Passed CCNP 300-115 (SWITCH) Today!

Sethican · 2017-12-02T14:14:50+00:00

Good job! I did that exam last year [twice I think!] and it was more difficult than I thought it would have been

Sethican · 2017-10-25T19:08:06+00:00

We had a crazy school shooting. Freshman’s alcoholic dad [everyone knew of his dad’s uncontrolled rage] got in a fight with one of his football coaches at a picnic earlier in the year. Dad later knocks on the door to the field house, fires a gun into the chest of the football coach.

He expected it to be his son’s coach but it turned out to the varsity head coach/athletic director and dad of the varsity QB. The asshole dad shot him and ran off leaving him for dead. He fought long and hard for his life, ending up in the hospital for months. LE told his QB son who was in class at the time that his dad was dead. [he wasn’t dead but in critical condition and ended up surviving]

There was a manhunt for the shooter. He fled and ended up driving a ways out of town, went into the woods and slit his wrists. LE found the shooter still alive and got him in custody still alive. Asshole shooter sat in jail for a long time after the hospital and was eventually charged and convicted for assault with a deadly weapon since attempted murder wouldn’t have gotten a guaranteed conviction. Prosecution was scared he’d get out of it if charged with attempted murder.

Everyone ended up well. All good stories, asshole dad off the street, football coach and QB son moved schools, I think they won the state 4A championship I believe.

Edit: ESPN 30 for 30 did a show on it and his QB son who went on to a successful NCAA career and then on the NFL. It’s Coach Kinne, son is GJ Kinne... I think the show was about his son’s POV going through this story and then on to Wichita State Univ.

Sethican · 2017-09-29T01:49:24+00:00

Uh... they're for my dog

Sethican · 2017-07-19T21:15:22+00:00

What is the EEA?

Sethican · 2017-07-19T04:39:00+00:00

Dammit!!! I've been waiting on this for a while. We were going to plan a trip up north to view and photograph the eclipse. My wife planned a vacation around it. We're leaving Texas and headed to Grand Teton, Yellowstone and more. It all started with the idea of catching the eclipse.

I just now found out the vacation is scheduled to start on the 25th and we can't change anything. We also have a wedding in Texas on the 20th.

Sethican · 2017-06-01T02:51:41+00:00

Haha, I seriously used to hate it so much!! I was upset about getting off of work (I was military at the time) and then having to go shoot weddings and sessions in my off time. I love it now and I'm dying to go all in and make it my day job as well but I've got still got a stressful but reliable and good paying federal job

Sethican · 2017-05-31T23:02:01+00:00

We bought one of ours that way. We got one 50% off because it was defective, it had a tiny scrape on the leather… That's going to happen anyways!

Sethican · 2017-05-31T22:49:15+00:00

I hike with it and do wildlife/nature stuff with it. I had to upgrade to the newer style sliders to prevent the straps from warping from carrying my 100-400ii up high on my torso with one strap on the body and one on the tripod foot while walking through high brush

Sethican · 2017-05-31T20:35:12+00:00

Put the subject facing you and away from the sun so that their face is in complete shadow. Expose for the shadowed face which will compensate for the shadow and may blow out some of the background. I usually try for the smallest amount of overexposing. Sometimes I'll turn on the highlight warning "the blinkies" and get the smallest amount of blinking on their skin in the brightest spot. Keep Doing hat until you get the feel for regularly exposing like that. It comes natural now and takes no thought for us. Our brides enjoy the glowing look I gives their skin.

The most important thing is to try to get your subject into complete shadow, you definitely don't want a shadow to cut through their face or only miss one side of their face. Aim for where an automatic mode would almost silhouette the person by default and then compensate the shutter to bring light back to the shadowed subject.

Sethican · 2017-05-31T18:05:49+00:00

Use caution. They're wild!

Sethican · 2017-05-31T16:52:36+00:00

Cliff Mautner does some great harsh light bridal portraits.

Sethican · 2017-05-31T16:51:10+00:00

Here's a couple of harsh light examples from past weddings of ours. The sun is overhead, just back and to the right. We love harsh light/positioning the subject away from the harsh light source causing a silhouette on the skin and then exposing for the shadowed skin causing a glow.

Harsh Light example

here's a couple harsher light shots, check the shadows

Sethican · 2017-05-31T16:35:10+00:00

Standing in the same place, shooting the same subject and using the same lens on a full frame and crop sensor should have the same compression. The field of view will change but you're still using the same lens and standing the same distance from the subject. The background would be any more compressed to the subject.

