jon rennie

<p>I design and print right on the DVD disk with a dymo discpainter and make dvd inserts for the packaging.<br>

William: You are missing one key point. While DVD's may not be around in 40 years, the transition from DVD's to other technologies wont be comparable to that of a 78rpm vinyl, so your comparison doesn't really work. 78's were analogue and any duplication degrades quality not to mention difficult. DVD's can be copied easily without any quality loss to other media. DVD technology won't just dissapear so there will be plenty of opportunity to copy files. I bet you a lot of B&G's with disks have already copied their files onto their hard drives.</p>

<p>It's all about speed. I do 99% of my editing in LR and it cuts my processing time down significantly. Would probably take me 5x as long to do everything in photoshop at least.</p>

<p>It really ranges from next to nothing to several hundred dollars.<br>

Some photographers use people who design the layout of their albums for them, some do it themselves. Some print the pages themselves then send them into companies to get binded, some have the companies print and bind. Some photographers do it all in house like myself from designing, to printing, and even making the album itself. Where you save money that way, it takes significantly more time. You really can't put a specific number on it since there is so much veriety out there.<br>

Am I safe to guess you are checking to see why your photographers albums cost so much? (just based on how you asked the question).</p>

<p>Keep in mind they take 7-8k images but deliver much less (some do this much solo). If you learn to two finger edit, you can take the 7k down to 1.5k in 1-2 hours. Nothing wrong with it, to each is own. I normally shoot about 1500 images or so depending on how long the day is.</p>

<p>I second Joanne's point that it is harder to get back into Canada then to leave it. In March I flew to Mexico for a wedding from Toronto. Customs didn't ask me about my gear or business vs pleasure at all on the way down (I flew through the states on a US airline - so 2 sets of customs). Only on the way back in Toronto did they ask me a bunch of questions about my gear and reason I was there.<br>

I make no lies that my profession is being a photographer so they never question where I got my equipment. But I take my gear on all my vacations too since it's also my hobby so it;s never an issue.</p>

I would hate to work with a bracket as they are cumbersome and heavy.<br>

Orientation of the flash for me isn't an issue, nor is the recycle time of my 580exII, although the CP-E4 is great if you feel you need it and really doesn't add much weight as you can clip it to your belt.<br>

I bounce my flash as much as possible and avoid straight on flash for best results. For the shots straight on, it just isn't worth the hassle.</p>

<p>The reality is, most people (including big name pros I will not name here) just go as a "personal traveler" to avoid border issues. If you say you are going for business and don't have all the paperwork in place you will get major issues. Since so many photographers travel with photo equipment on vacation and personal trips anyways, it's nothing out of the ordinary.</p>

<p>Sergey... if you really think you really think you are going to notice shutter lag with the 5DmII during weddings I would be very surprised.</p>

<p>I think there are other factors that trump resolution/speed here.<br>

The 1D has dual slot for in camera redundancy (big plus in my books) and weather sealing.<br>

I shoot with a 5DmII and love it. I don't need more speed, but sometimes you don't want 21.1mp raw files so I shoot half my weddings at SRAW which is closer to 1D size. The 5DmII of course is an amazing low light camera and is FF which is why I chose it. I wish it had the dual card slot though.<br>

If your style of shooting is using long lenses and liking being far away, the 50D is a good option since it's got the crop factor, but I would rank the other two clearly above it.</p>

<p>You really won't get answers to all your questions because there are just too many options. Your location will have a big impact on more then half of these questions and even after that you will have a dozen options for each.<br>

1. No<br>

2. Only you can determine this and the only way to tell for sure is to try. Some great photographers have no desire to charge for their work and some lousy photographers charge a lot.<br>

3. Camera and a backup with a veriety of good lenses (this depends on your style of shooting) and a couple flashes. Photoshop is a staple as far as I am concerned.<br>

4. No one can answer this, look around at your competition and see what your market bares and compare it to yourself.<br>

5. Depends where you are.<br>

6. Each are good business strategies. There is no answer.<br>

7. See #4<br>

8. See #3<br>

9. I don't have the experience in childrens photography to comment on this one.<br>

I think you are looking for a lot of concrete answers but you really won't find any. You have to first understand that a photography business is more about a business then photography. Equipment is only one battle. If you want to invest some money in equipment get some quality fast glass which will last you a long time. Lenses are a better investment then the camera body.</p>

<p>Brianna.... I read this over a couple times and I just can't believe you are seriously thinking about getting into the industry without even SLR camera experience (as far as I can tell)<br>

