If you are reading this because you saw this might apply to the Fuji X system, then you need to invest in Bill Fortney’s A User’s Guide to the Fuji X-System ebook. If you are thinking about the Fuji system, this is the best $9.95 you will spend. It will help you navigate all their cameras and lenses. The best part is Bill speaks as a pro, and his words of wisdom may help you from purchasing something that you might regret, and then he gives you tips on things you might need.
Most people who write this kind of book have drunk the Kool-Aid of the company and oversold the brand. Bill Fortney loved Nikon, and I never felt like he was overselling Nikon.
If you have ever been to photo shows, you may have met Bill. I often remember standing at a trade show across the table, talking to Bill about the latest cameras and lenses.
The book A User’s Guide to the Fuji X-System is the same voice I have listened to for many years.
“Nope, not yet!” is one of the quotes about the system. Honest that the camera doesn’t do all that his Nikon System does.
Fortney even says, “What kinds of photography is the X-System not my first choice for Heavy duty sports shooting Birds in flight – extreme wildlife action. I didn’t say you can’t do this; I think there are better systems for it!”
He is honest, and his advice will save you lots of time and money in figuring out how to get the most out of the Fuji System.
He goes on and tells you all the great reasons Fuji is worth the investment and how it saves his back for one.
With Bill’s permission, here is one of the pages to give you a sneak peek into the ebook.
There are a lot of examples of everything he talks about in his illustrations.
Bill’s Nikon Gear
By the way, Bill still owns his Nikons. He just wrote a blog to ensure you understand how the Fuji system is a tool and not the only one he uses. Here is that blog link [http://billfortney.com/?p=12572]
Nikon D4, 14-24mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 200, ƒ/16, 1/200 with 2 Alienbees with CTO 1 for off camera flash. I am triggering these with the Pocketwizard Radio Remotes.
I went back, looked through my assignments from just this year in still images, and pulled some of my favorites. It had me jumping for joy.
I feel blessed this year.
Take a look at some that I pulled from the year in this package:
While I did everything from Sports, Portraits, Studio, Travel, Events, Theater, and others that I cannot remember, I did video this year.
[NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/125, ƒ/4, (35mm = 105)]
I had coffee yesterday with my good friend Robin Nelson [http://assignmentatlanta.com/]. Robin is one of the few freelancers that I know that most of the time is in good spirits.
When staff photographers lose their jobs many of them will call Robin and some have even called me looking for advice. He is always working for someone and has done so for more than 30+ years. Staff photographers basically want to do what Robin is doing–shooting assignments.
Successful photographers like Robin do something for other photographers–they bless them with the jobs they get called to do and cannot.
Robin gets calls and emails asking him if he is available and instead of just accepting and turning down assignments Robin solves the clients problem. If he is busy he finds someone for the client. Editors come to see Robin as not just a great photographer whose style they like, Robin knows other photographers who can meet their needs if he is busy.
I know of a few other photographers like Robin. Michael Schwarz, Billy Howard, and Gary Chapman are three other photographers I like referring work to when I cannot do it.
We all have these conversations with those who just lost a job or even newbies to the industry.
After our coffee time I decided it would be great to share what Robin and I would like to tell Staff Photographers who just lost a job.
Tips:
1) Losing the staff job is like going through a divorce. Being on a staff is like being married and being a freelancer can feel a lot like being single again. We recommend using those same techniques you used to court someone. Just like seeing and meeting a drop dead gorgeous person that you are sure God had destined for you, that person may not be aware God told you that.
2) The movie “Runaway Bride” is a predictable, but fun romantic plot about the importance of knowing and loving oneself before beginning the journey of marriage. You really need to know all that you have to offer to a client and not just your portfolio. Maybe you are a history buff and this can be a great asset to some clients.
3) Accept Rejection – Derek Jeter during interview about his career said he was really blessed to have a job that allowed him to fail 70% of the time and consider him successful. Successful business fails more like 85 – 90% of the time. Good rule of thumb is that for every 10 people you contact only 1 of those will be interested.
Jane Yandel Senior Photos [Nikon D4, Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/1.8, 1/400]
4) Court your clients – Don’t ever take your clients you have for granted. Keep the fire in the relationship.
5) Ideas are more important than your portfolio. All your clients and potential clients have a job to do. They have a problem to solve. You pitching ideas that solve their problems and not your perception of what their problems are is what will keep you busy. While great stories should be told, the channel for telling that story is not every channel. Just because you find a story in the clients audience it still must address the problems that they are tackling at the moment.
Honduras Outreach
[NIKON D4, 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 3200, 1/250, ƒ/6.3, (35mm = 65)]
6) Learn how to be a REAL friend. Number one key element to a good friend is someone who “listens.” You know they listen because all the words out of their mouth after you have talked communicate understanding and compassion for where you are in life. Calling and pretending to be interested in wanting to know me and because I don’t have a job for you right away you never call again is a great indication you are shallow and only interested in yourself. The client needs to be someone they can trust with their problem.
7) Don’t call only to ask about work. Contact your clients when you hear of something they may be interested in. Send them a card on their birthday.
8) Don’t become a problem. When the client calls and offers a job say yes you can do the job or no. Don’t start telling them all the things you need to move around. Do your very best to solve the clients problem without them knowing you had to get a babysitter or move some personal plans around. Saying I need just a minute to check my calendar and can I call you back in 5 minutes is OK. Then call in five minutes. Take that 5 minutes to solve your problems to accept the assignment, or find someone who can and then call them. I am sorry I am booked but my friend Michael Schwarz is available will be better than babbling on about your problems on the phone or even in emails to them.
