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03/26/2006 11:57:15 PM · #1 |
Today TIPP started - info here and this is my first photography school.
Vendors: norman, canon , fuji, hh color lab, albums inc. Today was just registration and simple stuff so not all the vendors are there. The canon folks are loaning equipment for 24 hours...so what do i want...a 1Ds? 5D? 580EX? 24-105L? 70-2002.8 IS? Hmmm...YES! We'll see what i can get my hot little hands on!
I'm taking the HS Seniors class taught by Ralph Romaguera of //www.romaguera.com/ - 4 studios in the New Orleans area. Fun guy! Want big work?? he leaves friday at noon to fly back to shoot a homecoming dance - 1,000 couples. Yes, one thousand. they run 5 'photo station' all shooting tethered. $15-20 per couple. So how does $17,000 in sale in one day strike you? No, don't ask the cost of the equipment you'd need for this LOL
175 students, 9 teachers for the weeklong classes. LOTS of learning and networking and touching the cool equipment.
Tidbits:
Get the 12x20 backdrop - you can drape it OVER the posing blocks, you can hand it sideways around the corner of hte room - great for kids pics as you know the BG will be behind their little active selves
props - if you can't do 6 things with a prop in your studio, don't buy it.
posing table - get one. and 2 stools.
reflector and stand - get one. maybe 2, but definitely one. cheaper than another light, and more useful.
I might be able to get a full CS2 for $150...will know tuesday.
I am not an idiot. I have good unique ideas. My business model might work, but I have to work a lot of hours to make my money (well, full time anyway).
Aurora makes the softboxes that get rebadged as other brands.
Norman's folding softboxes are really really cool
White Lightening in the #1 brand of flash, in dollars sold.
Fuji has several neat printers - i don't have the info in my hands right now, but for events their little theraml dye sub printer is probably the ticket. But then, I know why NOT to print at events.
There are quite a few photographers that are not digital, or just going digital...amazing.
the 5D is quite a nice camera i keep hearing!
More tomorrow. Class begins at 8am...lunch and dinner are included every day, and things go on forever..the hospitality room doesn't even open till 9pm!
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03/28/2006 01:15:29 AM · #2 |
Day 2
Tired...not enough sleep. It's 1 am now..been up since 6:30, gotta get up at 6:30...classes ran from 8 am to 10:45 pm...and i had to try the toy they (canon) loaned me - a 5D, a 24-105 4 IS L and a 580EX. Yep, $4500 on my word - no ID checking, no references, no deposit...
Canon rebates start April 1 - $300 on the 5D, and the $20 whatever on the lenses and such. Does this mean a 5D upgrade at Photokina??????
I love the 5D
I have not even looked at one image from it yet, but man I love the way it handles and such. Nice.
Got my backdrop - painted muslin, 10x20, $139. made about 60 miles from here...cole is the company. Nice stuff, nice price.
Got me a pro lab i think - best prices, free shipping, free software, they'll be a lumapix partner lab soon (I use fotofusion to do my albums and soon my senior collages).
tomorrow we work with models! Today was lots of htings in the main class, i skipped the mini class to go shopping (which wil make me tons of money!!!) and the evening was marketing and selling by Michael Redford. Do you get $125 for an 8x10? He does. He did 1.1 million in sales last year, 7 employees total, one studio. Hmmm...I know more about how to do this now that i did yesterday!!
Well, I'm done dumping the images off the 5D CF card, so I'm off to bed assuming i'm not too tired to sleep.
2 1/2 more days....if you can attend this next year - DO IT! $675 for 4 LONG days, plus sunday and 1/2 day on friday - you also get 4 lunches and dinners, or is that 5? too tired to count, and a hospitality room.
Do the math on the Holiday Inn food and the tuition is $525 or less maybe. 14 hours of instruction a day...what, $8 an hour? Bargain city man. And then I saved $30+ on a muslin and met a local wedding photog so we can assist/second shoot eachother for more experience, i found a source for an Art Leather iMount album - 10 pages, 30 sides - complete with my images, assembled and deliverd to me for $85. I can find the empty version on line for $78 plus shipping....so i have saved even more.
I got a source for $1 8x10s. Yes, $1. That is 1/2 what i'm paying now. I will save my tuition easily - plus this lab sill give me 50% off sample albuims and 25% off sample prints to fill my empty studio walls! - and then who knows how much more money i can make implementing what I've learned....pics later in teh week (friday??).
Wanna turn a $10 poster into $500 - guaranteed? I know what to do, and even the tightwad that I am, i'd spend $500 on it if it were my kid's pics. It will turn any senior i do from a 300-400 sale into a $800 sale.
I got a source for frames - and the software to show clients and price it and order it....a profit center i'd not even thought about trying for another year.
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03/28/2006 04:47:42 AM · #3 |
| Very cool. Hope you can stay awake through the whole thing. |
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03/28/2006 05:11:55 AM · #4 |
hey ... this is a blog :-)
keep up
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03/28/2006 11:46:44 PM · #5 |
Day 3
Got to shoot live models.
Got to play with my new lightmeter - it works, but I need to read the instructions. Having 21 other students you can always find somebody taht knows more than you about something, so I (alright, we) got it working, including the Pocket Wizard model. It will fire norman lights.
specifically these - nice lights!!!!
got to shoot over the teachers shoulder - he used the strobes, so i (and the other students) shot under the modeling lights...ISO 1600, a bit of neatimage, color corection and here ya go...
 
this is also part of what we are learning...
and the teach at work (Ralph Romaguerra letting hte model chimp)
The mini course today was by Michael Ayers. //www.theayers.com/. I thnk he has an ugly website, but he has some great ideas! It was a PS class. And it too ran into overtime! He makes POP UP wedding albums - you gotta see one to believe it.
And this was yesterdays toy I borrowed...
The 5D, 24-105L, 580EX.
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03/29/2006 01:04:17 AM · #6 |
| great blog .... keep it going! |
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03/29/2006 01:05:47 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
And this was yesterdays toy I borrowed...
The 5D, 24-105L, 580EX.
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Hey that is my setup...lol!!
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03/30/2006 12:28:57 AM · #8 |
Today... I got to play with the KING of cameras- a 1Ds Mk2, the 16Mp biggie. And a 30D.
The 30D rocks!
The 1Ds...man, it's confusing to get it working..SOOO different than canon's lesser cameras. SOOOO many options, choices, and more.
Went on location to shoot.
got to spend 45 minutes with Romaguerra's TOP PS person, lisa, one-on-one!!
Last night the mini course was on PS - man, this is getting good. Faster, stronger, better - bionic photography?? Maybe...
Learned how to duplicate the lighting of $700 worth of softboxes with $50 worth of umbrellas. Not quite as good, but good enough to earn me the $700.
Got my backrop stands for $40 less than teh cheapest i could find.
Got loaner albums lined up for for my next bridal consult april 7.
Tommorrow I'm gonna try and have lunch with Mike Colon.
Oh yeah, free beer. Open bar, munchies...
back to show pics.
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03/30/2006 01:02:19 AM · #9 |
4 models, a couple of hundred pics...here are 4
 
 
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03/30/2006 01:10:16 AM · #10 |
| Thanks, keep the tips coming. I'm enjoying reading all this! |
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