Thank you for your wisdom and patience Mr. Kendall!

Two “wild and crazy guys” (and great mentors of mine) Jay Drowns (left) and Pete Kendall. 

Today, with all the free online how-to’s, “webinars”, and DVD tutorials there are lots of ways to educate yourself on the various technical aspects of the craft. But recently, I’ve found mentorship harder to come by.

I began photographing weddings in earnest during the summer of 2008. It was a new realm for me, but I found that my experience in news photography had prepared me well. At this time I had just moved to Switzerland and my professional network was not extensive. I found a few helpful photographers in the community, but the questions I wanted answers to were less of the artistic/technical type and more of the business/customer relation type.

Enter the workshop.

In Switzerland, the wedding photography industry is not quite as developed as in the USA, but it’s getting there. Until recently it was not common to find wedding photography workshops happening in the Zürich area at all (don’t bother asking about English). But this year I’ve been able to take advantage of two great workshops here in Zürich. One was hosted by Mike Larson, a high end California-based wedding shooter, and later this month I’ll spend two days at a wedding workshop hosted by Bob and Dawn Davis from Chicago. This husband and wife team form a prominent celebrity wedding photography business. They’ve shot the weddings of Salma Hayek and Eddie Murphy to name two. They also cover many of Oprah’s swishy private events.

I am REALLY excited to participate in this months workshop. If only I could pay them with root beer!

Brace yourself. Gratuitous technical jargon to follow…
BIG MAMA

To begin with, I’ve been carrying my kit in a LowePro Computrekker Plus AW backpack for about the last 3 years and I’m still loving this bag. Her name is “Big Mama.” This is a healthy-sized backpack with good padding throughout, movable gear dividers, and nice cushy shoulder straps. It has no internal frame, and no, it does not have airport wheels. While the bag does come in a wheeled version, the wheel system eats up valuable space and adds about 3.5 lbs. (1.8 kg) to the bag’s weight. You cannot put a full-sized DSLR (with grip) in the wheeled version as easily as you can this bag. Outside of the airport I would never roll it anyways. Often I’ve got other luggage with me which has wheels. When transporting, I prefer to keep my gear close by and keep from sending to many vibrations through the bag which would be unavoidable if it were bouncing along on the cobbled streets of Europe, or along a dirt and gravel road in the boonies (two places I often find myself). Speaking of airport, yes, it does meet the carry-on requirements of most airlines. Mine has been over the Atlantic at least five or six times.

A few other features make this a highly desirable “all-in-one” bag for me. It has a laptop compartment which will fit a 17 inch notebook and/or a clipboard with my shot list and model releases, a full-sized tripod (or even several light stands) can be attached to the outside via a handy attachment system, it comes with a pullout weather cover to protect against sudden downpours or excessive dustiness, and last but not least a super handy outer pocket will carry bulky items like a rain jacket, a fold up reflector disc, some lunch, or a favorite teddy bear.

PACKED CONTENTS (seen in photo above):

A: Nikon D700 body with MB-D10 battery grip.
B: Nikon D300 body.
C: Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR lens.
D: Nikon 24-70 f2.8 lens.
E: Nikon 12-24mm f4.0.
F & H: Nikon SB-900 strobes. I have three of these (one is hiding under the 70-200) They are the backbone of my lighting kit.
G & I: Hoods for the 24-70 and 70-200. Essential. I never shoot without them.
J & K: Ditty bags. These hold all of the smaller items that would get lost easily without a great way to store them.
L: I call this “the pit.” It’s a spot where I throw oddly shaped items (in this case some lighting grip and a hood).
M: Big zipper pockets for doo dads and nick nacks.

THE HARDWARE:

A: Nikon D700 with MB-D10 battery grip. My main camera. Full frame goodness. Love it!
B: Nikon D300 (backup body). Also comes in handy when shooting ala “Two Pistol Pete.”
C: Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR. This is my workhorse telephoto lens. Most professionals cannot live without one. I am no exception. I would say 75% or more of my work gets done with this lens.
D: Nikon 24-70mm f2.8. My go-to mid length and wide angle lens. Excellent piece of glass.
E: Nikon 12-24mm f4.0. I’m hanging onto this one until I upgrade to two full-frame bodies. It’s equates to a handy 18-36mm on the D300 and does the trick in tight situations. However, I’m using this lens less and less in favor of the 24-70mm. I would rather have a 14mm f2.8 or the new 24mm f1.4 instead.

OTHER BAG CONTENTS

A: My “Little Buddy.” A small Domke over-the-shoulder-accessory-holder. Love this thing. I bought it in college. No sign of fatigue. Sometimes I slip my belt in through the belt loop and rock it batman style, other times I use the cotton shoulder strap. Very handy for carrying a few essentials on my person without having to run back and forth to Big Mama.
B: Lens wipers. One is a leather chamois (for wiping rain off of gear/lenses), the other is micro fibre (for putting a spit-shine on my glass). Figure of speech. I don’t spit on my camera gear.
C: Makeshift rain cover for camera and telephoto lens. Must have if you are going to make pictures in the drizzle. I’ve ordered a more durable one from a company in Seattle. Hopefully it’s an improvement on mine.
D: Flexible black foam. I use a couple of these as gobos on my SB-900s. A hair bungee band keeps it in place on my strobe.
E: White balancing disc. Point it at your light source and achieve perfect custom white balance. Easy.
F: Polarizing filter. Doesn’t get used to often. Cuts back to much light. I pull it out when shooting on snow or when shooting over the water. I wish it was the Nikon version.
G: Nikon AA battery tray. I’ve been using this recently to get 8 frames per second out of my D700. Lithium batteries or rechargeable NiMH work pretty well in this regard. Also a good backup item in case of a battery crisis (ie. no place to plug in a charger).
H: Notebook, pen, pencil and cotton swab. First three are no-brainers. Cotton swab can help clean stubborn smudges off of sensitive camera parts.
I: Graduated neutral density filter. Useful for landscapes. I’ve probably used it twice since I bought it 12 years ago. I’m just not a big filter guy. Should probably take it out of my bag.
J: Sustenance. Very important. In my experience, when blood sugar drops, so does picture quality.
K: CF cards. I prefer 8 GB cards, but still use my 4 GB and old 2 GB cards when needed.

Also shown: Ear plugs (industrial shoots), Swiss Army Knife, and an extra camera body cap.

THE LITTLE DITTIES (spilled open…)

INSIDE “LIL DITTY #1” (mostly lighting related items)
A: Nikon flash diffuser and gel holders for SB-900
B: SB-900 flash feet. (to stand the strobe on a table, or connect to a light stand).
C: Colored gels used (to correct for the most commonly encountered light source mix-ups).
D: Sekonic Flashmate light and flash meter. I don’t really use this anymore. It was handy back in the film era. These days it comes in handier as a way to explain light to people who are learning lighting technique.
E: Nikon SC-17 hot shoe cord. Very handy when running and gunning with off camera flash in one hand and camera in the other.
F: Gary Fong “origami” light diffuser. Jury is still out on this $25 piece of plastic. It’s meant to soften direct on-camera strobe and simultaneously let some light bounce off the ceiling or wall.
G: Extra Nikon batteries. Thank god the same batts can be used in both of my cameras.

INSIDE “LIL DITTY #2” (camera related items)
A: Nikon battery charger and Euro cable. I have two of these. One lives in Big Mama, the other stays in my office. One has a USA plug and the other works in Western Europe.
B: Nikon electronic cable release. Don’t use it super often, but there is no substituting it when you need one.
C: Tripod attachment for 70-200 f2.8. Sometimes I remove it for comfort sake. I stow it here.
D: More batteries for my camera bodies.
E: Blower bulb. Don’t ever touch your camera’s sensor with anything. Blow a little air at it to remove dust, or take it to a professional. You can really screw things up if you don’t know what you’re doing.
F: Extra caps for camera bodies and lens in case one gets lost.

