Fully Functional Nikon Camera Costume made by Tyler Card
Some people spend more time on their costumes then others, Tyler Card spent many hours working on a fully-functional Nikon D3 costume. Using cardboard and a bucket, an old laptop, a DSLR, remote trigger and a Flash, Tyler was able to create this awesome costume, that actually takes good photos.
When Tyler takes a photo using his costume, the image appears on a laptop screen on his back. I have to give this guy credit this is one creative costume.
Edit: Tom pointed out in the comments that this costume looks more like a Nikon D3100 than a D3
Mode dial is on the wrong side
D3 doesn’t have a pop-up flash
D3’s body has a bottom hand grip
Check out how Tyler put together this great costume:
Just because you have a camera doesn't make you a photographer - by Nicolás García
Put five photographers together and you’ll get five different gripes about low-cost competition. Photography is one business where there are definite lines between “low-cost” and “cheap”.
You can hire a cheap photographer, and I can almost guarantee you’re going to get what you pay for. Anyone with a modern camera like a Canon 7D or Nikon D5100 can take decent pictures and if “decent” is good enough, and sometimes it is, then there’s no need to pay more.
There are certain risks that come with cheap photographers. One being that because they’re cheap, losing one customer here or there isn’t going to concern them. So, if they have car trouble, camera trouble, or just don’t feel like showing up, they’re not going to be worried about missing an appointment. Pros are going to have people they can call on to cover for them in an emergency, you might get the assistant, but you’ll get someone. They also have spare bodies in case of camera trouble. One photographer I know has a box of spare bodies, all packed neatly into a custom Pelican case.
Someone running an honest business has to hold back money for taxes, which takes a third right off the top, health insurance, liability insurance, equipment insurance and what’s called E&O insurance, which stands for Errors and Omissions. If a professional photographer breaks or damages something, they’ll have insurance to cover the loss, the low-rent shooter probably will not have coverage and suing them will be a waste of time because they likely don’t have anything worth taking.
Low-ball photographers end up hurting themselves worse than the industry. Sooner or later the IRS will catch up to them and they’ll get hit with a bill for back taxes, they’ll break something and get sued, or some other calamity that will ultimately put them out of business.
Modern cameras make it seem like anyone can be a photographer, but the reality is quite different. You not only have to be a fantastic photographer, but you have to understand business, and charge enough to stay in business. If you enjoy taking pictures as a hobby, just understand that getting to the level where you can make money at it, turns it into a job.
Nikon announces Unilateral Pricing Policy aka Get Set To Pay More
According to NikonRumors and now other sources as well, it appears Nikon is gearing up to implement a new uniform pricing policy on all DSLR gear among retailers. It’s a move that will surely annoy larger retailers, like B&H and Adorama, and cheer local brick and mortar stores that will no longer have to compete against the greater pricing power of big box retail stores and online stores like Amazon.
According to company communiques obtained by NikonRumors, the pricing is being put into effect so consumers won’t be tempted to shop around for a better deal. What it may do instead is give Canon a competitive edge on pricing.
Any company caught selling cameras below the nationally advertised prices may find themselves unable to buy certain products from Nikon. The Unilateral Pricing Policy, as it’s being called, will take effect on October 16th.
There’s another word in some circles for this kind of behavior, it’s called “price fixing”. How Nikon is getting around the law in the U.S. appears to be a loophole that differentiates between forcing a retailer to sell at a specific price and not selling to them if they do not adhere to pricing guidelines. The end result is the same and the difference seems largely semantic.
The bottom line for photographers in the U.S. it means that it soon won’t matter where you shop for Nikon gear as there won’t be any real price competition. It will be interesting to see whether this move works for Nikon, or drives more customers into the arms of Canon.
