”Painted Sunset”

”Painted Sunset”
©David A. Ziser

We were working on an art project for our friends the last three days and I came across this image I made while in Cabo, Mexico a few years ago.  It was a perfect evening for a sunset, the breezes were calm, clouds were just beginning to settle over the ocean and the sun was getting close to the horizon.

As it does so many times in Cabo the sun lit up the sky with it’s bright rich colors. Instead of settling for a simple sunset, I decided to work a little Photoshop magic on the image.  Now I am not one to get carried away with all the tools in Photoshop.  If I can get the result I want in a mouse click or two, I’m a “happy camper”.

That was the case here.  I simply applied a “brush stroke” filter, I believe, to the image and had what I wanted in short order.  I like the effect and think the image would look beautiful printed on canvas.  That’s my goal this year – turning more of my fine art images into canvas wrap presentations.  I’ll keep you posted.

Camera specs:  Canon 40D fitted with 17-85mm IS lens at 28mm, F18 @ 1/500 second, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

Friday Wrap Up

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Today is supposed to be no-blog Friday but I just wanted to give a quick update on a few things. 

Lynn Michelle’s Webcast – A Hit!

My thanks again to Lynn Michelle for a great webcast yesterday.  The program went just over an hour and we could have gone even longer.  It was refreshing to hear Lynn’s enthusiasm as she talked about her wedding photography.  You could tell she loves what she does.  Our 75 minutes together was jammed packed with tips and tricks on how she produces her images as well on how she manages her studio.

In case you missed it, no problem.  I recorded and will have it posted here next Wednesday.  Be looking for it – it was quite an experience! Oh, and yes, Lynn has agreed to come back again and next time talk about her very successful and tasteful Boudoir business.  You can check out her work here.

Get My Latest Newsletter – Going Out Next Week!

I’m putting together my February newsletter that will be going out next week.   If you are not on the list, you can sign up right here. It’s always full of tips,  tricks and techniques along with the latest news happenings.

Working On The Eye-Fi Card and Wireless Shooting

My buddy, Damien and I have been experimenting with the Eye-Fi Pro 2 card I purchased a few months ago.  By next week I hope to have some news for you about how it can be a nice addition to your shooting routine.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ll see you on the flip side of the weekend all the pixels willing.  Have a great one and I’ll see you then.

Adios,  -David

”Lavascape”

”Lavascape”
©David A. Ziser

This surreal image is from a trip we made to the Big Island of Hawaii a few years ago.  I still find this a very intriguing image in how I put it together. It began as a straight forward photograph from our hike across the lava fields – quite and adventure in itself.

The park rangers advise leaving near dusk so the you arrive at the live lava flows, yes, live, red hot lava flows about 90 minutes later well after sunset.  That way it’s really easy to see the lava flowing under your feet through the cracks and crevices on the lava field.

It was quite the experience – both of us ended up with melted soles on our shoes.  The real challenge was making it back in the blackness of the moonless night over the 2-6 feet high lava flows.  It was like being on a Stair Master for 2 hours on the way back – we were wiped out!

Anyway, back to this image.  It was made on the way out to the lava fields.  We had perfect weather and just the right amount of clouds in the sky to make for a great shot. The original photograph looked like an ordinary landscape image – I thought I could make it more that that.

Lightroom was not out yet so I did all the image manipulation in Photoshop. The process was quite simple.  I highlighted the center part of the lava to give a focal point to the center of the image. 

I wanted to carry that out in the sky too.  It was easy to do.  I selected half of the sky, none of the lava, from the center to the left of the image. Then I just made a mirror image of that selection and placed it in the right half of the image – now I had my cool sky.  I worked the sky into the lava part of the image and presto, I had the image I was looking for.  I think it is quite hypnotizing the longer you view it.  Hope you like it.

Camera specs: Canon 5D fitted with Sigma 12-24mm lens at 13mm, F16 @ 1/400 second, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

Business Day Thursday: FREE Webcast Today & Running Your Business after The Wedding Shoot - Part 1

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I can't wait for our conversation with Lynn Michelle today.  She really sounds fired about about her Super Bowl shoot on Sunday - she should have some great stories to tell.  The other thing that struck me when we talked was how busy she was with her photography. 

With most photogs complaining about where all the business had gone, how is it that Lynn can be booked solid for the rest of the year - inquiring photog minds want to know ;~). We'll find out at 2:00 p.m. EST today.  You can still register right here.  Hope to see you there.

OK, time to get on with today's post.

 

Running Your Business after The Wedding Shoot - Part 1

This is one of the most asked questions I get in my emails and through the Skribit widget to the right.  I've covered much of what we do around here in several posts over the years here at DPT.  That doesn't mean we are still doing the same old thing.  You've got to be quick on your feet these days to stay ahead of the competition.

Another reason I'm doing this series is the fact that it will put all of what we do in one place where you will be able to reference them easily in the future.  So, that said, let's get started.

Who In The World are You?

One of the most important things a business person needs to do is let the client know who they are and create what I call a sense of “stickiness” with the current and prospective client. Before we get to the actual work of post production and selling our wedding photography to our clients, I want to touch on this subject first - I just think it's important to mention.

As you all know, I was recently heavily involved in our PhotoPro Expo, a great convention if there ever was one.  Anyway, I collected business cards from several of the photographers attending and I was shocked by what I saw!  What was so surprising to me - clearly 50% of the business cards I received DID NOT include the owner's name!  Over 50%!!!!!!!! 

