Sharing The Roijoy

It was one of those homes where as soon as you walk in the door, you're immediately engulfed with all the love and positive energy that seems to have become part of the physical structure of the house. And while completing introductions with the family members, one family member was determined to make an impression on me. He's a beautiful black labrador and is introduced to me as "still thinks he's a puppy". The plan for the afternoon was, headshots for business use and then family portraits, both inside and outside. Then later on more family portraits with a larger group. I was equipped with strobes and a backdrop and soon had a mini onsite studio set up in their living room. Everyone was well prepared allowing for a smooth shooting transition from shooting headshots  on to indoor family portraits. I had elected to do this assignment without an assistant and got a great mental workout balancing the light outdoor with a handheld flash in one hand, cam...

I've been looking for a bag for a while that I can travel with to do editorial assignments which means being able to pack a reasonable amount of gear plus my laptop so that I can work on site and prepare and send pictures from anywhere I happen to be. I also am one of those people that enjoys the less is more approach to many aspects of my life. So what I wanted was a bag that could hold a large amount of gear, but packed into a reasonably compact and neat size. After doing a lot of research online, I felt that Kata may have the solution for me. I already own another model of their bags and am still really pleased with it. I happened to be out in Golden Gate Park one day and saw someone with the bag I had become more and more interested in and after speaking with him, he was kind enough to let me give the bag a once over. It was the Kata Bumblebee range, model DL-210. . I had an international trip coming up and decided to take the plunge on this model. ...

I had a shoot at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco today. The weather was gorgeous and the tourists were swarming all over the site like excited insects. The main difference was that instead of antennae, most of these "insects" were sporting cameras . Many of the folks were on bus tours and you could see from the way they were practically running from site to site, they were locked into a schedule. And a tight one at that! As I sat waiting for my clients to arrive, I couldn't help wonder just how much of the experience of just "being there" all these people were getting. There was so much focus and concentration going into posing friends, relatives, and trying to get good compositions, you could see that many of the people behind the lenses were fairly oblivious to what was around them. A large proportion of the poses I watched being set up were by the water. After releasing their shutters, many people immediately focussed onto the monitors on...