But how do we get there? What are the steps involved to achieve all of these things?? Scott Bourne at PhotoFocus made a great post today about becoming this master photographer, and several of his point hit me hard. These are things I’m constantly struggling with, haunting reminders that I am human and I will always have massive amounts of learning to do..

Summing up Scott’s full post (which I highly recommend reading!!)

- Seriously one of my largest weaknesses.. Not necessarily comparing what I use to others, but constantly on the look out for new gear, something bigger & better. Rather I need to spend more time mastering what I currently have.

- I feel like I am fairly good at this. Scott talks about looking past the obvious and photographing the details people overlook. Work on creating new story out of a scene where the same story has been told countless times.

- Very difficult for me! I do scout locations, but always seem to have my camera with me. I really like what Scott pointed out about Ansel Adams, how he would regularly scout with only a yellow filer, a notebook and cardboard cutouts matching his different focal length options. A great strategy to help us slow down. In my experiences, my best photographs have come from when I slowed down and took the time to think it out vs blasting out a dozen frames and used those to make my decisions. I also love the cardboard cutout idea! In college one of my professor gave me an empty slide frame to help compose images in my mind. I’ve since lost it in the clutter of my office, but would love to revisit this thought process. I’ve discovered that my hand at arms length is approximately what I would capture at 70mm, which I often use to judge which lens I will use for a particular shot. The only downside to the cardboard compassion is that you will not have the compression a telephoto lens will give the image.. Our eyesight is equal to about a 60-70mm lens (at least mine is..). So all of our cardboard cutouts would have the compression of a 70mm lens, which we all know is very different from a 24mm, or a 200mm lens. At this point it is up to you to discover what your glass is capable of and learn how to see what you will capture without the need to look through your camera.

- This has been the bane of my existence.. Up until now I have been photographing everything under the sun, I don’t really have many goals as a photographer outside of being the best I can possibly be. I really need to start specializing what I focus on and really start to get to know my subjects more intimately.

- Another bane of mine… Reward is so very nice. Especially when the reward is a paycheck I can use to pay my bills! This isn’t the only type of reward Scott is referring to however. What I took from the rest of his text was to stop expecting the title of the worlds greatest photographer to fall into my lap. National Geographic won’t call me tomorrow to go to Alaska and photograph whales. I still need to prove myself, I need to make more mistakes and start loving the process I am living right now! With my eyes fixed on the future I can’t enjoy what I have right now.

Hopefully Scott’s post will inspire you to start thinking a little differently when it comes to your photo career. Or any career for that matter! These principals can be applied to any situation! Keep your chin up, master and fall in love your current situation, and Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’

Kit includes:

- 3 Studio Max III 320 Heads
- 3 Power Cables (not pictured)
- 1 Replacement Flash Bulb for the Studio Max III 320 Head (not pictured)
- 2 8′ Photogenic Stands
- 1 3′ Stand (not pictured)
- 2 40″ Silver Photogenic Umbrellas
- 2 Speed-rings (for Soft Boxes, not included)
- 3 PocketWizard Plus II Transceivers
- 2 PocketWizard sync cables (1 1/8″ and 1 standard PC terminal with a PC – 1/8″ adapter) (not pictured)
- 1 Photogenic Carrying Case

*Please note one of the PocketWizard units has a broken foot, it still works properly, but because of the foot it will not work on camera. It will only receive transmissions from the other two units. In the image the PocketWizard units are standing up on a pair of speed light feet, which are not included in this kit.

Please email with any additional questions! See the Craigslist post here

No matter what you are shooting with, Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’

PS, the following images were taking with this kit!

All of us! This is how I started to deal with this multiple cable disaster.

Introducing my Charging Bag

I know it doesn’t look like much, buts its the only bag that I had laying around not doing anything at all.. Its the bag that came with my Nikon D70s Kit. I love and cherish it because it was my first DSLR purchase. And now I can reminisce every time I need to charge my batteries!

Lets take a look inside before I made any modifications.Its not that large of a bag so we are fairly limited to the amount of power sucking devices we can dock at one particular time without spilling out all over the place. Eventually I would love to merge this system into a Pelican case, but this is great for now.

At this point in the game I removed the padded dividers in the bag and inserted two power strips. I chose to plug one strip into the other and only use one plug to power the entire bag. If you are nervous about this simply leave both power strip cables hanging out of your bag. Once the strips were snuggly in place I replaced the padded dividers. My power strips are pushing up into the dividers so be careful not to let the divider touch the prongs on whatever you are plugging into the strip! I added two strips so I could avoid the outlets next to the dividers to avoid this problem. You can see some rubber bands on the strips, these are to hold down those terrible chargers that have the box at the plug end vs a box mid cable. I like to put the rubber band over the box just in case it starts to slip around and unplug itself in transit. (I do this with my hard drives at home as well. More than once something has brushed against my power strip and unplugged a drive in use. Not good for their health..)

