At the beginning of this year Aaron Dieppa started a daily video project he called The Big Picture, and even had me on as a guest a few months ago. In this podcast David and I talk to Aaron about his motivation and inspiration to take on a big project like that, lessons learned along the way, and the importance of being transparent and honest with your clients.
Monthly archives for July, 2009
Podcast #60 – Conversation with Aaron Dieppa – Being transparent and using video
Podcast #59 – Conversation with Michael Clark – Adventure Sports Photographer
In this show we talk to Michael Clark, an adventure sports photographer. Michael talks about what it takes to do adventure sports and shares some of the ’secret sauce’ that went into some of the shots. If you want to follow along when we talk about some of his specific images go to http://michaelclarkphoto.com.
You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar
Old Town Tustin Photowalk
This year I led a Photowalk through Old Town Tustin with about 25 photographers from kids to adults. The purpose of a Photowalk is to walk around an area and shoot photos basically. I always encourage everyone to try new things, shoot from different angle, approach people on the street, and basically do things they wouldn’t normally do. Here is a video highlight reel from today’s photowalk.
How to clean your lenses
In the forums Benjamin Trevor asked for an article on how to properly clean your lens so thanks for the suggestion and here we go. First off, the best thing to do is keep your lenses clean in the first place, always keep your front and rear caps on when not in use. Secondly, you should have UV filters on all your lenses, this will help protect your lenses from damage as well as keeping any cleaning limited to the filter instead of actually touching the lens glass itself. But, if you have to clean, lets look at some ways how.
Goodbye Dust Bunnies
There are three things that I keep handy in order to keep my lenses clean. A good microfiber cloth, a Giottos Rocket Blower, and a LensPen. I do not use any cleaning process that uses chemicals since even the best will leave some residue. Preferably I don’t want to touch the glass at all so the first step is going to be to use the Rocket Blower to get as much off the glass as possible. If something isn’t coming off easily I turn to the brush side of the Lenspen. If the issue is something different like fingerprints (my personal biggest issue) then the best way to clean that is with the felt tip of the Lenspen. The carbon dust will clean and polish the lens to perfection.
The following video will walk through my cleaning process that I go through before any shoot.
For more help with your photography, please visit http://CameraDojo.com
snom MeetingPoint IP Phone Shoot
The snom MeetingPoint is a new conference room phone from snom. With a slick design and top-notch features, we decided to go for a shot that made the phone look at home on a conference room table. Not having a conference table in my house, our dining room table would have to suffice.
For those of you who want to see the setup it was actually a pretty simple layout. With a single Westcott Spiderlite TD5 providing the key light and two reflectors providing fill light I got a nice even illumination with enough forward direction light to give add to the depth and dimension.
Camera: Canon 50D
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter: 1/13th
Podcast #58 – Conversation with Mike Larson – Building Customer Relationships
Kerry and David talk to Mike about building client relationships and how important this is to building your business. Mike knows a thing or two about this since he is getting 100% of his work from referrals these days.
Books Mentioned:
Mike Larson’s Website: http://mikelarson.com
Mike’s Seminars: http://mikelarson.com/seminars
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What’s in Kerry’s Camera Bag
I get asked all the day what gear I have in my camera bag so today I put together a video of going through my camera bag and seeing everything that is in it. If this is popular, I will get other photographers to show off what’s in their bags so let me know if you want to see more of these from some more popular photographers.
Kerry’s Equipment List
- Think Tank Airport International 2.0
- VANGUARD PAMPAS 57 Backpack
- Canon EOS 50D 15.1MP Digital SLR Camera
- Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 IF EX DG HSM AF Standard Zoom Lens
- Tamron AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 SP Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Lens
- Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
- Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras
- PhotoVision 24? Digital Calibration Target
- Westcott 6 In 1 Reflector Kit 30
- Giottos Rocket Blaster Air Blower
- LensPEN Lens Cleaning System
- SensorKlear Loupe and SensorKlear II Combo
- BLACKRAPID RS-1 Camera Sling Strap
- LumiQuest FX, Five Filter Gel Set with Holder
- Lumiquest Promax System
- WhiBal White Balance Reference Card
- ColorRight Neutral White Balance Filter
- ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filter, 77mm
- Polaris Digital Flash Meter
- HonlPhoto Speed Strap for Shoe Mount Flashes
- HonlPhoto 8? Snoot
- Honlphoto Gel Kit 2
- HonlPhoto Speed Gobo Flag / Barndoor / Bounce Card
- HonlPhoto 1/4? Speed Grid
- Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens
- Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket
- Wolverine ESP 80 GB
- Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash
- SanDisk 16 GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card
- Lensbaby Macro Kit
[flashvideo file=http://cameradojo.com/wp-content/uploads/Kerrys_Bag.flv /]
For more help with your photography, please visit http://cameradojo.com
Walking through a typical product shoot
In this video I walk through the process of doing a typical product shoot. This tutorial uses the Westcott Spiderlite TD-5 constant lights. Constant lights are great for product shots because you can easily get your lighting setup and see exactly in the viewfinder what you will get when you press the shutter.
During this tutorial I show how to use a light meter to determine the difference between the background and the subject to achieve a good high-key look as well as using the meter to determine the proper exposure. READ MORE »
Podcast #57 – Conversation with Thomas Hawk – The Man of a Million Images
Kerry and David talk to Thomas Hawk who has a goal of having a million images published before he dies. To put this into perspective, that is 300-400 images posted online every week! You think putting up 1 image a day is a cool project, try 30-40! Thomas talks about his gear, his workflow, and his motivation. Hopefully this will inspire you to take on your own photography project regardless of the scale.
Thomas Hawk Links
- ThomasHawk.com
- Thomas Hawk on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/
- Thomas Hawk on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thomashawk
Scott Kelby Photowalk
- http://worldwidephotowalk.com
- Kerry’s Photowalk: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/old-town-tustin-ca-usa
You can listen to this podcast now using our player widget in the right hand sidebar
Cisco Phone Photoshoot for 888VoipStore
While product photography may not be as glamorous or fun as shooting weddings or engagements, I still enjoy doing it and it is the bulk of my daily work. There is quite a challenge in getting lighting and exposure dialed in that I really get a kick out of. Here are some shots I did today for http://VoipStore.com.




