Related Posts

• 
  At Home With Pure--Caramelina, Our Runt

  
  
  

  I remember reading Charlotte's Web as a young girl and all the drama around poor Wilbur, the runt.  I really never gave much thought to the idea that one of our backyard chickens would be a runt.  But our little Caramelina is.  In the image above, the chicks are about 2 weeks old.  You can see that Caramelina looks much younger than her hatchmate, Goldie.  

  Caramel was one of the chicks that arrived from the feed store "pasted up."  We cleaned her up, but the oil we put on her to stop the pasting from happening kind of matted up her feathers and made her look small.  So for quite a few days, I didn't think anything of her being so tiny.  But as the days passed, I realized she was not just not as fluffy as the rest, she really was smaller.  As the weeks have gone by, she has been slow about growing, and not as fast to feather up, but she has a lot of energy and pep, so I have not worried too much.

  Caramelina has done quite well and not had any issues until one day, she got pecked in the neck.  I am not sure if it was an accident (because she is often under everyone's feet as they eat.)  No one seemed to be purposefully pecking at each other, but it was around the time that dominances were emerging.  You know, the pecking order.  Anyway, suddenly Caramelina had a deep gouge in her neck.  She started scratching at it and it looked like it was getting worse.  I called the feed store to ask what to do, in a bit of a panic.  They told me that the feed store had medicine that would keep the others from picking at the bleeding and help it heal.  As soon as others picking at the blood was mentioned, I looked into the brooder and surely, the others would look curiously and take a quick peck at the wound.  My stomach sank.  I had heard stories of birds with tiny injuries dying due to the pecking.  I tried to separate Caramelina, but she cried and cried for her sisters.  And they cried back for her.  We stuck her in a crate though and took her to the feed store.  I had washed her up and put Neosporin on, but I NEEDED this miracle medicine that would let her stay in the crate with the other chicks.

  

  To stop her from scratching her wounded neck, I made her a little chick "cone of shame" by cutting off a bit of the toilet paper roll and then taping it smaller around her neck so that she could not scratch.  She hated it.  ;)  But it kept her from scratching.

  I got the medicine (called Pick No More) and it seemed to disinfect the wound and soothe it, but it also dyed the area purple so the other chicks would not pick at it.  I put it on her and sure enough, no one picked at her.  They would look curiously, but not touch.  Her wound was able to heal and she was able to maintain her place in the brooder.

  After a few days, I found that the wound was healing, but that the matted down was drawing attention and I was needing to apply more of the purple stuff to hide the scab.  I was pretty sure we would go through a whole bottle in the time it took for the scab to fall off, and I was also worried that the pink of her skin would invite more picking.  So I went all "chicken hairstylist" on her.  I washed her up and then blow dried the down and fluffed it around the scab so that it was all covered by the down.  No one blinked twice at Caramelina.

  Whew.  

  Getting her past the establishment of the pecking order was the hardest part.  Now that things are established, Caramelina seems to be ok.  I have made sure that we have enough waterers and the feeder is big enough that everyone can eat at the same time.  We've just come to realize that Caramelina seems healthy and energetic, but will just be smaller than the rest of the group.

  Here is Caramelina watching all the "big girls."  Sometimes they can do more than she can, since they are bigger and have more feathers.  But she still keeps trying.  Team Caramelina!

  

• 
  Traveling with your Gear!

  So you booked that ever-sought-after destination wedding!!! Congrats! It is a lot of photographers' dream! How amazing is it to not only get to shoot a wedding, but get paid to travel and shoot?!

  But now the big question....

  How do you safely travel with your gear and also protect your clients images while traveling? You don't get to drive from your house to the wedding, and throw everything into your trunk, nor do you get to drive straight home after the wedding, and download your images.

  Well, here is how WE travel with ours.

  Tomorrow we head out to shoot an amazing wedding in Honolulu. We couldn't be any more excited then we are, but also every time we travel with our gear, we get nervous.

  (photos taken with our cell phones)

  We have our two carry-on rolling camera bags that holds the majority of our gear. (Yes, I know a lens cap was missing. I took the lens off of my camera and replaced it with the 50mm 1.2 as I was using the 16-35mm, to fit it into my camera bag to take the photo, and forgot to put the lens cap back on)

  
  

  
  

  Between Rachel and I, we check 4 pieces of luggage. 2 of them have 4 lightstands, large diffuser panels, chargers for the AA eneloop batteries and other photography related items. The other 2 pieces of luggage are obviously personal items, like clothes and such.

