"What Kind of Camera Should I Get?"

A lot of people ask me what camera they should buy if they’re either just buying their first DSLR camera or upgrading from a point and shoot to a DSLR.

I’m a Canon guy, and that’s what I know, so I recommend Canon products (because I can help them then if they have questions or issues.) Nikon makes some great cameras, as well, and you can’t really go wrong with either a Canon or a Nikon camera.

That said, I start by asking what their budget is. I learned pretty quickly that you can spend a lot of money if you want to on camera gear.  But the good news is that you don’t have to if you know what to buy for your particular interests and needs. These are some bare bones suggestions.

I’ve put together a few options that will hopefully get you started:

 

Option 1: The Absolute Beginner – “I just want to take pictures”

• Canon T3i (Canon just released the T4i, so T3is are at good prices right now) ($599)

-or-

• Canon T3i bundle (a good starter kit with a couple of lenses, tripod, bag, etc… Pretty much a complete beginner’s kit.) ($709)

Option 2: “I just want to take photos of my kids, wherever”

• Canon T4i  (camera kit with 18-55mm lens) ($749)

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens (a prime lens that doesn’t zoom, but one that takes amazing photos in low light and indoor situations without a flash) ($110)

• Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash  ($254)

• Transcend 16GB Class 10 SD Card ($13)

$1126

Option 3: “My kids are in sports and I want to take photos of them playing.”

 • Canon T4i bundle ($900)

 -or-

• Canon T4i  (camera kit with 18-55mm lens) ($749)

• Cannon 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS zoom lens $255)

• Transcend 16GB Class 10 SD Card ($13)

($1017) 

Option 4: “No- I mean I want to take really good photos and video of my kids playing sports.”

• Canon 60D with 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens kit ($1099)

• Cannon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS zoom lens ($499)

• Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash ($250)

• Transcend 16GB Class 10 SD Card ($13)

($1861) 

Option 5: “You don't understand- I mean I seriously want to take some professional quality photos and video of my kids playing sports.”

• Canon 7D kit with 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens ($1449)

• Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM Zoom lens ($1999)

• Transcend 16GB 400x CF Card (this camera uses a different type of card than the other cameras I’ve listed) $34

• Canon Speedlite 600 EX-RT flash ($569)

($4051) 

I hope that helps!

Exposure Doesn't Pay the Bills

Olympic Photographer Leaves Lens Cap On

Ouch.

Shooting Fireworks

Last night to celebrate Independence Day, we went to dinner in the small country town of Hempstead at the home of some friends from church.  We and another family from church had a great dinner, some really fun conversation and the kids had a - dare I say it - legendary time playing in mud and water in the back yard.

Then sunset came and time for the fireworks.  I've been reading a lot of tutorials this week about how to shoot fireworks, so I decided to give it a shot.  I've never tried to shoot fireworks before (well, not since I've had any kind of clue about photography, anyway), so I was pretty excited about it.

We headed to the outskirts of town to a hill where we would have a good view of the show.  And we waited for the fun to start.

The scene was picturesque.  I opened the shutter at f/1.8 at 8 seconds and got a pretty decent shot of what we were looking at.  It was a beautiful night  - the bugs weren't bad, it had cooled off from the day and a light breeze was blowing.  The perfect evening for fireworks in the country!

When the show started, it turned out that there was a large oak tree that was blocking a lot of the fireworks that were lower to the ground, but the larger ones would burst perfectly over the tree.  Our friends lamented that the tree was blocking some of the fireworks, but I loved it because it gave me a foreground element to add some interest to the frame.  A black frame full of fireworks isn't as interesting as a frame with other elements to set the scene.

Then something cool happened.  The full moon started rising behind the very same clump of trees that were framing the fireworks.  Because I was shooting long exposures, I knew that the moon would be blown out in the shots, but I thought it looked awesome anyway.

Anyway, these are my first attempts at shooting fireworks.  These are pretty much straight out of thre camera - no processing, except for a little crop.  It was a lot of fun, and definitely something I'm going to do again.

And this was a 33 second exposure of the grand finale:

Error 99ed

The day after the Dallmeyer shoot, my Canon 40D started giving me an "error 99" code when I tried to shoot with it.  On Canon cameras and error 99 is a catch-all error that could mean anything from a bad battery connection to a bad connection with a lens to a loose ribbon cable on the internal circuit board.  I've gotten error 99s at work before, so I started going through all the procedures that usually fix them.

