Vintage Picnic Couples Sessions – April 23

We are excited to announce our newest mini-sessions.

A Vintage Picnic

These are for couples! We will have a beautiful stylized vintage picnic spread for you and your significant other to enjoy together. These will be perfect for engagement photos, anniversary photos, or just something fun to do with someone special. Think… friends, spouses, mother-daughter… any couple can come!

All of the the vintage pieces were provided by Vintage 44 Rentals.

Details:

•Sessions are 20 minutes for $49

•up to 2 people

•planning session & ordering appointment

•prints & products sold separately

You can reserve your session for:

Saturday, April 23 2016

any time between 9 am and 7 pm.

These are limited edition sessions, so reserve your date and time today.

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Email or call us for more info or to book your session.

888-541-3686

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What camera should I buy? Part 2

I was at the Star Wars movie with my sons a few weeks ago. We were running late and I was wondering if we were going to miss all the previews.

I was wondering if we would even get a seat.

Fortunately we made it in and there were only 3 rows open in the very front of the IMAX.

We sat down and the first thing I saw was an ad from Canon.

If there was one ad I’d like to see, that’s it. Until the end through me for a bit of a loop. “Shoot if Yourself” is the campaign message.

This has since thrown the pro photography community into a bit of a fury.

I’ve never heard of a greater exodus from pros away from Canon before.

They feel like Canon is undermining their core market – the professional photographer.

Once, I thought about it for a while, it bothered me less and less.

We need to face the facts. People can take photos with their phone that rival the quality of my first professional workhorse – the 30D.

Home Depot has been sending the same DIY message for years, but that doesn’t stop contractors from showing up at 7am every day.

Canon and all major camera companies are trying to balance between the consumer and the pro.

With the consumer cameras getting better and better, the pro is forced to rely on things other than better tech to differentiate. A pro needs to know how to create art and master the manual control of the camera to set themselves apart.

With that said, I present to you the best options for professional photographers.

Fuji X-T1 (around $1,300 body)

If I was going to switch from Canon, it would probably be to Fuji. There are a few reasons it won’t happen though. Fuji does not make a full frame camera. This is the only mirrorless camera I would consider for professional use.

The downsides:

The menu navigation is a bit lacking. It’s a crop frame camera. It is slower to focus than the Canon’s I recommend.

The upsides:

It is beautiful – the best looking camera. It’s shutter and exposure controls are great. It takes amazing pictures with it’s built in Fuji profile that is about as close to a film looking image you can get from a camera. It replicates Fuji film very well, of course.

Canon 6D (around $1,400 body)

For the price, this is an excellent choice. This is a full-frame camera for under $1,500 – something unheard of for years. Wi-Fi enabled technology allows you to send images to your phone and then publish to instagram on the fly.

The downsides:

It’s a little small for what you would think of for a full frame camera. It doesn’t have the same build quality as the 5D series and it’s noticeable. It actually has a shorter life-cycle rating than the 7D Mark 2.

The upsides:

Price. Full Frame. Amazing low light quality. I would not hesitate to start a business with this camera.

7D Mark 2 (around $1,500)

This is an amazing camera. It is a great option for someone who wants to equally explore still photography and video.

The downsides:

The standard 1.6 crop factor on Canon’s non-full-frame cameras is not as appealing. It’s slightly worse than the 6D in low light because of that.

The upsides:

Price. Dual Memory Card slots! Follow-Focus subject tracking for video that works pretty well. It is weather sealed similar to the 1DX and has better autofocus than the 6D.

5D Mark 3 (around $2,500)

This is an amazing camera. It’s a true workhorse. I’ve taken about half a million photos on one of these bodies. I remember when I moved up from the mark 2, the first thing I noticed was that I could shoot 6400 ISO and it looked pretty good. I also noticed I could focus a lot better. In the last few years I’ve checked out the 1DX and the 5Ds. For what I do, this is still the best.

The downsides:

Lack of WiFi and inability to transmit radio to Speed lights.

The upsides:

Durability. Excellent Low-light images. Dual Memory Cards. I think it’s been the best wedding photography camera overall for almost 3 years.