What is this about?  Sure, they had the studio's name on their business cards, but not their own name.  This is about the worst kind of self promotion one could engage in.  It's called SELF promotion - that means PROMOTE YOURSELF, not just your business.  Folks these days want a much more personal connect with whom they're doing business with and you can't do that if they don't know your name.  Get your own name on your business cards if you don't already.

Creating Client "Stickiness"

Now having said that, I never thought business cards were a great idea anyway.  Why, because they never call you back anyway.  That business card is long lost before they need to call you.  The bottom line - your potential client is now disconnected from you.  Business success demands a "stickiness" with all your potential clients.  What do I mean by "stickiness"?  I mean a way to stay connected with that potential client.

Here is a little known thing about David A. Ziser Photography - I have never bought, used, or owned a business card.  Madness you say - not really.  I learned early in my career that the potential client would lose the card before they ever got around to calling me.  When ever a person asked me for a card at a wedding, I always let them know that I didn't have one on me, could they give me one of theirs.  They always obliged.  If they didn't have one on them, I simply wrote their contact info down on a paper napkin.

Now I have "stickiness" to that lint.  Now's it's up to me to make the contact with the potential clients.  I don't have to cross my fingers and wait for them to call me. Now I have a 100% guarantee that I will be following up with them because I WANT their business.  If I give them a card, I have to WAIT FOR their business - never happened for me over all the years I've been in business.

Super Glue "Stickiness"

OK, I've got their contact information, but how can I improve even more on this "stickiness" situation.  Simple, I press the heck out of them when they first ask for a card.  Like I said, don't give them a card - ever!!! Now you can whip out your iPad and show them your portfolio - wow, that is impressive.  Those images look superb in the slightly darkened room of a reception hall.

Let them select one of their favorites and email it to them. Now you have their contact information and they have one of the best calling cards in the world - a sample of your best work in their inbox which now they can easily forward to their son, daughter, mom, or dad also mentioning the fact about how they met this super nice photographer at last weekend's wedding.

I hope you get the idea here - business cards are a passive way to interact with a potential client.  The technology today, iPads and all the tablets hitting the market, make it so easy to pro-actively connect to your potential client that your chances of reconnecting and doing business with them are supremely enhanced.

And isn't that what we want when we interact with a potential client - absolutely!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  Next week I'll share with you what we do after the wedding starting with the minute we return for the job.  Hope to see you then.

Time for me to get scooting around here.  Our webcast with Lynn Michelle begins shortly and we got a few things to prep for the show.  Yep, you can still register right here.  Hope to see you in a few.

Adios,  David

”Rockin’ All Night Long”

”Rockin’ All Night Long”
©David A. Ziser

I love making this kind of image during the wedding reception – the band’s view of the party.  I’ve got to be very careful not to trip or unplug any of the band’s wires and cables – that could be disastrous.  Unusually the bands know me so I can move freely among them to capture these kind of photographs.  To me, this kind of image really captures the party atmosphere of some of the big events.

What’s working for me in this photograph? I love the long shadows of the band members silhouetted against the dance floor created by my super wide angle lens.  I like seeing the drummers cymbal kicking into the image from the left.  I like the partial view of the guitar player on the right. 

This is a totally available light image – I’m only using the lights in the room to make this image. That means high ISO’s and fast enough shutter speeds to stop the motion of the musicians.  Since I’m using such a wide angle lens, depth of field at F6.3 usually is not an issue. 

This is still one of my favorite reception images.  Even if the bride and groom don’t select it for their album, which very seldom happens, I may incorporate this shot into the album layout as a background image.  The double page spread always looks cool. 

Camera specs:  Canon 5D fitted with 12-24mm wide angle lens at 12mm, F 6.3 @ 1/25 second,  ISO 1,600.  Enjoy!  -David

What’s Up Wednesday: Last Call - FREE Wedding Webcast: Easy As 1-2-3; Fall Workshop Announced

Good Morning Everybody,

Just a quick note about a few things happening today and a new series beginning tomorrow. Here we go…

Last Call - FREE Webcast Tomorrow: Super Bowls and Weddings

Don’t forget we have our FREE Webcast happening tomorrow with Lynn Michelle, one of the busiest photographers in Dallas. I talked with Lynn earlier today and it sounds like she has some great Super Bowl stories to tell – like how she literally ran into President George Bush!  She said it was one of the most insane, exciting times of her life.  I can’t wait to talk with her tomorrow about the entire experience.

That’s only part of the story.  As I said, Lynn is a fantastic and very popular wedding photographer in Dallas – she is booked up for the rest of the year!  I’ve asked her to share a few insights with us about what today’s bride is looking for in her wedding photography and how she keeps those bookings coming. 

This webcast is a special feature for our DPT readers so I’ll hope you’ll join us for tomorrow's show at 2:00 p.m. EST.  You can hit the button above or register right here.

Captured By The Light DVD Set Receiving RAVE Reviews:

Since we released my CBTL DVD set of over 14 hours of training last week, folks have been lovin’ it.  A lot of photographers are opting for our SUPER SPECIAL Easy 1-2-3 Build A Bundle deal.  For only $40 more you get my 13 hour Digital Wake Up Call DVD set and your choice of my autographed CBTL book, a Zumbrella, Love Lightz, or Sun Spotz reflector! Not bad for only $99!

