steve_koopman

Hi there Wesley,

 

Photographing a family portrait varies from photographer tp photographer, and from family to family.

 

Esp. if children (young children) are involved.

 

Here are a few hints that we use all the time - most of it is psychology! :)

 

1. set the family at ease with smiles and light humour. Corny, but it loosens them up.

2. take any formal poses first - maybe 3-5 variations i.e. sitting, standing, etc.

3. then, if children are there - let them runa nd play, and encourage the parents to help out - they know what gets their own kid smiling! just photograph as the hour unfolds. it can be a lot of fun.

4. sometimes the kids will guide you. look for this, and always make sure, when you speak to them you bend down to their short stature.

 

The kids just want to be themselves - and they will play up the camera.

 

We have one couple come back every fall b/c they love the standard family portrait, but then we can concentrate on the kids, adn different family groups i.e. mum dad and kids, mum and kids, mum and each kid, dad and kids, etc.

 

check out www.unveiledphotography.ca/family

 

www.unveiledphotography.ca/infant

 

It takes a moment to load.

 

Good luck!

 

Katie

www.PremiumBeat.com

 

easy to use, lots to choose from!

 

Worked for us!

 

Katie

A little over a year ago my mother got very ill.

 

She developed a bulbous mass on her inner thigh which grew into half a tomato size in a matter of hours. She had contracted a bacterial infection which morphed into cellulitis (the beginnings of a flesh eating disease.)

 

The irony of the situation is that we lost my aunt (only 36 years at the time) who was a hair dresser to this same thing 5 years prior. She was gone in 48 hours.

 

She was rushed into hospital on a Friday morning and had it lanced. At around 1am Saturday, the doctor noticed that the skin was not rejuvenationg itself, and so mum had to be air lifted to Toronto Wester hospital.

 

My dad informed us via phone (we are 3 hours away from them) and suggested we stay near the phone.

 

One hour later he phoned and said that the doctors told him to, 'call everyone.'

 

We were due to photograph a wedding starting late that morning.

 

I hurriedly packed - not knowing really how to... I packed a bathing suit, funeral clothes, etc etc. It was very surreal. I was in a state of shock and my adrenaline was running.

 

My husband phoned a pool of excellent phootgraphers we knew, but they were all committed to other contracts. One of them, however, referred us to an awesome guy in town who just asked to stop by with the bride and groom's info, and told us to worry about payment and details later.

 

I had the presence of mind to type a letter to the bride and groom, and we dropped it off their hotel.

 

As immediate as my mother's illness was, I could not leave town without tying up loose ends.

 

It was strange how it was our bridal couple's most important day ever, and somehow, it became mine too. They were incredibly wonderful, and totally understood.

 

I am happy to report that my mom is alive and well, but it really was a matter of hours. She could feel her poor body failing. She had just turned 50.

 

This story has other awesome miracles, such as the reunion of family we have not seen in many years.

 

Mum asked her surgeon at her final check up if he had any other patients with flesh eating disease. He told her that he had one die, and one lose a limb.

 

My mom did not lose anything, and gained an immeasurable amount more.

 

It truly has been a year of thanksgiving - we love our job, we take it seriously; b/c you never know what life brings...

 

 

Katie

I feel your pain.

 

I have to do this again... for 2005/06 weddings. Very few though.

 

Prior to Christmas just past, I told my clients if they would like their albums and prints and parent albums complete as christmas gifts, all orders had to be placed by mid. Nov, and I gave a date. This mostly worked out. I was still entertaining last minute submissions, however.

 

I will do this agin for those who still have credits and albums outstanding, as wedding season , in two months, will hit hard, and then we will not be able to devote time to outstanding packages until the fall.

 

Hopefully, this will make some budge.

Hello folks,

 

I am said wife of the ranting Koopy and I watched him post his rant with paragraphs and all, for easier reading, and when he posted the thread, it did not appear as he wrote it. As I type this, I am writing with shortened paragraphs for an easier read... we will see what happens.

 

I don't think many of you understand where we are coming from. So please let me clarify.

 

All the Canon Ambassadors which have replied do ease our troubled minds as to the reliability of Canon's equipment.

 

However, all the goodwill advice, while appreciated, has not helped, as we have tried everything, and the cameras continue to read ERR 99. Note cameras. All three. One I could handle. Not all three.

 

After 3 months the 30D was returned for a possible repair/replacement. It was repaired by Canon, and continues to read ERR 99 on occassion.

 

While hubby admits to trying something a little different the first time, if you call spot metering doing something different, I know in my case yesterday, nothing was different. I was simply photographing the bride getting ready in a low lighting situation with flash and without. And then the shutter went berzerk.

 

We are not telling people not to buy Canon, but rather to be informed. It is as simple as going the nearest retailer and getting their professional and personal opinion on the products they stand behind. Also, if you see in wedding photography posts, especially on photo.net, many newbies ask, as well as those who are already immersed in the industry, "what's in your bag?" People are curious and want to know the pros and cons of what they are going to invest in. There is no harm in that.