Nikon D810 (around $2,900)

I don’t often shoot Nikon, but if I did, this is what I would shoot. That said, I’m thankful for Nikon they just announced a D500 and a D5. If I was a Nikon shooter, I would be waiting for these. They look great. They also put some much needed pressure on Canon to bring something great in 2016.

I hope this helps. While a good camera can help you take better photos, it is important to remember that it is just a tool. It’s a crazy cool tool, but just like a good chef could blow you away with a $20 knife, learning the tool is the most important factor by far. I’m trying to help people with that this year and I created a free 1 week course.

Click here for a free course where I personally teach you how to manually control the camera

You can view all these items on amazon here as well. Thanks for reading and please share this with any photography friends.

What Camera Should I Buy? (beginners) Part 1 of 2

Which Camera Should I Buy (for beginners)?

By far, the most asked question I have gotten over the last 11 years as a professional photographer is “What camera should I buy?”. I really enjoy answering this question and helping people find the right camera, so it makes sense to consolidate most of the research and experience here to help more people with this difficult decision. Obviously, there is a lot to consider and my recommendations are based on your needs, so for the sake of simplicity I will break this down into 3 categories: Starter, Mid-level and Working Professional. These are also ascending by price and budget. I will recommend camera bodies ranging from $400 up to around $2,500.

What Not to Buy

I’ll be recommending lenses in a later post, but for now, I want you to know that lenses are just as important to me as the camera body. Most of my camera recommendations are for the “body only”. Don’t buy the kit with 8 filters, 3 zooms and a cheap memory car, plastic tri-pod and 50 accessories. Kit lenses are far inferior to even the entry level prime lenses. The 18-55 mm that comes standard with most starter DSLR’s will not be useful to you for very long.

A Big Consideration

When I recommend cameras, I realize that the decision is going to result in a long-term relationship. Here’s a diagram of my most recent camera body purchases.

You will notice that most of them are of the same brand – Canon.

Canon vs Nikon vs Sony vs Fuji vs….

I’m going to recommend brands that I use, so most of my recommendations are for Canon. Does this mean that I think Canon is always better than everybody else? No. What it means is that once you start investing in lenses, it’s difficult to switch brands. So it is a long-term commitment. Sure, you can sell your gear and start over. Lenses do tend to have great resale value. I have friends who have started over, but it can be a pain. Your first camera purchase may be your most important for that reason.

I still choose Canon because of it’s full-frame, good skin tones and huge suite of lens offerings. Perhaps more importantly, my friends had Canon when I started. Why does that matter? It’s great to be able to share lenses, especially in the early stages when you don’t have any. If I had a best friend or a brother with a Nikon D750 and 8 lenses and I was just starting, I very well may go the Nikon route for that reason. We’re not super dogmatic about the brand.

Starters ($400 – $750)

Canon T5i (around $650 body)

I’ve owned several of the rebel series both for personal use in my early days. They are a great starter camera because you will have full manual controls and be able to use a wide variety of canon lenses- the same lenses you may eventually use on a Canon 1DX. So when you start here, your lens investments will never be useless. It’s not the newest rebel, but it has some great features like Movie Servo AF for continuous focus tracking of moving subjects while shooting video and an integrated speedlite transmitter. At this level, 18 megapixels should be plenty. If you are planning on going professional, this camera will eventually serve as a reliable backup camera for both video and photo. It’s worth noting that, as with all entry cameras, this is a cropped sensor so your lenses will have a magnified effect of 1.6x. Pair it with a 50mm to start.

Fuji XE-1 (around $550 body)

Supposedly this camera has earned the nickname “Sexy One” in Japan, for it’s outward beauty and overall appeal. This camera is a great starter camera. It’s aesthetically pleasing in many ways. It has a vintage rangefinder feel to it that distinguises it from the other options. The shutter and aperture controls are perfect for going manual. It also produces some of the best straight-from-camera quality jpeg images that I have seen. It’s noticeably smaller than DSLR’s. This is a mirrorless camera and for that reason there are a few downsides. The focusing is not as fast as the rebel. The viewfinder is an electronic hybrid. I really prefer an optical viewfinder, but if you are not accustomed to that, you might not mind. Start with the 35mm lens or the 27mm.

Note: For a few hundred dollars more you can get the XE-2 (newer version of the XE-1). The main benefits are better, faster autofocus and a fast image processor.

