Business Head Shots – San Diego, CA

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.   If you’re a business professional, and you’re out there trying to meet new customers who don’t know you, how important is it that you look good on your website, marketing collateral, email signature, etc?  What you’ve got to offer can help your prospects, but so can your competitor’s offerings.

And let’s face it, we’re an image-driven species.  If we’re looking to try out a new restaurant, find a new real estate agent (or in this case investment professional), insert any business we’re considering trading our hard earned money for their service or product, then we’re going to go with what gives us a good, comfortable feeling.  Unless we’ve got a rock solid recommendation from someone who has never let us down, how likely are we to proceed if we go to their site or receive some literature and their images are poor, or outdated?  Not likely.

When’s the last time you had your photos updated?  I took the below for some folks a few of which needed better shots, a few needed newer shots, and a few didn’t have any at all.

New Orleans Jazz Fest and Heritage Festival 2012

I heard about this sometime around 1996, and told myself I’d definitely go next year every year, for about 6 years.  Then it somehow slipped off my radar.  Well, I finally made it out, and neither the festival nor the beautiful city of New Orleans, Louisiana disappointed.  Not even in the slightest.  A trip like this begs for a long post, or several semi-involved posts, but I can’t do it justice, so I’m going to bulletize a few of the high points, and then post way, way too many pics.

• Inhabitants of New Orleans couldn’t be nicer, or more sincere in their niceness
• That city doesn’t seem to care if you’re rich, poor, dirty, disheveled, whatever; everyone seems to get along with everyone else
• The Food……is a bonus
• The Music (*call me if you need this one explained)
• The Architecture
• The ease of getting around in the French Quarter

Oh, and quickly I must note that I was only there for 3 full days, and that is nowhere near enough time.  2 days at the festival, spending a few hours each morning in the Quarter, and then a few hours at night out about the town.  And one full day out in the Garden District.  I’m going back next year…..

Children’s Gospel Tent – 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

Outstanding Food – 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

Mega Misters

Mr. Sonny Landreth, slide guitar maestro

Tab Benoit

Street gig outside the festival

Lafayette Cemetery. New Orleans, Louisiana

Lafayette Cemetery. New Orleans, Louisiana

Lafayette Cemetery. New Orleans, Louisiana

Sidewalk street sign in-lay. Garden District. New Orleans, Louisiana

The Columns Hotel. New Orleans, Louisiana

Bar Table, The Columns Hotel.

Patio fan, The Columns Hotel.

A passing street car in The Garden District

Wait, another passing street car (from the patio at The Columns Hotel)?

Inside the bar at The Columns Hotel

A new favorite drink: Mint Julep. The Columns Hotel, New Orleans, LA.

New Bag from Lowepro

I have one camera bag and it suits me pretty well.  It’s a gray, over-the-shoulder, and medium sized bag.  The main compartment is fully customizable and holds my Nikon d300s with battery grip nicely, and with 1 lens on the camera body, the bag still has 4 spots for lenses and/or speedlights.  In front of the bag is a nice pocket for small gear like radio transmitters, cleaning cloths, cables, gaffer tape, etc.  On both ends of the bag are two more pockets that I usually store grid spots and batteries in as well as the occasional Lightsphere.  The lid to the bag has a slim pocket that holds memory cards and business cards and whatever else; it’s large in surface space, just not deep.  So this bag pretty much can hold my camera, 4 lenses, 2 speedlights, and all kinds of little things I need on shoots.

Now when I’m just out and about, I try to always bring my camera with 1 or 2 lenses and 1 speedlight.  But since I don’t want to bring a bag, I’ll just bring the camera over my shoulder and a speedlight in my pocket.  And the reality of this is that since I have twin 2 year olds, about 80% of the time, after I’ve gotten them and all their gear out of the car, I look at my camera and just say, “Nah, leaving you here this time.”  And then of course the inevitable happens and I get to a point in the day when I really wish I’d brought my camera.

