Here are more of the 12FPS actions shots I took with the camera to test the focus and speed of the Sony A77.  If you have not read the original review, here is the link.

Here is my review of the Sony Alpha SLT-A77VQS translucent mirrored camera “DSLR.”   DSLR is in quotes because it is not a Single Lens Reflex camera.  The mirror inside the A77 is fixed and translucent and doesn’t open to expose the sensor.  Rather, when a photo is snapped, the light penetrates the translucent mirror to the sensor and continues to reflect up to the eyepiece giving the photographer continuous focus.  This allows the camera to shoot up to 12 frames per second.  (at high enough shutter speeds)

My photography background

I have been a full-time, professional photographer for more than eight years now.  I am an original Nikon shooter and have used their DSLRs, flashes and lenses exclusively until last year.  In 2011 I added two Canon cameras to the mix because of their video capabilities.  I learned to shoot photos on the Canon with the same speed I could use my Nikons.  Two weeks ago, I added the Sony A77 to my collection and all I can say is “WOW!”

The Sony A77 Review

There are so many features on the camera that sold me on buying it.  I will comment on some of my favorites here and if you have questions, please leave a comment in the box below.

Click on the tabs below to see my take on some of the camera’s features

One of my favorite features thus far is the in-camera steady shot.  It makes a HUGE difference in which shutter speeds you can use.  Keep in mind, I will almost never go above ISO 800 for a shot, so in a dark reception, I might find that it is necessary to use something less than 1/50th of a second for a shutter speed.  Typically, I have to brace my camera, hold my breath, take a few shots and hope it is in focus.  This is even when I use a VR lens.

With the Sony, I have found that I am able to shoot at 1/20th of a second and it does a fantastic job keeping it in focus.

It is hard to know where to post this:  Photography genius, photography mistakes?  Over the past eight years of professional photography, I have seen any number of “backup systems” that others are using to keep their images safe.  From DVD backups to external hard drives, photographers are putting a ton of work at risk and exposing themselves to some very upset clients.

Five things that should be AVOIDED

• Backing up to DVDs – Since DVDs only hold 4.3 GB of data, a typical wedding might take 9-12 DVDs to back up.  Also, they are a physical product which can be scratched, destroyed in an office fire, experience data loss or have another failure.
• Backing up to external hard drives – External hard drives are great….until they fail.  Data recovery companies love photographers who back up to external hard drives.  Also, external hard drives use a power cord (unless they are powered by USB) and data transfer is slow.  They are also subject to office fires, flood, damage from dropping and are generally not safe or suitable for backing up one-of-a-kind shoots like weddings.
• Backing up to two external hard drives – Still not safe.  Safer than backing up to one, but not safe.  Why?  Because it is possible for both to fail at the same time.  How?  Most often a computer virus would take them out.  Because they are connected to a computer through a USB or firewire, there is a direct line for viruses.
• Raid storage and Drobos – These are a bit safer, but still possibly susceptible to computer viruses.

What should you use?

My recommendation is to use Network Attached Storage combined with off-site storage.  Network attached storage is much less apt to be damaged by viruses because a virus would have to figure out how to get through the network security first.  Very difficult to do compared with following a link through USB.  Second, NAS is much faster for data transfer than USB if you use the right router and CAT6 cable.  Third, NAS can be used by multiple computers.  It turns Lightroom into a real photo-managing beast when set up correctly.

I personally use the Lime Technology MD-1510 server.  I was able to take the 8 external hard drives and install them into the server.  So, I didn’t lose any money for the hard drives I had bought in the past.  I use a parity drive which will automatically rebuild any of the 14 drives in the system that might fail.

Lightroom Goodness

Using NAS as opposed to drobo or RAID has a huge advantage.  Lightroom interaction.  You see, when you use Lightroom you normally have to go through some paces to access the RAW+XML files to edit them on a different computer.  What if you are one of those photographers who likes to sometimes sit at your desk while editing and other times on the couch with a laptop?  Normally, you would have to have some way to access all of those files on both computers.  Typical RAID and drobo systems aren’t set up to be accessible by multiple computers but when you use NAS, it is attached to the network…thus the name Network Attached Storage.

With NAS, you can simply add the photos to your LR catalog on both computers and allow the files to stay where they are on the NAS server.  So, you have one copy of the RAW file and it’s corresponding XML file or sidecar file.  Your laptop’s hard drive stays clear, you can work off your battery and don’t have to find a plug for your external hard drive and all changes are written to the same XML file that your desktop has.  Both will access the same files.  I don’t recommend working on the at the exact same time, but who does that anyway?