Remember, for everyone ordering the CBTL DVD set, we are throwing in the Tour DVD and the Tour Handbook.  It’s like being there all over again.  I did receive one very interesting comment from someone that purchased the DVD set.   They told me that they’ve watched the DVD over and over each time picking up some new tip and technique, but even after all the viewings they still didn’t win a door prize ;~)  Anyway, check it out right here – you’re going to love it.

Announcing My Fall 2011 Digital Lighting Workshop

This is BIG news gang.  I was holding off doing another week long workshop in the Fall.  But my team has convinced me to do at least one more.  Our Spring workshop has been sold out for month’s and photographers have been calling about when the Fall workshop would be scheduled.

Well, I can now tell ya’ – we have just set the dates so mark your calendars:  October 10-14, 2011 right here in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area.  Cost is only $1195 for the week.  That  includes workbook, portfolio development (you keep the photos you take of our models), 50 solid hours of training by myself and my coaches, two meal functions at our home, and much, much more.

You’ll fly into the Greater Cincinnati airport (CVG).  We made arrangements with the 4-Star Homewood Suites hotel and were able to hold room rates to only $94/Single or $129 for a shared 2 bedroom suite (BEST deal).  We love this hotel, the staff is great and everyone loves the “Suites” accommodations.  Bring a friend, and share a 2 bedroom suite with a common living area and kitchen, 2 separate bedrooms and 2 separate bathrooms. What a deal for only $129!  BTW, the hotels offers complimentary breakfast every morning and a light dinner/snack with adult beverages available every night.  That really makes your stay a bargain!

Call the Studio 800.292.2994 or 859.341.5900 to reserve your space. EASY pay is available so don’t wait and miss a spot in my Fall Digital Workshop.

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Hey everybody, that’s it for me today.  I hope to see everybody same time, same place tomorrow of another episode of Business Day Thursday.  You don’t want to miss it.  I’m beginning a brand new series, “What Happens After The Wedding Shoot?”  I’ll give you a tour of our workflow/salesflow exactly as it  happens in my studio.  Be sure to tune in.

See ya’ tomorrow,  David

”I’m Just A Country Girl”

”I’m Just A Country Girl”
©David A. Ziser

This image was made while I was shooting for Kelby Training a few years ago.  I selected this image for today’s post because it speaks to the tutorials I’m posting today.

This image represents a fairly normal situation we as wedding photographers find ourselves in over the course of the wedding season.  We’re shooting in an urban location – that means streets, telephone poles with wires, cars, etc. in the background.  That was the situation in this session. I was able to drop down into a gulley affording me a much lower vantage point for my shot.  That means I was able to drop the poles and wires out of the background quite easily.

Whenever I’m shooting outdoors, I always try to position the sun behind the subject.  That way I don’t get any “hatchet light” those bright specs of sunlight that sometimes fall on the subject – if the sun is behind the subject, that simply can’t happen. That was easy to do in this case as you can see by the direction of light falling on the trees in the background.

The result of my positioning the bride in this location was that I  illuminated the bride with direct sun light falling on her from behind but now her face was flatly lit by the ambient light.  Bringing my off-camera strobe in from camera right gave me the nice loop lighting on her face.

The problem when shooting outdoors is getting the sky to go dark enough to give the scene a more dramatic look.  We only have a few options to make that happen – smaller F-stops and smaller apertures.  Both of those options can be problematic mostly from the flash power stand point – you need more fire power to over come the smaller apertures when shooting outdoors.

At F10 and at 1/320 second I was able to darken the sky sufficiently for my purposes.  That meant that my strobe at full power was just out of camera range camera right. I used the faster 1/320 second shutter speed to darken the sky even more.  Since native sync speed for the Canon 40D is 1/250 second, the bottom 1/3 of the image is NOT illuminated by the flash.  No problem though – it looks like an easy vignette on the subject which draws viewers’ attention even more to her face.  Check out today’s videos below for a thorough explanation – I think you’ll enjoy them.

Camera specs: Canon 40D fitted with 10-22mm wide angle lens at 20mm, F10 @ 1/320 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  -David

Technique Tuesday: High Speed Flash & Revisiting How To Cheat The Sync; Super Bowl & Wedding Webcast

Good Morning Everybody,

I hope you are off to a great week. My week is getting off to a slow start.  Zoomtown, our ISP in Cincy, was down for over 5 hours today – hence the late post.  And yesterday I was under the weather for most of the day – no, it had nothing to do with the Super Bowl party the day before, but an on-going “bug” that just keeps trying to keep me down ;~)  That put a few projects on hold for me most of the day.

I was scheduled to do Scott Kelby’s guest blog post again tomorrow but simply felt too crummy to complete the post.  Brad gave me a reprieve till next week – Thanks a ton Brad.  The post is about complete but I want it well crafted to be a great read for Scott’s readers and our DPT readers as well. I’m adding the rest of the “spit and polish” to it today.

Feeling lousy also made for a change of plans for today’s post as well.  Not a big deal – I’ve still got some good information for you today.

High Speed Flash & Revisiting How To Cheat The Sync

I didn’t quite get a Technique Tuesday put together, but no problem  – I came across a great video showing how high speed sync works.  This video is outstanding!