 

A good company will still, even with an unhappy vocal minority, provide a solid answer with good customer service (and don't right me back about that statement b/c I KNOW Canon has good customer service) and a solution to an otherwise highly frustrating and annoying problem - I am not asking for their cameras to be perfect, but there does seem to be many with the same problem as ours: relatively new cameras, with a relatively high (for our budget) price tag, with a re-occurring problem.

 

Albeit frustrated and needing to rant, all we were looking for at 12:30 am was a little therapy , know-how, and (fingers crossed) answers among Canon users and/ or suppliers.

 

In the fourth paragraph hubby stated I was using my fave Tamron 18 - 200mm, and had on my 580 flash. This had not happened before. I may sometimes interchange the Tamron with a Canon L series lens. I do not use a battery grip nor battery pack.

 

Also, upon purchasing our Tamron at a reputable retailer we were told that it was made to be interchangable with Canon bodies.

 

When this first occurred with Steve's, I think he was using his Canon 17 - 85mm and battery grip, with 580 flash, and battery pack.

 

The more I read, I am learning that there is no pattern for ERR 99 to occurr, and that it is indeed a catch-all reading.

 

With the exception of Steve's 30D, which froze after 3 months of use, I am resting upon the idea that my 20D and Rebel have simply reached their 'limit'.

 

I am beginning to swallow that life expectancy is not a ripe old age measured in total years of faithful service, but perhaps is a reflection of how often these babies are used.

 

Regardless of this being correct or not, and depending upon what answers we receive from Canon, I hope not to budget $3000+ every year to a year and a half to replace camera bodies.

 

The word investment to me was always long-term sounding, not some temporary 'we'll see'.

 

Any more thoughts or trouble-shooting welcomed.

I'm here to rant (sorry folks). I've read through pretty much all of

the "Error 99" posts on various sites, and am surprised no one here is really

addressing the big issue - THIS PROBLEM APPEARS TO BE PROLIFIC!

 

I own a 30D, a 20D and the original Digital Rebel, purchasing them in the

reverse order. They were all purchased new and from very reputable dealers.

I first received Error 99 readings on my 20D, and was able to solve the issue

as many do - by turning it off or removing the battery.

 

Then in July my 30D gave me an Error 99 reading, but nothing I did would

resolve the issue (yes, I turned it off, removed the battery, cleaned the

contacts, switched lenses, switched memory cards, even removed the clock

battery for a peiod of time to possibly clear any volatile memory). At the

time I was trying to spot meter with my 580EX flash on using the Exposure Lock

(*) button. This occurred while shooting in a middle of a wedding (thank

goodness for back-ups!). It was sent away and a month later received it back

from Canon under warranty. I have had it give me two Error 99 readings since,

but they have been solvable.

 

Now my wife was shooting with the 20D tonight at another wedding and she

received an Error 99 reading which could not be resolved using any of the

methods that everyone talks about. The shutter is randomly and quickly firing

without reason. Even when turned off it will fire, forcing me to remove the

battery to stop further continuation. One thread mentioned a problem with the

shutter curtain but I don't see any misalignment. She was using a 1GB Sandisk

Extreme I card with a 18-200mm Tamron lens. This is the only lens that isn't

Canon in our collection, but this is her favourite walkaround lens and she has

been using it on the camera for well over a year. She switched lenses and

tried all the other methods with no success. Our other lenses, just for

everyone's knowledge, are 17-85 IS, 10-22, 24-105 L IS, 70-200 f/2.8L IS and

50 f/1.8.

 

Then, not that the night wasn't frustrating enough, our Rebel she began using

as a back-up also began to give her Error 99 readings, I believe four times

over a 2-3 hour period! These were solvable by just turning the camera off

and then back on again.

 

So, to conclude, out of three Canon digital SLR cameras purchased over the

last two years, all three have produced Error 99 readings, with two now

appearing to be unsolvable at a consumer level and needing to be returned to

Canon for repair. My 20D is past warranty so I now shudder to think what the

cost will be to fix it.

 

To have to pay $1,000-$1,600 Canadian per camera and receive this lack of

reliability is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! How can I trust these lines of

cameras as a profession? I don't read Nikon threads because I have never

owned any, and I'm sure they receive complaints as well, but to this extent?

 

Unless I am the most unlucky person on the planet, I would highly urge

potential buyers of Canon to weigh the strong possibility that your future

camera could end up freezing on you at the most inopportune times.

 

Canon reps, if you are reading, you seriously need to address this issue. I

have poured thousands and thousands of dollars into your systems (perhaps a

sucker is born every minute), and was planning on spending more of my hard-

earned money on your products. I am contemplating selling it all off and

swictching to another brand, if my research indicates there is better

reliability.

 

I look forward to any responses.

 

~Canon Lover...?~

While I understand that your price reflects your lack of experience, so to will it increase with your gained expereince.

 

We all need to start somewhere to build a portfolio. Just DON'T question the what if's, nor use your lack of experience as an excuse for your low price; it does not give future clientele a firm vote of confidence in your ability nor worth.

 

A videographer (and even photographer)who can dance and juggle and be a two-in-one vendor scares me - and the woman will see the results of her decision. If this person can pull it off, with either he/she hiring out or actually taking the pictures and video taping it all at once, all the more power to them. I'd like to know what their blood pressure is.

 

Also, next time, to sell yourself, you really need to know your competition, and tactfully explain to your furture clientele, only when the issue arises, that them hiring someone to your job is, in all honesty, and as I said before, scary. For a whole lot of reasons.

 

Personally, I think, when it comes to hiring to anyone for anything, a specific person should be hired for a specific job. I would not ask my roofer to fix my toilet.

 

You will book that date the woman declined. And you will get your full $750 elsewhere, just be patient. Believe in yourself and make solid business decisions understanding that this is just a season.

I used to have similar problems and I have to go back over the books I have to verify 100% the way to do it properly. However, this is how I get around the same problem you have. Open one photo and create a "Convert to sRGB" action. Before ending the recording, do a "Save As" for your file and save it as the same file number. Now, when you choose an entire folder and go to batch process, be sure to check the "Override Action "Save As" Commands". I also have "Suppress File Open Options Dialogs" checked. This should stop you from having to hit enter hundreds of times. If anyone knows a more proper way to do this I'd also love to hear it.

I'll see if I can help a bit. I shoot Canon and not Nikon, so I'm unsure why your thumbnails and metadata are giving you troubles. Maybe try using a different card reader to ensure it's transferring properly. Your computer is certainly robust enough as you say to handle what you are doing.

 

I never do a straight cut and paste from card reader to the hard drive using Windows. I used to incorporate the ZoomBrowser software from Canon but wasn't happy with it (plus it wouldn't auto-rotate my friend's images who uses Nikon and assists me with weddings), so now I use Downloader Pro from Breezesys. It allows you to rename in a variety of ways, non-destructively autorotates on all camera systems I believe, lets you change the ppi size (i.e., Canon's default is 72dpi, so I automatically switch it to 300dpi), and even do a DNG conversion if you shoot RAW. These additional actions will slow down your transfer over to your hard drive, but it's like doing 2-3 batch processes in PS without having to open up the program yet! Downloader Pro is free to try for 30 days and $30US to buy.

 

In terms of workflow, I would classify myself as an intermediate in the world of digital photography, so this is simply my experience and what works for me. Under My Pictures I have a main folder "Clientele", where I then create subfolders by name of my clients (for you it may be shooting dates or events). I then create two folders marked "Negatives" and "Edited". I dump all the photos from the card and place them on two hard drives in the "Negatives" folder. I then burn to DVD as a final back-up using the original file names (I am looking into the Delkin Archival Golds, but they are expensive!). Having double redundancy makes me sleep better at night, but it's not for everyone. I also never format my memory card until the images are transferred to at least two locations and I've checked the previews.

 

I then batch rename my negatives simply as "Negative 001, Negative 002, etc." You may prefer to rename by date possibly. I never work on my originals, although it's not as big a deal if using RAW. I like to go through my negatives using the slideshow in Bridge (Ctrl-L). As I arrow through the pictures I rank them just by hitting keys 1-5 (sometimes if I'm lazy I just mark the ones I know I'm going to edit with a ranking of 1 and leave the remaining with no rank).

 

Next in Bridge I filter only those files that are ranked and copy them over to the "Edited" folder. From there I work on the files in PS and when complete, batch rename "Edited 001, Edited 002, etc."

 

It sounds like a lot of work, but it actually isn't, and once you get into the groove, I find it's relatively efficient. Lastly, I feel like a lot of the work and organization is done on the front end, so you can hopefully enjoy the editing on the backend.

Is there a reason why you need to rename using "Date Modified"? After backing up to disc using the original file numbers, I then immediately rename the files on my hard drive using "Date Created", before doing any sorting, ranking, editing, etc. However, as mentioned above, Adobe Bridge has both options so I'm unsure what issues you are having.

 

Another two programs I use and love (especially if using two cameras or more) are BreezeBrowser Pro and Downloader Pro. (Free to try and $90 if purchased together). Downloader allows you to rename in a variety of ways, but also autorotates and can let you set your ppi size (i.e. Canon's default 72ppi can be set to 300ppi).

 

BreezeBrowser Pro is similar to Adobe Bridge where you can sort and organize in a variety of ways. An additional feature is that you can reset your "Date Created" settings, in case you had the wrong date and time for your event, or you forgot to sync your multiple cameras prior to shooting. This is invaluable to me from a wedding standpoint, where even a difference of a few seconds spoils the flow of the day, especially at key moments (e.g., bride and groom giving first kiss).

 

www.breezesys.com/products.htm

Be conscious of your operating system if considering dual-core, as I recently discovered Windows XP Home Edition does not support dual processing. You need to either upgrade to XP Pro, or apparently (and I haven't confirmed this) Windows Media Centre Edition will also allow dual processing. Media Centre is slightly cheaper than XP Pro.