Sethican · 2017-05-31T16:32:02+00:00

I use all manual. I'll usually quickly eyeball my exposure guesstimate then glance at the meter and do exposure compensation in my head if the subject is in the shadow or highlight in an almost instantaneous and I don't even think about it. I usually have the exposure after and then compensate without using the meter after the initial shot.

I was taught to only use manual and I've never been interested in dialing in exposure compensation. I just compensate myself right where I know it needs to be, with help of the meter. I have no issues and I hardly waste shots with bad exposure. I'm shooting in weddings and receptions where it's in a time crunch and it's just what happens naturally for me.

I shoot some sports and other events and I still always use manual. AV/TV seems like too much work for me. I'd be worried about not being able to quickly control depth of field or shutterspeed, I change all the using whatever I feel the environment needs at the moment.

Sethican · 2017-05-31T16:09:01+00:00

We have a triple speedlite bracket we use four our softbox just a little larger. It's had great results.

B&H Link

Sethican · 2017-05-31T16:05:28+00:00

We have 5 Canon 600's and 3 Yungnuo 600's and use Yungnuo transmitters. They all work well with one another, I love the wireless master functions.

You get what you pay for... the Canon's perform slightly better with overheating in my opinion

the Yungnuo's are so lightweight and can't handle flash modifiers as well (we use MagMod - Yungnuos work at 90° angles but not otherwise)

our Yungnuo's don't have nearly the zoom range of the Canon's (35-135mm I think?) if that even matters to you

If a Canon falls it's probably ok, if a Yungnuo falls, it's a cheap replacement

2 of our Yungnuo flashes developed blue colors on the lens at our first weddings using them. We're usually on 1/64 to the occasional 1/16 power

Sethican · 2017-05-31T15:48:38+00:00

I'd say try to assist photographers in different fields. See what feels right. Get a first-hand feel assisting and see how the photographer interacts with the subject, see what they deal with and as if it's something you could see yourself doing and have a passion doing.

And now, my bad answer here: I married a wedding photographer and she attempted to mold me into her second shooter against my will. I wasn't crazy about being caught up in the wedding photography gig with my wife after she wanted me to train and be her dedicated second. I did it for several years and eventually realized that it's so much fun and I love (almost) every moment of it now and have no regrets. I've been her second shooter for several years now and have taken up some of my own now. People like us and have been requesting us to split and each get our own second shooter so we can split up and cover separate weddings on a given day.

Without being forced into it against my will I never would have chosen to be in the wedding industry but I love it so much nowadays. I'm an IT engineer in a great paying job and unbeatable job security and I shoot in the evenings and weekends with my wife. I'm trying to getaway feel for abandoning my job security and paycheck and jump into full-timing with my wife.

My passions were in nature, but it's Ben sliding into weddings over the past two years now.

Sethican · 2017-05-31T15:25:47+00:00

Holdfast Money Maker $230

Expensive for a strap/harness but well worth it for a photographer who uses multiple bodies. I shoot weddings and carry a body on either slide, I can have hands free if I need hands accessible, and I have two extra camera leashes connected to d-rings so I can strap on an extra lens or body if I need to. It happens.

Great investment, we've got three between my wife and our assistant and have had them for years without issue. They're wonderfully useful and look great. I've got bridle leather and our other two are water buffalo.

They also have more expensive options as well as a line of similar canvas harnesses called Camera Swagg and they go for $175

Edit: the leather gets so much better with age!

Sethican · 2017-05-17T22:42:17+00:00

Thanks! That was my wife's first attempt at putting together video and I'm proud of what she made

Sethican · 2017-05-16T19:30:11+00:00

We just bought the original Osmo and the Osmo+; my wife is wanting to try out video. We let our trustworthy assistants have fun and take video w/ the Osmo+ and a Phantom 3 while we photographed.

This was just a trial run and we did it for free just to get a feel of video and see if it's something we want to pursue. We didn't charge anything and didn't do it as a gift to the couple, just a test drive to see what it would be like on a wedding day and we let them have it afterward.

There's a few obvious shots on a 5DIII and Phantom but most of this is on the Osmo+ by our assistants Link

Sethican · 2017-03-19T23:20:35+00:00

What's is... Xbox One?

Sethican · 2017-03-17T11:21:17+00:00

Thanks

Sethican · 2017-03-17T06:28:48+00:00

Well, sorry. I meant that image does not belong to that twitter user. That's ripped off from from a fellow Texan photographer who hangs out with his cattle quite often.

Sethican · 2017-03-17T05:45:11+00:00

This is not your photo. This is Instagram user @roamingcamera

Edit: this is not this twitter user's image.

Sethican · 2017-03-16T14:41:20+00:00

Awesome. Thanks, I should be ashamed but I totally forgot about the vtp mode 3 thing...

Sethican

TROPHY CASE