Catchlight Studios Photography

Are you a Professional Photographer?

No . . . this isn't one of those articles that debates whether or not you make all or part of your income through photography. It is more a rant on one of the perils of being a photographer - professional or not -  in 2011.

Our good friend Willam Beem has written quite a lot on his blog about the harassment photographers are increasingly subjected to while going about the business of lawfully taking photographs for their own enjoyment. Travel photographers especially have borne the brunt of over-zealous security officers in theme parks, office buildings, train stations, airports, and even malls.

We have experienced this ourselves. At a night photography field trip in Orlando a couple of months ago, a security guard prevented us from photographing one of the city buildings. I have been approached by security staff at quite nondescript office buildings to ask if I had a 'permit' to photograph them.

More recently, however, we have noticed a distinction being made as to whether we are "professional photographers". In a shopping mall in Las Vegas last month, a security guard asked if we were professional because Susan had a "big lens" (a 70-200 f/2.8). Last weekend, we experienced significant harassment in the grounds of the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. The first example occurred before we even got inside the grounds when we were asked to "check our bag". When we replied that it contained camera equipment and we weren't about to leave it anywhere, we we told that we could not take photographs if we were 'professionals'.

Since saying that yes - we are professionals, but that we were there to take pictures for our own enjoyment - was not likely to be well received, we elected to deny it and were duly let inside. Subsequently, we were approached  by two other security people - who evidently don't talk to each other - and asked the same questions. Apparently, they are concerned about the possibility that 'professionals' will sell pictures of the Ca' d'Zan Mansion; we can only assume that 'amateurs' have no such aspirations since they were snapping away left and right. We did try suggesting to them that even 'professionals' might like to take pictures for themselves sometimes, but they were resolute - no professional photographers.

The distinction in their eyes, of course, was our camera equipment. Had we been standing there with point-and-shoot cameras, or perhaps even small DSLR's, we would have escaped their scrutiny. This is of course amusing, as any wedding photographer will tell you that guests frequently sport more expensive equipment than they do - and I think we all understand that having expensive pots and pans does not make you a chef . . . 

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The Importance of backup equipment in wedding photography

If you have been around a photography forum for any length of time, you will have seen a few posts from photographers asking about getting into wedding photography. After a few replies that simply say "don't do it", you will hear a lot of advice about having adequate backup equipment.

This really is good advice, and I have to say that we have always been very strict about adhering to it. However, we have seen and heard of photographers that regularly do weddings with just one camera body, one or two lenses and a flash. Sooner or later, Murphy will catch up with you  . . . As it evidently tried to do with us.

On Saturday, Susan and I traveled to Anna Maria Island to photograph Jeff and Tracie's wedding - about a 2 and a half hour trip for us. As usual, we packed more equipment than we thought we would need.

Usually, for the ceremony I carry two Nikon D3-series cameras; one with the 24-70 f/2.8 and a SB900 flash, and the other with the 70-200 mm f/2.8. Part way through the ceremony I noticed that the flash was missing from the camera it should have been on. I soon spotted it a few feet away, face down in the fine white sand . . . (you can see it on the extreme right of the image below).

Fortunately, I was able to quickly transition to one of our backup SB800's - and just as luckily, the flash was not damaged and continued to function normally after a good clean-up. However, had that happened on a concrete floor I could easily have lost a flash for the duration of the wedding.

The second mishap occurred during the formal photographs which we were also doing on the beach. We were using a PCB Einstein light powered by the new PCB mini-lithium battery pack. Previous testing had confirmed the utility of this combination for weddings and we were confident that the little battery had enough juice to get us through the day (it should do at least 650 full power flashes).

Unfortunately, we broke one of the golden rules of wedding photography in that we used a the new Pocketwizard MC2 receiver on the Einstein controlled by a MiniTT1 transmitter without thoroughly testing it first! Although we had taken care to ensure that the Einstein's 250W modeling light was turned off, we did not realize that the TT1/MC2 combination overrides this by default - and there is no way to turn it off unless you can plug the transmitter into your computer to gain access to its 'brain'. The predictable result was that the battery ran down WAY quicker than it was supposed to . . . Although we carry a spare Einstein light, we did not have a spare mini-lithium battery (this WILL be rectified before the next time).

We did have other options though. We could have turned to our Nikon Speedlights; our lighting case contains another 6 of them, which we could use together to substitute for the loss of our high-power light if necessary. Alternatively, we could use our Quantum TD-5r flash with its own portable power pack (and we carry a spare). In the event, this is what we did and were able to do the sunset shots that we wanted with the less powerful unit.

Anyhow, the two morals of this story are (1) carry at least one backup for every piece of equipment you have; and (2) don't use anything on a real job without giving it a thorough workout first!

 

This Week's Classes in Digital Photography

It's back to the basics this week at Harmon's School of Photography. On Tuesday evening we have our class on Basic Digital Photography. Taught by Susan Francis. this session is suited to new users of both digital single lens reflex (DSLR) and point-and-shoot cameras.

On Wednesday, we are offering our regular class for new owners of the Canon Rebel series cameras. As always, our camera-specific classes are designed to get you up to speed on the dials, buttons and menus of these cameras, and are not aimed at providing instruction on photographic theory or techniques. For this, we recommend students look at our Introduction to DSLR classes.

We finish out this week on Friday evening (NOT Thursday) with our class on the small Nikon cameras (D40, 50, 60, 3000 and 5000 series). Once again, we will be concentrating on the features of these cameras, not on photographic technique. 

Finally, don't forget about our Wedding Workshop on the 28th April. The workshop has very limited space and is filling up quickly, so don't wait until the last minute to sign up! We will be at a very cool location, and you will be able to capture images like this one: