© em.fotografik | Emerge Inc. 2022

Monthly Archives: April 2017

The sad truth about professional photography….

The video below pretty much sums up what it’s like for many of us making our living as a professional photographer in today’s world of mobile phones and everyone with a thumb thinking they’re a photographer.

People don’t seem to understand or appreciate the ridiculous amount of time we invest in honing our skill or the ungodly amount of money we invest in our equipment.

Most people don’t even seem to think there’s any skill involved in creating beautiful images. They seem to think it just happens by some sort of magic and that we are just monkeys pushing a button. We are simply a conduit for that magic to happen but we aren’t the ones actually creating it. But they couldn’t possibly be more wrong. Without extensive knowledge of lighting, lots of planning, excellent management and leadership skills, scientific and analytical skills, and buckets of creativity, your images would be nothing more than boring snapshots.

 

TRUE STORY:

I remember a horrible experience one client telling me that she didn’t have the budget to pay my full rate and asked me to photograph her at a hugely discounted rate as a favor because she simply could not afford anything more. I reluctantly agreed because I thought she was a friend, but told her that she would need to do her own make-up as I could discount my services, but it wouldn’t cover the cost a professional Make-up Artist. She then asked if she could book my regular Make-Up Artist (MUA) and I told her sure, but that my MUA usually charges ¥30,000 (roughly $300) a day. To which she replied, “could you please book her”. Needless to say I was pissed!

1. Because supposedly she no more money and was on a tight budget, but was magically able to come up with another ¥30,000 ($300) for my MUA.

2. Because she valued the MUA enough to pay her full price but tried to stiff me for a discount.

She saw the value and skill in having a professional MUA on set, but tried to undervalue my skill and expertise as a professional photographer.
People often overlook the “Professional” part of our title description mainly because they are used to dealing with a lot of non-professionals who wrongly claim to be professional just because they happen to have bought an expensive camera or they are just clueless to begin with. Sadly, this is the sort of crap that we as professional photographers have to deal with on a daily basis.

 

 

We are under-appreciated, undervalued and yet are expected to perform miracles.

 

 

Just Plain Stupid – A laptop?! Really?!

Soooo, this is supposed to be a portable Laptop?!
This is undoubtedly one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. Why would anyone in their right mind want to carry thins around?
Wouldn’t it be better to just buy a dedicated Desktop Machine with a proper display?
And lucky you, you get to pay $9,000 for the privilege of looking like a complete moron.

 

Terrorists? What Terrorist?!

How many refugees to the U.S. have carried out terrorist attacks since 9/11?

Talk about a waste of Tax Payer money.
To spend Billions building a wall for a non-existent threat seems rather stupid since most of what is threatening the United States are home grown White Nationalist Terrorists.
But hey, if it makes you feel better, build your stupid wall.

Yet another DSLR killer…

9is king?!

Every few months the industry goes down this road where they claim Canon and Nikon should be put on notice because this newest of the newly new camera bodies is finally going to be the one camera to kill the DSLR market.
They all tout the impressive spec sheet of this newest, latest little darling as the reason for this heaping praise. But we’ve all been here before haven’t we? As the saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. And though the spec sheet of the new Sony a9 looks quite impressive, sporting an industry first 20fps “Black Out Free” shooting mode as well as 1/32000 of second electronic shutter and a remarkable 693 Phase Detection Autofocus points system covering over 90% of the frame, making this camera an absolute BEAST on paper, the DSLR has withstood this kind of competition before, AND IT’S STILL HERE. Sony even managed to fix one of my biggest gripes with their cameras (and why I have NEVER chosen to buy one) and that’s the lack of a dedicated AF Point selector. They’ve finally addressed this with a joystick on the body! Way to go Sony! It only took you several years and numerous body updates to finally get there (extreme sarcasm).

 

 

The spec sheet of the newest “DSLR Killer” reads more like a dream sheet than a spec sheet. Here are some of the highlights.

Sony A9 Key Features:

  • Durable camera body that retains the compact form factor of previous full-frame E-mount bodies
  • Joystick and AF-On button for enhanced autofocus control
  • Higher-capacity battery
  • 3-inch touchscreen display
  • High-resolution, 120 frames per second electronic viewfinder with no blackout
  • 5-axis in-body image stabilization
  • 24.2-megapixel stacked back-illuminated full-frame CMOS sensor
  • ISO 100 to 51,200, expandable to 50-204,800
  • 20 frames per second continuous shooting
  • UHS-II support
  • 4K video with full-pixel readout

 

More information available on Sony’s Website: HERE

 

Only time (and real world usage) will tell if Sony has finally dealt a death blow with this latest offering. After all “9” is my favorite and lucky number.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “it’s an exciting time to be a content creator (as long as you have deep pockets)”.