9) You are starting over. If you have been shooting 6 – 8 assignments a day or even just one a day those days are over unless you get a staff job. Extremely successful photographers are maybe shooting 100 assignments a year. That is averages to about 2 a week. Starting out you may only have a few assignments that first month. You also will have times of feast and famine. You may work really hard for a couple weeks and then go a month or more with little or no work in those first few years of freelancing.
10) Find a mentor who is a successful photographer. Be sure you treat them like a friend and don’t just use them. Offer to take them to lunch and you plan on paying for their meal. Don’t try and get everything for free from your mentor. Remember they are giving you valuable information that will not just save your money but help you make more money.
Here are more posts that talk about business tips as well:
A fun thing to shoot this time of year are ornaments on a Christmas tree. Our ornaments all have a story with each one and how it helps us spend the season of remembering.
Here is the basic setup I did for the photos in the slideshow here. Take a look at each photo and the settings. [Click on the arrows on the side of photos to move forward and backward. You need to put your cursor on photo to see them.]
As you can see getting as close as I could with the lens gave me this view.
D750 shooting ornaments [Nikon D750, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/200]
Comparing to the Nikkor 28-300mm I quickly saw that the zooming in the lens to 300mm and getting as close as I could gave me a much tighter shot.
Be sure you click through the slideshow and notice the depth-of-field changes in the first four images move you through ƒ/5.6, ƒ/8, ƒ/11 & ƒ/16. Basically I noticed that while the bokeh looks great at ƒ/5.6 the ornament was actually out of focus on the back part. I was very careful to focus on the soldiers in front. With the Snoopy ornament you will see the depth-of-field is so shallow you might think I shot is out of focus.
The tip is simple shoot a little higher aperture to be sure the ornaments are in focus. Shoot with a tripod and unlike what I did, go ahead and shoot with a lower ISO.
The last photo is shot with fill flash. I put the Nikon D750 pop-up flash in CMD mode. I made it not flash and then on Group A I used my Nikon SB900 set at -1EV.
D750 shooting ornaments [Nikon D750, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/60–off camera flash with SB900 triggered by CMD flash mode of the D750 -1EV]
Tips Summary:
Use Tripod
Use your lens that will get you closest to the ornament and fill the frame
Shoot test of different apertures
Use aperture that works best so ornament looks in focus
Use off camera flash as an option. Shoot with and without and use the one you prefer.
Decision Magazine hired me to follow UGA head coach Mark Richt and his wife, Katharyn Richt.
If it worked out, I was to try and get photos of them together. That never happened, but I stuck with the coach and his wife the day.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM, Sigma 2x EX DG APO Autofocus Teleconverter, ISO 1250, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000
I arrived early and met Katharyn before sitting in the stands.
Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 900, ƒ/5, 1/2000
While this will win no awards, it starts with the safe shots to be sure I had some excellent expressions.
Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 400, ƒ/16, 1/500–Nikon SB900 fill flash -1EV
I liked this photo much better even though I could not see her face. She is doing what she does every game to help support the team and Mark.
The magazine picked that photo and one more of Mark interacting with one of the players.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM, Sigma 2x EX DG APO Autofocus Teleconverter, ISO 1600, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000
Now at this point in the season, the top running back in the country is UGA #3, Todd Gurley. I tried to get a photo of him with the coach. The best I did that day was this shot, but the ƒ/5.6 was too shallow to show Mark clearly in the photo in the background.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM, Sigma 2x EX DG APO Autofocus Teleconverter, ISO 450, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000
Mark Richt is on the far right with a headset. Well, I just missed it. A few days later, the suspension by the NCAA came out, so he was definitely out of the magazine piece. It would have pulled the attention away from the storyline.
I wish I had taken a before photo so that you could see the lack of light on the statue in the background. The sculpture helps inform you that this is a Catholic school, not just a prep school.
Another problem is when the student reads, the sun is above, and her face is in the shade. Her head looking down is similar to wearing a ball cap; it creates a shadow on her face.
I added two strobes using a grid on each of them. One light is to light the student, and the other is to illuminate the sculpture.
Here is the setup for this photo:
I underexposed the scene about -2/3 of a stop. Then I just was sure that the flash on the student’s face was around ƒ/8, and on the statue, it was more like ƒ/10 to help lighten it up just a bit more and support this not being in the shadows but help add value to the photograph.
This year we decided to have fun with our annual Christmas card photo.
I am taking a photo of the rest of the family. My daughter is dressed in her Hogwarts Gryffindor robe and casting a spell on her brother Taylor. Dorie is dressed in her clerical robe. She is a chaplain at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Decatur, GA this year. Taylor is holding up a note saying, “I should have been adopted.”
The reason I used this setup is that where we are standing there are a lot of shadows from the trees and not only do they create spotty patches of light they also create a color shift.
I underexposed the scene using the Aperture priority mode and Exposure Bias: -4/6 EV. I then just adjusted the strobes to fill-in so we were well lighted.
Stanley, Chelle, Taylor and Dorie
Here is a closeup of the family. Dorie and Chelle are the co-creators of this years Christmas card. I just captured it for us to use.
