A few days ago I wrote a post about Animoto's new theme that I designed. Although I'm sure a few of you will take advantage of it, I forgot the mention the really important part; they wanted me to give out a discount. Click here to save $50 on a year of Animoto Pro.
As I said in the last post, if you don't know what Animoto is you may want to check out their newest promo.
Animoto.com has revolutionized photo slideshow creation. I believe that for my wedding photography business in Charleston, slideshows are the most valuable form of marketing I have. I've always had one problem with Animoto though, most of their themes were really over the top. That was until they let me design my own.
The D7000 is an amazing camera. I shot weddings with it exclusively for 2 years and during that time we also filmed every Fstoppers video with them as well. Today only Adorama is selling refurbished versions of them on eBay for just $580! If you need a mid level DSLR, don't let this deal pass you by.
Have you ever seen a photograph taken for a large, expensive advertising campaign and thought: "I could have totally taken that picture." I see photographers charging unbelievably high prices for mediocre images all the time. It makes me wonder; what is more important, the quality of my photography or the business of selling it?
Since we released Peter Hurley's: The Art Behind The Headshot, the internet has been trying to replicate his signature look without shelling out thousands for his Kino Flo lights. The guys over at SLR Lounge put together a great video that comes up with a similar look by using only 1 light, 1 bank, and 3 reflectors. I think the results are fantastic.
A few months ago I got a random email that said "Would you like to review our new remote controlled drone that can carry a GoPro?" I love all types of electronics so I said I would be happy to. I assumed I would be receiving a remote controlled toy in the mail but I was very wrong. The DJI Phantom absolutely blew me away. Even after I destroyed it.
Happy fourth of July Fstoppers. To celebrate we are currently discounting Peter Hurley's: The Art Behind The Headshot $100 (the most we have ever discounted it). If you purchase Peter's tutorial you will also receive a $50 discount for our wedding tutorial: How To Become A Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer.
To save $100 use code "save100"
The Fstoppers Logo contest has ended and after over 1500 submissions I can say that I believe all possible avenues have been explored. Both Patrick and I went through every single logo one by one separately and we narrowed them down to our favorite 17. Check out the full post to see our best options and vote on your favorites.
4 years ago Patrick and I came up with the idea for Fstoppers.com. We needed a logo and so I went into Photoshop and created the "FS" inside a circle that you can see above. It took me about 5 minutes and neither Patrick or I have ever really liked it. It's time for a change and we will pay you to help us get there.
This year Patrick and I were invited to Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai to film a behind the scenes look of what it's really like to go to this exotic workshop. The experience itself was one of the highlights of my life but the most memorable moment for me was the few minutes I had with each of the instructors.
A couple years ago Patrick and I were invited to film David Bergman shooting a Bon Jovi concert in New Jersey. The experience was one of the most memorable of my life and if I had to put a price on it I really couldn't, to me it was priceless. The same opportunity is now available to you. David Bergman is auctioning off the ability to shadow him at a Bon Jovi concert.
If you've seen any movies in the theater recently you've probably seen a preview for the movie Oblivion. A major part of the movie takes place on a science fiction "sky tower" above the clouds. Instead of using green screen the director had a 360 degree set built that allowed the team to project real skyscape video around the glass building.
I know many of you out there think that a massive team and a giant budget is necessary to produce a quality video but most of the time that simply is not the case. I was just sent a link to a quick video about filming with an incredibly small film crew and these guys give 3 fantastic tips for the average person trying to get into video production.
Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time. The story line itself is captivating but the incredible special effects are what really set this film apart. The movie was released 20 years ago in 1993 and the CGI and robotic dinosaurs still look more realistic than the majority of special effects in movies today.
Rick Coleman was scuba diving off the coast of Southern California at night from a personal kayak. As Rick was entering his boat after the dive a sea lion pup jumped aboard. Rick eventually was forced to push the pup back into the water but the pup jumped back on. luckily Rick had a couple of GoPros rolling throughout the whole experience.
I've been out of college for just 8 years now and in my mind I am far from being "successful." I'm not going to pretend that I know what it takes to become successful, obviously I'm still trying to figure that out, but I've made enough mistakes to know what not to do. This is my list of the top 5 ways to never become successful.
Our good friend Dave Lehl is at it again and this time he's moved out of the snow and into the skate park. To add a bit of flare to the standard skateboarding shot Dave taped sparklers to the bottom of the board and used smoke bombs to set the mood. Check out the full post to a link to the high res finished shots.
