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Jason Vinson
Bentonville, AR
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Articles written by Jason Vinson

I'm a Wedding Photographer and I Have No Idea What I'm Doing
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Over the course of a wedding day, you can shoot in countless locations with varying difficulties. Most of the time, the locations will be places you have never been before. If you ask around online for advice, you will probably be told to scout out your locations days or even weeks in advance. You may be advised to know which location you are going to shoot each image in and that you should build a list so you don't forget. When I first started shooting weddings, I would scout locations and build the shot lists; however, the more I would shoot, the more I would realize that this process was actually making things more difficult for me. That’s why I prefer to go into a wedding day with no idea what I’m doing.

4 Posing Tricks from Lexia Frank That Will Help Your Clients Look Slimmer
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Posing is one of those things that people constantly struggle with when getting into photography. Poses that feel comfortable in real life don’t always look good on camera. Check out these four videos from Lexia Frank to help give you a solid base on how to pose your clients in the most flattering way.

Fuji X Mount Lenses App Lets You Test and Compare Lenses Without Leaving Your Couch
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We have all been there when trying to pick a new lens. 14mm or 18mm? How big of a difference does that 4mm of focal length make? What sort of differences in depth of field will I see when comparing this zoom lens at f4 to this prime lens at f2.8? Well Fuji has come to the rescue and has released an app to iTunes and Google Play that will let you test all of their lenses from your phone or tablet.

Interview with Hookgrip and How They Used Slow Motion Video to Build a Following
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Building a business is a tedious thing as most of us know. Everyone uses a different approach and some of us fail and some of us succeed, it's the nature of the beast. In my free time I do some Olympic lifting and I found myself searching for new and better techniques online. What I ended up with is not only finding some great videos for my Olympic lifting, but also a different way of building a business.

How to Get The New Dehaze Tool In Lightroom 6
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So you bit the bullet and invested in Lightroom 6. Then Adobe announced their new Creative Cloud program and you decided you would stick with Lightroom 6 until there were new features added that could justify the jump to that monthly payment plan. Well now there is this fancy new tool called the dehaze tool. It looks to be pretty great, but it doesn’t really justify the jump from something you own outright, to a monthly payment. Lucky for you there is now a free way to add the dehaze tool to Lightroom 6.

How to Add Interesting Light Flares to Your Images
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I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to add visual interest to my images. I’m a big fan of the effects you can get with prisms and the like, but it’s always nice to find something a little less used. Last year I went to a Katy Perry concert and they were handing out pairs of 3D glasses, which cause rainbow light streaks to appear all around you. I later found out that the glasses were made from diffraction paper.

Watch How Julien Breton Creates Intricate Light Paintings of Calligraphy
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Light painting is difficult. Trying to paint something you can’t see while racing the timer of your cameras shutter is no easy feat. Legibly writing your own name can take a decent amount of practice. Watch as Julian Breton takes this act to the next level as he turns the intricate art of calligraphy into light paintings.

Fstoppers Review of the Outex Underwater Housing
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When I first looked at placing my camera into the water I noticed that there was a lot of different options. The most practical and safe method was the big and very expensive dive housings that are used for scuba diving. The cheapest, most dangerous option was the little plastic zip lock bag-type housings that can be found on eBay for $100. I wanted something that would not break the bank, but would also be safe enough that I could put in an expensive DSLR plus a lens, and trust it would be safe. These stipulations are what brought me to the Outex underwater housing.

A Quick and Dirty Way to Get Rid of That Frizzy Hair
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Sometimes you need to get rid of that frizzy wind-blown hair but you don’t have the time to mess with cloning and blending. This can be even more difficult and time consuming with more complicated backgrounds that have gradients in them. I’m here to show you my quick and dirty way to get rid of those flyaways.

Quickly Fix Red Flushed Skin Within Lightroom
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It’s officially hot outside in my neck of the woods, but that doesn't mean I can to take a break from shooting outside! I still have to sweat it out, hauling my gear around from location to location and that means my clients have to feel the sting of the summer heat as well. Although it’s steaming out, I don’t want my images to look like they were taken inside the nearest oven set to broil. Thankfully, there is a super quick and easy way to fix those heat flushed skin tones.