I’m running that video alone with my “Cheating Flash” video I ran several months ago.  Both of these videos speak to a topic that I covered in today’s image of the day above and is quite popular with many photographers who really want to take their lighting proficiency to the next level.  I hope you enjoy them both.  Hit the PLAY buttons below and enjoy the shows.

HIGH SPEED SYNC:

 

CHEATING THE SYNC:

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Remember, don’t forget to sign up for our FREE webcast Super Bowls & Weddings.  We’ll be talking with Lynn Michelle about how her Super Bowl Party shoot went on Sunday.

We will also be talking weddings with Lynn on Thursday.  Lynn is one of the most respected wedding photographers in Dallas [link] – I can’t wait to hear her comments.  You can still register right here.

See ya’ there,  David

”Dancing In The Clouds”

”Dancing In The Clouds”
©David A. Ziser

This is just an easy portrait I made of this young lady  in the middle of the day under the worst of conditions. – very bright and sunny, urban clutter everywhere, and VERY hot and humid. 

It was a city photographic session so I was challenged to separate my subject with a part of the sky that would allow enough “space” to supply an adequate background for this image.  Low camera angles and long lenses can make that job quite a bit easier.  I was sitting on the pavement with a long lens attached to my camera to get the framing I wanted.

The next challenge was to keep the bride out of the direct  sun – which is never flattering light.  There was a shadow being cast by a nearby building in which I could place my subject within. Now a lot of photographers would have just shot away and been satisfied with the flat non-dimensional lighting on her face. 

The other problem they would have encountered would have been getting the correct exposure on the bride standing in the shadows thereby rendering a detail-less, overexposed sky behind her – again, not a very interesting image.

Adding the off-camera flash solves the problem.  It brings detail and dimension to the bride’s gown and facial features as it is brought in camera right just enough to create the loop lighting pattern on the subject’s face.  Now by balancing the flash exposure with the sky behind the bride, I can easily bring in the nice textures of the clouds in the sky behind the bride. 

Finessing the image in Lightroom 3 finished the result.  All in all, a nice basic image of the bride captured in a not so basic way.

Camera specs: Canon 5D fitted with 70-300mm lens at 120mm, F 14 @ 1/200 second, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

Best Projector Ever; Time Lapse Inspiration, and Top 10 Lists Galore!

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope your Super Bowl team won yesterday and if they didn't I hope your buddies weren't too rough on you after the game.  You know, it doesn't matter if your a football fan or not, sometimes it's just fun to get together with family and friends.

I've never been a big football fan, but LaDawn has been her entire life - here Dad was a high school football coach and her kids were lettering athletes in high school and college.  She grew up on the game. She is nearly 100% percent right on any close call - when the refs go under the hood to review a close play, I swear, they're calling LaDawn to ask how she saw it - she is ALWAYS right!  Anyway, a good time was had by a few friends at the Ziser Super Bowl Party!

Best Data/Home Entertainment Projector I Ever Bought

OK, so the packages begin arriving from Amazon around Wednesday and my wife, LaDawn begins to wonder, "What's up?". Well, for our Super Bowl party we hosted yesterday, I wanted to have it in the larger studio portion of our home.  The problem was that there was never a TV or cable in that room.  I had always had a data projector for client viewing of their images which I covered in a post a few years ago giving our DPT readers a tour of my studio [link].

What I needed was a digital TV tuner that I could hook up to my data projector.  You see where this is going - super BIG deal, not really, Super Bowl BIG viewing of the game, a REALLY BIG deal.  My Kworld External Digital TV Tuner Box [link] arrived along with Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna [link] I needed to pick up the FREE digital broadcasts from the local TV stations.

We hooked both the tuner and antenna up as shown in the manuals and in about 30 minutes, we scanned for the local stations - the KWorld tuner box/Turk combo came up with 42 stations. And yes, I was amazed how much FREE content was available in the Greater Cincinnati viewing area. 

Next we hooked things up to the old Dell data projector and in short order were watching TV in big, bold living color on the 10 foot drop down screen on which I show my client their images.

The problem that now I had three devices, a TV tuner, a Internet ready DVD player, and my studio computer all wanting to use that projector at one time or another.  It was a real inconvenience to keep swapping cables every time I wanted to use a different device.  There had to be a better choice.

The Dell XGA data projector I had been using for over four years had done a decent job.  The 1024x768 resolution made the images look pretty sharp on the screen and the projector was plenty bright 4 years ago - projector bulbs don't burn out, they slowly fade away.  Still with the 1920x1080 resolution sources I was feeding into the Dell projector, the image quality was severely compromised. 

I decided to do something about it later that day.  After some quick research on the web, the very reasonably priced Benq W1000+ presented itself as an option - under a $1,000 and 2000 lumens of 1920x1080 hi-def wonderfulness [link].  I ordered one from Amazon and was due to receive it on Friday.  

Not only was it a hi-res projector, but it also had two HDMI inputs - that would take care of the digital TV tuner and the Blu-Ray DVD player.  It also had a separate VGA input for my studio computer and several other inputs as well.

It arrived mid afternoon on Friday and I had it hooked up in about an hour to all three devices.  The image was gorgeous!!!  What a difference the 1920x1080 resolution makes!  My client images looked sparkling projected on  the 10 foot screen out of Lightroom.  Casino Royale was amazing in it's Blu-Ray glory, and digital TV was equally amazing to view.  Now with the simple press of a button on the controller, I was good to go to present images to my clients, watch a DVD or Netflix on the DVD player, and even tune in the Super Bowl yesterday. Our party guests had the best time relaxing in the comfort of my studio watching the Super Bowl activities 10 feet large!!  Life is SOOOOO good.     

