Wedding season is upon me, and I am in need of a good assistant!

So what does an assistant do?  The job involves holding lights and reflectors, helping carry equipment, helping pose and adjust during portraits, and a variety of other tasks.

I’m looking for someone with weekend availability for anywhere between 3 to 10 hours.  You must be reliable (no canceling last minute!), punctual, and able to behave yourself at a formal event :)  No photography experience is necessary, but interest in photography is required.  Please note, however, that this is not a shooting position.  There may be some light shooting involved occasionally, but this is primarily an assisting job.  Starting out, this will be strictly for wedding photography, but may expand into other event and portrait work.

I’d prefer to work with someone I know – whether I’ve worked with you before, photographed you before, or just know you personally.  If you are interested, email me to get details about schedules and pay rates, and to discuss if you’re a good fit!

Thinking about becoming a wedding photographer?  The logical first step is to second shoot for another photographer – meaning you shoot alongside them at a wedding to learn the ropes, build your portfolio, and make a little money. 

I’ve been second shooting myself lately just to learn a bit from other photographers and play with new techniques.  As I’ve worked with these photographers, I’ve heard some serious horror stories about other second shooters overstepping their bounds.  It seems most of them simply don’t know any better.  So whether you’ve been second shooting for a while or are just starting out, here are few tips for how to be a great second.

Offer something better than “free labor.” Many photographers receive emails about second shooting weekly if not daily.  A common request I get is the offer to shoot a wedding along side me “without compensation.”  That’s great for you, as you get to build your portfolio and learn a few things.  But for me, it’s less of an asset and more of a distraction.  If you’re new enough that you’re willing to shoot for free, it’s more than likely I’ll be training you while you are shooting, which is not always fun.  Rather than offering to shoot for free, see what else you can bring to the table that might be helpful to the main shooter.

Rent good equipment if you don’t own it.  Be sure to bring good quality equipment to shoot with.  New lenses and cameras are expensive, but important.  If you don’t own them, rent them for the day.

Get out of the shot.  Always be conscious of where the other photographer is shooting.  Try to stay out of their shot as much as possible.  Remember – their shot is probably more important than yours. » Continue reading “Etiquette of a Second Shooter”

It may look like a bit of a mess to the untrained eye, but I assure you, my bag is a well-organized machine.  I can pack a lot of equipment into one backpack, and usually don’t need to bring any additional bags (although I’ve always got a few things in the trunk of the car just in case.)  The bag is a Tenba Shootout Medium Backpack, which fits perfectly in the overhead bin of an airplane when I’m traveling for a shoot.

Camera Bodies: 2 Canon 5Ds with battery grips

Lenses: 50mm f/1.4, 50 mm f/2.8 macro, 16-35mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, 15mm f/2.8 fisheye

Flashes: 2 Canon 580EXII Speedlights, 1 Quantum flash battery pack, 2 PocketWizard transceivers, ETTL flash cord

Memory: 52GB in Lexar memory cards (plus 10GB of backup memory cards that never leave my bag, just in case), Epson 80GB Multimedia Storage Viewer

Odds and Ends: Shootsac, flash and camera battery chargers, AA batteries, lens cloth, water bottle, almonds.  If I’m traveling, my MacBook Pro, power cords, and card reader also fit into this bag.

Looking for gear of your own?  Try B&H and Amazon for good deals.

The Lady Gaga Pandora station seemed like a good idea.  I turned to Lady Gaga to spice up my editing soundtrack after exhausting my iTunes library and growing tired of the same old Pandora stations I usually listen to.  It was such a drastic change at first that I loved it.  But I could only take it for so long before I started wanting to tear my hair out – a stage I reached last week whilst editing.  No more.  Turns out I could not be romanced, Lady Gaga, thankyouverymuch.

I know I’m not alone on this – I often meet photographers who practically beg for suggestions of what to watch or listen to whilst editing.  So here’s a playlist I’ve been running with some success.  A little old, a little new, a little Bob Marley.  Because Bob Marley makes editing through the family photos just that much easier :)  Maybe one of the songs will inspire you to create a new Pandora station of your own.  I’m hoping someone will share their favorite playlist in return – I still need some new music myself, and I’d like to keep all of my hair intact :)

Are you tired of looking at images of soup?  Yeah.  Me too.  How about some behind the scenes Photoshop work?

This is one of my favorite family photos from the Adkins family session that I shot last fall in St. Louis.  Here’s the behind the scenes of what was done to the image before it was blogged:

Step One: Straight out of the camera, shot in RAW format at ISO 200, 38mm, 1/250 second at f/4.0

Step Two: Minor tweaks to increase brightness and contrast in Lightroom

Step Three: Totally Rad Actions Prettyizer at 60%;  Oh Snap 60%,  Yin Yang 15% on the dad.