  The gear above may look like it is overkill, but I promise you it is not. We are paid to get the shots no matter what, even if we don't know the lighting situation we are going into. We also are paid to make sure that our clients' images get home safe.

  Now imagine that you are boarding a plane and find out that they can not accommodate your rolling bag with all your camera gear. They are asking kindly for you to check your bag. First don't freak... because after this blog post you are prepared!

  In my personal item that they allow you to carry on (usually a very large purse or backpack), I have my wallet, my ipad and other things necessary to travel on the plane. I also have a couple of tshirts. However, we also have either our Shoot Sac on us, or another bag of some kind stuffed into the bottom. Usually they are asking you to check your bag because there is not enough room for your suitcase in the overhead bin. (Reason #1 to check into your flight as early as you are allowed--to get a better boarding position and lower the risk).

  I then quietly inform the flight attendant of what is inside my bag, and ask if there is any way they can make it work. If they say no, I then proceed to remove my 2nd bag or Shoot Sac, and start stuffing cameras and lenses in that bag. I will not let my gear go under the plane and out of my sight.

  So I put as many lenses as I can in my Shoot Sac, and then the rest of the lenses or cameras and memory cards in my purse/backpack. I will stick a flash or two in my pockets if need be. I will then give them my nearly-empty bag.

  I can then almost always find a spot for my backpack in the overhead bins.

  I just refuse to let them take all that gear under the plane where it is out of my sight and control.

  We have insurance on our gear (and also insurance on us as a business) through Package Choice, but by the time I land and realize that my gear was either broken, or stolen and I file a claim, I won't have my replacement gear before the wedding or shoot that I was hired to shoot. I try to take every single precaution necessary.

  So what do we do to protect the images we shoot? Obviously we can't run home and back up immediately, and we need to run the gauntlet of packing and unpacking and airline travel between the wedding shoot and getting home to download. So, I bring my laptop and we each have external hard drives that are made for traveling (they have little hard cases they sit inside) and we download immediately to each of these each evening. (That way Rachel has a backup of Crystal's images and Crystal has a backup of Rachels images) (This external hard drive also sits in our carry on bag). We also bring a TON of memory. Over 260GB worth of cards. So we shoot to these cards and we do NOT reformat or erase ANY. Plus, we shoot Canon 5D Mark IIIs and we shoot to two cards, so there is a back up inside the camera, as well. So, we have at least 4 backups of every image. Two externals, the original cards, and the back-up cards that stay inside the cameras. We travel with these in separate bags. So we are as insured as possible against corruption of data, loss of images, etc.

  And finally, we bring all of this so that we can easily tackle any situation possible. If something breaks, it's ok. We have multiple back-ups. If the situation is not what we anticipated, it's ok, we have as many options as possible to come up with a good answer. It might seem like overkill to some, but we're paid to capture this once-in-a-lifetime day, and we take it very very seriously, and we don't accept or offer any excuses for ourselves.

  P.S.
  On top of all of our gear, we also bring a 2nd shooter. (Yes there are already two of us, but we shoot as a team, not 1st and 2nd shooter, so we bring a 2nd shooter to help out at most weddings, so we can team shoot. That will be explained in another post.)

  Our seconds also come with their gear.
  
• 
  Tips for Photographing Families with Autism

  The whole reason that I (Rachel) started into photography was because my oldest two boys are autistic. It was almost impossible to get a decent family portrait. For almost a decade we went without because the harsh flashing of the chain studios and the bewilderment of those taking our photographs just was impossible to overcome.

  As our family grew, I became more and more restless about this state of affairs and got a camera and started to voraciously learn all I could about photography so that I could capture our family’s memories and HOPEFULLY get a family portrait.

  A few years ago, the first portrait was realized and I am overjoyed. Crystal took the images and I did some head-swapping and it hangs proudly in my home.  I have since also gotten an image of all 6 kids after Max, my 3-year-old, was born.  And then another with all 6.  And then I got one with all 7, just a bit ago.  So I am blessed many times over now.  I also have realized the importance of having images of my family and the sadness I felt over not having one, and so I do all I can to photograph families I know with autism, so that they have one less thing in their worry bucket. So, I’ve had a lot of opportunities now to photograph and interact with these wonderful families.