More Monday Morning Inspiration

During my weekend surf sessions, I found some super cool time laspe videos - that are amazing.  The first is entitled, "The PaOule Blue Dot" by Michael Marantz right here is an inspiring time lapse film with the late Carl Sagan reading that poem during the visually stimulating imagery.

The second is even more amazing!  It by Tom Lowes and it's entitled "Rapture".  I found it over at Vincent LaForet's blog and it is an astounding piece of work.  Tom has apparently been working on the "Rapture Project” for nearly a year and this is just a peak of what he is putting together.  Hit the PLAY button below and prepare to be blown away!

TimeScapes: Rapture from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

 Like Those Top 10 Lists So Many Folks Put Together At The End Of The Year?

I also provide a glimpse at my Top 10 selections.  Fellow blogging buddy, Jim Goldstein, of JMG Galleries has put together a fine collection of 10 of the Top 10 photo blog listing for 2010.  His list includes things like the top ten Hubble space images, the top 100 sports images, top ten Vimeo videos, etc.  Here is the link right here.  A very worth while collection for your Monday morning dose of inspiration.

Also, Photoshelter.com [link] has a great set of top ten lists available. Their lists cover everything from Photo Marketing, Photo Gear, Photo Technique, Photo Inspiration, and more.  It's another worthwhile link to bookmark.  Here is that link right here.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  Have a great Monday today and a fine beginning to this week.  I hope I got you off to a good start today. I'll plan to see you for another Technique Tuesday tomorrow.

See you then,  David

"Distant Thoughts”

"Distant Thoughts”
©David A. Ziser

I thought I would wrap the week with this beautiful portrait.  It was made a few years ago while we were in Cabo, Mexico just relaxing and enjoying one of Cabo’s fabulous sunsets. Even though, the sunset was not that fantastic on this particular evening we enjoyed a the slight breeze, the sights, the smells and a wonderful bottle of wine didn’t hurt either.

But once the sun set below the horizon in the distance, we were left with a wonderful, soft evening glow.  This was the perfect light to make this portrait.  I simply turned Lindsay’s face to the light, but not too much – I still wanted the light to illuminate the camera side of her face. 

It’s that light hitting the cheek closest to camera that gives this image it’s wonderful three dimensional look. Notice how her profile is beautifully sculpted with how I had the lighting wrap around her face.  I then framed her up in my camera to give me that “Helen of Troy” profile feel. Positioning her in the bottom right quadrant of the frame adds to that powerful feeling. 

The clouds played well into the composition leading the viewer’s eye directly to our subject.  Wide angle lens have a habit of doing just that.  The exposure was a bit more of a challenge.  I wanted to hold detail in the shadows without blowing out the sky. I needed to underexpose the sky slightly and then resorted to Photoshop to bring back the shadows just a bit – not bad for a JPEG image.  I thought all came together for a beautiful portrait of my Bonus daughter, Lindsay! Best of all - her mother was very pleased!!

Camera specs: Canon 40D fitted with 17-85mm IS lens at 17mm, F5.6 @ 1/60 second, ISO 500.  Enjoy!  -David

Top 10 2010 Posts Up; CBTL Tour DVD Set Now Available; and FREE Webcast Next Thursday!

Good Morning Everybody,

Well, this week turned out to be another 5 for 5 blogging week, didn’t it?  It’s hard to change old ways ;~)  If you were counting, you may have noticed that I crossed the 2,700th blog post on Monday – that’s a lot of typing. 

Anyway, today I just wanted to give you a few updates that have taken place at DPT this week and re-cap a few news items you may have missed.  Here we go..

DigitalProTalk Blog  – Top 10 Lists Updated

If you look closely at  the top tabs, you’ll see that I’ve updated the Top 10 lists.  Now all three tabs reflect the Top 10 posts for 2010 – that is most popular posts overall, your favorites in Videos, and my favorites in the Business posts. I’ve also kept the top posts listed for 2009 available for you as well. You never know – something new may catch your eye, stimulate some creative brain juices and stimulate a new technique or idea you missed the first time you read the post. Enjoy the re-read of ALL the posts.

Captured By The Light DVD Set Now Available!

My very popular 2010 tour is now available on a 4 DVD collection.  For the low cost of only $59, we are also throwing in the 9 hour Bonus DVD and the Tour handbook – it’s a steal of a deal!  Here is the link right here.

The video was professional recorded and edited – I love how it came out.  It really does capture the excitement of the evening.  If you missed this very popular program, there’s no excuse what you can’t make it now. Many LOVE revisiting all the information I covered during the live presentation.

Also, don’t forget to consider the Easy As 1-2-3 promo.  This is definitely the best bargain I’ve ever offered at my Resource Center.  You get both the 2009 Digital WakeUp Call DVD collection including BONUS DVD and workbook (while they last) and the 2010 Captured by the Light DVD collection also including BONUS DVD and workbook and your choice of my CBTL book, Zumbrella, Sun Spotz reflector, or Love Lightz for only $99! Once again, here is the link right here.

FREE Webcast Next Thursday: Shooting Super Bowls and Weddings

My special guest will be Lynn Michelle [link] who is one of the top wedding photographers in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas.  She is renown for her unique style of how she photographs people. Lynn has been contracted for one of the major Super Bowl VIP parties this Sunday.

