mattwelsh

<p>Well, I read the original question so fast I overlooked that you disallowed the possibility of my solution :)</p>

<p>One little trick I've used for years is to carry a small eyeglass screwdriver and carefully unscrew the lenses and remove them. Place them safely so you can tell right from left when you put them back in.</p>

<p>Done it many times and never had an issue with it...</p>

<p>I have used Bowens (Calumet 750s) monolights with the TT1 and TT5 for quite a while. On the Pocketwizards is a mini jack which I plug a short 8" cable into. On the other end is a large mono plug like you see on headphones. There's a jack on the flash head that it goes into. Put all the PW on the same channel and it works just fine! Any monolight you can plug a "mini plug to *insert your plug type here*" should work the same way. Much nicer that having a PC cable from your camera like the old days :)</p>

<p>Sorry about the duplicate post!</p>

<p>I have been to India for photography six times. Southern India is lovely and there's much to photograph there.<br /> A few notes:</p>

 

<ul>

<li>If you're in reasonable shape I advise you to walk as much as you can in the city. Make sure your camera is on a strap and hold onto it and any other gear is in a backpack that is closed, and you should be fine.</li>

<li>Visit public parks, especially on the weekends. Photo ops abound.</li>

<li>Visit local libraries. They are treasure troves of sites to see, and the folks that work there love to give you ideas.</li>

<li>Carry some cash, but small denominations and only have a bit in your pocket at one time. Stash the rest, and don't flash large amounts.</li>

<li>People in India LOVE to be photographed and only want to see the image on the LCD in exchange. It's very different from Europe or the US. Don't be afraid to make eye contact with people, nod at your camera to silently ask permission. Most of the time people will light up at the chance.</li>

<li>Temples are beautiful and it's fun to visit, but be aware that as a tourist, they'll sometimes offer you a "tour" of even the smallest temple. That's for a price which is negotiated after the tour ;)</li>

<li>Hire a driver when you're not walking and when you want to go to further destinations. Get friendly with them and pay them well and they will walk with you, and negotiate on your behalf. Pros call them fixers and experienced ones will know where the best vantage points are, and when the best light is. Often hotels can arrange them for you and I always tipped them *very* well at the end of each day. They appreciate it a great deal and will bend over backward to accommodate you the next day. One took me to his village to meet his mother who offered us fresh milk from the cow that morning. It was delicious and quite an experience to see a village home.</li>

<li>Go to flower and meat markets. I spent *hours* walking around them and often visited the same ones repeatedly. So many amazing photo ops there and you get a real sense of how people live.</li>

<li>If you get a chance, visit a mosque. I found several that were more than happy to have me visit, and I got invited to a muslim families home for a dinner. It was amazing.</li>

<li>Bring candy for the kids and give them that rather than money. Often in parks I would be "swarmed" by groups of kids who are kept out of school by poor parents so that they can beg. Giving them money perpetuates the cycle. If you give them candy the kids actually get it and they are happy with it.</li>

<li>Contrary to what others have said and warned, I vowed when I went to eat the street/diner foods, and to try everything I was offered. And I did. I never got sick on any of my six trips, but I have a pretty strong stomach. I did carry and drink bottled water, but mostly because it was hot as blazes there.</li>

<li>On a related note before you go, visit a travel clinic and get an order of antibiotics in case you follow my advice above and it works less optimally for you.</li>

<li>Wear good footwear. I am partial to Bates tactical boots. Also, take a hat.</li>

<li>If you're in southern India, some destinations I can recommend include Bangalore flower market, Victoria Park on the weekends, pottery town and Commercial street (really a bazaar). I walked all over this city several times.</li>

<li>Mysore about 1.5 hours from Bangalore and there are two palaces. There is the main palace and a tour is worth it, but be aware there's an entry fee and then a "tour" amount. You can do the tour yourself, but it's fun to have a guide. Just negotiate the price in advance. The second palace is the mistress of the ruler of Mysore. He built her a palace that he could see from the main palace. When my wife and I got to Mysore we wanted to stay in a hotel and finally booked one. It turned out to be the second palace which you can stay in. It was like being in 19th century India.</li>

<li>The flower market in Mysore is fantastic.</li>

<li>The silk refinery in Mysore is crazy; there's tons of vendors bringing in cocoons and selling them. They just let us right in to make photos.</li>

<li>Beyond Mysore is Bylakuppe, which is the largest Tibetan colony outside of Tibet. It's an island of calm and organization in the chaos of India and well worth a day trip.</li>

<li>The Dubare Elephant camp is very cool. You can wash an elephant.</li>

<li>Hampi is north of Bangalore, but you really need to take a train due to weird roads. It's on the UNESCO world heritage list. If you're up for it, bicycles are the way to see it.</li>

<li>Ask your fixer/driver to stop in villages so you can take a look around and make photos. Also, have them stop on the side of the road to photo the farmers. It's funny because they look at you like your crazy because they're just living their life and you want to take a photo. I got some awesome shots this way.</li>

</ul>

<p><br /> I have tons of other tips so if you'd like message me and I can give you more ideas. Most of all I would advise you to be bold, and really make the most of it; India is an incredible place!</p>

<p>Please let us know what you think of the mid-gloss when you get it Tom...</p>

<p>If you do want to avoid having to do it in post then what you describe is exactly correct however. Whenever possible I like to do as much in camera as possible, but Michael is correct that you can work on it in post as well if that's your preferred way to go.</p>

<p>I've used both Adorama and Bay Photo. I was pleased with the results from both, but twice Adorama had to do reprints from me because it looked like the prints had been packed by gorillas. Serious dents and bends both times.<br>

I've lived in the Bay area for many years and had a studio in Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz and so had used Bay Photo for a long time for medium format film processing. They always did a fantastic job with my prints and they now offer aluminum prints that look simply great.</p>