Nikon D7000 (around $479 body)

If you are choosing Nikon, this is a great starter body that is currently a very good value. It is comparable to the Canon Rebel.

Canon SL1 (around $400 body)

This is my low budget pick. It’s a step down from the T5i, but if you combine this with 50mm 1.8 lens you have a solid starter setup for about $500. One thing to consider – this is significantly smaller than the T5i, so if you have big hands, it might not be the best. On the flipside, you could probably carry it in a purse. And bringing your camera everywhere is a good choice, especially when your trying to learn your camera.

It’s worth noting that the Iphone 6 takes great pictures compared to any previous smartphones. It exceeds the galaxy all previous version in image quality. The outdoor photos it can take are impressive, and it’s gotten much better in low light. It still blows highlights more than the DSLR and mirrorless offerings, but with the ProCam app you can still learn photography by controlling your Aperture, Shutter and ISO. If a DSLR is purchase is not in the immediate future, ProCam app will give you a head-start in learning photography.

In closing, I want to make it clear that a good camera doesn’t make a good photographer. It’s important that you invest in education and learning to control your camera manually. I’ve made a free starter course.CLICK HERE

Lastly, if you are making a purchase, you can find detailed reviews for the cameras we mention in our amazon associate store.

CLICK HERE if you would like to be notified of our best mid-level and professional options in upcoming posts.

New Year Letter from the Boone Family

Hello Friends,

Wow, what a year. I just looked back at all the photos we took this year. We typically take about 100,000 photos per year for our business and about 10,000 personal photos. Looking back on these family images has done one important thing for me. It has opened my eyes up to how much we've done this year. Nelli is by far the more optimistic piece to this relationship. I usually feel like I haven't done quite enough. I would encourage you to go back and look at your year of photos to get a glimpse of how far you've come before you speculate how far you will go in 2016.

The story starts with our move from Ohio to our original home of Missoula, Montana. We lived in Ohio for 11 years and had some amazing relationships and built a successful photography studio. The move was a novel in itself, as we road-tripped 2,000 miles with a cat, 7 kids and a 24 ft trailer. I'll leave the details of that event to another post. For those of you in Ohio, I want you to know that our time with you has become more precious as we look back. Relationships are the most important thing in life. Though we are reconnecting with old friends and making new friends, we are not sure we will ever experience what we had with you again. We think back on the real friendships we had there - deeper and more loving than any we have ever known. We remember fall evenings of outdoor volleyball and winter basketball games at CCS. We felt like when we looked into the future of our family that Montana was home, and it is a place we want to raise our children. We gladly will be welcoming visitors from our beloved region of Northeast Ohio for tours of Glacier Park in the coming years.

The Kitchen

When we first arrived in Montana the first order was not starting a new business. It was getting a kitchen. We purchased a big fixer upper for several reasons. We loved the location and the land. We loved that it had 6 bedrooms. We also knew we wanted to make it our own, and to be there for a long time. When we moved in, we did not have a kitchen and that doesn't work for a mother of 7. With the help of Nelli's mom and dad along with our Renaissance handy-man neighbor, we built our dream kitchen.

We also added 2 new bathrooms, re-modeled the master bedroom and living room, finished the flooring and painted the outside. We will be posting an update on the entire project with more photos on our blog later this month.

Trips

Nelli and I were able to attend the Connect Retreat for couples in business for the second time this spring. The WinShape Center in Georgia has become a favorite place for Nelli and I. It's a place we count on for quietness and restoration. It also a place that we have been able to meet like-minded creatives. We also were able to see Bob Dylan play at the historic Fox Theatre

connect

This was also a year where I attempted something I've never done before. My friend Jeff and I spent about a year working on our Photo Gift Registry platform as a side project. In the past, my perfectionist side has kept me from getting projects to launch. Making the mistake of working on things until it's perfect is common for me. I get a better idea, then I move on to something else. This was the first year where I was able to work consistently. This time, as soon as it was ready, we went for it. We launched a beta program in two stages in the Spring and Summer and are planning a full version 2 launch of the crowdfunding platform in February. It was my first SaaS app, so I quickly realized that this was different than launching a local photography business. I quickly assembled a team of some of my favorite people and Alicia and headed to Las Vegas for the official launch at the photography tradeshow.