First and foremost:  DON’T SEND MONEY TO OVERSEAS SELLERS UNLESS YOU ARE USING THE TYPICAL AMAZON CHECKOUT PROCEDURE.

I can’t believe I am going to be this cliché, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Here’s my story

I shop for everything on Amazon.  I absolutely love the way I can sit at my desk and order the stuff I need.  I am one of their Prime members so I am able to get free shipping on nearly everything that I purchase there.  Also, I am able to avoid the sales tax and shopping.

So, the other day, I was searching for a Nikon D3s, which is a $5,000 camera body.  I found a “seller” who was selling it for about half of the normal price.  Amazon wouldn’t let me checkout through their system, but rather had an email address (with a space instead of the dot) in the description.

I emailed them and asked about the camera and got a response with poor English.  Even poorer than my South Carolina born accented English.

After telling them that I want the camera, I got an email from auto-confirm@amazon-secure-pay.com.

Fortunately for me I search everything on Google before proceeding.  When the email told me to wire money to Greece first, I was more than a bit suspicious.

Here is what I found that you may want to read so that you don’t make this mistake too.

• Discussion on Amazon forum about scam –  This has copies of the scam’s emails.  I deleted the one sent to me accidentally.
• Another discussion on Amazon about this scam –  This one details some of the emails and tactics they use.

Off Camera Flash

Can you create some stunning off camera flash photography for under $60?  You sure can!

As a professional wedding photographer, I am constantly trying to improve my work by increasing my abilities.  One of the things we learned over the past couple of years was to effectively learn to use off camera flash.  I have nine Nikon SB800 flashes that I use at weddings but, as many of you know, these flashes are expensive.  So, I started a quest to find flashes which were inexpensive, would work with my remote flash triggers and do a decent job.

I went to Amazon and searched out the least expensive camera flashes that I could, read some reviews and this is what I found.

Off camera flash for under $10

The Neewer off camera flash costs less than $10.  I bought three of them because I figured that if one died (as one reviewer commented on Amazon) then I would have a couple of back-ups.  I took them to a wedding we shot on Oct 1st, 2011 and I mounted the two flashes on my remote flash triggers ($29).  I mount them, as always, at about seven feet high.

The remote trigger was mounted into the hot shoe of one of my Canon 60D cameras.  I know what you might be thinking, why do you have Nikon flashes and a Canon camera.  Well, I shoot both ways.  We carry four Nikon bodies to weddings, two Canons and lots of other stuff.

The Canon camera is light as a feather with my Sigma 17-70 lens and only a flash trigger on the top. So, it makes long shooting days so much more comfortable.

Here are the results of my off camera light test

In each image below, I used a Canon 60D camera with a Sigma 17-70 lens and a Cowboystudio remote flash trigger.  The flashes are the Neewer, $10 dollar flashes mounted on light stands.  In the first image, I had the girls aim their faces towards my light stands.  What you can see is that there is no harsh, back shadow that you would normally get with an on-camera flash.  The second photo is from the anniversary dance and the bride is going to hug the winning couple (who have been married over 60 years).  The last photo is a shot using a higher shutter speed only allowing for the flashes and their effect to show.

What are the best batteries for your camera flash?

There is a lot to think about when preparing for a professional portrait shoot or wedding when you are a photographer.  One of the most overlooked places is finding the best batteries for your camera flash.  Using the right battery in your flash can mean the difference between getting and missing the shot.   Imagine the perfect moment that you’ve hunted for all evening long and there it is.  You release your shutter and your flash fails to fire.  Uggggh.  Happens all the time.

In this article, we will tell you what we use, why we use them and how to optimize your flash battery life so that you will get more shots with faster recycling times.

The Equipment

We shoot with Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlights and typically set up three off camera flashes at any given wedding.   Throughout this article, we will focus on weddings because that is our primary business.  Yours may be different, but the concepts will be the same.

Using the Nikon Flashes and two cameras (each with a flash) means that we are using twenty-five (25) batteries at any given time.  We want and need our flashes to fire each and every time we tell them to via shutter release, so all of our batteries have to perform at their absolute best.

The Batteries

For our flashes, we use rechargeable nickel metal hydride batteries from Sanyo.   SANYO eneloop 4 Pack AA NiMH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries

By using rechargeable batteries, we gain a couple of advantages:

1. Rechargeable batteries recover faster than typical alkaline batteries when used in flashes for DSLR cameras.
2. Over the course of a couple of weddings, they will pay for themselves.  Though they are more expensive to buy on a per battery cost, you can recharge them and use them many times over.