CAMERA SUPPORT

I avoid tripod situations as much as possible (they’re heavy, noisy, slow, and a pain to carry) but sometimes it’s just unavoidable. I have two aluminum Manfrotto tripods and a little plastic table top tripod that I use with my compact camera.

LIGHTING:

A: Three Nikon SB-900s. There are many cheaper alternatives out there but if you want to take advantage of Nikon’s internally slaved remote triggering features (which I do a lot) then these are the ticket. They’re also a bit more powerful than some cheaper off brand units. It’s possible to set up a basic lighting scenario in less than a minute if you don’t have to bother with stands, remote triggers, etc.
B: Multi Disc 5-in-1. This is a handy and packable pop-out reflector that’s sorta’ like those reversible jackets we all wore back in the 80’s. Ahem… at least some of us did, right? Anyway, one side is a solid silver reflector, one side is a solid gold reflector. A little zipper trick reveals three more sides: a zebra combination (gold+silver), a white reflector, and the core itself can act as a scrim to diffuse inbound sunlight. A marvelously versatile piece of gear. Why don’t I use it more often? Oh yeah, I need an assistant to hold it for me.
C: Manfrotto stackable 7’ (2 meter) light stands. They sandwich together to make carrying easier, and are air dampened to keep your lights from suddenly dropping if you or your assistant air-headedly lowers the extension segments to quickly.
D: Photoflex weight bags. Fill them with water at your location if you don’t want to lug/ship sand-filled bags. They fold up to easily fit in the outer pocket of Big Mama.
E: Photek Softlighter II. This super versatile piece of gear came recommended by a colleague who also values versatility and lightweight portability. It functions as a reflective umbrella, a shoot through umbrella, and a mid-sized octagonal light box. Very versatile and affordable (around $65 I think).
F: Photoflex convertable umbrella. Use it as a mid-sized reflective or shoot through umbrella.
G: Reflective discs that can be inserted into the Photek Softlighter to increase spectrocity (silver) and warm up the light (gold).
H: Carrying sack for Photek Softlighter and Photoflex umbrella.
I: Two normal umbrella brackets for connecting the strobe and umbrella to the light stand, and one Lastolite three-strobe bracket. The Lastolite is cool because it lets you juice things up with as much as three times the light (three strobes can be mounted side-by-side). This is handy when using the Phototek Softlighter as a main light source.

NOT PICTURED:

1. Panasonic LX3 pocket camera. Super little camera for unobtrusive shots and fun HD video.
2. A proper radio trigger kit. I’m waiting for Pocket Wizard to come out with something for Nikon. If it doesn’t happen soon enough then I’ll be going with Radio Poppers. I formerly used the Elinchrom triggers, but they are limited to a normal sync speed and can’t take advantage of high speed sync.
3. Sanyo rechargeable AA batteries. I use them in my strobes and sometimes in my camera bodies.
4. Various other boring little tidbit pieces of grip, etc.
5. Computers. Oh boy. We’ll save that one for another post…

I’ll be going to more of these gatherings in the future and look forward to seeing these folks again. Special thanks to Mark Howells-Mead, Katharina Steger, Simon, Rahel, and John.

Sunday morning I vicariously relived a few of my younger years while hanging out with a great group of lads on the Rhine. They are the junior crew contingent of the See Club Zürich Rowing Club, and my friend Daniel Protz is their coach. Dan is interested in fostering more interest in their rowing program, and asked for my help producing some new images and video to be used online. I’m convinced that sports like crew help guide young people through a tumultuous period of their adolescence, and I’m pleased to help with the club’s recruitment effort.

Crew photos always looked better to me in black and white. The first crew photos that left an impression on me were hanging in the University of Washington boathouse. All were in black and white and were taken by Josef Scalea, a Seattle Times legend who also happened to be a friend of my grandfather’s.