Retro styling is making a comeback - By Ícaro Moreno Ramos
There’s a fine line between the words “trend” and “fad” in the world of photography. The word “trend” implies gradual and sustainable growth over time. The word “fad” has somewhat negative connotations among photographers because it implies glitz with no substance. Those of us in the business a while recall infant portraits in an over-sized tea cup with just the twinge of a shudder.
In wedding photography the market changes fast and the difference between trend and fad is sometimes hard to distinguish. There are some changes I’m pretty confident calling as a trend at this point.
Photo Booths
These can be the old style retro photo booths where guests pose for pictures, or a more modern digital equivalent. The idea is instead of just signing a book, guests sit for a quick picture. Instead of a simple guest book full of incomprehensible scrawl, the happy couple has a digital guest book of the people just as they were that day.
Overall I like this trend, but it adds to the overhead because the mechanical type need to be staffed. You don’t exactly want to clamp your Nikon D700 to a tripod and let people shoot self-portraits with it.
Proposal Photography
I’ve filled in on at least three proposal shoots this summer. This has moved from the fad to trend column in a big hurry, to the point now it’s almost an expected part of package along with engagement photos.
It’s more work, but at least it’s fun. While a wedding is a huge amount of work to shoot right, proposal pictures really are snap-snap, goodbye. In, out and done in thirty minutes.
Boudoir Shots
This is hardly a new trend. Boudoir photography came into existence about 15 minutes after the first successful photography process was developed back in 1826. Boudoir popularity has kind of ebbed and flowed since then and is making a comeback lately.
Usually not part of a standard package, it is getting to be a more requested as an add-on. If you’re a guy, you might want to think about partnering with another female photographer in town because some customers will be more comfortable with a woman shooting those shots.
As a purely professional precaution, I take my wife along if I’m going to be shooting one, or a female assistant. That way there’s no questions about propriety.
Wreck The Dress
Wreck the dress is your chance to be creative - Karl Leopold Imagesforever.net
Another one of the more enjoyable trends in wedding photography, this is your chance to go crazy on a lovely wedding dress. Pictures in the pool, a mud pit, the ocean, let your imagination run wild.
Probably the best one I’ve seen was one done at the paintball park, it was certainly the most colorful.
Again, more work but also more fun.
Slideshow At The Reception
This is a little more tricky, but is definitely a hit with the guests. A slideshow of the wedding photos play on one or two big screens at the reception. It gives everyone a chance to imprint those memories, for better or worse, while it’s still fresh in their minds.
You’ll probably need a gear mule to help with this and the equipment is not cheap. But this points to a growing desire for real-time photo sharing.
Look for this trend to continue as well as a desire for near real time posting on Facebook and other photo sharing web sites.
Nikon's Coolpix S8200 has great specs with a mid-range price tag - by Nikon
This camera was announced back in August, but slipped under my radar. I wanted to go back and catch it up because the Nikon S8200 is a really decent mid-range offering from Nikon at an attractive price point.
The S8200 sports a 16-megapixel 1/2.3 in BSI-CMOS chip behind a healthy 25-350mm 14x built-in zoom lens. Backing up the optics is Nikon’s Expeed C2 image processor.
The ISO range is a respectable 100-3,200 with optical image stabilization and boasts a 3” live view fixed-position LCD on the back. Controls are a mix of menu and manual controls that’s heavy on the buttons.
The autofocus system contrast detect with a multitude of options including multi-area, center, tracking, face-detect and live view.
On the software side it has panorama modes for both 180 and 360 panoramas.
Video is full size 1080 HD at 60 fps in MPEG4 format with the added bonus of HDMI mini connector.
Two minor niggles with this camera are Nikon’s reluctance to add 24p support to their smaller cameras and some serious photographers will be put off by the lack of a RAW output option. The S8200 is not the smallest of pocket size cameras at 33mm wide and weighing in at 213 grams (roughly half a pound), you’ll need a big pocket, but it’s solid to the touch.
Still, overall a nifty little package for $329, worth a look for anyone shopping for a second camera that’s easier to pack around than a full size DSLR.