I’ve asked Lynn to join us next Thursday to share with us the Super Bowl excitement and also some of her wonderful ways to do business in the wedding market world of photography.  I’m really looking forward to Lynn’s insights.  Please register right here!

LaDawn and I Are Related To The Pittsburgh Steelers' Place Kicker

OK, it’s REALLY kind of a stretch to say that.  It’s sort of one of those 6 degrees of separation things.  Let’s see if I can get all the connects straight.  LaDawn’s nephew just married a beautiful young lady, Tiffany, who’s sister, Erin, is married to Shaun Suisham, the Steelers' place kicker. 

That’s Shaun walking his nephew and daughter down the aisle at Jason and Tiffany’s wedding rehearsal. Shawn and wife Erin’s  daughter (in the wagon) was the flower girl and that little guy the ring bearer.

The fact that Shaun has hit 14 of his last 15 field goals with the Steelers could put Pittsburgh in a position to win the Super Bowl.

OK, those six degrees of separation, not even these pics  were not enough for us to get tickets to the game but LaDawn’s nephew Jason and his wife Tiffany made the cut and are heading to Dallas – GREAT for them!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Have a great Super Bowl weekend!  Hope your team wins. I’ll plan to see you on the flip side with a fresh new week of tips, techniques and photographs.

Adios everybody,  -David

"You Lookin’ At Me”

"You Lookin’ At Me”
©David A. Ziser

OK, I know the title paraphrases Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver” but I thought it fit this photograph. This is an image I did several years ago while on a trip to Australia.  I was doing a few workshops and we got to work at some great locations.

I remember this being on the steps of one of the imposing government buildings in downtown, Melbourne.  What I remember most about this location was that is was a very overcast day, but more specifically, how dark the concrete walls and steps were.

The steps were a perfect “prop” for my super wide angle portrait of this young man. I placed the 40mm lens on my Hasselblad, gave the steps dominate billing in my viewfinder, and shot away.  The first shot was quite bland because of the flat lighting and dark background.  I had one strobe with me and it was set up to fire remotely.  I thought that instead of using it as a key light coming in from camera right, as so often would do, it would better serve me by using my strobe as a backlight (at 100 w.s.) to really define and separate the young man from the very dark background. 

I think this was the best approach for this image.  The strong leading lines of the steps add the impact that I wanted for this shot.  And, the backlight worked it’s magic in spotlighting the main subject.

Camera specs (to the best of my knowledge):   Hasselblad 503C medium format camera fitted with Distagon 40mm super wide angle lens (89 degrees field of view or 24mm - 35mm equivalent), F5.6 @ 1/125 second, Kodak Ektacolor 400 film, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

Business Day Thursday: Are You Ready To Send Out Your Valentine Day Cards?

Good Afternoon Everybody,

First off, my thanks to Scott Kelby for providing me the guest blogging spot at Photoshop Insider yesterday. Also thanks to all the readers for the abundance of your very thoughtful and complimentary remarks. Here is the link again if you missed the post yesterday.

I know, I know - everyone wants to know when Part 2 of the post will be up. It’s looking like it will be posted next week same time, same station. I'll try to keep it a little shorter this time ;~)

On Kind Of A Funny Note

You won't believe this but yesterday I signed up to workout at a gym - Ziser at a gym!? Heck, I figure I get enough exercise at a wedding, what do I need a gym for?

Anyway, my lovely wife, LaDawn has finally “shamed” me into to  doing it. She's been watching what she eats and working out since the first of the year – those darn New Years resolutions - and loves it.  I jumped on the bandwagon too.

Here's the problem - that's one more hour out of my day! That means it could be cutting into blogging time!!! What was I to do - the blog must go on! I knew I couldn’t exercise and blog at the same time.

Here is the rest of the story. I WAS blogging at the gym yesterday - for real! I brought my iPad with me, fired it up to my Early Edition app, steadied myself on the treadmill, and hit the START button - I was off. Hey, this wasn't too bad.

I was enjoying my walk, even cranked it up to 3 mph, and was still able to read the stories easily. If one caught my eye, I simply tweeted it to my new “You May Be Interested…” feature in the right sidebar of DPT [link]. Hey, it made the time pass quickly on the treadmill, and who doesn't want that, and it's a lot safer than texting while driving.  This is just to give you an idea what we bloggers do for our reading public ;~)

Business Day Thursday: Are You Ready To Send Out Your Valentine Day Cards?

I had a different post scheduled for today, that was till I received an  email from Simply Postcards [link] in Akron, Ohio. They are a sister company to Simply Canvas and Simply Color Labs [link]. I met these guys at the Imaging USA Convention a few weeks ago in San Antonio, TX and liked what I saw.

Great Way To Enhance Client Relationships

Now I have blogged a few times about post card apps previously at DPT [link] as a way to boost your business presence among your clients and vendor buddies.  During my Simply Postcard visit, Dan showed me a feature that I loved – it was the ability to add your own studio logo to the postcard before it was sent – way cool!

So here is the deal.  Yes, you can download from your iPhone, iPod, or iPad and get started right away [link] – it’s FREE!  The purpose of using your iPhone or iPad is the fact that you could shoot some images at your next wedding or portrait session, upload them to your device and let your client select one of their favorites to immediately send to Gram or Great Aunt Matilda – what a nice surprise for the special relative or friend.

