A blustery overcast first photography lesson with Gary in downtown Saint Petersburg

Gary with his new Canon 7D and hotshoe mounted 580EX during our Saint Petersburg DSLR photography lesson

Yet another overcast, blustery rain beating DSLR photography lesson in downtown Saint Petersburg!  Gary's first lesson might have been the windiest yet, and the grayest, but as you can see, it was not so gray that both Gary and I did not don our sunglasses still!  Gary told me that he mostly shot in auto-mode with his DSLR, and after Gary sent me his photography gear list by e-mail I was really surprised that he did because he had a huge gear list.  He owns two DSLRs, the new Canon 7D and a backup body Canon 20D plus several lenses including a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and the 580EX strobe as well.  It was my first time to see the 7D in person and it felt pretty good in my hands, big enough even for my large hands to fit comfortably around it.  

Though Gary shot in auto-mode, he was familiar with basic photography terminology, and was pretty good with knowing where buttons were and how to change settings on his 7D, so this helped me teach him how to get out of auto-mode and into using custom settings rather quickly.

 

Gary sent me the above photographs he took during our lesson today to illustrate the kind of photographs he was taking before our lesson, and then after.  The "after" image was taken about 40 minutes into the lesson, so you can see Gary learned quickly!  The main thing I tried to teach Gary today per his request on how to add some "wow" to his images, was how to control DoF (depth of focus) to put the focus on the subject and hide the distracting background.

After two wind blown but fun hours, we made it back to our cars just in time before the rain started at 1pm once again!

I look forward to next helping Gary photograph his son's T-ball game. 

LensRentals.com Review

Fast and painless lens and camera body rental with LensRentals.comI needed a second body for the big Treasure Island Yacht and Tennis Club New Year's Eve party job.  This gave me a chance to finally try out LensRentals.com, a service I had heard about on photography podcasts, like TWiP, for awhile.  Though the name has lens in it, you can not only rent camera bodies but also tripods, strobes and other photography accessories.  

Once at the LensRentals.com website you check the availability for the piece of gear you need on the date you need it by.  The minimum rental period is seven days.  I chose to have the Nikon D90 body I wanted to rent arrive two days before New Year's Eve just in case something went wrong.  Nothing did, except . . . .

Reserving and renting the D90 was very painless.  The D90 arrived on the date I reserved it for, however, the UPS delivery person left the box in front of my neighbor's door!  I was tracking the package and saw that someone signed for it.  Well, I was at home all morning and did no such thing.  None of this was LensRentals.com's fault, but it certainly made me think that UPS needs to hire more competent and honest drivers, as I know for a fact no one was home at my neighbor's house either to sign for the package.

The D90 came with all accessories you would get as if you bought one yourself, plus an included carrying bag.  The only thing I had to add was my own memory card (SDHC).  

Returning the D90 was also painless as LensRentals.com provided a prepaid UPS shipping label.  All I had to do was reseal the box and drop it off at the UPS counter at Staples.

I can highly recommend LensRentals.com.  I look forward to renting something more exciting next time, like a 400mm lens!

DSLR Photography Lesson with Carmen in Saint Petersburg

Above: Carmen focusing on the Pier Below: Carmen in front of the downtown Saint Petersburg skyline

This morning's first DSLR photography lesson with new student Carmen was well timed with a 10am start because the rain was already rolling in by 1pm.  Carmen has the new Nikon D5000 DSLR, my first time to have any hands on experience with it.  For a compact DSLR I was impressed with how it felt in the hand and really impressed by the menu system.  Compact DSLR bodies lack the buttons semi-pro and pro bodies have making you more dependent on going into the menus to change settings so a fast and well laid out menu system is a definite need.

Since getting her Nikon Christmas present from her husband (must be a great guy!) she has been shooting in auto-mode.  We quickly remedied that by having her become an Aperture priority shooter.  There are always quite a few things to go through on a very first lesson, but Carmen being a good student was diligently taking notes and her memory for which settings to use when was quite sharp.  

Downtown Saint Petersburg was covered in overcast skies which gave a chance to practice using higher ISO levels than students and I normally use during Florida's typically sunny days.  We also had good chance to practice action photography when a woman let us photograph her labrador chasing a ball.  

Carmen said she would practice more by herself this week in order to better remember which buttons in her D5000 body do what before our second lesson next weekend.

How photographers can use the iPad

An iPad would go into a photography client's hands much less clumsily than a laptop.

As soon as I saw Steve Jobs start to demo the new iPad I began seeing how it could help me as a photographer.  When Steve spoke about how much more intimate and personal holding and using a tablet device was as compared to a laptop, and even a netbook, these were the words that made me imagine a potential client better connecting with my photography portfolio during a consultation meeting.  I think the iPad would be even better than actual prints.  Prints are floppy and a bit hard to handle if shown in any significant size to a client, and framed prints are not very portable, but multiple portfolio shots on an iPad could be viewed by the client very elegantly.  

