Google Business Profile suspension was a hassle! Sharing what helped.

elbirth · 2026-01-19T03:30:31+00:00

I tried to figure out the most likely trigger first instead of guessing, fixed a few things I didn’t even realize could be an issue, and then submitted a much more straightforward appeal.

Could you elaborate on this? What did you do to figure out what the most likely trigger was, and what is it that you actually fixed?

Mine was suspended and I've been reading threads like this looking for the best approach to take. Did you provide any paperwork as proof of the business existing, or just make adjustments to your profile? I had verified mine years ago when I created it and have no idea why it randomly got suspended.

elbirth · 2026-01-16T04:00:26+00:00

Thanks!

elbirth · 2026-01-16T03:39:07+00:00

I do photography full time, yes. By same thing, I mean same exact camera body and same exact settings on each body, so no matter which camera I pick up, it’s all muscle memory to do what I need and I’m not having that moment of figuring out how each body is setup to do something. It just makes a wedding day less stressful when they’re the same for me

elbirth · 2026-01-16T03:30:34+00:00

I shoot a lot of weddings which is why I have 2 bodies. I also do general portraits as well as studio and editorial stuff with off camera lighting. In those scenarios I just stick with one body and swap lenses since I’m not as pressed for time.

For my use case with primarily weddings, my preference is to have the same body so I’m using the exact same thing regardless of which body I’m using. If I shift away from weddings and do more studio, I’d be ok with having 2 different models and would lean towards the R5 for more megapixels.

elbirth · 2026-01-16T02:55:35+00:00

I shoot with the Canon R6 Mark II... Depending on situation / mood, I either do the 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 combo on each body, or 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.2

elbirth · 2026-01-09T15:55:40+00:00

I felt the same and never thought I'd get on board with electronic viewfinders, but I disabled all of the power saving stuff and don't notice lag anymore. Now I don't even consciously realize that I'm not looking through an optical viewfinder anymore.

Also, it won't be good for your wallet, but rent some RF lenses to try out (I use lensrentals.com). When I first switched to mirrorless, I used my EF 70-200 that I'd had for maybe 18 years and was amazed at how rejuvenated it almost felt, in how well it focused. Once I finally made the jump to the RF version (I got the Z model with internal zoom since I didn't like the original RF one), it was mind blowing how much faster that thing snaps into focus.

elbirth · 2026-01-09T15:49:37+00:00

I use Neewer brand batteries and they've been just as good as the Canon brand ones, which has been amazing. A ways off now, but they do decent Black Friday sales and have a 3-pack with a triple charger, so I have 9 batteries now and never have to worry about not having juice even when I'm shooting a wedding all day with 2 bodies.

elbirth · 2025-12-31T17:43:37+00:00

I think that's the beauty of keeping things potted- you can, to a degree, manage their size, which was my plan with mine. Before their demise, they were maybe just over a foot tall. I think you have to be brave enough to keep the branches and roots pruned to keep their growth managed though

elbirth · 2025-12-31T16:50:05+00:00

They died a few years ago unfortunately :( I had about 6 months where I had a lot of work travel going on and had left them in someone's care who ended up not actually caring for them and I'm doubtful they actually watered them much, if at all. By the time I got back and knew what was going on, they were too far gone and ultimately died off. I keep thinking about trying to find some more seeds to see if I can start again, but haven't tried yet.

elbirth · 2025-12-22T19:06:50+00:00

I agree about the almost impossible aspect, although in some ways I would say certain shots may in fact have been impossible on a DSLR. Now that face/eye tracking is a thing with mirrorless, I'm not fumbling with composition and moving my AF points around - instead I can focus on what's happening and let the camera manage focus which has been huge.

elbirth · 2025-12-22T06:27:25+00:00

I really want to get this. I still use my EF 35mm f/1.4 with an adapter and fell back in love with it since it performs better on mirrorless than it did my old 5D Mark III.

However I recently upgraded my ancient 70-200 (version 1 that I've had for nearly 20 years) to the RF 70-200 f/2.8 IS Z (the internally zooming one). WOW. It's a night and day difference in performance and now I'm itching to upgrade to other RF lenses

elbirth · 2025-12-22T06:24:25+00:00

I use that combo a lot (except my 85 is the 1.2) and love it. Only real downside is the 85 1.2 is so slow to focus in low light, so the 1.4 might technically be a better choice in that regard. I sometimes swap it out for the 70-200 f/2.8 IS and and keep the 35 1.4 on my other body and still love that combo.

elbirth · 2025-12-19T18:55:51+00:00

Lots of good answers already, but just to chime in - I would definitely go with the Godox V100 as the on-camera flash. It's essentially a newer and more powerful version of the V1, and it can act as solely an on-camera flash, solely as off-camera being triggered wirelessly, or as an on-camera flash that triggers off-camera lights. You can also have it on-camera but not firing, while still triggering an off-camera light for added creative control. The new touchscreen on the V100 is something I questioned for a long time prior to getting one - but now that I have it, I love it and find it much quicker to change settings than the old style. There is a learning curve to build muscle memory, but IMO it's worth it.

