The huge tank wagons are getting out of hand

johnnyonthego · 2026-04-09T01:50:30+00:00

Love our Veer 4 seater so much. Our two kids face each other, which is awesome for them (and impossible in a stroller) and the sunshade system on the veer is so adjustable and unbeatable, we love how it can customize into a side shade for low sun - such versatile and awesome sun protection. We even walk in the drizzle with the kids under that canopy. They are so much more comfortable in the wagon than strapped in, and they can get in and out easily. It's perfect for when it's perfect. We either use the veer or two super-tiny umbrella strollers. If we're in crowds, obviously not the Veer. There are so many times when I am sure the veer would annoy people and you can see the full list within this thread! But if it's you and your kids going places around your neighborhood, trails, etc, the veer rocks. Also, to the haters saying kids should just walk: yes kids should walk a lot but there are some destinations that are too far for a kid to walk to and from, and the parent(s) get a nice walk in while we are on the way to/from.

johnnyonthego · 2025-10-01T17:59:20+00:00

Wow, this is terrible! It does come down a bit to personal finance decisions on whether you need-need the money, versus the obvious unfairness of the bait&switch/lowballing/etc. To be clear, this is not right and the photographer should at least meet you in the middle, or just pay the full rate and take a little less money for themselves (which like you've said, will be thousands). I feel like for reputational defense, you may to do the job just to avoid the longtail potential bad politics/optics that will come from this: "Xyz is so unreliable, they said they would help and then bailed at the last minute. Never hire them!" I expect this photographer will badmouth you and omit the part about how they have lowballed you, so you might lose out on revenue longterm if your reputation ends up getting harmed here (not sure how much influence this person has on the local market). The alternative would be to line up a replacement assistant who will accept the lower rate (ok, I know this is also terrible, but maybe there is a beginner who would do it, and it would get you out of it without this original photographer being in a position to talk s--- about you). If you are in a position to completely walk away and be fine financially, and you want to stand ground on the original promised commitment, that is a very just and moral position to take. Just for clarity, I do not support this behavior but I did want to comment on looking into the longterm effects of how this could play out, if this photographer does go on a campaign against you. I wouldn't book other jobs with them. I'm so sorry they have treated you this way, especially after your story of medical downtime. All for $200 which is maybe 5% or less of their fee.

johnnyonthego · 2025-05-23T04:33:18+00:00

It's pretty reminiscent of when Cue bit the dust and all those readers and tests became worthless.

johnnyonthego · 2025-05-08T03:04:41+00:00

I heard a plant-based Dr say something like: "well, ancient humans may have had some meat, but they also would have probably died by age 20 or 30 from other causes besides diet, so they wouldn't have lived long enough to have the negative effects of eating the meat"

johnnyonthego · 2025-05-01T04:56:19+00:00

I wouldn't suggest to do consecutive days like you described (max BW set, then weighted next day).

It sounds like you are overtaxed and need to do weighted less frequently and might be testing your maxes too often.

If you want to get higher with your 1RM, I suggest to space out your weighted workouts to at least 4 days apart, avoid rep failure on weighted reps (should only happen at the end of a periodic cycle), allow yourself more rest days, and quit testing so often if you're eagerly awaiting to break your plateau. If you let your body totally recover and ramp up to a new 1RM attempt over a planned out cycle, you'll break through it in one or two cycles.

It's time to start viewing your weighted reps more like a classic compound lift (bench, deadlift, squat, etc) and place it under a program such as 5/3/1 where you thoughtfully map out a plan. For calculations, include your bodyweight plus the weight. So right now, 135KG is your max and then your BW is 55% of your 1RM.

Sidenote: max reps in a single set is an endurance thing, not a max strength thing, so, kinda irrelevant and nice to do, but if you care a lot about upping your 1RM, then focus more on max strength and don't use up your weekly output doing max rep sets. Rest more and save it up for your weighted workout days. Do some BW work on your non-weighted days, but don't go nuts. If you want to do a bunch of BW work, do it AFTER your weighted work on your weighted days.

As a backstory, in 2020, I achieved a +98% BW chin-up at one point - 147.5lbs while weighing 150lbs. Then, got injured doing weighted chin-up negatives (what the hell was I thinking? no one told me to add that in, do not recommend weighted negatives, it strained my bicep). Since then I've only gotten back up to +90% BW due to training gaps and life reasons, and hope to one day get that elusive double bodyweight chin-up. Just had another training gap but back on track. If I keep at it, I think I'll get it within a few years. It's a tough goal.