Well?  Not anymore.  The bag I’ve been testing for Lowepro is a smaller, sling-type bag that has one strap going over your shoulder and diagonally down across your chest, so the bag actually sits directly behind your back like a 2 strap backpack would.  Why I like this is the bag doesn’t sway on your shoulder, leaving you totally free to bend down or turn from side to side, or do whatever you’d do without a bag on your person.  Perfect for having your fully body free to deal with such unpredictable elements as young humans.  This bag is also customizable and I was using it as my ‘run out and go with minimal gear’ bag.  Camera with a lens on, maybe one more, and a speedlight.

Recently though I thought, “why not see what it can really hold?”  And to my surprise, I was able to pack my entire gear list in it (minus the grid spots and Lightsphere). While I intend to use this with much less gear packed in it, I was able to get my camera, 4 lenses, 2 speedlights, my triggers and other little trinkets, memory cards, and still get it all zipped up and over my shoulder, ready to hit the streets.

So while I was preparing to buy a slightly larger backpack-type bag for my gear, right now I’m going to hold tight as I think I’m fully covered.  Great design from Lowepro.

The below is a slightly larger pic of the bag that I tested:

http://tvdfotos.com/

http://www.mindintheshutter.com/

http://davidjcrewe.com/

 

SmugMug San Diego – Joe and Mirta Barnet

It’s April, at least I think it is, and now that I look, it’s almost over.  Well, good thing I have fast reflexes!  April’s SmugMug San Diego event was an upgrade to the speaking engagement that Joe and Mirta delivered last year.  This time they brought a ton of gear, and after a brief slideshow of their work, launched right into a “shoot and tell” that left many of our attendees pretty stoked.  Part of the stoke comes from learning how other, and more seasoned photographers produce their images; part of it comes from seeing them actually produce images in person; and part comes being included in the shooting process (if said ‘stokee’ brought a camera).

Joe and Mirta love what they do, and it shows.  Maybe more importantly though, they really love to talk about creating images, and creating images that have value for wedding and portrait clients.  If you’re looking to increase your skill level with an in-person workshop, I think you might want to investigate some of the offerings from Team Barnet.

Joe showing light from a softbox "wraps" around

3 Lights (not including ambient): softbox, kicker on background, and hair light. 2 reflectors to boot!

Mirta showing how it's done with a male model

 

 

Downtown with Lowepro

I’ve been testing a new camera bag for Lowepro for a few months now, and a couple weeks back I got together with the other ‘bag testers’ for a little photo shoot.  “Bryan’s Bag,” as I’m recommending to Lowepro as the final bag name, hasn’t been released, so no pics just yet.  I did want to get a few of the photos I liked of the other bag though, and so without further ado (ado = what I fill my days with)…….

BURLAP Late

BRAVO “Top Chef” finalist Brian Malarkey has a new restaurant in Del Mar, and it’s called BURLAP.  I’ve been to Searsucker in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego, and it was surprisingly delicious and unique.  I’ve still yet to eat out at BURLAP as so far I’m just taking pictures of their late night venture, aptly titled BURLAP Late.  They’ve got a very mellow yet upbeat ambiance, the eats and the drink, and they’re bringing in some great DJ’s (featuring in April: DJ DeMarco, Hugh Herrera, Shige, Mark E Quark, Jon Dadon, and Chris Renzulli….) to soak the restaurant with cool beats.  A few pics from April 13th, and some more from the 20th to follow in a future post.  And go check it out for yourself and report back what you think.  If you have the guts, that is.

Also, and totally unrelated, I’ll be in New Orleans in a few days for Jazz Fest.  So I got that going for me……….which is nice.

 

Fitness Portraits

In my mind, I’m a big fan of fitness.  I like the idea of feeding my body what is good for it, and mixing in some exercise to keep fit.  And then my kids factor into the equation, and I do the daily things that we all do, and I forget about the laundry in the dryer for 3 days, and I let the basil die in the front yard, and I’ve got more excuses if you’d like to hear them.  And then wine, bread, and cheese sound good as I catch up with Game of Thrones or Gossip Girl.  But….in my mind, I can do what Matt has done.  Matt is a cool guy who decided to get involved with a group that aims to transform their bodies and their minds through exercise and diet.  And in his pursuit of doing better in the competitions, he commissioned me to do a set of photos for him.