Last month, many of you participated in our contest called “Your Best Shot of the Summer.” The theme encouraged you to share your most compelling, inspiring and fun shots from your summer season. Wow, we were amazed by the incredible images that you shared! Tennessee-based photographer Robyn McIsaac won the contest with her heartfelt image entitled “Little Miss America.” For her creativity and efforts, Robyn won some sweet ShootQ prizes! But more important, she won the hearts of many viewers who saw her winning image. Since ALL of your images inspired us – and your friends and families – we wanted to encourage even more discussion and sharing. So, we’ve created this blog post for you! The winning image by Robyn McIsaac of Pix by Robyn The
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Image Contest: Submit and Get a Chance to Win a Free Year of ShootQ
Photo: Joe Buissink Submit Your “Best Shot of the Summer,” and Get a Chance to Win $1,958 in Prizes. It’s easy to enter. Just send your “best shot of the summer” to contests@shootq.com between Sept. 15 and Sept. 21, 2013 (web-res jpg format). Please include your address (city and state) with your submission. Once the submission period closes, we will upload all eligible submissions to an album on the ShootQ Facebook page and promote the voting period, from Sept. 22 through Sept. 28, 2013. Share with friends, family and colleagues to garner “likes” for your submission. The image with the most “likes” by the end of the voting period wins! Make sure you include a logo or watermark in the lower right-hand corner of
Why Every Photographer Should Lose “Weight”
If you do wedding photography year after year, the physical labor takes a toll on your body. Photographers often carry multiple camera bodies, along with multiple lenses, flashes/studio lights, tripod/monopods and other accessories. Wedding after wedding, we’re carrying fifity to sixty pounds of equipment – plus we’re on our feet all day long! I remember carrying all my gear and hiking half a mile to a mountain-top ceremony in Muir Beach. It was exhausting, and I knew I couldn’t carry on like this for years. So, for the past few years, I’ve focused on shedding equipment weight and improving efficiency, while delivering the same quality (or better) results. Here’s what my toolbox looked like in 2010: Bodies: Nikon D3, 2 Nikon D700, D300, D90 Lenses:
A Wedding Photographer Reviews the Leica Monochrom
“Be quick, but don’t hurry.” – John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach I love this quote and I think it fits perfectly with photography. I started out with Rangefinders in wedding photography. Partly because those are the tools I had but also because I loved the intimacy I could achieve with a Leica due to it’s small size. I’ll probably get some flack for this from film lovers (hey, I’m one too) but with their new Monochrom – black and white 18mp digital Rangefinder, Leica has put the “Tri-X” back into digital photography. Perhaps they’ve even put the tried-and-true love of black-and-white back into wedding photography. I think there’s a different thought process with black-and-white photography versus color photography. With the Monochrom, I don’t have
How to Make One Kid’s Year by Just Taking a Picture
Jane Goodrich has a simple question: “Can I actually make one kid’s year just by taking a picture?” Turns out she can – and you can help too, by supporting her work and sick children who need us. Jane loves photographing children so much, she’s made a career of it. She specializes in portraiture of newborns and children. And as an identical twin herself, she particularly enjoys making images of twins. (Turns out parents of twins are often reluctant to have a photo session, fearing it’ll be twice as crazy as regular studio appointments; Jane makes house calls to help simplify things for families.) Lately, though, she’s engaged in a project that has become almost as dear to her heart as her DNA-matching sister. Jane
The Canon 1DX: Geek-Out Product Review
Rather than beat around the bush with a long, meandering introduction and make you meticulously read all the way to the conclusion, I’ll just come right out and say it. The Canon 1DX is the best camera I’ve ever used. Hands down. By far. Ok, now that that is out of the way, I’ll get down to a few of the specifics — the things I love the most about it and a few of the things I wish Canon would fix/change. While I’ve been very impressed by the 1Dx, I firmly believe there is no such thing as the perfect camera and the 1DX is no exception. Canon 1Dx, 1/640th, f2, ISO 1,000, 50mm A few words about the nature of this review.
A Real Life Review of Pocketwizards
This started as a real life review of Pocketwizards. Basically it said, “Pocketwizards are bulletproof and if you know the tricks, they work over 95% of the time.” And then last weekend happened. Over the course of two weddings, three of my eight wizards broke. One of them – a Mini TT1 model – broke during the rainiest and most humid wedding of the year. I accidentally overtightened the plastic shoe and by the time I realized it, the humidity and overcranking combined to cause the Pocketwizard‘s plastic shoe to jump off its track. Over the next day and a half, I managed to drop a Flex TT5 model, snapping the plastic off of its shoe, and then the battery door on another Flex TT5 snapped off
What Every Photographer Should Know about Pinterest
Here at The Photo Life, we don’t believe in secret formulas or overnight success stories. We believe the only right way of doing business is the one that serves your unique clients and grows your business the old-fashioned way. Hard work and happy clients are your foundation for success. Different systems work for different studios, so the key is finding one that suits your clients and your business! That’s why we’re eager to bring you timely topics that spark debate. Voice your opinion by commenting below! It’s the best thing since whiteboards in college dorms! It’s a breeding ground for copyright infringers! Those strong statements sum up the debate currently raging like a wildfire among creative professionals. Two things are certain: neither Pinterest nor the debate about
Three Business Books Every Photographer Should Read
If you’re like most photographers, you got into the business of photography because you love taking pictures. But as we all quickly realize, owning a photography business is about a whole lot more than understanding the in’s and out’s of your camera. Over the years, I’ve heard the old adage that “leaders are readers” more times than I can count, and as cliche as it is, it’s the truth. When I look back, the phases of life when I’m doing the most reading are the phases of life where I’ve grown the most and been most innovative in the work I do. There are a lot of books that could have made this list, but here are three of my favorites that I think are
Survive the WPPI Madness
Oh the stories from our very first trip to WPPI… No, Jeff and I didn’t get crazy, stay up all night, and party until the wee hours of the morning doing Saki bombs and shouting “this is sooooooo staying in Vegas! Woo hoo!” Nope. We pretty much woke up, wandered the trade show floor by our two little selves, sipped some coffee, and tried to make eye contact with anybody that would talk to us. Awesome. I can say with confidence that eventually it got a lot better than that. Even though we felt completely overwhelmed at our first WPPI, this conference has proven to be a dynamic and integral experience for our business. Even though we felt totally isolated going into it that first