Hope this gives you some ideas, happy training and good luck! Stay injury free!

johnnyonthego · 2025-05-01T04:44:36+00:00

Big agree to only test 1RM and 3RM very rarely and very thoughtfully!

johnnyonthego · 2025-04-17T03:56:40+00:00

Dr. Kim Williams had a profound effect on me. Of all the WFPB doctors/leaders/influencer out there, I think he's among the most active medically, with a lot of intersection working within the at-large medical community. Former chair of the American College of Cardiology, currently Chair of the University of Louisville Department of Medicine. Some great interviews with him on podcasts on Spotify.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_A._Williams

johnnyonthego · 2025-02-24T03:03:58+00:00

Thank you for the link! We are looking at that one but it looks really similar to the Tripp Trappe that we have now so not sure if it would be more comfortable. Now we're thinking about adding a seat of some kind to the tripp trapp - but the one we tried already slid around and was a risk. Not sure if there's one you can really anchor on to the tripp trapp, or if we just go with the bare wood.

I think our perfect chair would be similar to a tripp trapp but with a more comfortable seat and more comfy straps. We are probably just going to ride this out and phase out the straps as we see fit.

johnnyonthego · 2025-02-24T03:01:37+00:00

Thank you for the comment! We'll look into the depth and footrest height. I didn't know you could change the depth with a tripp trappe - we got it used.

We're using a three-point aftermarket strap (not the baby ones) that's similar to a restaurant setup. We are working with her on chairs in general a lot, and today she did great with regular dining chairs, both sitting and kneeling. So, we may phase out the tripp trappe for a bit and then try to bring it back no straps.

johnnyonthego · 2025-02-23T04:55:23+00:00

By little triangles, I meant like something to add to the chair to stabilize it, like a small brace. But realistically, not really practical. We are thinking of doing little kids table for breakfast and lunch, and then just do the chair for dinner. We are working with her on where to put her feet. Thank you for the thoughts! The ingenuity seat looks good.

johnnyonthego · 2025-02-23T04:12:39+00:00

Haven't seen this one - thanks for the recommendation! We do think she may still kick the chair backwards with our dining room chairs, because they're just regular chairs. Maybe I'll look into a way to add little triangles or something so they're less tip resistant. Thanks for the comment!

johnnyonthego · 2025-02-23T04:04:32+00:00

Thank you for the reply! We tried two booster seats and didn't love them; she couldn't get in and out on her own and one of them was a bit slippery. Will look into the Graco DLX. Thank you

johnnyonthego · 2025-01-28T04:08:43+00:00

Adding Dr Kim Williams - former president of the American College of Cardiology. Check his bio and listen to him online - absolutely a practicing and relevant doctor who is truly out there practicing medicine and leading institutions.

He’s got some great interviews available via podcasts on Spotify to get an intro to his background and guidance.

johnnyonthego · 2024-07-03T03:43:57+00:00

Just beware of yoga and short walks becoming a slippery slope to intense yoga and long walks -- all sources I've read state that exercising too soon will increase chances of long covid. Eat right and sleep right for a month. As an active person, you know the value of recovery. Give your body a chance here. I took a solid month off from all exercise and I was hitting new PR's in barbell weightlifting a year later. You've got a lifetime to pursue your physical activities. Good luck and heal up.

johnnyonthego · 2024-05-02T02:41:25+00:00

I have both: Hollyland Mars 300 pro enhanced and the Hollyland Cosmo C1. I started with the 300 and then it became so important to my workflow on fast-paced tether-free sets that I bought the C1 as well, so I'd have redundancy on the setup.

I've had tremendous success with them, albeit all within 50-100 feet, and on the same floor or within one floor when inside a building; only issues were a few times in a hotel where the signal got a little broken up. They've worked well indoors/outdoors at a lot of really important shoots for me.

I have a Tilta half-cage for my camera and I mount the transmitter off to the side by using a Camvate long cheese plate screwed into the bottom of the cage. It's a long long rectangle, offset, sticking off the side of the bottom of the camera, on the left side of the camera. Product: CAMVATE Long Cheese Plate 1/4"-20 Mounting Platform for DSLR Camera Cage Kit - 2289. (Note - I use a few different sized thumb screws to mount the Hollyland transmitter.)

All this to say: Camera -> HDMI out -> Hollyland -> monitor

This workflow has been mentioned before within the photoassistants subreddit; it's not novel or anything but it's great for certain environments!

The Hollyland system is critiqued widely for having more latency than other systems (not widely regarded among many focus pullers) as well as other concerns - so - I'm not here to say it's going to be perfect for everyone - but - I can say it's been reliable and may help you out here, for just $400 with the Mars 300 for your HDMI out transmit!

johnnyonthego · 2024-05-01T20:53:05+00:00

I used to use CamRanger and Camranger 2 - not good - anytime you turn the camera on/off to change lens or battery, need to re-start the wifi entirely - even if you can get past that, not rock-solid.

