On the Mend!

We apologize we haven't been posting. I've recently had knee surgery so I haven't been running around taking pictures. We have also been busy taking phone calls and answering emails after our recent bridal show.

Hopefully once I'm able to walk around without this brace on, I'll be up and taking pictures along with doing some stuff with local bands.

Again we apologize for the lack of updates. I'll also be updating the site with some different images. Take a look in a week or so!

Bridal Show 2009!

We attended the 2009 February Anthony's Pier 9 Bridal Show today. We had a lot of fun meeting with all the Brides and Grooms to be. We would like to thank all of those that took an interest in our work and stopped to talk to us, or grab information. For those we did not get to talk to, we apologize and if you would like information feel free to contact us.

We also upped our brand new website layout. I redesigned the website from the ground up. We feel that it shows our work more efficiently. We also added samples of our digital album designs. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to send us an email or leave it on this blog.

Right now, I have some albums to design and emails to send out. For those brides that read this and wish for more information, email or call us. We are very flexible with our packages.

Winter Clove Inn

We had done a wedding June 15th 2008 for Danette & Jason. Their wedding was at the Winter Clove Inn in Round Top, NY. What a gorgeous area. The Inn sits on state owned land. Though it is expensive to get a room at the Inn, you don't spend any money otherwise. They take care of most meals and there are tons of activities to do on the property. You can go hiking, cross country skiing, etc. Very good for the out-doors type people.

After doing the wedding The Winter Clove Inn decided to revamp their website and asked for some of the images from Danette & Jason's wedding. My partner checked the other day, and they finally upped their new site. Click on the image to go to their wedding section where our images are.

Shoshanna the Waitress @ The Loft

Saturday I took pictures of Shoshanna the Waitress at The Loft. Awesome band. Defiantly very talented. Unfortunately I never shot at The Loft so I was a bit surprised about the lack of light in there. The Chance has a great lighting setup. I can use a 70-200 @ 2.8 at a high ISO and get great shots. The pictures still came out pretty good.

This is also the first show I shot for Shoshanna. Currently they've been recording with a good friend of mine from Road Cone Productions. If you need stuff recorded in a laid back atmosphere, Road Cone Productions is the place.

The above image is just one of about 100 images I have to fix up. I'll get them done by the end of the weekend and they'll be on our myspace.

G&M, V2s & more!

Last night, We (my partner and myself) were at Mountainville Manor, photographing G&M Horse Riding club's awards dinner. What a great bunch of people. My partner constantly takes pictures of their horse back riding events. There is a direct link on their website to the images that he has posted on his PBase site. He has taken some amazing shots and the people, that run and participate in the club, really appreciate all the work he's done.

The group president invited my partner to the dinner originally, to sit and mingle. I had the idea of taking more pictures. Originally he was supposed to sit and mingle and I'll take pictures, but he could not help himself. So we were both on the floor taking tons of pictures. I'm sure these will also be up on the G&M's website, so take a look.

I wanted to say some stuff about the Cactus V2s that I had received last week. As it stands they are great triggers. We did do some modifications. First off, we added a holder for AA batteries. While doing this, we discovered that you cannot use rechargeable batteries in these units. I also remember another photographer telling me that as long as you keep fresh batteries in the units they'll work great. When he meant fresh, he meant fresh. We believe we know the reason for this. First off, these units require 3V on the circuit. One AA rechargeable is only 1.4V fully charged, 1.2V after it starts to be used. The batteries that are supposed to be used with the triggers probably lose their voltage after use too. For $8 a pop, this is a bit crazy to constantly be having to get new batteries. After we added the AA holders and put in fresh non-rechargeable batteries, they worked flawlessley, for the most part. Good Non-rechargeable batteries are 1.5V and I don't think they lose their charge nearly as much as other types. However, we did have the idea of putting what's called a capacitor in the circuit. This will try to always keep the voltage at 1.5V.

Why "for the most part"? My partner had did a antenna mod, that though worked, wasn't perfect. The gauge wire was a bit too thick. We believe that by the time the antenna was energized, the shutter was already starting to close. This was causing obvious syncing issues. Therefore, if anyone else does an antenna mod, use small gauge wire. After he fixes that one issue, I'll put up images of the mods and whether they were worth the work.

Just a reminder: Feb 1st 2009 (Sunday) is Anthony's Pier 9 bridal show. Of course we'll be there. Feel free to stop in and chat.

Silly Kitty!

After some research and a recommendation from a local photographer, I decided to get some Cactus V2s'. For the money they are well worth it. These units are small, very small. The build is ok for the most part. Some of the internal wiring is sketchy but it is neatly placed inside. I purchased the kit, and 2 additional receivers. All of this, shipped, for less then $100. What a deal! My partner is going to see what he can tweak with them. Maybe increase their range, and possibly help reduce and interference issues that may come up.

I did take some pictures using some canon speed lights. One of the speed lights was firing on its own, so I was a little concerned, however I did read online that the stock batteries are garbage. I'll get a fresh set, and see what happens.

This is a picture of my 30D. I took it with my 40D @ F32 1/200sec ISO 400 using a Tamron 28-75mm F2.8. (2) Canon 580EX and (1) Canon 580EXII. All were fired using Cactus V2s.

On another note, I've done some quick work for Newburgh Restoration blog. If you live in the area you should go check it out. Hopefully with a new president, the economy will be fixed and derelict areas of the Hudson Valley will have a revival.

Oh, just to clear up the reason for the strange title, my silly kitty, Luna was very curious about what I was doing. She kept crawling all over me, and around the setup. I actually ended up getting her whiskers in some of the unused images. Oh silly Luna.

Delicious!

Tomorrow is a big day for Hearts Delight Cakes in Newburgh. They are doing their grand opening tomorrow at I believe 11am. This is just another step into the restoration of Newburgh.

Hopefully I will be able to show up and introduce myself to the owner. Unfortunately the weather is looking bleak for tomorrow. I just hope the owners are able to do their opening without a hitch. I guess we'll find out. Anyway, all should visit and get something tasty. If not, stay warm and safe at home.

Feeling Creative?

Well this is the first public post. Yay! I hope everyone who reads this blog enjoys it, finds it informative etc. Feel free to post comments and let me(us) know whatever.

I was feeling creative today and just did some random shooting. Due to the recent snow/ice a lot of the landscape is beautiful. I had all intentions of doing a lot of landscapes and the sort, but the ice began to melt before I can get my butt up and gear together. However, the sun was doing some cool things with the clouds due to the moisture in the air, so I took this shot, along with others. I know it is not smart to look at the sun through a camera. I was wearing sunglasses :D.

Shot was taken using a 40D, ISO100 1/1000sec F22 with a canon 85mm F1.8.

On another note, thanks to Mike Rice from Mike Rice Photography, I've decided to not get studio lights, but instead get V2S transmitters and receivers by Gadget Infinity. I've read a lot of reviews saying that they are cheap, but pretty reliable. There are certain times when they might not respond from what I hear/read, however for $40, why not? I bought 1 transmitter and 3 receivers for under $100. When I get them I'll talk more about them. My intentions are to possibly use these for house photo shoots, band pictures and weddings. I'm going to test how reliable they are etc. My partner (Victor) is also an electronic engineer, so he might take a look and see if he can mod these bad boys to have a longer range and increase the reliability. I can't wait!