In fact you can mail to up to 8 receipients from your iMobile device – kind of cool.  By the way, the Android app is on the way too.

You can also do the same thing from your studio desktop.  Just hit the “Mail A Card” button on Simply Postcards, log in and you are in business.  Just upload an image from your computer, complete the address info and you are good to go.

Make It Personal – Add Your Logo

OK, you may be thinking, “No big deal – lots of apps do that.”  Well, you’re only half right.  The BIG difference with Simply Postcards is the fact that you can create and add your own custom boarders – and one of those boarders could be your studio logo the way Dallas based Lynn Michelle [link] has done.

Now when Lynn shoots a wedding, she can easily let the client select a favorite, add her custom border, and press the “SEND POSTCARD” button.  In 2-3 days a real, “hard copy” postcard will be received to the happy recipient.  I gave Lynn a call and she tells me her client was really excited with receiving the card.   Like I said, a great way to impress your client. Remember: to read the postscript of today’s post for a nice surprise coming up next week.

What About Valentine’s Day?

Well, this is where the post started, wasn’t it – talking about Valentine’s Day.  Here is my suggestion.  Organize your address book into groups.  You can do this with most email programs.  One group should be Vendors you do business with and even those you want to do business with.  The other group should be upcoming clients, another current clients, and recent past clients. 

Now after designing your Valentine’s Day card with a nice Valentine’s wish, and adding your custom border, mail the card to these groups of receipients.  Again, what a nice surprise to your vendor buddies and clients that simply let’s them know your thinking about them.  Building client relationships is so important, truly a key to success in building your business.

Valentine’s Day is only the beginning.  Hey, it’s the first part of the year – we still have lots of holidays ahead where we could simply do the mailing all over again with a different seasonal wish.

Want to give Simply Postcards a test drive?  Use Secret code DPT3 and you’ll get to send out three post cards for FREE – what a deal just for being a DPT readers ;~)

Sending Out The Love

You know, this is something that you can do right away without much time or hassle. Is it going to bring you tons of business, maybe not immediately, but it will bring you lots of love for your thoughtfulness on this or any other special day of the year. That love will come from your clients and your vendor buddies in the way of referrals and client contacts. This might just lead to all the love you want because of one simple gesture – sending a holiday card to someone special. 

Oh, and don't forget to send one to your spouse, partner, boy friend, girl friend, or all that apply. Spread the LOVE on February 14.

You can find even more ways to send the love right here.

P.S. Lynn Michelle is a very popular and well sought after photographer in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.  Be sure to check out her website and blog right here. In fact, during our conversation, she told me she was shooting the Super Bowl this Sunday.  Well, not the game, but one of the big VIP parties happening through-out the weekend!

She has graciously consented to do a webcast for our DPT readers.  She plans to discuss her Super Bowl photography experience and maybe even talk about weddings too. We scheduled the Webcast for next Thursday February 10, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EST – 1:00 p.m. Central.

You can register for the webcast right here.  It should be a kick – no pun intended ;~) Don’t miss it!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Tomorrow, even though it’s supposed to be “No Blog Friday”, I will be back for a short treat for you. 

Hope to see you then,  David

"Just Waiting For Friends”

"Just Waiting For Friends”
©David A. Ziser

You know, when you look at this image, it represents a simple, classic, straight forward  portrait of the couple.  It does a good job of flattering the two people in front of the camera and that’s what a good portrait should always do.  Although it’s a portrait of a bride and groom, the lighting, location, composition work for anyone I could have photographed in this same location.

Let’s take a quick minute to analyze this image. First, the lighting has a nice look to it coming in from camera right creating a nice flattering loop lighting pattern on the couple. The lighting from the flash, about 8 feet away and shooting through my Zumbrella at 1/8 power, is perfectly balanced with the ambient light. That gives me a well lit image of the couple in their surrounds.

Notice too how I squared all the horizontal and vertical lines being careful with my camera placement to avoid any convergence of lines  in any direction. In effect, the plane of the CMOS sensor was perfectly parallel with the couple and perpendicular to the floor.

This squaring off of the horizontal and vertical elements created a nice square “interior frame” in the image, the back wall behind the couple, in which I placed the bride and groom.

Also look at how I brought them together – her leaning against him, him leaning against her, both with wrists below the waist created a “pyramid” structure to their bodies that implies a sense of closeness between them.

And lastly, positioning them in the bottom right quadrant of the frame, or nodal point #1, finished the composition for the couple.  As I said earlier, it is a simple, straightforward portrait, but a lot of thinking and planning went into it to make it appear that way and give us a great result.

Camera specs: Canon 5D fitted with 70-300mm lens at 80mm, F6.3 @ 1/60 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

$10 Will Let You Pick Up My Book, Zumbrella, Sunspots, or Love Lightz; I’m Revving Up Twitter Tweets; and More

Good Morning,

Happy Ground Hog Day to everybody!. Yep, this is the big day – great news! I hear Phil did not see his shadow and now Spring is right around the corner! Heck, be sure the folks on the East Coast get the word ;~)

You know, LaDawn and I got a chance to visit Gobbler’s Knob and see Punxsutawney Phil last Fall [link]. That's right, we were driving home from Boston and spent the night in Dubois, PA only 20 minutes from old Phil's hangout. We made the trip over and we were both amazed about how famous Phil is. For today's sunrise event, about 10,000 will be on hand to see if Phil will see his shadow. Hey, all in good fun.

