The Phoblographer

I’ve known professional photographer Brian Smith for a couple of years now, and the work he does has consistently blown my mind. More importantly, he’s also perhaps one of the nicest professionals I’ve ever met: in fact, he’s looking out for all of us. His book: Art and Soul, belongs on every portrait photographer’s coffee table. Brian managed to talk to various celebrities after shooting their portraits, and got testimonials from all of them on why the arts are so important.

He’s even let me play with his gear before. While we all know that a photographer’s creative vision first, I couldn’t help but ask Brian to talk with us about what’s in his camera bag. After some quick emails back and forth, I was able to get the well-respected Sony Artisan to not only tell us what’s in the bag, but also give us a bit of a backstory on some of the pieces.

Before we start though, be sure to follow his updates and if you’re at WPPI, be sure to pop on by his Secret of Great Portrait Photography class. They’ll be giving away lots of freebies there too.

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Online Wedding Photography Hub, SnapKnot, is giving a way a free registration to WPPI’s Las Vegas trade show. The show, on February 21-23, 2011, is a chance to explore the latest wedding and portrait photography products and techniques. The random drawing doesn’t include travel or accommodations, but will include a year’s membership to WPPI for those who don’t have one.

The trade show exhibitor list includes camera companies Nikon and Canon, a number of print, proof, and binding companies, marketing solutions like The Knot, and equipment vendors like B&H. Also on the list are a number of lighting, medium format, and digital processing companies.

To enter, photographers must register with SnapKnot and leave a witty posting on the contest page. Good luck!

As a wedding photographer, I was recently friended on Flickr by SnapKnot, a new website designed for photographers to better market themselves and for Brides to (very) easily search for the type of photographer that they want based upon a large number of criteria. Impressed with the site, I decided to interview Reid and Michael, the founders of SnapKnot.com. If you’re a wedding photographer or looking to get into it, hit the jump. For a quick demo, take a look at my own SnapKnot page.

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Shooting events and parties has always been a good source of income for photographers. Getting them right and making your photos stand out from the rest though is a whole different story. There are ways to make sure that your photos don’t look like they came out of a point and shoot or from an amateur. Some of this was covered on how to shoot a memorable New Year’s Eve. For a couple of basics, hit the jump.

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Besides reading blogs for tips and tricks, it’s sometimes also great to refer to handy guides. If you’re looking to get into wedding photography or if you’re already one but always looking for ways to improve then Digital Wedding Photography Secrets by Rick Sammon is a great book to pick up. The book is truly as versatile as wedding photographers need to be and will serve as both as learning guide and refresher to photographers. It’s a great time to talk about it with WPPI happening soon. My review is after the jump.

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I seriously can only tell you right now, just watch it. I’m too busy laughing too hard right now. See my weddings postings and WPPI stuff. Taking pictures with an iPhone! LOL!

The court rules that the 5D Mk II and other equipment is better.