This is something that we’ve thought about doing for a while now and have finally gotten around to actually doing it.   We really love answering people’s questions about us, whether it’s business related, photography related, or just something about our personal lives.  So we’ve set up the perfect place to do just that . . . our new formspring.me page!  We got the party started by posting the link on our Facebook pages today and we’ve been having so much fun responding to all the great questions!  Keep them coming everybody!  If  we haven’t answered yours yet, it’s because we got a TON of questions already. We’ll get to answering them as quickly as we can so make sure you check back to see our responses.  Click the button below to visit the page!

And since every post is more fun with a photo, here’s a quick shot of Molly that we grabbed today.  She just got a haircut yesterday and was just begging to show off her little pink scarf :-)

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Yesterday our friend Melissa Jill wrote a blog post about using back button focus to achieve the sharpest possible images. Because she shoots with Canon equipment, she posted a link to a thread on Open Source Photo that talked about back button focus for Nikon equipment. What’s kinda of funny about that thread is that it all started because we couldn’t figure out how to make this work on our Nikon cameras back in 2007! Wow, things have changed a lot since then! Denise and I have been using back button focus for years now and it has made a huge difference in the way we work.

By separating the act of focusing with taking the actual photo (shutter release), it allows you to choose your focus point, lock it in, and have the ability to recompose your image without refocusing. For all you Nikon users out there, here’s how you can set it up in camera because unfortunately it is not the default setting. These settings should be pretty much the same on the D300 & D700 and possibly the D3 model.

Separate Your Focus & Shutter:

Step 1: Go into your custom settings menu

Step 2: Select A (autofocus)

Step 3: Select A5 (AF Activation)

Step 4: Choose AF-ON only

Now, you can use your AF-ON button to set your focus and the shutter button will only release the shutter. Once your focus is set you can release the AF-ON button and reframe the shot. By separating those two functions, it allows you to be more creative and think outside the box when it comes to composing your images. It also, helps in getting the sharpest possible photos.

Lock Your Center Focus Point:

We also used to manage our focus location by moving the focus points all around with the dial. When your camera has 51 focus points, this method is slow and frustrating. Once we started shooting with back button focus, we locked the focus in the center by turning the lock focus dial to the L position and never touched it again. This part of the set up isn’t required to use back button focus but we have found that it works well for us and simplfies the process even more.

Now you can simply put the subject in the center, lock in the focus, release the button and have the freedom to recompose them in the frame. If any of our fellow “Nikonians” have any other questions about this, feel free to leave us a comment or send us an email. Hope this has been helpful!

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We LOVE technology!  In pretty much all of it’s forms.  We’re both extremely attached to our iPhones and computers.  A week without internet access is like a week without air to us.  I would log onto my computer and type an email LONG before I’d pick up a pencil and write a letter – even if it actually took LONGER.   (Those of you who have ever seen my handwriting are probably really thankful for this fact!)  For a long time we’ve been managing our buisness in a rather traditional format . . . you know, file folders and spreadsheets and things like that, but recently, we’ve been introduced to an AMAZING new tool that has revolutionized the way we do things and how keep ourselves organized.  It’s a fabulous little service called ShootQ.

ShootQ is an online studio management service that allows us to have all our contacts, client and booking information, calendars and everything else in one super convienent place.  Since it’s based online we can access all of this information anytime and from anywhere.  AND we can do all kinds of other fun things like send out surveys and do online booking.  It’s awesome!  We’ve been using the service and transitioning things over since early November, but now we I think we can officially say, “ShootQ ROCKS!”

Another super fun feature that all of our couples will enjoy, is that each client has their own special “client site” with all the details for their wedding day or photo shoot.  They can visit it any time they want, update information, view their contract or billing information, fill out surveys and keep in touch with us.  YAY!!!

To all of our photographer friends out there – if you haven’t seen it all ready, go take a tour of this amazing tool and feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions!

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