I'm Scott Kelby's Guest Blogger Today!

OK everybody, today I said I had two big announcements - actually it's three. First, you can catch my first part of a two part blog post I did for fellow blogging buddy, Scott Kelby. The topic - The State of the Union In The Wedding Photography Business. It's an interesting read. You can check it out right here. Thanks too for all the greats comments so far.  Look for Part 2 next Wednesday.

I'm Revving Up The Engines On My DigitalProTalk Twitter Feed

Announcement #2 -  I like sharing info I think our DPT readers will enjoy and the shortened blog schedule makes that a bit more difficult . Unfortunately, just not enough days in the week. Anyway, I think I have a way to solve part of the problem. I'm planning to rev up my Twitter volume.

You can follow me at @digitalprotalk. I’ve also added a Twitter roll here in the right column of my DPT blog so you can check back now and then to pick up of a few interesting news tidbits. Please let me know if you like the new DPT feature over the next few weeks.

$10 Will Let You Pick Up My Book, Zumbrella, Sunspots, or Love Lightz

Announce #3 - Today is the day - my very popular "Captured By The Light 2010” tour is finally available right here. They just arrived on Monday. We are putting them together and shipping them today!

I thought our Captured By The Light Tour offered a wealth of information for any portrait / wedding photographer shooting today. The comments we heard day after day is that the content was not wedding specific. Sure, I had my camera pointed at brides and grooms but the bottom line was this - the program discussed lighting and composition - key ingredients in any good photograph. The cost? Only $59.

Here is the deal though. You can also opt for our PICK THREE for only $99! You will get the Captured By the Light DVD Set – 5 hours of solid info plus 9 hours in the BONUS DVD for $59.

Add my Digital WakeUp Call DVD Set - 9 hours of important information and again a BONUS 4 hour DVD for only $30 more.

And finally for only $10 additional, you get your choice of my Zumbrella, CBTL Book, Sun Spotz Reflector, or my Love Lightz. That’s all THREE for only $99 – over a $200 value!!!  This is one great deal!! Not to be missed

Check out all the details right here.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. I hope to see you tomorrow for another profit building Business Day Thursday post. This week's topic, “Are You Running Your Business Anonymously?”

Hope to see you then, David

"Some Enchanted Evening…"

"Some Enchanted Evening…"
©David A. Ziser

I love shooting outdoors into sunsets.  Sometimes, as in the case above, the sky comes alive with color.  The weather earlier in the day sure would not have predicted this dramatic sunset.  It was just shortly before this image was taken that the clouds loosen up a bit and the setting sun made it’s presence known.  I guess, in a way, it was an enchanted evening for the photographer who happened to be me ;~)

Let me kind of walk you through what was going on in my mind as I composed this image.  First, look how the clouds seem to fan out from left to right.  The wide angle lens has something to do with that.  Wide angle lens work real magic on the textures and lines in the sky.  I wanted my subject to be moving and flowing  with the clouds.  By placing her camera left, and having her look to the right, we have that feeling of her being connected with the clouds.

Notice too that I positioned her 1/3 into the orange part of the sunset.  That way both clouds and sunset lead her into the scene bringing implied motion to this image.  I also like how all the textures of the clouds lead the viewers eye right to our subject. 

Lighting was from camera right with my flash without my Zumbrella attached at about 10 feet away on half power. I like how all the elements came together for a truly dramatic image.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark2 fitted with Sigma 12-24mm lens at 22mm, F5.6 @ 1/200 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  -David

Technique Tuesday: I’m Transformed!!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I can feel it in my bones, things are almost caught up around here as least as far as I'm concerned and I have to tell ya' that's a good feeling. In all honesty, I'm really looking forward to getting DPT back to it's normal posting schedule. I hate having it hanging over me into the afternoon or even the late evening like yesterday.

My new KPPA presidential duties have been taking up a lot of that time and that's to be expected when one steps into a new role. I'm going to say this to our DPT readers, we've got some plans with the association that just may interest many of you reading this post.

The main thing on my agenda this year is to build content for our members, and I may just give our DPT readers a peek at what's going on. Anyway, it's a little too soon to release any more details but I can assure you, you will be the first to know.

Hey gang, I've got a pretty good Technique Tuesday for you today so let’s get right to it.

Technique Tuesday: I’m Transformed!!

We have several tutorials on Lighting, Photography, and Composition the last few weeks so this time around I’m going to head us over to the computer and explore different ways to handle lens correction and cropping options when shooting wide angle lenses. I’ll be using Lightroom 3 and Photoshop to get my differing results.

In this tutorial, I use about the widest lens you can find - the Sigma 12-24mm lens on my Canon 5D Mark II. The results you prefer will depend on your tastes. Me, I like all the different variations I managed on the image you'll see in his tutorial.

Why not hit the PLAY button below and enjoy the show.

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Hey everybody, that's it for me today. Tomorrow is not supposed to be a blogging day for me under my new schedule but I've got a few announcements I think you'll like to hear.

I'll just give you a quick peek. I'm expanding the blog with new content on Wednesday but even more important - I'll show you how you can pick up my book "Captured By The Light" or my Zumbrella, Sunspots Reflector, or my Love Lightz for only $10 bucks.

Hope to see you tomorrow. Heck, I might even have the post up on time tomorrow ;~)

See ya' then, David