The Best of 2016

2016 was a great year for us! We shot 5 weddings, 3 engagement sessions, 7 commercial shoots, 2 video productions, 49 portrait sessions, 3 seniors sessions, 1 newborn, 1 maternity and 4 fitness shoots! Wow! We started the year by welcoming our little Ela into the world and ended it by celebrating her 1 year birthday. This was our 2nd year in business here in Montana. As you can see, we shot more portraits than we did weddings. Next year we have more weddings booked and we are excited to get even more. Alicia became my full time 2nd shooter. There are several of her shots in here:) We had 3 limited edition mini sessions that were so much fun! The spring session ended up raining, so we went with it for some adorable rainy day photos with umbrellas. We photographed the new Miss Montana and her family, a new and upcoming musician, 5 high school juniors before prom. We photographed the Lavender festival in Missoula. We made it back to Ohio for an AWESOME Indian wedding and a few family shoots there. At the end of summer, we organized a stylized wedding shoot at The Barn at the Ranch Club and worked with some amazing vendors. Jesse taught a summer intensive class for the Rocky Mountain School of Photography and mentored several of the students. I was selected to do the portfolio reviews at The Rocky Mountain School of Photography as well. We ended the year with our Holiday mini sessions and were pleasantly surprised with 50 degree weather the 2 days after Thanksgiving! We met wonderful people and made friends in the process. We are so thankful to all of you who trusted us to capture the special time in your life. We are excited for all that 2017 has for us and look forward to working with you!

Thank you for a great year!!

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.