Digital WakeUp Call and the Exciting Lighting Contest!

Mar 062009

As mentioned yesterday,  David Ziser’s Digital WakUp Call tour looks to be shaping up to be a pretty great event! I got a sneak peek this past Sunday and if you are even remotely interested in improving your lighting skills or your business chops, you’d be crazy not to sign up.  The best part? Chances are, David is going to be right in your town! – 58 locations all in all!  Can’t beat that for a lousy 79 bucks.

(in my best TV pitchman voice): BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!!!  As a special offer for F/1.0 readers, David is offering 20 bucks off registration if you use the following code:   ZEZDWC09. what a guy!  Especially considering that just for walking in the door you get:

  • Tour Handbook including: program notes, photography, marketing and more
  • 2 Hour DVD with extended program content
  • $100 Rebate from American Color Imaging
  • 1 year membership to WPPI and Rangefinder magazine, a $99 value
  • FREE 3 month membership to DigitalProTalkPlus.com, a $45 value
  • FREE 3 month subscription to PPA Magazine, a $15 value
  • FREE PPA Indemnification (no-fault) insurance for all new PPA members, a $50 value
  • Over $2,500 in door prizes awarded each evening
  • And a chance to win 1 of 4 Grand Prizes worth over $5,000

Still not satisfied? Ok, how about getting in *for free*.  Yup, that’s right – 1 lucky reader gets a free pass in whichever city you choose!   How?  Well, The digital WakeUp tour is all about Lighting, so how about an “Exciting Lighting” contest!   Here’s how it works:

  1. Create a Flickr account (if you don’t already have one)
  2. Join the newly created F/1.0 flickr group
  3. upload your best photos using off-camera lighting to you flickr stream
  4. Tag said photos with “F10DWC” (for f/1.0 digital wakup call)
  5. Add them to the F/1.0 group
  6. Please limit 3 entries per person – if you tag more than 3 images with “F10dwc” I will simply consider the first three tagged to be the entries!

That’s it!  The contest will run until noon (EST) on March 25th.  After the contest is closed, we will look over the entries and select what we consider to be the best image (based on overall style, composition, technical skill, and creative use of lighting).  The winner will be notified via flickrmail, and will have their winning entry featured on F/1.0, in addition to receiving the free pass to the Digital WakeUp Call tour!   Costs nothing to enter, so start submitting those shots!

Tweet This Post Stumble This Post

Radiopopper PX review part 2 – range testing

Mar 052009

As promised, part 2 of my Radiopopper PX review. (PART 1 HERE) Although for my purposes, I can’t imagine I’d need to trigger my slave strobes from >100 feet, I figured why not push them a bit and see how far I could get before they started to flake out!

I set up 2 strobes with PXs in the windows of my 3rd floor studio, and walked outside.

Across the street. Click. no problem.

Ok, let’s try around the corner [click], yup, still firing…

img_4829

Unfortunately, due to the angle of the streets I couldn’t get *too* far before I lost sight of the windows, and couldn’t verify if there was a flash or not.   I walked into the park, getting as far as I could while still maintaining LOS to my studio.  I would estimate it was about the length of a city block, maybe more.  -click- I had to check the image, zoomed all the way in, but sure enough the flashes still fired.

img_4833Probably can’t see it in that pic, so here it is zoomed in and cropped.

img_4833-2

I rattled off a bunch more frames, and as best I could tell it still fired every time.

Finally walking back I tested out the HSS functionality.  Across the street at an ambient-killing 1/8000:

img_4843and finally a much more reasonable 1/1000:

img_4844

Conclusion:  In the end, I broke before the RPs did.   I actually wansn’t able to get far enough away to make them misfire – even in what I’m sure is a heavy RF interference environment (downtown Philly!) Even though I’ll probably never have a need for this much range, it’s good to know I have it on demand :-)

Now I just can’t wait for my JrXs!

Tweet This Post Stumble This Post

B&H with David Ziser!

Mar 042009

So this past sunday, I was lucky enough to get a seat at the B&H event space to see none other than the inimitable David Ziser presenting.   (for anyone who’s been living under a rock, David is the wedding photographer & blogger extrordinaire who runs DigitalProTalk)

Yours truly (left, with the hat hair), and Mr. Ziser (right):

img_4804-edit

His presentation was apparently a “dry run” of the material that he’ll be doing for the upcoming Digital WakeUp Call tour,  And if this was any indication it’s going to be a great one!

Lighting, Lighting and more Lighting.  Without tooting my own horn – I’m no slouch at lighting, but David is definitely a master, particularly when it comes to the kind of on-the-fly, quick-and-dirty techniques you need to know in a fast paced environment like a wedding.  I definitely jotted down a few notes on some techniques that I will be adding to my repitoire!

Business, business, and more business. David also shared a *ton* of info on the more mundane aspects of a photography business, giving insight into his digital workflow, sharing tips and tricks from some of his favorite sofware suites (including the best layout program *ever*, Lumapix FotoFusion), and great ideas for marketing, promition and client service.

Suffice to say, it was a great presentation even in it’s “rough” form, so the final Digital WakeUp Call version should be fantastic.   Definitely worth getting my butt out of bed at 5am and hauling up to NYC for!

And if that doesn’t make it sound good enough – stay tuned tomorrow when I’ll tell you how you can win a chance to go attend the Digital WakeUp Call tour in your city *for free* !

how about them apples? :-)

Tweet This Post Stumble This Post

Panasonic intros new G1 (GH1) and lenses

Mar 032009

As pretty much everyone was expecting, panasonic released the “MKII” version of thier ground breaking G1 at PMA, calling it the GH1 (the H presumably being for “HD video”).  frontBasically the same as the G1, the GH1 adds video capabilities, along with (surprisingly) a new sensor, which can be optimized for various aspect ratios, ala the LX3 -cool!

The real excitement though is the new lenses – a 14-150 (28-200 mm equiv.) superzoom and a 7-14 (14-28mm equiv.) ultrawide.    The 14-150 is supposed to be optimized for video as well.

I dunno about you, but to me the GH1 with the 14-150 and upcoming 20/1.7 lenses might just be the ultimate “travel/carryaround” camera setup.  (unless Pentax does in fact announce an EVIL that can use their pancake primes. )

Tweet This Post Stumble This Post

Samsung gets E.V.I.L.!

Mar 022009

From the “where did that come from” files – Apparently Samsung just announced the development of a new hybrid/EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) camera at PMA scheduled for the 2nd half of ’09. *with a full size APS-C sensor*

Seems like the success of the G1 is driving the industry, which is fantastic! There have been a lot of folks clamoring for something like this for a long time.

Of particular interest is the fact that samsung uses the Pentax K-mount for their SLRs, meaning that this camera could potentially work with the full range of K-mount lenses.   A EVIL hybrid camera with the ability to use some amazing Pentax glass would basically be my dream camera.

The real question is, is Pentax going to have one of their own?  (cue the “me kicking myself for selling my incredible Pentax primes”)

EDIT: more images HERE: (Drool!)

Tweet This Post Stumble This Post

Newer Entries