I often use my iPhone to show random people I meet some of my portfolio shots to pretty good effect.  Since I could basically fit an iPad right into my regular business-sized organizer, and I take the organizer with me everywhere, I could just as easily show random people (i.e. potential clients) my portfolio, no doubt to even greater effect as an image on a 9.7" screen will be much more impressive than on a 3.5" one.  Also consider the new slideshow features Jobs demoed and the iPad will help to enhance your portfolio shots' inherent wow factor.

For large budget photography jobs, the iPad could make a great impression as the means for delivering the client their photographs.  Could the iPad put a serious dent into wedding album demand by digitally savvy newlyweds?  I think so.  The same iPad could start as your client's wedding album, then serve to include an album of pregnancy portraits, then newborn portraits, and so on and so on.  Your wedding clients will now always carry the photographs you provided for them by their side, no doubt showing them to many more people increasing your chances of referrals.  

How much online and print advertising can $499 buy?  Quite a bit, but I think if you really are focused on referrals as your source of new clients, an iPad in the hands of a very satisfied client would be able to pay for itself very quickly.  

How will you use the iPad for your photography business?  Share your ideas in the comments below.

UPDATE:  This blog post talks about how the iPad could help sales of photography books in e-book form. 

• Scott Bourne talks about how the iPad will change photography
• Mashable covers the iPad launch

Linda's first DSLR Lesson with her brand new Nikon D90!

Linda photographing a friendly egret in Vinoy Park during her first DSLR lesson.

I got a phone call last night from Linda asking about my DSLR Photography Lessons.  30 minutes later I got another phone call from her as she was checking out at Best Buy with a brand new Nikon D90 with 18-105mm kit lens, a spare battery, a tripod, a Lowepro backpack camera bag and a 8GB SDHC card and asking if we could have a lesson at 10am this morning!  When we first talked I found out she did not yet own a DSLR, so she asked for my recommendation, which off the top of my head was the Nikon D90.  I mentioned the price of around $900 and heard no gasp.  Next thing I knew I was helping her set some specific settings one should when first setting up a Nikon camera.  

Linda wielding her shiny new Nikon D90 with downtown Saint Petersburg in the background.

We started out lesson with the very basics, which still can be quite overwhelming for anyone.  By the end of the 2-hour lesson Linda was getting a good grasp on aperture and what a large one is and does as well as when to use a low aperture.  As seen in the top photo, Vinoy Park once again provided a photography student with a patient bird as a practice subject matter.  

Linda is an eager photography student and I look forward to our future lessons together.

Second DSLR Photography Lesson with Kandy along Coffee Pot Blvd

We ran into someone Kandy knew during our DSLR photography lesson along Smacks Bayou

Somehow two months passed since Kandy's first DSLR photography lesson.  Her trip to Baha to photograph whales is coming up next weekend, so today we went to the Smacks Bayou area along Coffee Pot Blvd to photograph flying birds over the water in the best simulation of the conditions she will find on her trip.  There were pelicans and gulls and the odd roseate spoonbill, however, even though Kandy has the outstanding Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L series lens, the distance the birds were from us made it a challenge.  They would tease us and fly closer for a bit, but then u-turn back to their beloved tiny rookery island.

This fellow could not be happier spending his Saturday morning in the warm Florida winter sunshineWhile walking down Brightwaters Avenue Kandy surprisingly ran into someone she knew (top most photo).  After this surprise encounter we made our way back toward the North Shore Blvd area and found a group of people playing a kind of controlled football scrimmage.  This gave us another chance to practice fast moving actions shots.  

We also spent some time trying to master changing less common settings on Kandy's Canon 50D.  With a little help from her cheat sheet I think we finally made some progress!  Thank you for your patience Kandy as I get better learning the Canon system myself, being a Nikon shooter.  

I look forward to seeing Kandy's whale photographs when she returns!

Family Sports DSLR Photography Lesson with Rosa

Matthew and Kristina as model's for Rosa's family sports DSLR photography lesson

For Rosa's fourth (1st, 2nd, 3rd) DSLR Photography Lesson, we headed to a waterfront park in downtown Saint Petersburg to practice family sports photography with her children as the athlete-models.  Her son Matthew will begin the baseball season soon, and Kristina plays volleyball.  For this lesson we did not practice the particulars of photographing baseball nor volleyball, but instead just the basics of using continuous focus mode and tracking action.  We covered using multi-point and single point focus settings, as well as a bit of flash action photography.  

Besides being the photography teacher, I was also the quarterback and main frisbee thrower as Rosa focused on trying to catch her children in mid-catch with her Canon T1i.  

I believe for our next lesson we will go to an actual baseball diamond and get into the best angles for photographing a batter and a pitcher.  Rosa continues to be my student most dedicated to improving her photography despite a heavy job workload, not to mention taking care of Kristina and Matthew!  

Rosa, Matthew & Kristina taking a breather after the sports DSLR photography lesson