Mpix

Posted by DrewB on January 31, 2012 · 7 Comments

If you’re already on Mpix’s mailing list, you may have recognized some super cute kids on their recent Valentine’s Day email. Oh, and you might have spotted me too

You’ll be seeing even more of us in the coming months on Mpix. I’m SUPER excited to be working with them and introducing you to their fabulous products. I’ll also be doing some guest posting on their blog. And maybe there will be some giveaways here and there too!

Let me tell you, people. I’m picky when it comes to my prints. I always get asked where I print my prints and Mpix is the only place I will recommend. See, they have a professional lab as well. So you know you are getting the same quality as a professional photographer (if you’re a pro photographer check out Mpix Pro!). I also love how cute their templates are. Super modern, fun, and not cheesy at all! You simply drag and drop your photos into their templates. No Photoshop needed!

Not only is Mpix an amazing lab, but their customer service is top notch. I think it’s because they are from Kansas. And all people from Kansas are nice, right?

Be sure to check out Mpix if you haven’t already!

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Outsourcing

Posted by DrewB on January 24, 2012 · 4 Comments

I’m the type of person who likes to do everything myself. I’m a control freak. I want it my way or the highway. Especially with my business. But, there comes to be a point where you realize you can’t do it all. You’re not super mom (or at least I’m not). And you might just need some help.

With my photography business I like to outsource the things that I don’t like / don’t have time to do. And one of those things is RAW processing. It’s tedious and time consuming and I’m just not all that great at it to be totally honest. In the past I have just shot RAW for my weddings. I’ve used two of the big RAW processing companies and they’ve been okay. My biggest complaint is that it’s just not consistent. There are different people processing my images each time and it can be a bit frustrating. Especially for a control freak like me.

If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter you probably heard me talking about editing a lot this past Fall. Okay, fine. I was complaining. A lot. I was drowning in my editing all while still nursing a newborn and taking care of my crazy 3 year old. A very nice Mom*tog reader, Marissa Lynn, emailed me telling me that she wanted to help me. To offer her services so I could start spending more time with my family. See, Marissa is a Navy wife. She’s the mom to a little girl and loves photography, but because they move so often she’s not able to really establish her business. In the mean time she has started editing for other photographers just because she loves to do it. I decided to give her a try and I was so impressed. She’s FAST, super great and accommodating, and her prices are so reasonable. And she’s a mom. So she gets that you would rather be spending time with your kids rather than sitting in front of the computer. I’m so glad she reached out to me because her help has really freed up more time for me to spend with my family! Really.

Marissa is looking to take on a few more clients and if you are drowning in editing like I was, I would really suggest contacting her. Because she’s awesome. And you’ll be happy to have more time to do what you love.

Check out Marissa Lynn’s website to learn more about her services!

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Lightroom 4 Beta Release!

Posted by DrewB on January 9, 2012 · 2 Comments

Before Christmas I was invited to see a demo of the new Lighroom 4. I’ve been dying to unveil the new changes to you, but had to keep my mouth shut until today. There are some VERY excited changes that have been made, which I’m so excited to share with you!

Here are the highlights:

1) One thing I use Photoshop for that I haven’t been able to do in Lightroom previously is album design. If you like using Blurb to make albums, you’ll love that Lightroom has partnered with Blurb to make creating photo books that much easier. In just one click you can publish your book to Blurb.

Included in the book module are professionally designed templates. You can also add text. It would be awesome if in the near future templates for specific photo labs and album companies were added as well! But, the new book module will do for now!

2) Another feature I am super excited about is the ability to play and edit videos from DSLRs, point and shoots and even smart phones. Since I’ve been using my 5D Mark II more, I have been trying out video. The problem I’ve been having is that my pictures always look way better than my video. In Lightroom 4 you can make basic color corrections to the video including white balance, exposure, contrast among other things. Hello? How cool is that? You can also trim your videos as well. This is a feature I will be using a lot! And you can directly publish the videos to Facebook and Flickr as well!

3) Local editing adjustments have been added including the ability to do a local noise reduction and white balance, which is AWESOME! There have been changes made which should also simplify the develop module.

4) With a new map module you can now “geotag” your images and organize them by location. This makes searching your images that much easier!

5) Emailing images has been simplified. With Lightroom 4 you are able to email images directly in Lightroom using any email account that you’d like! It’s super easy.

There are many more improvements, but don’t take my word for it. You can download the beta version of Lightroom 4 here… for FREE! Go try it out for yourself and let me know what you think! Have fun!

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Canon Macro 100mm 2.8 L Review

Posted by DrewB on January 3, 2012 · 3 Comments

In early December I bought myself an early Christmas / end of the year tax write off present. I had been coveting the Canon 100mm 2.8 L Series lens for a while and I finally took the plunge and bought it. Macro lenses are great for getting super, duper close up on your subject. You’ll see macro lenses used a lot in nature photography. It’s a prime lens, which means you can’t zoom in or out.

I’ve had the Canon 100mm 2.8 macro (the non L Series version) for a few years. The only time I ever used it was for ring shots at weddings and it did it’s job.

The big problem with that lens is you basically need to manually focus it, which is fine when you’re shooting objects that don’t move. It was a lot harder to use on things that moved, like my squirmy kids and the newborns that I’ve been shooting a lot more of in the past year.

The 100mm 2.8L is a totally unnecessary lens for most Mom*togs and even a lot of photographers. It’s pricey. But, I LOVE it. It’s really fun, super sharp, and the focus is great. My only complaint is that I wish it stopped down to 2.0.

I would highly recommend renting this lens if you have a new baby or even to capture the little details of older kids. You’ll have a lot of fun with it. The only problem is that you might not want to give it back!

PS If you were interested in buying the 100 2.8L, there is a $110 instant rebate that ends January 7th!

Canon 5D Mark II, 100mm 2.8 L

F 2.8, 1/160, ISO 800