these gems with us.

Simply amazing stuff.

About 18 months ago he interviewed Tara Whitney, a women who loved photographing her own family and then kinda fell into being paid to photograph others.

Many of us have seen the fancy shmancy flash and video websites and Tara rose quickly with only a modest, honest, and personal blog. Armed with that blog and her camera Tara realized the kind of success that many of us fantasize about (okay, so as I've aged my fantasies have changed), she was booking portrait sessions all over the west, she would fly into a city, do her sessions and then fly home, success by even the toughest of standards

Though Tara has moved on to the more traditional website, this has been fairly recent and was because of her professional success, not the cause of it.

Below you will find an excerpt of her original interview on The Candid Frame.

The purpose of this post is to :

1. Have you start listening to The Candid Frame

2. Go look at Tara's site and see some way cool family portraits.

3. To motivate you do stop waiting for when the "time is right", go do it now!

Remembering Your Lighting Setups... Part II...

Since the last entry, I came across some great examples of documenting/saving lighting setups by photographer Maurice Mc Duff.

Below is an image from this page that has sixteen examples, on the left you will find a beautiful image, on the right is the schematic layout of exactly what was used, what the settings were, and exactly where it was placed.

Good stuff, thank you Maurice.

Remembering Your Lighting Setups...

When you shoot a lot, it is easy to forget exactly what the setup was that you used, especially if it is a portrait session you shot months (or even a year) ago. Or maybe you are at a seminar or meeting and wished you had your setup to share with the photographers, or some way to right down their setups for when you get back to your studio.

Whatever the reason, here is the answer.

Kevin Kertz has put together a (Photoshop) .psd file that you can use to document (or create new) lighting setups.

The Photoshop file comes with a bunch of photography equipment included (each on its own unique layer) such as cameras, backdrops, lights, reflectors, models and more.

Create your diagram, flatten the image and viola!, it's ready for printing or emailing.

You can download the LightingSetup.psd here, and I have also included several sample images below to give you an sense of the possibilities.

Now before you download it, please understand that there are restrictions when using Kevin Kertz .psd file and I think it only fair (and respectful) that when a person is kind enough to share something with complete strangers, that we (the complete strangers) abide by the rules of its release. The rules are printed on the download page, but I want to print them here as well.

Restrictions:
• For personal use and to share your setups only!
• NO commercial use• Please leave the copyright on ALL setups...Thanks!
• YES you can post your setups on other sites. Please refer others to download here so FM can profit from new visitors.

So, now you are thinking, "Man! How cool is that!", but then it quickly sinks in that you don't have Photoshop. "Damn!"

Well, this is your lucky day as there is an online version that can be found right here!

Be sure to thank Scott Garson for providing this valuable online tool.

“Wireless flash” by Uzair Kharawala Reviewed…

I recently had the pleasure of watching the DVD “Wireless flash” by Uzair Kharawala for review on this blog.

Uzair is a wedding and portrait photographer living in England, he does Nikon sponsored training seminars, training for wedding photographers, and has produced this flash DVD.

Be forewarned, this DVD is done with and teaches how to use Nikon flash equipment (SU-800, SB-800), but I would strongly recommend that any photographers interested in learning some cool flash techniques take the time to watch this DVD.

This DVD presents us with 7 different photographic scenarios, 1 indoor & 2 outdoor portrait sessions, 2 outdoor sports sessions, 1 food, and 1 industrial session. A wide variety of lighting challenges, not just easily overcome, but done so with outstanding results. At the end of the blog you will find images from 2 of the 7 sessions.

Before you get 2 minutes into the DVD the first thing you will be impressed with is the quality of production. The audio is simply top notch in clarity and volume levels, the best I have heard in a photography based training DVD.

The chapters explain everything that a beginner or a person who has owned their camera for awhile may need to know in order to get excellent images using a simple set up that consists of a couple flashes and one triggering device.

In each of the seven photography sessions Uzair explains to the viewer the settings of the equipment being used and the conditions of the shoot conditions itself.

The flow from shoot 1 to shoot 7 is in such an order that it starts with a simple set up for a flash photography shoot and then builds sensibly from that point on by adding the extra equipment and changing to more interesting location examples.

All that being said, there are two things I would like to have been different:

1. The DVD is only 25 minutes long, everything was well documented and covered, but because I was thoroughly enjoying what I was watching, I wished there was more. Much like (for me) eating Thai food, though one plate is delicious and filling, that doesn't mean I wouldn't like some more.

2. A beginner will be blown away with what this DVD teaches, but a more advanced photographer would enjoy a bit of theory and maybe a few technical difficulties that needed to be overcome to make the shoot "work".

This DVD gets two thumbs up. Enjoy!

Outdoor Portrait

Outdoor Sports

Studio Lighting, Part 2...

More from Mark:

Studio Lighting, Part 1...

Here is the first in a series of studio lighting videos by Photographer Mark Wallace, enjoy!

A quick look back at 2007…

Here are the numbers:

This log has been online for 5 months

We have posted to it 41 times

Visitors have come from 98 different countries

There have been 10, 451 unique visitors

And 15,887 different page views

I want to thank you for making these numbers possible, as the success of this blog is because of you, our visitors.

If you like what we did in 2007, you are going to love 2008, as we will be doing more and doing it better with more posts, more reviews, and more resources for the photographers who visit this blog.

Your comments and suggestions on how to make this blog better are encouraged and greatly appreciated.