  I wanted to write today to those in the position of photographer to these amazing families, because it can be a little daunting to enter into these situations.

  The main point I want to stress today is…don’t stress! I know it is natural to feel a little trepidation at the thought of going into an unfamiliar situation. So I want to make it less mysterious.

  Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means that every child is different. Some are more severe and some are much milder. What works perfectly in one situation won’t be the answer in the next situation, and ya know, that’s ok! It’s just like any other family, really. Some kids are slow to warm up, some want to follow you home. It is important to listen to the parents about what their child likes or doesn’t like, etc. But taking family portraits is likely a fairly new situation to the whole family, so the parents might not know exactly how their child will take to it. So here are a few tips that have worked well for me.

  1) Don’t stress.

  When stress starts, it is easy to escalate. Parents can feel it, the kids can feel it and it spirals. So feeling calm and loose is a great way to perpetuate those good feelings. And ya know what? I can speak from personal experience here, these families will be THRILLED with just having ANYTHING, so don’t go in with undue stress, because it will throw you off.

  2) Talk to mom and dad ahead of time

  This way you know if Jr hates grass on his bare feet, or is sensitive to sounds etc. That will help you know how to be. Also talk about favorites. I have yet to find a child with autism who doesn’t just LOVE something. That way you can brush up a little on trains, or Buzz Lightyear or whatever so you can chat about it as you take pictures. That is a great way to get the child to look at you naturally and smile. Find out what makes them tick. Often times things like Thomas the Train and Buzz Lightyear, etc. are big favorites and you can find (or borrow) Pez dispensers which fit conveniently in your hot shoe. That helps the kids look into your camera and smile, and it is a built in reward mechanism for them! Awesome on both counts!

  3) When talking to mom, tell her to talk about the upcoming shoot to her kids.

  Walk though what will happen (“We will be getting dressed up. You will be wearing your red shirt and blue jeans. When we get there, she will have a camera and she will want to take pictures of you feeling happy.”) I find the more the child has heard about what is coming up, the easier it is to settle into the routine.

  4) Speak calmly.

  There might be some children who need you to be boisterous, but starting calmly will prevent an accidental overwhelming of the child. Lots of sensitivities to sounds, social situations, new situations, etc. So easing into the situation is a great way to go. Talking calmly and softly, using natural light where possible, and going at a slower pace is a great way to earn the child’s trust.

  5) Reward liberally.

  Ask mom to bring some of the child’s favorite motivators. It could be fish crackers, M&Ms, etc. When things are going well, let the child know how pleased you are and give rewards.

  6) Enlist the rest of the family.

  Explain to mom and dad and the rest of the kids that you are relying on all of them to do doing what they need to be doing so that the second the child with autism is looking, you can get that shot. Make sure they know that they are so important to you and that you are partners with them in getting this done. (Mom and dad are often the ones who need the most reminding! They want to look at their child and admonish them often and so when the child is looking, mom is looking off and talking. Oops!)

  7) Practice head-swapping.

  Ha ha. I know, I know, but it can really help reduce your stress if you know you can combine the best couple shots into one amazing image.

  8) Embrace the fact that sometimes...

  setting up a shot where eye-contact is not needed can be easier on everyone and give you a beautiful window into reality.  I often have to get those shots where my boys are not looking right into the eyes of others or into the camera.  It's not comfortable for them and it can be hard to coordinate them looking into the camera for long periods of time.  But some of my favorite images are the final shots from these situations.

  I know that lots of people love the images of everyone interacting, but often an image with everyone looking is what people think they are after. So being able to even create that in post is a great skill to have.   We have a super tutorial on head swapping on our YouTube page!

   

  

• 
  Top Ten Things Pure Can't Live Without

  There are thousands of things out there for photographers to consider purchasing.  A lot of them are fantastic.  But for Crystal and I, these are Pure's Top Ten things we CANNOT live without.  

  In no particular order:

  * means that the link is an affiliate link.  At no additional cost to you, if you purchase something from that link, we get a small commission.  We ONLY recommend products we use and love.  NONE of these companies have asked us to write about them or post their products.  In fact, I am sure most of them don't even know who we are.  ;) We are only posting about them, because we use and love their products weekly, if not daily.