<p>I actually use Zenfolio and like it very much. For a long time I did my own JOOMLA hosting with an ISP, but the constant updates to fend off attacks, coupled with the rather "unfriendly" console convinced me that I was spending too much time dealing with my site instead of working on photography.<br>

I did look at Photoshelter and found it to be pretty comparable to Zenfolio. It basically came down to pricing at that point. I also do have a SmugMug account that I use for family & casual stuff. I like their messaging and the UI is very easy to use. I guess I consider SM to be the least "professional" of them, but that's really just my own perception.<br>

You may wish to have a look at ZF before deciding just to make sure to explore all your options.</p>

<p>Hi Tom,<br>

First, let me say that your photos are very nice. That said, the watermark you placed on them is really, really distracting and in my opinion detracts significantly from the site and art. It's especially strange to me in that they link to images that are roughly the same size on screen and have no watermark (on the site you can buy them from). If someone was really intent on getting one of them I'd imagine they could simply screen cap them from there without the watermark. I'd consider removing the large watermark and replacing it with something smaller is you really feel it's necessary.<br>

The second thing I'd suggest is to go ahead and take a few minutes to build out your "About Me" page. The "Under Construction" thing is really outdated and I can't imagine you can't take 10 minutes and write an explanation of what motivates you and why you shoot.<br>

Best of luck,<br>

Matt</p>

<p>I use Foliobook. The website is <a href="http://www.foliobook.mobi/">here</a>. It's pretty easy to customize and brand and works as advertised...</p>

<p>Hi there,<br>

I looked at the site briefly and it seems to work correctly for me (Windows XP/Chrome). I also like the overall look of the site, but it's worth pointing out that by using Flash it's not going to work on an iPad or iPhone if that matters to you.<br>

-M</p>

<p>I actually use a nifty little Javascript that builds the email address in the browser for the user. The advantage is that site scrapers/spiders don't typically run Javascript so they never see the email address the same way that real users do.<br>

Even after a year the total amount of spam I get is effectively none. If anyone would like the script feel free to drop me an email and I'll share it.</p>

<p>Hi Antonio,</p>

<p>I have owned the f/4 and moved to the f/2.8. The above comments are on spot - the bokeh is very similar. The big difference is in the weight. I primarily do cultural photography so I'm walking around with the lens on my shoulder for up to 8 hours. I'm a pretty sturdy guy, so the extra weight isn't oppressive, but I won't lie; I can tell the difference. For me the extra aperture is worth it.</p>

<p>In telling <strong>you</strong> whether to change or not, you need to ask yourself how much you'll be carrying it. Another thing that helped was the Black Rapid side sling which relieved the pressure from the weight. My advice - in an idea world you'd rent it for a day or two and make sure you can comfortably carry it.</p>

 

<p>I second Melissa on the 24-70 f/2.8 and the 70-200 f/2.8. I have both and love them and the convenience of zooming. Have you considered renting the contender lenses to try them out?</p>

<p>Hi Stephanie,</p>

<p>I don't know what your level of photography expertise is, and if you've never done a wedding, I hope you've been honest with them about your experience level to avoid problems. If you have told them, one option may be to rent the gear you need to do the wedding. Also, getting an understanding of what they want and expect as a result of your work seems like a good idea because that may dictate what you do.</p>

<p>As to what to charge, you say you need to make some money from this event, but you don't say how much you need to make. Also, you don't specifically say that they are friends, but you mention that part of your services are a gift, so the question that I would have is how close are you to the couple?</p>

<p>All of these factors would come into play for me if I were doing this.</p>

<p>-Matt</p>

<p>The site appears to be gone now...</p>

<p>Also, you may want to add a page title to each page rather than just "home", "about", etc. It's an opportunity to do a little SEO. Also, alt-image text is a good idea especially for your navigation images, while I recommend you change to text anyway (again for SEO).</p>

<p>-Matt</p>

<p>Hi Angelos,</p>

<p>Here's a few observations about your site:</p>

<p>First the intro page with the "Enter" text serves no purpose at all and is an extra step for visitors. I'd remove it.</p>

<p>The text on the "About Me' page is an image and is therefor "invisible" to search engines in that the text cannot be read or indexed.</p>

<p>There's no meta tags or meta description making the site even more unfriendly to search engines.</p>

<p>In your galleries the mouse over action changing the images is unusual and unexpected. More typically clicking changes the images. </p>

<p>On your contact page there is no contact information such as a mailing address, email address, etc. If I were looking to hire you it would give me pause.</p>

<p>Personally I find the pages "too dark"; dark text on a dark background.</p>

<p>In my opinion the main navigation should appear on every page rather than having to click on "Home" to return from your "About" page and then click on "Contact". It's causing the user extra unnecessary clicks.</p>

<p>-Matt </p>

<p><em>Monogamy or Ménage à trois?<br /></em></p><div></div>

<p>I second the suggestion of either the EF 50 f/1.8 and EF 85/1.8. I have both and they're great portrait lenses with a crop sensor camera.</p>

<div></div>

<p>For anyone living in the Bay Area, there is a really excellent Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the SF MOMA until January 30, 2011. I went this past weekend and there were no lines. Highly recommended if you're a fan of his work.</p>

<p>-Matt </p>

<p>If you end up going Canon I'd recommend the EOS 1Ds over the 5D because of the weather sealing. And excellent lens would be the 2.8/24-70 L. It's great for walking around and shooting people. The 2.8/70-200 L is a great lens too, but it's heavy as hell especially coupled with the 1Ds. </p>

<p>Ken's instructions are also the way to go with an logo image - just create the image in Photoshop and then add it as a layer to your photo and set the transparency as above.</p>