We use these because they discharge very slowly when stored.  This means that we can start charging our batteries for a wedding several days prior to the event and not worry about them still having charge when we arrive.

The Secret

The biggest and most important factor in your battery life and performance, is the charger you use.    Most people don’t realize that if they simply use the charger from Wal-Mart, their batteries will not perform as well as they should.

There are several factors that will make your batteries perform worse:

• Battery memory
• Discharging power when storing them
• Errors when charging

The secret is the battery charger.  Using the proper battery charger can and will bring batteries back from the dead, giving you optimal performance and long usage.  This will help you capture the image you are shooting for and save you money over time.

The Charger

The charger we use is the  La Crosse Technology BC-9009 AlphaPower Battery Charger.  It is an advanced battery charger that costs less than $50.  With it, you will be able to refresh and recharge your batteries under the best possible conditions.  Read all about it by clicking the link above.  We use two of them because we have so many batteries to charge

The Method

When you first buy batteries for your flash, it is best to charge and discharge them 15-20 times.  With the La Crosse Charger, you can set it to “Refresh” which will automatically run this cycle for you over the course of a couple of days.  The charger will charge the batteries up to capacity, then discharge them, then repeat that process 20 times.  This gets the battery to the highest possible capacity.

It is the same with an older battery you might have charged with less advanced chargers.  A few days on the La Crosse, and they will be back to performing almost perfectly.

The La Crosse can also test batteries.  Often, the cheaper chargers will give an error when attempting to charge a battery because the battery has developed a memory.  That “memory” will keep the battery from getting charged correctly.  Running a test will tell you if the battery should be kept or tossed.  Most often, you will find that the battery should be kept.

Low Charging Rate

You can charge your batteries almost as fast as you would like, however the best possible setting is to charge them slowly.  This way, the batteries get the optimal charge and the fullest capacity.

Don’t be fooled by the “Rapid” chargers.  The speed that you get today will cost you later by ruining the battery’s ability to be fully charged or fully discharged

Questions or Comments

As always, if you have questions or comments, please click the sidebar tab on the right.

We decided to put this Groupon Review for Photographers together to keep from having to email the same things over and over. After running our own Groupon on Oct. 2009, we have been asked by at least 50 different photographers from all over the nation to give advice on our experience.

We have had a lot of time to think about what we would do differently if we were to do Groupon again. How would we maximize profits and give users the best possible experience.

How to sign up with Groupon

Groupon’s process takes several weeks (at least in our area). The first thing we did was sign up on their Groupon For Business website. After signing up, our area account representative contacted us about 3-4 weeks later. She said that they were considering us for an ad and thus began the process of getting “approved” to be on the site.

During this process the photographer will be lead to believe that if he/she doesn’t give away more stuff that they won’t run the Groupon for them. The answer to that fear should be “okay, don’t run it, but I am not giving away my digital files.”

After the initial contact and several questions asked, we found out that we were in fact approved just a couple of weeks later. Then our ad ran two to three weeks after that. At this point we were excited, but later would find out why we made a bit of a blunder with Groupon.

Learn from Groupon case studies

• Groupon Case Study 1 – Sarah Ester Photography sold almost 2,000 sessions at $49 each.  Read the full story to see why we think this is the biggest Groupon mistake ever!
• Groupon Case Study 2 – AH Photography Groupon – Slightly better than minimum wage. Lots of banter in the comment section of this one.
• Groupon Case Study 3 – Brad Walters Photography structured a nearly perfect Groupon Deal.
• Groupon Case Study 4 – Adam and Eve Photography’s Groupon deal.  Not a lot of up sell potential.

Why are you shooting? To make a living?

Why are you in business? Are you in business to make a profit, provide additional income for your family and perhaps be able to make a career with professional photography? If you answered “yes” then keep reading.

If you answered “no” then you may want to stop and assess your goals and aspirations. Groupon is an advertising firm trying to sell as many of product or service XYZ as possible. Once they have sold a bunch of them, YOU
have to do the work. So make Groupon profitable for YOU!!!

During the approval phase, you will be asked to define the deal that you are willing to offer for the Groupon special. This is the most critical part of your decision.

For our own special, we offered a sitting and three full-resolution digital images. (Big mistake BTW) We negotiated a split with Groupon for 50%, but I understand that you can get them to pay you more in certain
cases.

Don’t give ANY digital images away!!!!

Our biggest mistake was including any digital images in our offer. The reason is that when forced (by way of paying more money) many clients will move toward narrowing down their images to just the three. Groupon clients, in
our experience are looking for a deal. While some will upsell, the majority of them will not if you give them images that they have control over.

If you include prints instead, then the client still has a reason to purchase other products from you.