  1)  Pixieset.  Delivering clients images is easy and stylish.  We upload to Pixieset, and the client can easily download their sessions or share with family members and friends who might want a photo or two also.  We can set print prices, and we can easily sell prints that way.  Digital images are critical for wedding photography and Pixieset delivers.  Their price is excellent too.  We use the paid version so that we have total control over the settings for our clients and have enough storage, but there are even free options for you to try out first.

   

  2)  A Black Rapid camera strap--*  Having our cameras hanging around our necks was quickly out for long weddings.  Neck and shoulders ached by the end, and it was not practical for shooting two cameras.  Enter the Black Rapid (especially the DUO strap.)  The camera slides along the strap on both sides of the body and hangs on the hip.  Practical and convenient.  Do make sure that you check the D-ring for tightness often.

  

  3)  A Good Camera Bag (or two)--So sometimes we just need a couple of lenses and one camera body (births are a good example of having to travel light and not be a significant presence), and sometimes we need the WHOLE kit.  What bags to Crystal and I use?  For small bags, we love both the JoTote line of bags (we have some that are over six years old and are still in perfect shape, despite being dragged to every wedding stuffed with flashes*, Gary Fong Diffusers*, and triggers and batteries*) and the Copper River Bags.  Copper River Bags are almost bullet proof with thick leather and a more rugged design that works for men or women and have a lovely and unique styling.  (Mine doubles as my purse and has for over 5 years and it still looks almost new, and it is my top travel/vacation camera bag.)  

  For a larger bag, Rachel uses the ThinkTank Airport*.  It is small enough to stand up in the overhead bin, so travel is simple.  Crystal has the slightly larger LowPro that fits a few more flashes and nine lenses.

  4)  Cactus V6 Flash Triggers--*  We have used almost EVERY radio flash trigger on the market.  We have spent thousands and thousands of dollars, so you don't have to.  We moved up from Cactus v2 to Cactus v5, and now we just started moving up to v6, and we are obsessed.  We have used other brands of triggers between each version, thinking that with the higher price tag, we would be getting more reliability.  However, we found we got less reliability compared to the Cactus triggers.  We use a four light wedding reception set up, often a light or two for bridal sessions, and trigger strobes in the studio, so we need reliable triggers.  The V6 allows you to use groups, set flash power from the transmitter, set channels, etc.  They are transceivers, which means you can use them as triggers or receivers as needed.  This is so fantastic.  Another amazing perk is that they work with both Canon and Nikon.  Crystal and I shoot Canon, but sometimes our 2nd shooters, shoot Nikon.  We can pop one of these babies on their cameras, and they can trigger our Canon flashes!  How cool is that?!!

  We were able to get eight triggers for a little over $400.  Fantastic for getting all of our reception lighting and letting both Crystal and I have a trigger or two.  These little babies make us look awesome with our light control.

  

  5) Fong Light Diffusers--*  Particularly the collapsible ones.  We use these on our four flashes at receptions.  They are small and easily carried, excellent for travel.  They throw the light out and if there are color casts on the ceiling the cap keeps the flash from spreading that color to all the wedding guests.  While it does eat power (and by extension, it eats batteries faster), we feel the way it makes out light look is a worthy trade-off. 

  

  6)  Millers--We adore Millers for prints and albums.  They make us look GOOD.  Their turnaround time is so fast you'd swear they were are printing your stuff in your backyard.  The deep matte prints are so beautiful they make my soul ache a little. It is wonderful to see your image prints the way you see it captured in your mind.  Their customer service is top-notch.  Millers is printing done right.

  7)  A good large reflector/diffuser--*  These suckers are not your typical round affairs that are maybe a foot or two tall.  No, these are big oval monsters that are taller than we are.  They unzip and have a fantastic diffusion panel inside that allows you to temper harsh sunlight, which is critical during noon formals for sunny summer weddings.  They also make amazing fill light in the studio, reflect beautifully indoors and out, and are pretty legit impromptu changing booths if Crystal and I each hold one or two around a client.  SO much multitasking.

