Category Archives: Photography Gear & Reviews

This image of Natalie and LJ's engagement session was recovered with help from our Lexar software

Lexar Professional CF Cards

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All of our CF cards (those are the cards that our photos are stored in until we upload them from our cameras), are Lexar Professional CompactFlash Cards.

We used to use a sort of random assortment of cards that we had acquired along the way, until one day back up in New Hampshire when Lexar really came through for us. We lost an image that we had taken on a Lexar card, and we thought we were totally out of luck. Now, I know this sounds like a strike against Lexar, but that’s only because you don’t have all the details yet.
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Our family kayak trip down the Weeki Wachee River in Florida

Testing a Dry Bag in a Wet Boat

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Earlier this month we spent some recreational time with our family. Dannie and I headed to Weeki Wachee with my father and her mother, and we all Kayaked together down the river. The Weeki Wachee River is fed by the Weeki Wachee Spring, which pumps out over 117,000,000 gallons of fresh water a day, at a constant temperature of 74F. Paddling down the crystal clear river we could always see the bottom, which was a relief for Dannie and her mother, Karen, who are not experienced Kayakers (In this group, I was the second most experienced, having kayaked 4 or 5 times before). I thought I would take a risk this time by bringing my camera with me. Read More

X marks the spot: Converging lines help this woman stand out in the park

5 Tips to Make the Subject Stand Out in a Photo

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Have you ever seen a picture of yourself where everything seems to be fine - you look good, the scenery is beautiful, and it’s not out of focus or underexposed - but for some reason you don’t feel like the the photo is of anything. In other words, you can’t tell if it’s a picture of a person in a park or a park with a person in it. In this post I want to go over some techniques that can be used to draw the viewers eye to the subject of a photo, and make it clear what the photographer was trying to capture. Here are five ways to make the subject of a photograph stand out from the rest of the scenery: Read More

Jake takes a copyrighted photo on the beach

Photography, Ownership, Copyright and Releases

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We wanted to discuss copyright, ownership of images, print releases and model releases these are some of the most widely misunderstood subjects among photography customers. Keep in mind that we are not lawyers, and nothing we say should be taken as legal advice. Most of what you see here is paraphrased from the PPA website, a resource for professional photographers. After reading this post we hope that you will walk away with a better understanding of who owns photos and what you and your photographer are each allowed to do with them. Knowing the terminology related to these issues will help you to build trust between you and your photographer. Read More

The Nikkor 85mm lens

Gear: Nikkor 85mm f/1.4

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We bought this lens to celebrate our transition into the world of professional photography. Our focus had always been on travel and nature photography and our gear reflected that leaning. The Nikkor 85mm is used regularly by fashion photographers who shoot for magazines like Vogue, and its reviews were untouchable. We wanted a lens that was ideal for portraits, and we were not disappointed. Read More

The Nikon D800

Gear: Nikon D800

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The Nikon D800 was the first professional grade camera we purchased, though we didn’t buy it with Jake and Dannie Studio in mind. At the time we had been married for half a year and we were getting ready for a trip to China. We had it in our heads to publish an E-book about our trip and we used that as the excuse we’d been looking for to upgrade our gear. It arrived while we were packing for the trip, and I read the instruction manual on the plane (I already had a pretty good idea how it works, but it’s always a good idea to read the manual). Read More

The first aid kit we bring with us on photoshoots

First Aid Kit: Our Newest Photography Accessory

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Ever since I cut my leg on during a couples photography session we have made an effort to be a little more safety conscious. Obviously preventing me from falling down and hurting myself will be a long and difficult journey well beyond the scope of a single blog post, so we’re going to focus more energy on patching me up afterward.

Introducing our new first aid kit! Read More