Nothing.

The very first shot that I took with my Canon 40D in December 2009

Then I tried them again, doing a more thorough job.  I cleaned connections and replaced batteries and tested with someone else's battery and reformatted my memory cards and reloaded the firmware.

Nothing.

So I took it to my favorite camera shop, Precision Photo and Video, in Austin.  The tech said that with that kind of an error they usually have to send them off to Canon to have them work on them.  That, along with shipping and any parts and labor usually costs around $400.  Heck, I could've bought a USED 40D that very day for $450.  But I figured that if I was going to spend that much money, I might as well put it towards a brand new camera instead.  So my old trusty 40D went where all good broken cameras go - eBay.

The very last shot that I took with my Canon 40D in March 2012

I was actually surprised how much I got for my non-working (except in Live View) old camera - $270!!!  So between that, some birthday money (thanks, Dad, Janet and Grandma Hagler!) and some freelance money I was able to get a brand new Canon 60D.

I'm going to miss that great old 40D.  We had been through a lot together and I used it to learn quite a bit about photography.  But frankly, after using the 60D at work for awhile I was starting to get frustrated with its limitations.  It was starting to feel its age.  So its demise ended up being a good thing.  An unexpected thing that wasn't budgeted for, but a good thing in the long run.

About 40 days passed between when the 40D died and when I got the 60D - a period of time the length of lent and just about as trying.  It was really weird to not have a camera other than the iPhone to be able to grab when the kids were doing something amazing.  My hand felt empty at family functions and pretty much all spring.  But the time in the wilderness has passed, thankfully.  And I'm grateful that getting a new camera was even an option (and especially grateful to have such an understanding wife who knew that it was a need.)

On to a new exciting chapter in my photographic (and video) journey... with my new 60D in hand!  I can't wait to see what I can do with it and to share those images with you!

Friend Portraits - Mason and Alex (and Austin)

Still needing more practice, another one of our favorite families allowed me to shoot some wildflower shots of their boys.  The boys have a new baby brother, Austin, and the original idea was to do some wildflower portrait shots of the three of them at sunset.  But sometimes things don't go as you planned...  For one, there wasn't much of a sunset that night.  And Austin wasn't feeling well, so we only got a couple of shots with him in it.  But we did get some shots of Mason and Alex that I think really capture their personalities, including one that is going in my portfolio.

Friend Portraits - Kannon

This spring, I decided I needed some practice shooting portraits of people and families and especially kids.  I wanted to practice and experiment using flash to light an outdoor scene in a live portrait situation.  So I enlisted the aid of a couple of friends' and their kids to shoot some location evening shots.

The wildflowers were pretty good this year, so we headed out to a great bluebonnet field to take some shots of Kannon at sunset.

I was having a rough day and my gear was malfunctioning - okay, okay... it was completely amateur user error.  But that's why I was there!

We ended up getting some really nice shots of Kannon and his family.

And as a bonus, I got a really great shot of Kayci at sunset, too...

It's Spelled "Expensive"

Matt and I have been having this discussion as to how to pronounce the word "Leica," as in the camera and optics manufacturer.  At one time, I thought it was pronounced "lisa," but have pronounced it "like-a" for the past couple of years after hearing a bigwhig photographer pronounce it that way in a podcast.

Matt, on the other hand, claims that he had an uncle or a cousin or somebody who actually worked for the company and pronounced it "lay-ka."  So who's right?  Some imaginary uncle/cousin or a big name photographer that I think I remember seeing on some podcast at some time or other?

Since Matt is a habitual liar and not to be believed on such matters, I decided to take matters into my own hands and find out by going to the most trusted source on the internet- Wikipedia.  No help there.  So then I searched some photography forums, where there were crazy pronunciations that I had never even imagined and that would be hard for even a German to pronounce correctly.

So then I got an idea.

I went to leica.com and found their main office support number and called it.  Genius!  And within two seconds, I had the answer.

It's pronounced "Like-a," just as I had claimed.  I called Matt to gloat and he distracted me by talking about other things before our conversation went down a rabbit hole of discussing Peter Gabriel and Genesis albums.

Grasping at Adequacy

I find myself feeling inadequate and a bit hack-ish this morning.