  

  8)  A great contract--We love the contracts from Rachel Brenke.  Having a good solid contract gives your client an understanding of what to expect from you (managing client expectation is critical to a good experience), and it protects both you and your client from legal issues.  It will outline what you will provide and what your client will give you in return.  It outlines what you will and will not do.  Going to a session or wedding without a contract is about on par to going without clothes.

  9)  Lightroom/Adobe Camera RAW--Post-processing photos is just what happens.  In the film era, you would not hand over your rolls of film to your client and call it a day.  Rather, you would bring them to the darkroom and choose chemicals and processed to develop them.  You would dodge and burn.  You would bring your vision alive even further with your post processes.  It is no different in the digital age.  Processing the RAW files is important.  Making sure you lift the digital haze of your images, correct any possible faults that happened during capture, and then putting your spin on the images is a critical part of being a Photographer.  Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW allow for quick edits, batch processing, and quick export and file renaming.  This is a critical step for the efficient photographer.  (Bonus points for OUR presets to get you from point A to done in record time!)

  10)  Photoshop!--Cloning, healing, and specialized edits require Photoshop.  Lightroom/Camera RAW/Photoshop all go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Editing skin in Lightroom is a tricky process at best.  Removing unwanted items is liable to make a saint curse.  But Photoshop makes short work of all of the above and allows your creative vision to shine through.  And again...we're pretty partial to our actions.  

   

  
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• 
  Simple Seamless Paper with BIG Punch

  Hi guys!  I am back with my simple in-home/portable studio set up.  This time I am going to explain how to use seamless paper and get a little extra punch from adding plexiglass on top of the seamless paper to get that reflection of your subject.  It is great for grounding your subject and giving a professional polish to your images.  It's quite simple, but does require a little more time in post-production, but not bad.   Here's a pull back of the set up.

  

  If you have not read my last blog post on my studio set up, here is the meat and potatoes of the lighting.  If you've read it, feel free to skip over the next little bit.

  I use an Alien Bee 400 for my light.  I also have an 800 and a 1600, but I prefer my 400.  Why?  I can shoot at a more shallow depth of field because I have better control of the lower end of light output.  If I was shooting OCF outdoors, trying to overpower the sun, I would not prefer an Alien Bee 400 (rather a 1600), but for indoor portraits, I love the 400.

  I use the 60x30 softbox and I feather it.  Notice how it is not pointed directly at the subject in the image above?  Rather it is pointing past him?  That gives a softer quality of light with fewer hot spots and more gradual shadow transitions.  

  To trigger my light I use Cactus V5 triggers.  I find them to be very responsive with very few misfires and the price is very impressive.  We have spent thousands on other systems that have not worked at all with indoor strobes, so the Cactus have won our hearts.

  I tend to start out at 1/125 shutter speed (remember not to go above 1/200 if you are shooting strobes, because of sync speed.  If you go above this, you will get a black line in your image from the shutter.)  I like this to give a little more prominence to the subject and less attention to the background, but if you want a brighter background, drop your shutter speed.   I like to shoot at about 2.8 aperture, so I know I will get decent focus and not too much light on the subject.  But sometimes I open up even wider (but I also make sure to turn down my light power.)  I use 125 ISO and start my strobe at about 1/8 power.  Since I always put my light in the same place, these settings work bang on almost every time.  Remember when using a strobe (or any light) the Inverse-Square Law is at work.  Which means every time you half the distance between your subject and the light, you are doubling the power of the light.  It also works in reverse.  Every time you double the distance between light and subject, you halve the power.  VERY IMPORTANT.

  I like a little defining and shaping shadows to my studio work, so I rarely add a reflector.  But if you want lighter shadows, then by all means, add a reflector to the other side.

  

  The plexiglass is simply the largest sheet I could find at the Home Depot.  It is about 3 feet long and 3 feet wide.  I WISH I had a little bigger, so if YOUR Home Depot offers a larger size, get it.  It will save you having to fix edges and will allow for more people on it.  It's not the end of the world that mine is the size it is, but it would be nicer if it was bigger.

  The trickiest thing is that blending the plexi can take some doing.  A shameless plug here...for the best results, see our Pure Retouch Technique Video/mini action set.  That will get you blended naturally in no time.  

  

  Here is a quick before/after.  Pretty natural and seamless.  (Ha ha, get it.)

