Category Archives: Advice

Advice

Apple says goodbye to its image editing software Aperture

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The latest announcement from Apple  discontinuing development of their professional image tool Aperture is a good reminder to both consumers and professionals that we should never take any product for granted.

We need to be ready to adapt.

Lightroom users: this doesn’t mean it can’t happen to you too.

All it takes is for someone larger to buy Adobe and decide a change its direction and we’ll all be in the same boat.

As a Lightroom user myself, I can’t help but think this isn’t necessarily good news.

Competition drives innovation and keeps pricing in check for one thing.

So what exactly does Aperture and Lightroom do that’s different from a pixel-based image editor like Photoshop? Continue reading Apple says goodbye to its image editing software Aperture →

Advice, Assignment, Gear

Using Speedlites for location glamour photography

Maria was lit by 2 Speedlites, one inside my Photoflex Octodome and the other inside The background is lit by a 3rd Speedlite.
Maria was lit by 2 Speedlites, one inside my Photoflex Octodome and the other inside The background is lit by a 3rd Speedlite.

I have always admired photographers who specialized in glamour.

They may be men but they are very in tuned to how makeup works on the variety of skin tones, hair color and  facial features of the women they photograph.

Coordinating all that and wardrobe alone is enough to make my head spin.

 

Having a makeup artists on hand is definitely a god sent.

I recently connected with makeup artist and hair stylist Anna Cameron recently so we when we got together, we collaborated to photograph aspiring model Maria Nuñez.

We worked in the basement of Back to the Grind coffeehouse.

Continue reading Using Speedlites for location glamour photography →

Advice

4 ways to increase your picture-taking odds

Gaylon plays his saxophone while waiting for his bus along 14th St in downtown Riverside. Tri-X BW ISO 400 film 1/2000sec @ f5.6 400mm lens

Fortune favors the prepared I’ve read.

Over the years I’ve been extremely lucky to come across some  winners  and I’ve always had my cameras with me.

Please realize  this was my job and my cameras were never too far away–always in the trunk of my car.

Talent and skill didn’t have as much to do with those pictures as you might think.

It’s just that over time I’ve discovered how to increase my odds  keeping the following in mind:

  1. always have a camera handy
  2. shoot lots of pictures but not mindlessly. Recognize those  moments when you need to hold down the shutter button to shoot bursts or sequences
  3. recognize your own limitations
  4. prepare, plan then be ready and anticipate

Continue reading 4 ways to increase your picture-taking odds →