* I mountain bike nearby at East Fork Lake when possible. A trip to the beach is always in order and so is picking up trash, doing my part to keep the beach clean. Last week I took along my point’n’shoot, making compositions of the trash and found objects. Photography can make a person do crazy things…
This week’s “around the ‘net” starts with a hearty thanks…to you, the reader. Prophotolife has never been just about technique, or just about equipment or just about the photo business. It’s a dialogue on …

Last week I introduced our standard location photography gear setup. We’ll be looking at different bags week by week and today it’s the heart of the business, the camera bag.
You won’t find the latest, trendiest equipment necessarily. This is what we’ve amassed over years in the business and what has produced a good return on investment for our commercial studio. We generally make equipment purchases at year end based on profitability and the guidance of our accountant.

Let’s take a look inside:

In the main compartment:

Cameras:
Canon 5D
Canon 20D (backup - it has …

Surrounded by nine computers, fifteen strobes and more light stands than you can shake a tripod at, I’ve been daydreaming. The dreams have been about what it would take to create a “bare minimum” photo business. Sometimes you grow a business and look around and one day the idea of paring things down sounds appealing.
Starting tomorrow we’ll be looking inside various bags in the Daylight Photo commercial photography location kit. Everything in those bags serves a purpose and is necessary for the work we do. But what if I were …

Wal*Mart advises us to “Save Money, Live Better”. As consumers we strive to save money but as sellers we need to sell at an amount fair to all. How much should you charge for your work? Okay, here’s the short version: I don’t really know. For the long version, read on…
Most every photographer that has been at it for awhile has been asked for a print of their work. Perhaps you’ve created a beautiful image that someone would like to frame and they want to pay you for it. Maybe …

“How do I shoot tethered to my computer with a digital SLR?” That is possibly the most oft-asked question here at prophotolife.com. In most every instructional video I’m watching a computer monitor to view the images as they’re shot so it only makes sense that we give the process a look.
If your photography allows it this is a great way to view a large histogram and to check critical sharpness of the photos enlarged to 100%. The files can be easily managed and the good ones immediately tagged as you …

I thought this post could use a random photo…
I’m behind on some news after taking last week off, most notably updates on two very fun online photo projects. Last week Udi at DIYPhotography.net announced part one of the winners of the Portrait Professional 8 Giveaway, judged from numerous portrait entries from around the globe. This week the winners of the portrait tips classification were rolled out and what a wonderful collection of portrait shooting ideas (15 in all). These tips are useful for portrait photographers of all skill levels.
Just a …

As we were packing for location photography this week I thought it might be interesting to show an overall of just what we take along on the average location photo shoot. This is our “medium” location kit, sometimes we pack less, sometimes we take the whole studio. Most of our location jobs (probably 75%) fall around this “medium” category.
It’s important to have everything we may need and then a backup for each item in case something goes down. It’s also nice to have the extra equipment in case we decide …

It‘s Wednesday already, a day when we usually talk business. A couple weeks ago I mentioned possibly “downsizing“ my photo studio, Daylight Photo. Since then I‘ve received some wonderful input on the subject. Faithful readers Jan Klier and Juan Bonilla have suggested the benefits of possibly renting out part of Daylight Photo to other photographers, either full-time or on a “time share” basis in order to cut expenses. This kind of system is working well for Jan, he is currently part of such an arrangement. Juan (another Cincinnati photographer) pointed …

Today I was thinking of a photo shoot I once did for a top manufacturer of motocross (motorcycle) clothing. They paid me to attend a race and photograph their star rider in racing action wearing brand new gear they were about to release. Rather than photograph the rider on a closed course, I was hired to photograph him in peak action during an actual event on the pro racing tour. A decent amount of money was being spent and the clothing manufacturer had an important catalog and ad lined up …

video episode 28
I’m often asked, “how do I calibrate my monitor”? What exactly is color management and what are the benefits? The implementation of a good color management system will help you get consistent results when viewing your photos on-screen and when printing them. While implementing color management isn’t critical for the hobbyist, it sure can be nice to make prints that look the image on your monitor.
I’ll be honest, color management was a difficult concept for me to grasp in the beginning. In this video I’d like to share …