Yesterday, I got the opportunity to work alongside and watch a truly gifted photographic artist, Lauren Larsen.  Seriously- there are photographers, and then there are artists.  The difference is vision and style and grace and poise. She's got all that, and a patient spirit.  And it was a huge honor to get to work with her.

That said, I hadn't actually planned on working with her.  I've been a fan of her work for a couple of years now ever since my buddy, Matt, turned me on to her website (they knew each other in college.)  I've been working toward doing more professional photography, and so I've also been looking at a lot more photography related websites and videos.  But I know that I learn best by doing, not by reading a manual or a tutorial.  So I've been trying to get as much shutter time in as possible lately (until my camera died on me- a story for another time...)  So a few weeks ago, I heeded the advice that a mentor gave me a long time ago: "the way to learn is to watch people who are at the top of their craft and whose work you admire and respect."  I contacted Lauren by e-mail - cold and out of nowhere - to ask her if she would allow me to be her assistant on a shoot sometime.

This is the bride whose wedding Lauren Larsen
allowed me to help her shoot and an example of
Lauren's amazing work.

laurenlarsenblog.com

To my surprise, she graciously agreed.  When I offered, I really meant that I wanted to carry her gear or get her coffee or whatever just so I could watch her work.  I wanted to see her process and how she did things - everyone has their own way of doing things.  Lauren sent me a list of dates of upcoming shoots.  Unfortunately, the only date that I had available was yesterday ... Sunday ... Mother's Day (DUHN DUHN DUUUUUUHN!)  I was hesitant to ask Kristi to cut in on her Mother's Day, but when I told her about the dates, she actually suggested that I pick that date.  More proof, folks, that I'm married to the best woman ever.  She knew what a great opportunity this would be for me and how excited I was.

So Saturday, the day before the shoot, I got an e-mail from Lauren.  I had sent her a list of questions, one of which was, "what should I bring with me?"  She told me to bring my gear and sent a shot list that included me shooting some detail shots and side shots.  I think I wet myself thrice.  I would be shooting a wedding with Lauren Larsen, not just watching?  Hooooly crap.

I should back up and say at this point that I've only assisted in shooting a wedding once before.  It was several years ago, and I didn't know squat about photography.  Not really, anyway.  I think I might've had the camera on a fully automatic mode the whole time.  I'm not proud of that.  At the end of the night, I handed over the camera and never saw the images, but it's probably for the best.  I probably don't want to see those images.  I shudder just thinking about how bad they probably were.  Ugh.

laurenlarsenblog.com

So I showed up on Sunday for the shoot and met Lauren and her assistant, Christine- her real assistant- the person who was doing what I thought I was going to be doing.  Awkward.  We spoke briefly about the upcoming day and then got to shooting at the bride's house.  I'm pretty sure I just followed Lauren and Christine around for the first 20 minutes or so before I even took the first photo.  While Lauren shot photos of the wedding dress in the bride's back yard, I realized I wasn't actually, you know, doing anything.  So the first shot I got was of the family dog.  Pretty appropriate, I'd say.

Things got better as I felt a little more comfortable.  Watching Lauren work was simply amazing- she just made everything look so... effortless.  I tried to shoot what Lauren directed me to and not to duplicate her shots.  But sometimes I found myself going after her to try to frame up a shot that she had just gotten, just so I could try to see through my camera what she had just captured.  I didn't shoot any of those- I just wanted to try to see with her eye while we were still in the moment.

Throughout the day, I found myself struggling just to get the shots I was seeing.  I love to capture glimpses of people's real personality- most people only show it in short bursts, anyway.  And for some reason, I was having a really tough time.  I always seemed to be just a split second late for a lot of great shots.  That's not to say that I didn't get some great shots (okay, what I think, for me, are some great shots...)  I just wasn't getting them as quickly and as consistently as I'd hoped.  But then, that's why photographers often shoot thousands of photos at a wedding or other event.  But that's another thing that impressed me about Lauren- she was very meticulous and measured and deliberate in what she chose to shoot.  I, on the other hand, was panicking and shooting anything that looked like it might be meaningful or relevant.  The candles on the windowsill?  Shot it. The Bridal Suite door sign?  Shot it.  Some iron work sculpture that was holding presents?  Shot it.  Lauren was like a photographic Seal Team Six to my Barney Fife.  Watching her work, I felt wholly inadequate.  But that's what I was there for- to watch her work.  If I could already do anything remotely close to what she does - as well as she does it - well, I'd be shooting all over the world, too.

