Ahhh the fun of buying equipment!

So I got a new camera the other day, a D300, which will let me take band, dj, and club photos again with the best of them. So, let me walk you though what went though my mind when buying this, and why I didn't go to other cameras.

- I shoot in the studio, and it seems that Nikon hasn't made a better studio camera at iso100 other than a used D2x that's affordable. It's amazing, but the only camera that could really help me is a D3x - but I'd rather rent one than pay 8k for a camera body.

- In a few years I think I'm going to get a Mamiya medium format setup, so I really don't want to spend the money yet into a 35mm based camera system.


So my camera choices were the following... Get a great used D3 at a great price, get a D700 around $2200ish, or get a D300 at $1200ish.

The D3 is a great camera, but then I don't shoot sports, I have no use for a fast frame rate, I don't really need to go above iso3200, and it's $2000 more than a D300 which seems to do everything just fine.

I wouldn't mind getting a D700 but it's not a studio camera and I wouldn't gain anything with the bulk of my work. I also don't shoot wide, and the extra stop of high iso isn't really worth $1000 to me.

I ended up getting a D300 for $900 off of craigslist. It does great over everything I need. It focuses well, and it does high iso pretty good compared to the others I was looking at. Also with the money I saved I could more than likey buy a nice super wide lens and that Sigma 30 1.4.



I'm posting this because it seems that a lot of photographers buy something on impulse and want rather than a need or to fit a use. Then they end up spending way more money on something they will never have a real need for or something they will never use to it's fullest extent.

One light headshot shots!

So I was toying around with the idea of headshots with just one light, well, one big light - 4 foot octabox - and it worked out really well. I guess the road to figuring this out was pretty long, but after a few years it finally stuck.

What's good about this setup is that you can get light that's a little bit dramitic, but also is even enough to flatter just about anyone.

=)

Try it out!

The BEST vacation EVER!!!!

I’m attending a group shoot with Mr. Stephen Eastwood out in NYC on the 13th, with not only his hotness, but 5 hot Russian models and a Chezk model as well!

OMG I’m IN HEAVEN!!!!

The cost wasn’t all that much really, just what amounts to a months rent between the cost of the event and tickets out there.


Also, (but he isn’t as hot as Eastwood) I get to hang out with my good friend Kevin Michael Reed and stay at his place that weekend, which should be pretty fun and he is one of the best people I’ve ever met.

So all in all a great time, and the biggest challenge will be getting from Newark to Kevin’s place at midnight on the 12th.

My website, done by me! =D

www.andrewthomasevans.com

So, over the past 7 hours or so I was able to put together a pretty decent temp site that will work great up until I can find a professional to re-do mine in some wordpress or drupal format.

I wanted to keep things clean, and modern, how successful I was at that is up to question. I also wanted to do something different with my webgalleries – and I’ve been on a swap image by clicking bender over the past week.

I was also able to get google checkout going, so now I can take credit cards over the web and other neat things!

=)

It’s not like the site I had talked to my friend about, however it’s pretty cool and I’m proud of what I did.

Is this fashion, a portrait, or just a regular headshot?

So at the Laura Fulk preview shoot I was able to take a shot of the model for the makeup and hair artists... I'm pretty proud of it, the model is totally sweet, the hair and makeup were awesome, and it's a really cool shot.

More images from that day will be up at http://www.laurafulk.com/ at some point in time. I can't give anything away, and this headshot dosen't really give anything away - other than I hope you have a spare change of pants near by when the images get up... They are that sweet!

I show it to a friend and he said "dude, that's not fashion" - now granted this friend is out in NYC, he shoots fashion, so maybe it isn't? Or maybe he is just jealous that I get to shoot something like that, or I did it here in Mpls?

Who knows, no big deal!

Foot in the Door 4 at the MIA

The Foot in the Door show happens once every 10 years at the MIA, and in my opinion it's a fun show where anyone and everyone who does art can submit a piece as long as it fits into a foot by foot box. So, it's a great cross section of artists in the area/state, and pretty fun to do.

So I had to submit one of my photos, the black and white of downtown in the winter, and it got in (of course) but it got on one of the main walls! Which was pretty sweet in a few ways, first finding it was pretty easy, and second is that a ton of people went to the show and saw it - although the credit each of us is given is limited due to space.

The show runs though June 13th, so check it out!

http://www.artsmia.org/foot-in-the-door-4/