My Wedding Bag?

Okay, so I have been asked what bag I carry to weddings and why. Well, I currently carry a Tamrac Cyberpak 6, which is a backpack style carrier. While it is comfortable and roomy, I have decided to switch.

Recently I ordered a Stanley tool box from Amazon. I learned about a similar tool box from a fellow shooter. The great thing about this tool box is that once you line it with foam, you have a mobile (pull behind) camera storage unit that holds everything! The one I purchased has a top unit that will hold my D300, D300 bracket, 24-70, 70-200 and an SB-800 flash. The first drawer will hold my pocket wizards, Vivitar 285HV flash units, screw drivers, cleaning equipment and just about all the extra little things needed. The next set of drawers will house AA batteries, camera batteries, memory cards, wires and so on. The final compartment at the bottom will hold my Alien Bees, all back-up equipment and extension cables.

Mounted to the side of the tool box will be two Calumet 13.5' air cushioned light stands and a tripod. This should be everything I need for a wedding! Oh yeah, and I can remove the top part of the tool box to stand on to shoot formals!

I also have a Tamrac belt with Nikon lens bags that I wear during weddings. Makes for quick access to things like lens, flashes, batteries and cf cards.

Family?

One thing I haven't talked about is my family...how can you get to know me without hearing about my personal life?

Well I have an amazing wife that is very supportive. We have been married for almost 7 years now and been together for over 12 years. She is caring, loving, sweet, fun and a great mother to our wonderful daughter!

Our daughter Hannah will be turning 2 years old on the 23rd of March. I can't believe how much Hannah means to me and how no matter the day I am having, just her smiling and happy way brightens my day. There is nothing better than coming home after shooting a wedding where everyone is so happy, and seeing my daughter so happy to see me and her mother right behind her!

I am a lucky man, thats for sure! God has blessed me with a beautiful, loving wife and a piece of heaven we call our daughter.

Nikon, sweet Nikon!

Anyone who knows me knows that I shot Canon for a long time. I loved Canon and most of my Canon work was studio but I did shoot a lot of my portraiture with Canon. I loved the selection of lenses, the availability of accessories and I loved the wheel (Canon users will know all about that)!

But I made a switch about 3 months ago to Nikon. I don't know the real reason for my switch but I think I just wanted to try something new. I got the D300 as I mentioned in my first blog, along with a few amazing lenses. It was a little hard to get used to the controls but the ergonomics were easy to love. The controls are second nature and now, I don't miss the wheel at all as I first did. The switch in lens mounting was the biggest hurdle. I tried to put the caps and lenses on the wrong way for a solid 2 months and now I find that I am beginning to mess up on my Canon stuff...lol Just goes to show how little I use it.

The D300 is amazing, it focuses well in low light. Its responsive, its durable, its comfortable and best of all, I do very little post production in photoshop. I love Nikon's 24-70 2.8 lens as much as I did on the Canon version.

Canon makes some amazing equipment and their primes...well if you know anything about lenses you know that Canon's primes are amazing! As for zooms (the type of lenses I prefer), Nikon I think has an slight edge. When purchasing lenses and putting myself way in the hole, I knew there might be a day I could afford the amazing D3, so I didn't get any DX lenses. I hope to have the D3 someday and then I will get a 14 fisheye; I believe it is a 14.

I have only one complaint with Nikon, their poor higher ISO performance. This has plagued Nikon since they started making digital SLR's. I HATE the noise reduction on the Nikon and the noise is only a stop better than that of the D200 and we know the D200 wasn't great in the high ISO department.

Robert Loparo

I had the opportunity to shoot with the photographer that shot my wedding almost 7 yrs ago, Robert Loparo. It was a beautiful wedding and man did I ever get some amazing shots.

5 Weddings in March!!!

For the month of March I have 5 weddings to shoot and I am meeting with a client for a wedding in May, March is going to be a busy month!

I picked up my back-up body, a D200 with grip. I hope I won't need it but if I ever do, I'll have it!

Second wedding with Kevin Keelan!

Well after having a blast shooting with Kevin on Saturday, I headed out for another wedding. This wedding was the complete opposite of the previous wedding, the other wedding was in a large church, hundreds of people and 22 people in the bridal party. This wedding had 14 guests which included the BRIDE and GROOM!!! It was also outside in the hot and blazing Florida sun next to a backyard pool.

The additional flash lighting we used really helped to remove the harsh highlights and shadows that the sun was producing. Without the additional lighting (K2 Lighting on the Go), I don't think the pictures would be anywhere near as good as they turned out.

First wedding with Kevin Keelan!!!

Well this past weekend I was invited by a fellow photographer to shoot a wedding. The wedding was in this beautiful church in downtown Orlando. There was 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsman and couple hundred guests. We weren't allowed to enter the church during the ceremony so we had to shoot from a balcony at the back of the church.

The reception was in a poorly lit ballroom. The lights (or lack there of) would have been really challenging had it not been for the additional flash lighting we set-up throughout the ballroom. After 6 hrs I had taken over 700 photos and the other photographer had taken about the same.

At the end of the wedding Kevin asked if I would like to join him the following day (Sunday) on another wedding, of course! I learned so much from Kevin and his K2 Lighting on the Go!