And, if you make your prints high enough, then there will be incentive to purchase all of the digital images.  (if that is your business model)

What we would do next time

If we had to do Groupon all over again, our approach and strategy would be much different. We would offer the sitting fee and an 11×14 print only. The sitting fee would be worth $160 and the 11×14 would be about $112. That
would be a value of $272 which we would offer for say $75. Even with a 50% split the profit would be $37.50 for the shoot minus the cost of the print and shipping of about $17, that would leave us with $20 for doing the shoot.

Twenty Bucks? Are you Kidding?

Because the client has only an 11×14, they will have to purchase any of our other prints separately. We won’t swap the 11×14 for anything smaller at all. Why? Because an 11×14 doesn’t fit on anyone’s home scanner.

Our prints / digital images for sale after the fact is what brings us the most profit from Groupon. The Groupon special gets them in the door as a “loss leader” while the after sales brings the per session average to $400 or so.

After the thirty minute shoot, we would have the client select ALL of their prints and or digital images that they want to purchase. They would have to choose them that day. When you show the images to the client online or in person, they should know that this will be the very last time that they ever see the images.  Not as a threat, but as a fact.

Clients won’t be able to stand just getting one image so they will purchase more prints or all of digital images. Our biggest seller by far is the ability to purchase all of the digital images from the session for $390.  You can price this however you would like.

What is the Groupon potential?

Let’s say that your Groupon gets you 150 sales the day it runs. With a 66% redemption rate of the coupons, 100 people are going to have their session done with you. (I am guessing at the redemption rate based on our
experience)

If you can average $400 per client for 100 clients, then you will pull $40,000. Not bad at all. Add in the $37.50 per client from Groupon x 150 clients and you have another $5,000 with costs of about $2,000 or a net of $3,000. So Groupon brings your photography business $43,000 for a one day ad. Great business indeed.

More Techniques to maximize your Groupon dollars

Once the Groupon Ad runs, you will need several things in place to maximize your money and future potential from referrals, etc. I have lots of help that I can offer in this area. Please read the below carefully and take my advice. This will save you countless hours of frustration in dealing with scheduling and communication.

If you would like to call me to get consulting, please do so. I do charge $65 per hour for the consult time on the phone, but it will make you WAY more money and save you WAY more time (time = money) if you handle some of these questions up front. I can be reached at

(303) 578-9327.

• How are you going to handle the phone calls and bookings from Groupon? You will be absolutely flooded with calls and emails after the daily feature on their site. How are you going to handle the
  calls and emails and make most efficient use of your time?
• How to maximize your Facebook Page to make it work for you? – If used right, Facebook can be an ATM machine for you. I can teach you to use Facebook’s advanced systems to communicate with clients,
  generate referrals, and keep people informed on your events.
• How to sell your images after the shoot – So many photographers struggle with this most critical part of the session. The sales session will be the difference between a successful photographer and a
  weekend warrior who has to keep a “real” job.

Attention photographers, just wanted to bring Briarhurst Manor Estateto your radar.  We just finished reading through their “Vendor Advisory Letter” that they send to the vendors for weddings being held at their venue.  A few things on the form are keeping us from signing it.Check out the sections below that we take issue with and every vendor/photographer should absolutely refuse to sign.If you want to read it, you can View the full agreement

Vendor Advisory Letter First Unsignable Part -

“Entertainers and Vendors: All entertainers and vendors are required to set up one hour before the scheduled time of the event to prevent any disruption of any guest. All equipment must be removed from the premise prior to the contracted conclusion of the event.”

So did you carefully read the part that says that “all vendors are required to set up one hour prior AND all equipment (cameras) must be removed from the premise (property) PRIOR to the contracted conclusion of the event?”

Kind of not possible.  Can you imagine a band having to break down PRIOR to the contracted end time?

But, it gets worse….

Unsignable Part II 

“Food and Party Favors: Briarhurst Manor is the exclusive cater for your event, no food or beverage of any kind from being brought on the premises except by an approved vendor. If you would like to have special party favors or treats for yourself or other guest that is not a part of our menu(s), please communicate your desires to the sales staff. We will do our best to communicate your desires with our chef to make our guests event a very special one. No food or beverage of any kind may be brought on to the premise i.e.; soft drinks, punch, home made cakes, edible favors, sandwiches and fast food. You may be asked to remove any items that fit such descriptions.”

We have shot over 300 weddings now and have never heard of a venue not allowing beverages or food.  Often, when we are working for 7-8 hours we do get a bit hungry.  Since we are on the go, we always pack healthy bars in our cases so that we can grab, unwrap and go.