Revolutionary or just another Lytro-like Fail?

The Light L 16

Imagine having a 52MP camera that fits in the palm of your hand or better yet, fits in your pocket?

That’s what the makers of the Light L16 are promising to deliver. And now with a $30 million dollar investment from Google, this dream might actually have a real chance at becoming a reality. I for one am really hoping they can deliver as my eyes have gotten so used to seeing images with a high pixel count and stunning detail, that it’s hard for me to look at anything less. Yes I know I have been tainted. What can I say, I shoot with the Canon 5DSR and Fujifilm GFX 50S on a daily basis.  I’m aware that high resolution is not the only thing that makes an image beautiful, but it is pretty to look at and great if you have to print. So the prospect of having a portable camera that can deliver that kind of detail is intriguing.

 

 

 

 

However, I must admit, so far I’m not impressed. Like I said, my eyes have grown accustom to seeing and shooting with some of the Highest Resolution cameras on the market and this camera just doesn’t seem to deliver on that boast when looking at the images posted in their online gallery: HERE

That’s Not to say that these images are bad, in fact many (if not most) of them are quite good, but are they 52MP good? I’ve seen iPhone 7 images that are just as beautiful albeit without the resolution, so again I must ask, are they really that good? They don’t seem to be what I’ve come to expect from a 50+ MP image in terms of detail. Even images taken my old Olympus OMD E-M5 (see below) seem to have more detail using it’s sensor shift technology which results in 40MP images. Granted it’s a lot bigger than this camera and has to be held perfectly still shooting a stationary subject to achieve it, but the results are stunning for such a small lightweight camera. The Light L16 has a lot to live up to if it expects to make a dent in this ever growing market with very capable photographic tools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really hope I’m wrong about this little camera as it would be awesome to have such a compact image creation tool that fits in the pocket and at 52MP, this thing would be a BEAST!
Please, please, please don’t be another Lytro getting our hopes up just to become just a forgotten gimmicky toy with no real world interest.
Professional Photographers are routing for you Light.

 

 

R.I.P. Charlie Murphy

Gone waaaay too soon.

 

Rest In Peace Charlie Murphy, older brother of famed comic pioneer Eddie Murphy.
Your “Hollywood Stories” gave us the greatest laughs and your deep voice and strong screen persona with live with us forever.
Charlie was a just 57 (not much older than I am now), when he lost his life to leukemia on April 12th, 2017. It just goes to show that we never know when our mortality will come, so live your life to the fullest and if possible, with no regrets.

Mighty Mina Martinez

Mighty Mina

Mighty Mina Martinez

Had an absolutely AMAZING photoshoot with this sexy little powerhouse the other day.
Mina Martinez is truly a force to be reckoned with.
Multitalented, down-to-earth, intelligent, cool-headed, movitivated, ambitious, gorgeous are just a few of the words that come to mind while working with this young lady (and trust me I could go on and on).
The shots we got from this shoot are absolutely stunning!
Can’t wait to share them with the world.
For now, you just have to settle for this quick out-of-camera JPEG.
But even looking at such a low-resolution JPEG, you can see this shoot was EPIC!

New Editor-In-Chief at Brit Vogue

Edward Enninful, former style Director for W Magazine has been named the new Editor-In-Chief at British Vogue.
Enninful brings a wealth of talent and experience to his new position and we at em.fotografik wish him well in his new post.

 

Photo by Mert & Marcus
Full story shared via BOF: Here

Gorgeous Hungarian Model – Lilla Primmer by em.

God I love my job! Especially when it results in having days like this where everyone is a team player and we are all having a good time while achieving spectacular results. Had the pleasure of shooting with Hungarian Beauty Lilla Primmer this past weekend and we had a blast!!! Of course shooting with the new Fujifilm GFX 50S takes everything to a whole new level. As with any Medium Format camera, it makes you slow down and really think about what is in front of your lens before pressing the shutter button. It not only brings back the “art” of photography, it brings back the “joy” of it as well. I don’t just feel like I’m painstakingly photographing my subject, I actually feel like I’m creating works of art. That’s a great feeling to have on a photoshoot (especially in front of a client). I’ve shot almost every Medium Format camera system on the planet, but I don’t recall any of them ever being this much fun.