Vegas with dad, Alicia, Thad and James.

Nelli, Lydia and Alicia gave my sister a surprise visit to meet the twins in Ohio. I was able to take the boys on trips to Glacier and Portland.

We photographed some amazing weddings in Cleveland, Montana, California and Idaho.

We discovered an amazing swimming hole just down the road from our house.

Josh started making his own pickles from the neighbor's garden.

They are amazing. I also was able to coach his basketball team this past year as they went undefeated.

For Caleb's birthday we gathered at a park and watched two rainbows fill the sky. We are very happy for the type of man Caleb is becoming. He is considerate of his role as a leader in our family and has helped us with our house every step along the way. He is also working to become a good basketball player and is playing AAU as an 8th grader.

Caleb was also able to play in the Adam's Center for his league's basketball championship.

Jude is along for every outdoor adventure, and we've tried to make that a regular practice since getting back to the mountains. He is super energetic and makes Nelli and I laugh on a daily basis. He is a loving boy with a great sense of humor.

He is learning the basic things of life with the utmost passion.

Siah learned how to fish and loves to hike and spend time outside. He also is a big fan of Minecraft. He very intelligent for his age, and loves to read.

Siah became a puzzle master.

Lydia has been a creative force and one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She is also our only home-schooler this year.

Zoe also enjoys outdoor adventure and treats us to exceptional amounts of love and kindness. She often remembers to express her appreciation to us. Zoe lost both of her front teeth and started kindergarten.

Alicia had a big year. She got her driver's license (practicing with us in the car!). She also placed 7th in State Speech & Debate...as a 10th grader. Now, as Junior, she has decided to join our new portrait business and is already impressing our clients with her artful eye and attention to detail.

We found out were having another, our 8th baby.

We started a portrait business and Nelli photographed some very popular Holiday Mini-Sessions. It was the first time we had ever done mini-sessions in over 10 years as photographers.

We went on a camping trip to Glacier.

Painted our house.

Nelli was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

I've spent a good portion of the year working on computer projects. Josh and Caleb have both started to help and are learning about web design.

It has taken us a while to settle in, but we all feel like it's happening. We bring traditions from Ohio and together we are forming new traditions here in Montana. We take one family device-free day of relational connection each week. We eat dinners together daily.

Nelli met Shaq while I was grabbing coffee.

I'm closer to my brothers. And we kept the Turkey Bowl snow tackle football tradition alive and well.

We are settling in. But as we settle in, we still often look back. We look back in photo albums. We look back into our memories of Ohio regularly. The experience of the last year has confirmed to us that a happy life isn't so much about where you live, it's about the people you have in your life. For over 11 years we had some amazing things in Ohio. We had an established creative business. But the thing we think of the most is the people we had in our lives at different stages. So much of who we are is based in that. You know, we all rub off on each other and make each other who we are. If you are getting this email, you are likely one of those people and you are in our hearts in Missoula.

View from the "M" in Missoula.

And then, right when we thought this already eventful year was almost over, along came Ela...

photos by our wonderful birth photographer | www.firstembracephoto.com

This is a small look at the many things in our eventful year. Many of them deserve a chapter of their own. Nelli and I have been thinking about resolutions for this year. We know this year will be challenging and difficult at times just like last year. After looking back, we have decided that blogging and staying connected to you is one of our top goals.

Finally, let me encourage you. If you are like me you may look at your life like you are not accomplishing enough. You might think "I'm not being a good enough mom (or dad)". I want you to go to your phone or computer and put together a slideshow or album of your year. What you will discover is that your life is filled with love and that you have a bright future. Friendships and relationships are grown through experiences together. Remembering these times can be quite helpful in our journey together. So before we look forward, let us look back just for a moment and take in just how far you have come.

May peace and blessing be with you in 2016.

Love,

Jesse, Nelli, Alicia, Caleb, Josh, Lydia, Siah, Zoe, Jude & Ela

P.S. We will be blogging regularly this year about owning a creative small business, family logistics and everything that inspires us. We'd love to hear from you along the way. We are also still offering a free photography course in case you just got a DSLR recently or know someone who has.