More ridiculously - and frustratingly, impossibly beautiful portraiture by
Lauren Larsen.

laurenlarsenblog.com

Later in the evening she mentioned to me that it takes a lot of weddings under your belt before you really get a good feel for the pace and what to shoot.  That verbal pat on the head made me feel a little less a retarded monkey with a camera.  A little.

Lauren was very patient with me, and for that I'm thankful.  I think she could sense my nervousness.  I just hope that I was able to get some shots that reflect what a special day it was for the couple getting married.  I have no idea if she'll even let any of my images out of quarantine from her hard drive.  I'm not even sure if she'll let them on there in the first place for fear of infecting the beautiful images sharing surrounding bits and bytes.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I received yesterday and that God has given me the drive to try to pursue these new creative ventures, even if the talent is still in the mail somewhere.  Hopefully, it'll get there someday and I will be able to tackle a wedding or a portrait shoot without doubting my ability and secretly fearing that everyone will think that I'm a hack.  Someday.  Maybe.  Hopefully.

I hope that I get to work with - or for - Lauren again at some point in the future.  I truly enjoyed my day and went home absolutely exhausted.  I went to sleep last night thankful just for the opportunity to work alongside such an amazing artist.  Thank you, Lauren, for allowing me to share in the day.  And thank you, especially, to Kristi for being so understanding about my quest to grow as an artist as to give up half of Mother's Day to allow me to try.

10 Things Every Serious Photographer Needs to Know

From this excellent episode of The Grid by Scott Kelby:

1. 1.Look at other current photographers' work
2. 2.Stop over thinking
3. 3.Find the right camera for YOU
4. 4.Great photos aren't found in the menu
5. 5.Lighting: Break out of your mold
6. 6.Rent a lens first
7. 7.Get good at photoshop or find somebody that is
8. 8.Once you go pro, shift to business-focused mindset
9. 9.Understand what online forums are really for
10. 10.Stop posting works in progress if you want to be taken seriously
11. Bonus tip--- If you want to have great landscape photos, do what most folks aren't willing to do

Last Day to Order

Don't forget, Bearkats...  today is the last day I'm taking orders for the panoramic I shot of the Bearkat fans rushing the field following the Bearkats' historic victory over Montana a couple of weeks ago.

Orders will be accepted through Tuesday, December 27.

$25.00 plus shipping, paid via PayPal.  Photos will be mailed the first week in January.  If you happen to be in the Brenham area, let me know and there will be no shipping costs.

To order, e-mail your shipping address to photos@jamespharaon.com, and I will send you an invoice to pay from on PayPal.

Thanks, and Eat 'Em Up Kats!

"Bearkat Fans Take the Field"

"Bearkat Fans Take the Field"

Following the SHSU vs. Montana game last week I shot this panoramic shot of the entire field as Bearkat fans stormed onto it.  I've had several requests for prints of the shot, so I'm posting this here in case any other Kat fans would like one, as well.  

Order your 32"x9" panoramic photo print of the crowd taking the field following the Bearkats' historic victory over Montana!  This will be a one-run only print, so don't wait and miss out!  This will be a high resolution professional photographic print, suitable for framing.

Orders will be accepted through Tuesday, December 27.

$25.00 plus shipping, paid via PayPal.  Photos will be mailed the first week in January.  If you happen to be in the Brenham area, let me know and there will be no shipping costs.

To order, e-mail your shipping address to photos@jamespharaon.com, and I will send you an invoice to pay from on PayPal.

Thanks, and Eat 'Em Up Kats!

Turpin Family Portraits

Last weekend, I was honored to be asked to shoot some family portraits for some old friends of ours - the Turpins.  A few months ago I got to shoot baby portraits of baby Jackson, and so I was very pleased when they asked me back to shoot the whole family.

They wanted to shoot outside, which I always love.  But the day was gray and overcast with light that most photographers LOVE to shoot in - but that I hate.  I love contrast, and I really like shooting in sunny conditions.  But the shoot must go on, to paraphrase and old saying...

So we went down to a park near where they live and shot using a flash, diffused with a gel on it to give a bit more warmth than the day would have otherwise offered.

Here are some of my favorite shots: