Wedding photography

Weddings scare me. Not in the typical “I’m a guy so I’m stereotypically afraid of commitment” sort of way. Weddings scare me because there are no retakes. You can’t ask the wedding couple to throw another wedding because you didn’t have the correct exposure settings the first time around. For this reason, I have always been hesitant to accept wedding photography jobs. However, to grow as a photographer, I feel you always need to push yourself and take yourself out of your comfort zone.

Weddings are a HUGE deal. Maybe not for you or me, but for the couple (and accompanying family), this is their one day. A lot of time, planning and emotion goes into weddings. That creates a lot of pressure. This should never be lost an any aspiring photographer. Taking on wedding photography jobs is a giant step and really shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Recently though, my good friends Hayden and Anna asked me to photograph their wedding. I am pretty vocal about my stance on wedding photography so they were well aware of my hesitations before they asked me. They told me that I would have complete control (no self-appointed art-director family members) and that they really just wanted me, someone they are comfortable with, to photograph their wedding. When they put it like that, there really was no way I could say no, so I sucked it up and agreed.

Some of the results:

My first canon.

So I broke down and bought a Canon. I’ve been needing a small point-and-shoot for a while now so I’ve have been keeping my ears open for what people are using. I didn’t want something where I couldn’t have manual control and the ability to shoot in RAW. After some reading up and seeing what other photographers were using for their point-and-shoots I decided to go with the Canon S90. Its proven to be great so far and I take it with me everywhere.

Gore-Tex PacLite

One thing Juneau, Alaska has in abundance is rain. As a result, I have an abundance of rain jackets. My main criteria for rain jackets is pretty self explanatory — waterproof and breathable. My go-to fabric that meets the criteria is GORE-TEX. While they have a couple different fabrics for various levels of performance, I have a fondness for their PacLite fabric, which is great for everyday use.

GORE-TEX PacLite consists of a two-layer laminate construction with the face fabric made of high-performance polyester or nylon, and the internal layer made from a membrane. This is covered by a protective layer consisting of an oil-hating substance and carbon, which renders the separate lining commonly-seen on similar fabrics unnecessary. The result? A super-lightweight and ultra-packable garment. And, dual-layer laminate combined with sealed seams ensure a dry, comfortable experience while I’m out in the wet weather.

My GORE-TEX garment manufacture of choice as of late has been Arc’teryx. This company, located in North Vancouver, B.C., produces quality outdoor clothes and sporting goods. Arc’teryx spends a remarkable amount of effort on the research and development that goes into the manufacturing of their products materials and components — from breakthroughs in zipper technology to re-engineering the machines and tools they use to make the gear, it seems the company is absolutely forward-thinking. They also work hand-in-hand with GORE-TEX in the implementation of their fabrics, which clearly pays off.

I just purchased my third Arc’teryx/GORE-TEX PacLite jacket in the form of the Beta SL jacket in “Sublime.” With it coming in at 11 ounces, it’s a perfect weight to wear daily while still being performance oriented for any day adventuring I may encounter.

F-stop Tilopa is in the buidling

My Lowepro Magnum is a great bag and is perfect for the majority of my needs. Having a bag that can hold all my gear, one that I can throw over my shoulder for my portraiture, studio and car-accessible location shots is a must for me. The Magnum allows just for that. However, living in Alaska and having some extremely active friends means that I am often in situations where a shoulder bag just doesn’t cut it (my shoulder/neck can definitely attest to that).

Thus, I started a search for a backpack that could hold all of my gear. I looked at all of the usual suspects (Lowepro, Tamrac, Dakine Sequence) and they all fell short of being true workhorse backpacks. Everything just seemed like regular photo bags with a couple extra straps. I wanted a bag that could hold all my gear plus any active gear I may need, as well as something I could strap my skis to.

In my exhaustive search I kept hearing about the brand F-stop. F-stop’s bags are designed and created specifically for the adventure photographer. They are extremely versatile and offer packs and bags of different sizes and load capacities depending on your needs. The biggest selling point to me was their “Internal Camera Unit.” The ICU is the core bag that holds your camera gear and is available in multiple sizes. You can switch between the different size ICU’s depending on how much photo gear you need to take with you. So after reading a lot of reviews and endorsements I decided to pull the trigger on the F-stop Tilopa.

Here are some initial photos of it right out of the box. I’ll be sure to do a follow up post with it fully loaded and thoroughly tested.

Makr Wallet

I received my first Makr Wallet around this time last year and I must say that I am extremely satisfied with it. Its minimalist design and amazing patterning make for the perfect wallet. Makr is a leather accessory manufacturer that has small production runs, using a combination of modern and classic techniques and premium quality leathers. Each of their pieces are handmade in one of two USA studios — one for smaller offerings, or a bigger, local, family-owned factory for the larger orders.

They just recently announced their 003 Collection so be sure to check them out.

Back-up overkill: It is better to be redundant than remiss.

So, about 2.5 years ago I had one of those terrible moments … the moment when I realized the last time I backed up my data was about six months prior. This realization came, of course, after my computer was no longer working. Losing six months of work/data is a sickening feeling. Not pleasant at all. However, it taught me a valuable lesson. One that I now take seriously — some may say — a little too seriously.

My backup system now consists of at least four copies of current files and three copies of archived files, with at least one copy of each being an off-site copy.

The setup:

  • Laptop: has current/recent working photo and design files
  • 2 Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II 2TB external drives (each has two 1TB drives set up to mirror each other).
    - First Drive backs up laptop through Time-Machine
    - Second Drive has archived photos and design project files
  • 750 GB Western Digital Passport (off-site backup).
    - Contains copies of current/recent working photo and design files as well as copies of archived photos and design project files

irwinDIGITAL stickers

I recently got in an order of die-cut vinyl stickers from the guys over at diecutstickers.com. Ejay was great to work with and, helped me out with some suggestions, as well. They were even nice enough to give me a shutout on their blog.