You are starting from scratch with equipment so it leaves you with two choices. You can do it right from the beginning so you don't have to upgrade all your lenses later, or you can go cheap. Something like a Canon 40 or 50D, 17-85 2.8, and a 70-200 2.8 would be a good setup to start IMO. You would also need a flash like a 580ex, and lots of memory cards and a couple extra batteries.<br>

That would be a good kit for a second shooter. To actually shoot weddings on your own you will need a second camera of similar quality, another flash, a couple more lenses, insurance, and skill.<br>

Before you should even consider helping a photographer as a second shooter you need experience shooting with an SLR though. Learn how to shoot in manual mode on the fly and using a flash (never the one on your camera).<br>

I would actually recommend you get a camera like a digital rebel just to start and use that for a while first. Learn that before trying to put together a wedding kit. If you want to get into the business of photography expect to lay down at least 5k (if you are ok buying some of your gear used). IMHO from what you listed there you will be way over your head if you just dive right in. Start small and slow.</p>

 

<p>As for a lens I would go with the 50mm 1.4 unless you have a really high budget. An 85mm is also a good option but it just depends on the style of shooting you like (closer or farther from subject).<br>

My logic is it is too expensive to have two identical main/backup bodies. I used to shoot with 2 cameras but found it's not worth the trouble anymore. For me, a backup is just that. I don't plan to use it very much. I have pictures in my portfolio from both rebels, 20d's and 5DmII's and the client really wont know at the end of the day. Save your coin for the next upgrade later down the road to replace your 5D then just use that as a backup.</p>

<p>2 options.<br>

1) as George described<br>

2) plexiglass. Goes overtop of the white seamless on the floor. This will also work with black or any colour if you want the versitility.</p>

<p>Mike, the big difference with DVD vs hard drive is ease of changing formats. If a better technology comes out you would like to transfer your drives to, you only have to copy a couple devices and not hundreds of DVDs. Takes no time at all to bring it up to speed when the time is needed.<br>

DVD and CD's are more fragile then many think. Everyone is worries about scratching the bottom of disks, but its actually the top side of the disks that hold the data (right under the top label area). Damage the top area of your DVD and the data is gone. Damage the bottom area and you can normally fix it.<br>

Will your great great grand kids be able to access the files? Why not? - but that doesn't really matter in this business. IDE hard drives are 20 years old, and they are just being phased out now (but still in wide use and will be for a while longer). It will be a few more years before that technology becomes rare. I won't go into all the techno babble. Bottom line is it will be simple in 10 years time if you saw a change in technology to simply copy and paste the drives over to something new.<br>

Oh, and hard drives aren't really prone to issues with climate control. Assuming you keep them where you live its more then enough. The data is completely sealed from the elements. The controller boards on the outside are subject to it but they are pcb boards and are rugged. They are built to handler 100+ degree heat as well as freezing conditions.<br>

PS: this is coming from a former tech guy.</p>

<p>It's not really a ploy by Canon. They don't make money from the software. Adobe has the ploy, there is no reason they couldn't integrate it into CS3 with a minor update. Adobe at least has a free converter so you aren't forced to buy anything, but it just adds an extra step.</p>

<p>I plan on keeping a backup of every wedding I ever shoot for life. I already backup everything, so it's just a matter of storing the drives as they fill up.<br /> If you are backing up you are already doing the work, so how much pressure is it to just store them in a small area. If you look into off-site backup solutions, it would be a lot of money over 10, even 20 years. Who knows if those companies will be in business at the time or how much it will cost you.<br /> Assuming you keep an archive of Jpegs not RAW (which is all a client is worried about) then you can put upto 100 weddings on a 500gig drive. These drives are also increasing in storage capacity and prices are cheap, so even 200 weddings on a 1TB drive (numbers are rough to make it easy). If you shoot 50 weddings a year (which is a lot in my opinion) you can put 4 years on one drive (at current technology). You could easily fit even 10 drives in a small $200 fire/waterproof safe. 40 years of images!<br /> At todays prices, that's only $1000 in drives ($25/year).<br>

Hard drives last longer then CD's especially if not in use. If they do malfunction there are many recovery services out there that can restore data with great success. Not possible on CD or DVDs.</p>

<p>I don't think I would ever want to charge this to my clients. Think of it from another perspective. You are basically saying you wont bother to keep proper backups of your pictures unless they pay more money to you.<br>

We all have to have a good backup system for at least the last couple years. How much extra work is it to archive even longer given todays cheap storage solutions? Not much really. You don't need to archive all the raw files, so you can fit a few years archived weddings onto a single 500gig hard drive that costs you very little and takes up almost no space. This price will continue to go down as well. Buy a nice fireproof waterproof safe and you have a nice little inhouse system. True, the best would be to also have an offsite backup but again - the costs don't really go up too much to store 100 weddings vs 500 weddings.<br>

