My buddy the international award winner

I want to congratulate my pal Johnny Tran- the hippest, freshest, baddest photographer in Calgary on winning the Finao / DWF Photographer of the year - http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/finao_dwf_photographers_year?s=706d3f0938777f7619b39aa42aa40c72

My main man Johnny and I are gonna kick it in Vegas at WPPI. Hopefully, I'll have more hardware to talk about by then too ;-)

Be sure to check out his blog - http://www.jtimages.ca/blog/

One thing I would like to say to all photographers out there, is that print competition is an important part of your growth.

Seeing your images critiqued is an important part of learning. Also seeing other great images, will help inspire, challenge, and educate you (props to Jerry & The ICE Society)!

Some opportunities for Chicago photographers to enter print competitions are Northern - http://www.ppani.org/ and CPPA - http://www.cppa-inc.org/

Til next time

New CPPA newsletter / WPPI / Northern

Hello All,

I know it's been a while since I posted. It was a busy holiday season!

Shot a wedding in Los Angeles, Xmas and a lot of reorganization of business stuff.

For everyone in CPPA wanted to let you know that a new Photoshop tutorial is on its way. The next one has to do with creating actions. I know a lot of people are out there selling actions, and many of them are very good.

With a little knowhow and patience though, you can create your own actions and save a lot of time in your Photoshop workflow.

If you're going to WPPI, let me know. I'll be there Feb 13 - Feb 18. I hope to learn a lot and catch up with a bunch of great people that I met around.

I also hope to see people at the Northern Illinois print competition. I just joined Northern or PPANI.

Print competition is a great way to improve your photography. It's not about creating images that are good for the customer. It's about pushing yourself and going up against the creme de la creme. By pushing yourself technically and creatively, you'll be able to up your talent and create EVEN BETTER images for your clients.

Hope to see you there, and I promise to post more.

Jerry & Me

Well it's been a while since I've blogged. The biggest thing since last time was my attending the Jerry Ghionis workshop in Washington DC.

I must say I was one of the biggest Jerry fans in the world before the seminar. Now that I've spent 5 days learning under him. I'm an even BIGGER fan.

Jerry is seriously a truly gifted person. Not just in photography too. Business, Marketing, Sales, even psychology, design, and human behavior.

I have no hesitation to say he's one of the more intelligent people I've met in my life. In a former life, I interviewed for a job with Lehman Brothers in the world trade center and studied Finance at one of the top undergraduate business programs in the country. So I know some smart peeps.

Although it hasn't been formally announced, I'll definitely be at the Chicago seminar next year.

If you have the chance go. Don't ask questions, just GO!

The day you stop learning is the day you die

I've always been a big believer in education, in all forms / fields / manner.

When it comes to photography, in my short time I've learned in so many ways:

- looking at images
- shooting
- reading
- watching dvds
- attending seminars
- learning from other people

So far the best type of education I've encountered for photography is the workshop.

I've attended one workshop so far. It was done by David Beckstead (he of the American Photo top 10 wedding photogs in the world). If you're interested you can find out more here

Now I'm a few days from attending a weeklong workshop with my wedding photographer idol Jerry Ghionis

When it comes to Jerry, I drink the Kool -Aid
- DVDs? Check
- ICE Society Member? Check
- Now Workshop - Check.

In a workshop, you'll pick up a lot of new info and new tricks. The most important thing about them I feel is the learning about yourself that you do there.

A mentor or teacher can only show you the door, it is truly up to you to open it.

After the Beckstead seminar, everyone who knew me and my images had said there was a HUGE improvement in my shooting. Almost like I was a whole different photographer.David helped me unlock some of my potential, something I hope Jerry can do in week.

Above all, even Jerry Ghionis or David Beckstead. The greatest teacher of photography and life I've ever encountered is my father. Every time I click the shutter, it's because the knowledge he imparted to me from darkroom exposure to composition to understanding the camera.

But onto some cool images now!

Here are some images I captured during the david beckstead workshop

enjoy

5d MK2 rawks my socks off

At the CPPA meeting on 9-17-08, we were treated to something special. We were among the first people in the USA not affiliated with Canon to see the new 5D mk2.

All I can say is that I want one. Bad. Like sell a kidney bad.

Forgetting about the kick butt resolution. 5d Image quality that we have grown accustomed to and expect. Even forgetting the fact that they kept in the incredible direct print button.

I am soooooooooooooooo jacked about the video capabilites of this camera.

I know you're thinking whoa there kemosabe. You're a photographer not a videographer. Well I was thinking this could broaden the range of products that photographers offer, and even for cool marketing things you could do or put on your website.

But the proof is in the pudding and here is a sample of a 5d video.

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2086

that's some pretty tasting pudding if you ask me.

Best in Show

Well the print competition went better than I expected. I ended up scoring 2 Superiors and a Merit. 2 Prints were in the top 3 and my untitled image pictured above won best of show =)

Now the print you'll see isn't the exact file that was printed. One thing about print competition is that the print has to be very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very deep.

Things to take away from my print competition experience

- Print Deep - as explained above

- Print on glossy - which I did but leading me to the next point

- Matte the print - I had some files that used black backgrounds but when the lights were shone on the print, the black turned a weird color. So I'll have to matte the prints next time.

- Have a title - I lost a lot of points, I feel by not having a title. Sure Jerry Ghionis can win print competitions without a title but he's Jerry Ghionis and we're us. So maybe I'll go all Fallout Boy Style and have 5-6 word titles for my photographs.

- Shadow Detail - Judge were very critical of that

- Contrast - Have some

- Negative space is good but not if it's empty blackness - self explanatory

There's a whole bunch more that I learned but those are the main points.

If you're not entering print competitions and you want to be a better photographer. I think you should start. Learning about what makes a good competition print can only enhnace your photography, especially if you can apply the print competition sensibilities into your regular shooting.

All in all for my first print competition I am pleased that I did well. To improve though you have to look at it in another way. I scored an 80 on the winning print, that means I left 20 points on the table. How does one get those other 20? I don't expect to get 100s but I want to.

I'll post the other images I entered in another post soon!

Til next time.

All we need is one light

To crib from Nas. Sometimes all you need is 1 light.

I'll admit, personally I like to mostly shoot ambient light. I use the Canon 5D and 50mm f-1.4 (hopefully soon to upgrade to the 1.2L) to get a lot of light.

Sometimes it's good to go against your own style to create new stuff and to grow creatively.

The picture at left - f-5 / 1/30 / 42mm / ISO100.

I just used a single speed light (canon 430EX) to camera right to provide some modeling and shadow.

The results speak for themselves.

Try stuff that's a little different from your norm and you might even surprise yourself.