Before moving to Switzerland I wasn’t much of a cyclist, but it quickly drew me in as both a new sport and a sensible way to get around town. So last winter my wife and I splashed out for new bikes. Soon thereafter we were planning a trip to SE Asia and decided to make a bike tour out of it. (see earlier entries in this blog for more on that).

Some good friends of ours put us in touch with the Bike Doc, a terrific local bike shop run by a super enthusiastic and knowedgable team. The atmosphere is very friendly, and the service is “tip-top” (as they say in these parts). The good doctor asked me to come by and make some new portraits of the crew for their website. Always fun to hang out with these guys.

___

Bevor ich in die Schweiz gezügelt bin, war ich kein grosser Fahrrad-Fan. Ich habe aber schnell gemerkt, dass es ein toller Sport und ein sinnvoller Weg ist, in der Stadt herumzukommen. Deshalb haben meine Frau und ich letzten Winter in zwei neue Fahrräder investiert. Kurz darauf haben wir uns entschlossen eine Bike Tour in Südostasien zu wagen. (Siehe frühere Eintrage in diesem Blog).

Gute Freunde von uns haben uns mit dem Bike Doc bekannt gemacht, ein cooler lokaler Bike Shop geführt von einem sehr motiviertem und kompenten Team. Die Atmosphäre ist sehr freundlich und der Service “tip-top.” Der “Ober-Doktor” fragte mich ob ich neue Portraits von Team machen könne, für seine Webseite. Es macht immer Spass mit diesen Leuten zu plaudern.

(für deutsche Version siehe unten)

I had a great time last Friday with Katie and Brian from Zürich who showed me their creative side while we tromped around the Lindenhof in Zürich. I’m looking forward to doing more Engagement shoots for a couple of reasons. It’s a great way for my clients and I to get familiar with each other before their big day, it familiarizes me with more shooting locations, and of course it just stimulates creativity-plain and simple!

Ich hatte viel Spass letzen Freitag mit Katie und Brian von Zürich. Dieses Paar hat mich mit ihrer Kreativität sehr beeindruckt während wir im Lindenhof umhergestampft sind. Ich freue mich auf weitere Verlobungsfotos mit meinen Kunden aus verschiedenen Gründen. Es ist eine gute Art um sich einander besser kennenzulernen vor dem grossen Tag, es macht mich vertraut mit veschiendenen Orten, und natürlich kann ich meine kreativität ausleben.

Last weekend I had a two part wedding that starting in Zürich on Friday and then continued in the Engadin region, not far from St. Moritz on Saturday. I left Winterthur early in the morning so I could get a few shots at the hair salon where the bride and her girls were getting themselves all done up. Engadin is gorgeous! It’s a bit like Aspen or Telluride back in the US, except for the fact that an obscure language called Romanch is the lingua franca of the area, and all the buildings look like they were crafted by master masons about a century ago. It’s a very classy place to get married to say the least. Congratulations to Brigitte and Christian who obviously make for a very dapper couple!

Letztes Wochenende hatte ich eine zweiteilige Hochzeit die in Zürich began und im Engadin endete. Ich bin sehr früh von Winterthur losgefahren um rechtzeitig bei der Brautfrisur dabei zu sein. Engadin war wunderschön! Es erinnert mich an Aspen oder Telluride in den USA, ausser dass hier Romanisch gesprochen wird und die Gebäude kommt aus die neunzehte Zenturie. Es ist ein sehr klassischer Ort um zu heiraten. Gratulation an Brigitte und Christian die ein sehr hübsches Paar sind. 

Had a great time last weekend with Stephan & Cécile of Brüttisellen. We went up to nearby Goldenberg for an engagement shoot. It was lots of fun and the trees were still hanging onto enough colorful leaves to make for some great backgrounds. I’m really looking forward to working with this couple at their wedding in June.