This idea sounds more like a nickel and diming service. We are not insurance agents, so I would recommend keeping a nice backup system and charge a suitable "recovery" fee after a given amount of time if they need something pulled from the archives.</p>

<p>CS4 will be able to read both - CS3 will not open 5dMII (just read the compatability chart on adobes website, i have seen it before). I am almost positive CS2 should be able to read your 10D raw files you probably have another issue if you can't open them with CS2. </p>

<p>CS2 Cannot read 5DmII raw files no matter how many times you upgrade it. Only CS4 can read the files. You can download a DNG converter from Adobes website where you will have to mass convert all your 5DmII raw files to DNG files to be able to read them.</p>

<p>My clients only know I shoot with digital. That's all they need to know. Only a small percentage of them would know it's a 5DmII and even fewer would have any idea of what that means. When I see gear listings on a wedding photographers website I can see it there for 2 reasons: 1. because the photog has a lot of photog followers who ask the question to them a lot, 2: because they are new and think their clients will care.</p>

<p>You can't compare photography to the bar and finding money for things like that and not photography. B&G's focus may be on entertainment for the guests rather then keepsakes for themselves. Food, bar, DJ are all expenses that are for entertaining the guests more then anything else. Photography on the other hand is mostly for the B&G and the closest family.The bar and food are huge expenses but those are there mostly for the guests and their entertainment. Photography is mostly for the B&G and closest family.<br>

Sounds like your message isn't directed to newbies, but to future B&G's. As much as we would like them to have photography their priority we can't change it. It is their day and they will dictate to us what is most important and we will do the best we can.</p>

<p>Sure they can have a budget for the bar, but each couple has their own priorities. As much as we don't like to admit it, not every couple has photography at the top of their priorities when it comes to their wedding. There is a photographer for every brides budget.<br /> If a couple has the choice of no photographer and a photographer who has no experience but pretty good with a camera who is willing to shoot it for free, you bet they will go with the free option.<br>

The first two weddings I shot (or even attended) I did for free or for very little compensation. They were both for family members who had no budget for a wedding photographer. Without me offering my services to them they would have never had great pictures. There was a huge unknown on how well I would do. Sure I was in 1st year of university for photography, but it was a fine art school and gave me almost no preparation for a wedding.<br>

<br /> Second shooting and assissting are probably the two best ways to get into the business, but let us not forget those brides who are willing to take a chance with someone who has never proved themselves. Regardless of whether they are unable or just unwilling to pay for a proven photographer. There is, and always will be a place for these freebie offering photographers. There will be those who fail and fail miserably and those who also perform beyond expectations. The only recommendation I have is that both parties are upfront about the experience/expectations ahead of time so not to disappoint or mislead anybody.<br>

<br /> Education is a valuable tool, but lets not forget those who are self taught. There are many of us who are considered self taught and are quite good (not just in the field of photography). There isn't one right answer here. The only thing that should happen is when starting out be honest of your experience, don't mislead the b&g. If they are OK with having an untested photographer shoot their wedding that is their right. I for one am not worried about them hurting my business because my clients come to me for my style, personality, and experience and are willing to pay for that. There is no best path for the newbie wedding photographers of the world, each of us learns differently. I for one am glad I jumped into the deep end shooting my first wedding (also the first one I have ever attended) solo.<br>

<br /> Aimee (if that is even your real name), you seem to be dead set in your opinions regarding the issues you bring up on photo.net from what I have noticed. I just encourage you to be a little more open to others opinions and know that there are more than one way (your way) to skin a cat. You talk with such authority but hide behind what I can only assume is a pen name.</p>

 

<p>I would be surprised if more then 25% of B&G's backed up their cd of images. I charge a fee for additional copies of the disk (since i do mine up real pretty) so I would just charge that fee. If I had to go dig into a few years ago's hard drives (I keep a year or two current on my local hard drives) to get the files to put on the disk again, I may be inclined to charge a little higher.</p>

<p>On the other hand, there is going to be those couples who just don't have the budget for a photographer or are only willing to spend up to $500 for the day. Everyone knows they are out there, and some of those actually specifically seek out up and comers, students, etc... They simply can't have a pro there because of money. Sometimes to them, someone building their skills is better then uncle bob (who will still be taking pictures, trust me).</p>

<p><img src="http://www.jonrennie.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/img_4936.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="600" /><br>

From last weekend. I love fog machines.</p>