Why a new mini camera? Well, I usually don’t carry my SLR around for personal pictures because it’s big and bulky and can’t fit into most of my handbags and I gave my little Canon point and shoot to my mum and had been in the market for a new camera for a while.  I was super excited to get this based on a friend’s recommendation.  I’ve been playing with it recently and it’s amazing. I’ll be posting occasional photographs from it and I will label them accordingly :)

Ignore the dust! lol

In other news…my film photography career is at a stand still.
My pretty little vintage film camera has to be repaired which I only realized after shooting 3 rolls of BLANK FILM :(

Early next year I plan to get it repaired or maybe purchase a brand new film camera so I’ll keep you posted on that end. For now, I’m keeping my little film camera on display at home – She’s too pretty to put away.

I hope everyone stateside had a wonderful thanksgiving!

I’m so excited. I’ve always been curious about shooting film on an SLR. I had a film point and shoot growing up (as did everyone) and it was easy peezy – point, click, wind up, repeat. But to me this is a whole different ball game. That being said, let me introduce my new little darling. Say hello to my new yet old Nikon EM 35mm film camera made in 1979 (which classifies it as vintage – woot woot!) and sold for $231 at the time. It was designed to be entry level for shooters new to the “complicated world of film shooting” and was targeted at women (thank you very much).

It took me a long while to find this camera – there’s a lot of junk out there which I had to filter through – and I didn’t want to spend a ton of money being that I’m just figuring this whole thing out – so I was so excited when I found it. It came with it’s original camera manual and also came with the original 50mm 1.8 glass lens that fits perfectly on my D700. My current lenses also fit on this film camera just as well (one of many reasons why i love Nikon – backward forward compatibility!).

Enough of the blah blah blah – Take a look at my pretty baby:

Now on to serious business. I already bought a bunch of film and I’ve been shooting away, learning how to use my new (yet old) camera. Since there’s no viewfinder (I’ve caught myself many a time looking for one) I have to take things like exposure compensation and film ISO seriously (ugh), I need to understand what a micro prism ring is (huh?) and I need to make sure I load the darn film correctly (and then figure out how to unload it…..umm) amongst many other things. I have also on many occasion forgotten to “wind” my film before taking the next shot which as a professional photographer, is quite embarrassing (hiding my face in shame).

While you will not see a full blow wedding taken strictly with film from me anytime in the near future, I do plan to use this camera during my wedding portrait sessions and engagement sessions once I see how my first roll of film comes out.
Who knows ..I might love it so much it might drive me to become a vintage film camera junkie…….I already have my sights set on another camera once I figure this one out…….

So you can expect an all film blog post from me sometime soon!

I’ll be posting a sneak peek of a recent session soon so stay tuned.

Perfect ending :)

• I copy images from CF card to Epson portable media reader and immediately store my cards safely. Once I get home, I move the files from my Epson media reader to my computer to cull for editing and at the same time back them up to my Maxtor hard drive and then to my Apple hard drive wirelessly - I’m really paranoid about losing images so I feel better knowing the files are stored in 3 places.  I also create client folders to store the RAW files, the edited images, the  album design and the images I blog in these folders.
• Once my images are fully edited and delivered – I uploaded them to my proofing gallery which also acts as a permanent back up folder for my final image files in case the worst happens –  I loose all my drives and my computer gets damaged  – and I need to reference the images for whatever purpose after they’ve been delivered to my clients.

And that’s pretty much it! I know online storage and “clouds” are becoming increasingly popular and lots of photographers use them for backup and pretty much all of their storage but my little system works for me. So far so good :)

Nikon D700
I have two of these bodies in my camera bag and at weddings, I usually have a different lens on each camera. For an engagement session I use one body and switch my lens out – less pressure and more time makes switching lenses easier to do :) I know some photographers shoot with one body at weddings and switch out their lens, keeping their back up body in their bags in case they need them but I like shooting with two cameras -  works better for me this way. Once the new Nikon D800 comes out I’ll be selling one of these to get it!

Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 and 24 – 70mm lenses 2.8
I love these lens. The 70-200mm I use at big ceremonies and receptions and occasionally at engagement sessions. It’s really heavy but totally worth the weight. The 24-70 is my standard wide angle, it always saves me during family portraits and I love using it during engagement sessions where I want to capture more in the photo than just the couple.

My primes – 50mm 1.4 and 60mm 2.8
My 50mm is my favorite lens. I’m a little biased towards it I think because it weighs so little and its so easy for me to whip out :) I use it a lot in portrait/engagement sessions and once ended up using it shoot an entire wedding ceremony because I forgot my bag in the wrong place – the photos came out amazing -it was challenging but it definitely opened my eyes to the great capabilities of this little lens.

My 60mm is really old and I bought it used, I’m even missing the top cap – but it works great. I use it most for macro shots like rings etc and I love it. This year I want to see how this lens does with portraits – I’ve never tried it!
I do have a couple prime lens on my want list – both Nikon and Sigma – still deciding which I want the most and if I actually really need them….What I have works perfectly fine for my needs but if I did buy a new lens anytime soon – or get gifted one :) – it would be the Nikon 85mm 1.4.

Vertex Spotlight
I use this spot light at receptions or for shooting at night/low light. It’s pretty small but really strong and comes in handy quite often. I found this little gem on eBay.

Pocket Wizards and flashes  – Nikon SB 900, LumoPro 160
I use my pocket wizards for my off camera lighting at receptions, one attached to my camera and one with my off camera flash set on my tripod usually by the DJ or in a corner of the reception room.

My favorite flash is my LumoPro 160 (I have masking tape on it to block the sensor – guest cameras sometimes trigger my off camera lighting and i don’t like that!)! I recently upgraded it from the LumoPro 130 and I just love this flash – more so than my Nikon SB 900. It makes my off camera lighting a breeze and it’s strength and reach are awesome! My SB900 stays on my camera.

Now that you’ve seen the important things in my camera bag, its time to talk about Insurance
Insurance is very very very important. Well to me anyway. I bang my stuff about a lot and there’s the chance they could get broken/damaged, I’ve also dropped lens a couple times and the worst thing that could happen is for your equipment to get stolen.

I insure my equipment via Statefarm. I have about 5 insurance policies with them so it made the most sense for me especially because their coverage was just want I needed. There are several other great insurance coverage policies out there (you can also go through a photography association) but you need to make sure you choose whatever works best for you and make sure you know what the policy will cover. Keep the following questions in mind –

1. Does it cover your equipment locally and abroad?
2. Will there be a deductible?
3. What does the policy say about replacements?
4. What does the policy say about lost/damaged equipment?
5. How long do replacements take?

Every time I buy something or sell something I mail my insurance agent a copy of the purchase or sales receipt and my policy is adjusted as necessary. Hopefully I never have to use it but it keeps me sane knowing that If I lose or damage my gear my insurance policy will make my losses minimal. So if you don’t have insurance, now is the time to start thinking about it before wedding season picks up again.

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I hope this post was helpful to someone :)

Next I’ll be scheduling a blog post to talk about backing up your images and what works for me!

I decided to switch up a little this year and make a YouTube Video of a few of my very many favorite images from 2010. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but I think I did good for my first try (If it looks really blurry it means you need to update your flash player). I used iMovie to create it and it was so simple!

Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to make a video of myself :)

Royalty Free Music from http://incompetech.com

Below are a few of my favorite images from the day (Thanks to all the fabulous organizers of the event!) -

You can join the photog shootout group on facebook here.
And check out the Photog Shootout blog for all kinds of useful photography and business tips.

I’ll be posting another wedding soon so stay tuned :)

Philadelphia Area Wedding Photographer

2009 was an amazing year for me and I just have to give thanks to God for all the blessings in my life – My amazing family, my wonderful and supportive friends, my good health – these things alone make me so grateful.

I don’t have any resolutions this year but some of my top priorities are to thoroughly enjoy the process of planning my wedding, spend time with my family, enjoy being a guest at friends’ weddings (this will be a nice change) and continue to grow in my craft.

To all my family, friends, blog visitors and clients – thank you for making 2009 so amazing. I wish you a blessed and prosperous 2010 – It’s going to be great!

And before bidding 2009 a final adieu, below are a few of my personal favorites from the year -

Weddings -

Engagements -

Thanks for stopping by!

I’ll post a couple more later on :)