  Other images using the seamless/plexi--

  

  As you can see, it is a simple trick for a lovely and polished image.

• 
  The Best Camera You Have Is the One You Have With You

  Confession:  I am the mom at Disneyland with the overly-heavy camera bag and a 70-200 on a gripped 5D Mark III.  In fact, I usually bring my whole kit to the hotel and each day we go to the park I will take a 24-70 and then one other lens that rotates by day and I will have a theme day.  70-200 for close ups on the rides of the kids.  Macro for park details.  16-35 for the wide, storytelling shots.  

  

  I fully admit that I have a slight problem.

  

  After I got all my kids in the car and took the picture, the lady behind me started giving me directions for how she wanted her kids posed in the car, thinking I was one of the photographers that worked at Disneyland.  Kind of a fair assumption since I had my lanyard for our tickets around my neck and a stupid amount of gear for a tourist.

  

  But I'll admit I get a thrill from capturing even the smallest moments forever in the best format I can.

  I bet there are a lot of people reading the blog who can completely sympathize.  I never even used a cell phone camera until about 3 years ago.  I didn't do it often for a long time.  I felt like it just was not good enough.  But I have 7 kids.  And so I would take little snaps here and there.  (Usually when I didn't have my big SLR, and when I reasoned with myself that the action was happening so fast and the light was so bad, my big camera would not have made much difference anyway.)  I got the memories, and told myself it was ok.  But I still didn't like it.

  Then, as I have mentioned before, I had my son Henry and he was in the NICU for almost a month.  I honestly felt so emotionally and physically exhausted that I really only had the energy to take snaps of him with my cell phone.  I felt so awful.  Every day I would load my big camera into my bag, but every day it stayed in the bag.  The pain and frustration and exhaustion just made it so hard for me to do what I WANTED to do.  So I came home from my son's first month of life with a cell phone full of pictures.  And a scant handful on my big camera.  

  So I set about figuring out what to do to make these photos look as good as I could.  I also had to let go of the guilt.  I knew I had done the best I could do, and those photos were better than nothing.  So I figured out how to get my photos off of my phone.

  A lot of my photos were uploaded to Instagram to share with family and friends.  So, if you want to download your Instagram photos, you can!  It is so easy.  Just go to Instaport.me and it will compile your entire Instagram account (or selections of it) and download it as a zipped file for you.  The only downside is that there is no exif info attached, so they kind of come up in random order.  If you're not an Instagrammer or you want to use the images right off your phone, there are a lot of ways to get them off the phone, but for me, the easiest and most universal is letting Dropbox download my photos for me.  I can quickly look through there by date and find photos I am looking for.  Either way, getting photos off your phone is important.

  Then I imported my photos to Lightroom.  

  Ha!  Yes!  Just like a session.  I grabbed that Instaport.me zipped file and I unzipped it and uploaded it to Lightroom.  

  

  That's my cell phone file in Lightroom!

  I was astounded at what a little Basic Warm Workflow 2 (from our Pure Presets 1 collection) did for the phone photos.  It cleared up the noise and grain that can happen in cell phone photos.  It warmed the cool white balance.  It brightened them up.  All of those little downsides of using the cell phone were looking much better.

  Then we made some album templates in Lightroom.  We started off with the idea that the templates would be awesome for wedding photographers.  They could easily put wedding albums together as they were waiting for their wedding images to export from Lightroom as jpgs.  But, then I got thinking.  What if I made some templates that specifically fit cell phone pics?  Lots of slots for lots of pics (sometimes multiple angles of the same place, since it is from the cell phone, right?) and smaller slots so the imperfections of the phone files would not be as obvious.  That lead to the InstaPure albums.  And really, even if we never sold even one of these, they were worth it to me.  I got all of my photos of my sweet little Henry off of my phone and into an actual printed photo album.  His NICU journey is beautifully bound in leather and his pictures are perfect.

  

  

  

   

  Here is just a sampling of the images I saved from my phone.  A whole story just waiting to be claimed.  It gave me a greater appreciation for having a camera on me at all times. I still love to use my DSLR whenever I can but I know that I can use my phone and tell a story that is worth telling.  If that is all I have, it is worth a lot.  I challenge each of you to find the stories you have locked up in your phone and save them for future generations.