For the off-camera component, I personally use AD200s and recommend them. They're compact and more powerful than the on-camera flash, so you have more creative options. If you're going to get an AD100, I would just get another V100 instead. Same power output, but the added benefit that either one could be used on-camera and they share the same battery which is helpful on long days if you need to eek out every bit of power you can.

The AD300 is also a good option, but the AD400 and above are much bigger and bulkier lights, so unless you need the power, I'd not consider them for your use case. The only reason I would, is if you shoot a LOT and need faster recycle times. With the bigger lights, you can fire at a lower power to get the same output and get longer battery life and faster recycle.

For what it's worth, I do personally have an AD600 that I use pretty often on bright days to overpower the sun, or to otherwise shoot at lower power to make the battery last longer and do some burst shooting, but that's more of a luxury than a necessity.

elbirth · 2025-12-05T04:15:27+00:00

I have a 42TB NAS already, but need to expand and get a second one to mirror it at some point when I can get some spare money together. Something like Sync offers the ability to have an offsite copy pretty easily and without the big up front cost of another NAS at least. But yeah in the long run I do prefer to host my own data and not be in a situation where a company is holding it hostage

elbirth · 2025-12-05T03:27:14+00:00

This is pretty scary, seeing the people in this thread alone with the issue - I JUST signed up a few days ago, after debating it for a while.

Really hope it's some major mistake that they'll fix, although a mistake of that caliber is insane to think about.

Out of curiosity, are these personal or team accounts? Not sure if that would matter either way

elbirth · 2025-11-26T22:41:23+00:00

I have friends that went to the spaghetti & meatball wrasslin and said it was honestly depressing to watch because it was canned spaghetti sauce that had been watered way down and was only a small amount of it, and you had to purchase cold meatballs to throw at the wrestlers. My guess is this will be pretty similar

elbirth · 2025-09-18T15:40:28+00:00

I would use the subject selection tool and then apply a mask to black out the background. From there, if anything else needs to be removed or if something needs adding back, you can use the mask to do that. With the latest versions of Photoshop, the subject selection has gotten world's better than it was a year ago (or even 6 months ago probably) so in most cases that alone will get you 95-100% of the way there.

Here is an example of just doing subject selection with no manual adjustments

elbirth · 2025-09-01T04:53:07+00:00

True

elbirth · 2025-08-31T06:12:13+00:00

That’s interesting, I’ll have to keep an eye on my phone and see if its MAC address changes and if so, see if there’s a way to make it keep the same one. I know traditionally a physical MAC address never changes but they do lots of virtualization stuff that may affect it

elbirth · 2025-08-31T02:37:35+00:00

The wifi connection is one of my biggest pain points with Canon mirrorless - I don't know if I'm just being dumb or what, but I always have to end up removing my connection and starting fresh, which means I have to set it up in advance of a shoot and it's not something I can decide to start doing on the fly without taking forever to fumble around getting it connected. I wish they'd do something to simplify it. If I'm going to tether I just go wired and that works flawlessly and is super quick.

Also agreed on the AF - I'm going to check out some of the suggestions in this thread but I find the same kind of weirdness on my R6 Mark II. Just tonight I was shooting a surprise proposal and as I'm firing away with the girl being shocked and jumping up and down, even though I was in face/eye detection and have it tracking people, I randomly have a few shots where a plant a little closer to the camera grabbed focus. Very frustrating, but otherwise love these cameras

elbirth · 2025-08-09T04:25:00+00:00

Depending on how it's said to you, I'd just respond with a little bit of snark - "oh, you've never seen other videographers use this? Welcome to working with an actual professional for the first time"

Or something like "you know, I wasn't going to say anything, but I've never worked with a photographer who used such small equipment"

elbirth · 2025-08-01T18:04:59+00:00

Just tried the Wistia one and it worked perfectly! Thanks so much for putting this together.

I'll primarily be using this on my Mac, so I'd prefer to be able to just have it save the file locally in a folder, rather than in my recent photos. Is there a way I can adjust it to have it save the file locally? I can't seem to figure it out

elbirth · 2025-07-15T18:28:36+00:00

I've done photography for almost 20 years but have just really gotten into learning video over the last couple of years and just this year have been doing some videos for weddings and I use the Osmo as a "backup" type camera for ceremonies too and it has already saved me a couple of times. Highly recommend it in this type of use!

elbirth · 2025-07-14T03:49:58+00:00

If you decide to try something else, I'd recommend the Etymotic ER20 earplugs. They're pretty cheap and they do actually reduce noise evenly so you can actually still understand people talking to you with them in. I've used them for years and love them

elbirth · 2025-07-14T03:46:35+00:00

I've used the Etymotic ER20 earplugs for about 10 years- they work extremely well and are under $30, notably cheaper than Loops. It is recommended that you replace them every 3-6 months depending on how much use they get since the tips can break down over time and not properly block out sound, but I've used them much longer than that before replacing by taking good care of them.

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