Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Photo biz

I have a pretty busy month ahead of me and I'm really excited about it and a little bit overwhelmed.  As of right now for March, I have 6 shoots and a wedding.  I'm also doing a couple of different things for the church during March that won't bring in much money but will take up some time.  I realize this is not a crazy amount of projects, but it's more than I've had so far.  I just need to concentrate on each thing as it comes rather than trying to think of it all right now.

We're also going to have to find time to adopt Mikey and plan his adoption party during all of this.  The judge who will be doing the adoption has put us down (tentatively) for 1:00 on Monday, the 24th.  I can't officially set that date with my attorney until the 90 day period is up on the 11th.

I have a new (used) lens, grip, and battery in the mail.  I was hoping the order would be here in time for a new baby shoot on Friday but I don't think it's going to happen.  I decided to get a used Canon 28-70 mm f/2.8 L lens from Adorama.  It is several years old but in excellent condition.  I hope I don't regret buying a used lens.  It saved me about $350 over the newer 24-70.  This is a tank of a lens and is regarded as one of the best all around Canon lenses ever made.  It was still pretty dang pricey and I just hope it holds up for several more years.

I'm looking at Canon point and shoot cameras and I may be buying one in the near future.  I've got my eye on a used Powershot Pro 1.  It sports a nice L zoom lens and it's supposed to be a pretty great point and shoot.  I'm beginning to realize that hauling around my SLR and lenses to family functions and other such events may not be the wisest thing to be doing.  I can protect my investment much better by leaving it safely at home for those kinds of things.  Also, it would be cool to have a good little camera again with a swivel LCD to use from time to time.
I've taken a few pictures above people with them laying on the ground and I can't do that kind of shot with my SLR without a ladder.  

It's kind of a silly novelty shot, but it's fun anyway.  

It's amazing to me how quickly I've accumulated respectable equipment.  Most of what I've made so far has gone back into equipment so I'm hoping soon I'll be making some actual profit.  There will probably always be thing that I want or "need" but I should be set for while.  


4 comments:

Maury said...

Dude, I just returned my 24-70 Canon lens last week -- I didn't know you were looking for that range or you could have goofed with mine.

I can't find details on the 20-70's elements or number of blades, but the 24-70 was a good lens -- I'm just too hung-up on my Tamron due to its incredible bokeh and color.

I noticed some barreling when shooting wide with the 24-70, so check that if you use the lens for portraits that open. The distortion wasn't too bad once I got it around 40mm, which is a good portrait distance.

When you say grip, do you meant the grip that doubles as a battery pack? If so, YOU WILL LOVE IT -- it's like shooting with a whole new camera. I always keep my strap around my neck, so that plus the grip make it totally easy to use for long periods of time.

Aren't hobbies/businesses like this fun? =)

Jenny Hintze said...

Yeah, I got a (used of course) BG-E2 battery grip. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting it. I think I'm going to have more fun with that than the new lens.

The lens I'm getting is basically the same build as the one you had. You had the 24-70 L? I guess I didn't realize you had that lens. The 28 is older and has 4mm less focal range. It has 8 blades but that doesn't mean much to me at this point in time.

Maury said...

I've bought and returned several lenses over the last few weeks. The one I referenced was the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM. It's a great lens -- don't take my comments like I was bagging it -- I'm just enamored with my Tamron 28-75mm. =) The Tamron doesn't barrel when wide open like the Canon, and since I like to use it as my general purpose lens, I often shoot with it wide open.

As far as blades go, the more blades, the smoother the DoF blur you get. I don't know if you saw my lens shoot-out post, but one section dealt with that. That's one place lower quality lenses get you: they'll use only 4-6 blades with a small number of elements, so it's something to always keep in mind.

Anyway, since a lot of portrait pics have smooth blur backgrounds, the more blades, the smoother and more natural the backgrounds will be -- and it's especially noticeable if there's a light or a glare in the background (you'll see a round blur rather than an octagonal one, for example, with more blades).

And yeah, the grip will make things a lot easier since the camera weighs a hundred pounds. =)

Mad Housewife said...

As soon as you're not too busy (and I have some moolah saved up!) we'll book you for a family portrait. I'd rather give my money to you instead of a JC Penney studio any day :)