How and Why I Shoot With Two Cameras
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Shooting with two cameras seems to be a growing trend in the wedding industry. When I first started shooting, I saw people doing this and I just didn’t see the point. I figured I could always change lenses, and then I would be good to go. Once I gave it try I completely fell in love. Here is my “how and why” I shoot with two cameras.

How to Give Your Dance Photos a Sense of Motion
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My favorite part of the wedding day is the reception. After the traditional first dances, and speeches are done, and the wedding party starts to let loose. The party is in full swing and the best man is giving “The Dougie” his best attempt in an effort to win a dance battle against the bride. While capturing these images I want the viewer to feel like they were in there, in the moment. My goal is to not light up the entire room like a Christmas tree. I want to see the light from the DJ and the motion on the dance floor. This is how I do just that.

How I Have My Camera Set Up to Shoot Weddings
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The Nikon D750 is one of the most talked about cameras in a long time. It’s a small lightweight body that packs a major feature set and has even lured Nikon D4 shooters to "upgrade." The camera is packed full of customizations, some of which can be pretty hard to understand and even difficult to find. I’m here to explain what I feel to be the best overall setup and why. This article is geared towards the Nikon D750, however the majority of the settings, if not all, are applicable to most cameras.

How to Get Away from the Average Ring Shot
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Rings can be considered one of the most important details of a wedding day. The groom may have spent months trying to find the right ring, and even longer saving up to purchase it. When the bride first announces their engagement, all of her friends can't wait to see the ring. It’s the only item from the wedding day that most couples will have their entire lives (besides the images of course). When I take pictures of the rings, I want to capture more than just the ring sitting on a table. I want something visually interesting and unique. Here is how I do it.

Just Announced: The HERO+ LCD - GoPro Adds a Touch Screen to Its Entry Level Camera
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The latest round of GoPro HERO4 cameras have been a big hit. Though one of the surprising outcomes with the recent release was the addition of a touch screen to the Silver edition and lack of screen on the higher-end Black edition. In many reviews and ratings, the ability to see your framing and review images and video from the device gave the Silver edition a leg-up over the Black. GoPro has now taken the overwhelming approval of the touch screen into account and has just announced the new Hero+ LCD.

Vincent Laforet Explains How to Use a Tilt-Shift Lens
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In my recent article "Why I Love My 20mm Lens to Shoot Weddings," I explained why I love the 20mm focal length and also explained some of the distortion effects to be wary of. What I didn’t explain is that some of these distortion effects could be fixed by using a tilt-shift lens. In the following video, Vincent Laforet explains the basics of how to use these lenses to fix distortion, as well as how to add interesting focus effects to your images.

Why I Love My 20mm Lens to Shoot Weddings
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When starting out in wedding photography, one of the most common questions that gets asked is, “What lens is a must have for my first wedding?” The most popular answers to this question are all over the map. They range from 50mm to 85mm to 70-200mm and so on. What you likely never see on the list is something like a 20mm lens, but for me, I will always have one of these lenses in my bag.

Ryan Brenizer Talks Lighting Tips For Wedding Photographers
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Ryan Brenizer is famous for his shallow depth of field panoramas known as the Brenizer method. In addition to this, he has photographed presidents, singers, athletes, and has more than 350 weddings under his belt. He was named one of the "10 most sought-after wedding photographers in the world” by Rangefinder Magazine, so when he talks, you should listen. In this video, Brenizer goes through five lighting tips that can help you throughout the day of shooting a wedding.

Getting Low Back Pain After a Long Shoot? Here's Why and How You Can Fix It!
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Being a working photographer, and even as a weekend warrior, I'm sure we all suffer from low back pain after finishing a long day of shooting. This pain can last for days and sometimes weeks, and as photographers, if we can’t move, then we can’t work. So lucky for us, there is a simple solution.