Quite often, we are offered “vendor meals” which generally consist of terrible ham on white bread, Doritos and a soft drink.  Basically stuff that we never eat since we shop/eat exclusively organic food.

Thus, they want us to sign something saying we won’t eat or drink anything for 7 hours in June.  Nope.

And now for the craziest one of all.

Here is the worst clause of all folks…..

“Overtime: All personal articles, guests, vendors and vendor equipment must be removed from the premise at the contracted time of the conclusion of this event. If parties wish to stay beyond the contracted conclusion time however, overtime charges of $500.00 per half hour (for any portion of a half hour) will be billed to the client(s) ,vendor.”

Read it carefully.  Yep, it says what you think it says.  If you were to go over 5 seconds past the contracted conclusion time, then they would charge you (vendor) $500.

So after this I started looking for some more information on the Briarhurst Manor Estate to see what others have experienced with them.  I started reading the reviews on Google Places (http://maps.google.com – Search Briarhurst Manor Estate) and I was completely validated in my unwillingness to sign their form.

As you read the reviews of this place, it makes you wonder how in the world anyone would book this place.

1. Create a simple contract – Do this first. Because I am going to suggest you take some free weddings to get your feet wet, you should have a contract to protect yourself
2. Shoot some weddings for free- If you have ever watched American Idol, Simon Cowell would interact with people who gave voice lessons to clients.  He would ask them, “do you charge them?”  They would answer “yes.”  He would retort, “well you should give all their money back.”   Shooting weddings for free will get your feet wet, but you should have a contract saying that they know you are just starting out and won’t hold you responsible for anything that is messed up.  You shoot weddings for free for several reasons.
   • If you mess up, there is no liability and you don’t feel guilty.
   • you may get some great shots and you can start building a portfolio for when you don’t shoot for free
   • it helps you learn the flow of the day
   • it helps you determine what you are missing, what equipment you need to have, what you could do differently
   • you get over the nervousness.  The more weddings you attend, the less nervous you are.   You aren’t scared that you are going to do something wrong.
3. Gear up – Start identifying gear that you will need as you shoot more and more weddings.  We have about $30,000 worth of gear that we take with us to each wedding.  Overkill?  Not if you get an epic shot.
4. Start learning everything you can – I know you are taking a class already.  That is great.  I would also subscribe to something like Photovision (www.photovision.com) to get tips, suggestions, etc from the pros.
5. Buy this book – You should immediately buy the book ” Understanding Exposure” by  Bryan Peterson.  As a matter of fact, you may want to buy two or three books by Bryan.  There simply is no better resource that we have EVER found.  It costs less than $17 and is worth 10 times that amount.  It taught me to use my camera and taught me creatively correct exposures.  (taught my husband too)

Women, are you tired of the same old camera bags?  Tired of carrying around something that really doesn’t match your shoes or look great while you are on a shoot.  Photo Aspects has come up with several different options for you ladies who just won’t sacrifice being fabulous — even while working.

Jill-e Carryall Camera Bag – $39 The Jill-E Camera Bag is the least expensive way to be cute while working. At only $39, it offers cute style while still being really functional. The bag is large enough for a body, three lenses, a speedlight and memory cards and batteries. Extra grip? Not sure if it will fit, but you can still capture images without ruining yours. The drawback is the design. Only colorful polkadots available for this one which can be a bit juvenile.

Shootsac – $200-ish Shootsac offers a neoprene, wetsuit grade construction which expands to hold most any lens up to about 200mm.  They also offer interchangeable flaps so that you can match your style to your clothing.  Three pockets on each side of the bag hold your lenses or speedlights. The cons are that the Shootsac doesn’t offer any sort of middle pocket for the camera body itself. Unlike the others reviewed here, Shootsac doesn’t give room for you to finish working, put away your camera completely and go be fabulous. Let’s say that you line up a photo shoot just before sushi downtown. You can put your lenses away, but not the camera body. So you are stuck looking like a vendor rather than a socialite.

Jo Totes Camera Bag – $89 The Jo Totes Noir is a very sweet bag.  Great looking, simple, black design that is not too big to carry.  Some, I mean most, camera bags are just such hosses to lug around.  Finally some style is back in our work life ladies. Just because you have a big camera doesn’t mean you have to look lik a bafoon while you are out and about.  This bag has enough space for some personal items as well.

Kelly Moore Camera Bag – $199   The Kelly Moore Classic Camera Bag comes in several different color choices to give you the height of fabulous-ness and style.  If this color is not your bag baby, then choose from others simply by searching Kelly Moore Bag in the search box. Look great, match anything, be fabulous.