We recently released our 14 hour tutorial on How To Become A Professional Wedding Photographer and as promised, we will be releasing excerpts from it for free over the next year. In this video I show you my go to method of lighting posed pictures in a church at weddings.
A few weeks ago Eric Pare released the 24x360 project which included 24 cameras taking a long exposure picture of a single subject. It's difficult to explain but once you see it you will understand. Eric was kind enough to write up an article just for us on how these incredible video clips were made.
A few weeks ago I got a Facebook message from someone saying I should check out a particular website. The message simply said "I think this guy is stealing your pictures." We'll call "this guy" "John," and yes, John was using my pictures as well as other photographers' images and claiming that they were his own.
The reputable seller "bigvalueinc" on eBay is currently selling the Nikon D600 for $1685.99. This is a pretty killer deal considering this camera is still very new and sells everywhere else for $2000. They are also selling the D800 at a decent price. If you are in the market for this camera you better jump on this tonight because I can guarantee they will be sold out soon.
Do you have an extra $2000 laying around? If so, I would suggest coming to Dubai with us, but you might also want to buy Canon's premiere portrait lens, the 85mm 1.2. Mark calls this lens "the magic lens" because of it's incredibly shallow depth of field that can make almost any location look amazing. For a similar look check out the critically acclaimed 85mm 1.4 by Sigma.
After 3 years of planning and 2 years of filming and editing, our newest tutorial: How To Become A Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer is now available. Our goal was to create the most complete and informative video on wedding photography and we believe we have done it with this 14 hours digital download.
We are ironing out all of the details for our new wedding tutorial: How To Become A Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer which we be released on January 6 at midnight. Until then we wanted to give back to those who have supported us in the past.
The internet is in a massive debate today over a video of a baby being lifted into the air by an eagle. The video was released last night and since than has been viewed millions of times. Some argue that the video is real and that golden eagles can lift animals much heavier than this baby. Others argue that it is a CGI stunt? What do you think?
A few days ago my buddy Bryan Bowden called me and said that he was in possession of the currently unreleased Black Magic Cinema Camera. This camera could be the next big thing in videography because it's incredibly cheap ($3000) for what you get (2.5K RAW footage).
As I said in a previous article, I believe successful people are "do'ers." As creatives, sometimes getting things accomplished can seem like an impossible task, especially when we have so many things that need to get done. As a world class procrastinator myself, I found this quick, 3 minute video to be packed full of useful tips on productivity.
We look up to other people in all aspects of our lives. Most of us admire our parents or an older sibling. We desire to be like those who have "made it" like actors, musicians, or wealthy business owners. As photographers, we probably all have a list of our favorite people in the industry. I'm here to tell you that they are no better at photography than you are.
I just got an email from one of our readers saying that Amazon is currently selling the Canon 5D Mark III for $2999.00, the lowest price this camera has ever sold for. If you were waiting for a deal this is it. I wouldn't be surprised if it ended in a few hours. Check it out here.
On Friday we threw a party at Peter Hurley's studio and opened it up to the public to celebrate Photo Plus in NYC. Over 400 people showed up and luckily we never ran out of drinks (in other words it was a big success). Peter built a wacky photobooth out of some AstroTurf he "found" and the characters that showed up for the party knew exactly what to do with it.
We're celebrating PhotoPlus with an all inclusive Fstoppers party in NYC at Peter Hurley's studio tonight Friday, October 26 at 9PM. If you're a photographer or videographer, this is one you won't want to miss. We've hired bartenders and the drinks and food will be covered by us all night long (or until we run out).
For the last 1.5 years Patrick and I have been filming our next massive project; a 10-12 hour long tutorial on all things wedding photography. To put the finishing touches on this, "DVD" we wanted to interview 2 very established wedding photographers that have completely different business models from ours.
Many photographers don't know it, but Canon used to produce a 50mm lens with a F1.0 aperture. Yes, one-point-zero. At the time, this was the fastest SLR lens in production. While it was being made the lens retailed for $4,210. In 2000 the lens production was stopped and was eventually replaced by the F1.2 version. Why? The lens actually wasn't very good... except for the bokeh.
I was planing on eventually buying a D600 but when I saw yesterday that they were "in stock" and ready to ship from Amazon, I bought one.
We have teamed up with PremiumBeat.com to give away what may be the most anticipated video camera of 2012, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This camera is has a 2.5k sensor that shoots in 12-bit Raw with 13 stops of dynamic range for less than $3000. Up until now, these specs were only available in cameras over $10,000.