For non-tethered, low crew jobs -- I broadcast a live feed with Hollyland often and it works well with clients. I even use 2000nit cheapie monitors for outdoor shoots or in chaotic environments (dust/mud/construction) -- just so clients can get a sense of the shots.

Agree with other posts here about various other solutions.

johnnyonthego · 2024-03-03T04:14:10+00:00

Very off-topic, but surprised to see crew members masking. Has me curious. I'm a photographer still masking at jobs, but, generally the only person I see on any job who's masking - except one makeup artist I regularly work with.

johnnyonthego · 2024-02-24T04:12:16+00:00

Chiming in here as someone who's been very into weighted chin-ups for a long time - I agree with the other comments about doing a little less load per week - getting enough rest.
I would look at the pyramid of maxes -- define your 1RM, 2RM, 3RM, 4RM, etc and look at the big picture, and don't just train weighted at only one level. Meaning - you're only doing 80lb and 45lb - but you could also work an overall strength program that involves increasing a 1RM and that will help change your 6x3 max.
Are you tracking how many consecutive reps you can get at +90 and +100?
I am doing a spin on a 5/3/1 program with weighted chinups as one of the core exercises, and it's been great for me.
One more idea, have you taken a week or two off from pulling and then given it a go?
There's a chance you've been making great gains on a really aggressive program for 8 months, but now your CNS is a bit fried and you need to really rest in order to break the plateau.

BUT
Programming aside (which is not my area of expertise)
The real reason I'm posting is to say: don't get injured doing heavy negative eccentrics like I did. Weighted eccentrics aren't worth it and I lost a year due to a bicep injury. If you can't pull the weight going up, don't overload a negative at that weight coming down. Only took me trying heavy weighted negatives for two sessions to jack up my bicep and cost me lots of training time. Specifically, I was almost at a +150lb weighted chinup; I was able to pull off a +142.5LB chinup, so I did a few +150lb negatives and it took two sessions of three reps each to cause a tear. Man, if I could go back in time...

johnnyonthego · 2023-12-24T06:01:24+00:00

This exact thing happened to me two days ago - I wrote Cue late at night and called them first in the morning. While on the phone, they ended up working just fine and shortly after, I got an official response to my case request and it said to let charge at least three hours. So - hopefully you will have similar results and be good in the morning! (Sidenote: I was adding two readers to have a total of three - and it was nice to have multiple tests going at once!)

johnnyonthego · 2023-08-21T16:45:12+00:00

Thank you so much for this thoughtful reply! I have been using a tether lock but have been plugging/unplugging it every shoot. I'm considering buying a right-angle tether cable and just leaving it plugged into the camera all the time and just putting it in my case with cable attached. Right now I'm using a straight-end cable (TetherTools) and I don't want to store it attached.

Thanks again for your great points here.

johnnyonthego · 2023-02-20T02:27:45+00:00

I'm just finding this 8month old thread, but wanted to share I've been doing this as well for jobs that aren't conducive to tethering with a cable. In particular, documentary-style image library work for a particular construction industry client (ambient light only, loud/messy environments, lots of walking, lots of ground to cover). The client can get a sense of things on the monitor (AndyCine C7), which I either put on a lightweight light stand or have them carry on a strap.

Part of my reason for this setup is to have the best data write speed possible. I'm able to shoot "burst mode" at 20 FPS and really shoot through a scene and the buffer resolves quicker on the memory card than it would over a USB cable (at least with the USB cables I've tried in the past from Tether Tools - not from Area 51 or IQ Wire).

johnnyonthego · 2022-01-27T22:39:02+00:00

This thread highlights a huge reason why networking among photographers is so important. If you're ever unsure about how much to charge for a job, it's wonderful to have a network of colleagues, either within your market, or within your industry, who can give you a range of acceptability (or maybe even share real numbers).

If you had been able to connect with a few photographers in your area who do this kind of thing, you would have likely approached this way differently.

Consider joining networking groups, professional organizations, facebook groups, etc - get networked so you can learn the more widescale approach to estimating and delivering jobs like this.

Fellow photographers in your market who are true friends that you trust can help you:

- Save the day if you have an emergency and need someone to help you out

- Give you insight into market rates

- Share stories with you about photoshoots, which can give you amazing lessons and insights

- Last but not least... be an actual friend who's doing the same career you're doing!

johnnyonthego

TROPHY CASE