Now plug in all your stuff! I coiled up each cable and tucked it into one of the spaces in the bag. I will probably go back and rubber band each length of cable to itself to avoid the bad looking like a rats nest.. This part might take a bit for you if you are picky like me. You will see in photos below, that there is a place for everything, so getting the correct cable in the best spot to organize your bag is critical. (Or you could just wing it and see what happens!)

Time to hide it all! Cut a piece of cardboard to the size of your bag and lay it on top of your dividers. This will both create a little table for your equipment and hide all the extra lengths of cable you do not need anymore!

Now its time to place in the chargers and plug them into their respective cable. Like I starred above, I don’t’ have a lot of space for multiple chargers so I just added the 3 packs I used the most, and strung in a iPhone/iPad cable and my Quantum Turbo cable.  FYI the tops of the dividers in this bag are about two inches below the rim of the bag so i still have some space to place all of my chargers without having to worry about them sliding out of the bag.

Once all of your batteries / devices are plugged into their respective charger, all you have to do is plug in the one (or two) power strip cables into the wall and you are good to go! Keep in mind that I haven’t been using this system for very long, so I’m still learning some of its limitations. For example, some of the power packs produce a fair amount of heat when they are charging so it is good to keep an eye on the bag to make sure the inside doesn’t get too hot. If it does you might think about adding a couple of sealed water bottles to absorb some of the heat. If it gets super warm dismantle it straight away! So far my combination has worked very smoothly. I’m super happy with this one bag to carry and meet most of my charging needs!

Version II of this concept may incorporate a couple mini extension cords to give me the flexibility to add additional chargers on the fly. Your second shooter may need to charge something as well and its always a good idea to leave your gear in one location vs spreading out to find another outlet and risk leaving something behind on a shoot. (Which I’ve done several times…)

Find your own personal way to keep your gear charged up so you can Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’

I’ve enabled the store features and will be selling prints of most of the images I post. You will be purchasing a 24×36 Gallery Wrapped Canvas print for $208 and/or a high quality digital download (for personal use only) for only $3! Quite a steal if you ask me. If you would like other size options please contact me and we’ll work something out. Continuing the mission behind the imagery, all of the print purchase profits will go back to funding future work with the organizations who sent me to the mission fields. On a similar note, visit my post on selling frames for missions to help raise money for current missions and add some decor to your walls! More information about missions I currently support and all future work can be found on my Give page.

Many thanks to everyone who have given support the people the Lord has sent me to help!

Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’ 

Personally I chose the 50 prime. Arguably the best lens for your money on the market, no matter what brand you shoot with! Relatively cheap, plus super light weight, great F/Stop range, and amazing macro lens. But thats not the only reason I chose the 50 prime. I chose the 50 prime because of Crop Factor (Crop Factor is not specific to the 50mm, it applies to all lenses and all cameras). Personally I shoot with the D3 & hopefully some time soon the D800, both FX (full frame) cameras with an option to shoot in DX mode. DX is Nikons code for a cropped sensor. In a nutshell a cropped sensor will automatically zoom any lens you put on the camera. Bam! This lens is 50mm on my FX camera, and 75mm on my DX camera! Two lenses in one!! It does the because the sensor isn’t large enough to cover the entire area of the glass. (on a lens designed for FX bodies) DX lenses are designed for cropped sensors, but the focal length measurements remain the same. Focal length is the result of a formula comparing the distances of the front and rear glass elements of the lens to the camera’s sensor (of film). Read more on focal length on Wikipedia. So mechanically the focal length of a lens never changes when you put it on a FX or DX camera. Its specifically the size of the sensor that magnifies the image on a  DX body. This is where it gets slightly confusing.. Different lenses are designed specifically for FX or DX cameras. If you are Nikon, you can use any lens with any body. Other brands do not offer this flexibility. There are however some limitations you should be aware of.

For this example I’m sticking with 50mm, to my knowledge there are no 50mm lenses designed specifically for DX (cropped sensors), but for simplicity I made one up.

• A FX 50mm lens on a full frame camera will give you an image at a true 50mm
• A FX 50mm lens on a cropped sensor camera will give you an image at approximately 75mm (depending on the ratio of the crop, some are smaller than others..)
• A DX 50mm lens on a full frame camera is still 5omm, but you will not be using the full sensor because the lens is designed for a cropped sensor camera. (you will not zoom in or out, but you will not use all of the camera’s megapixels. For example the D800 is a 36mp camera in FX mode. In DX mode since you are only using a portion of the sensor, you will only shoot images at 16mp.)
• A DX 50mm lens on a cropped sensor camera is still approximately 75mm. (nothing changes between a FX 50mm and a DX 50mm)

Starting to make sense? Essentially the only thing a full frame sensor does is give you the true focal length for each lens you put on your camera. It makes every lens a bit wider when compared to the same lens on a DX camera. Now this does affect several other aspects of your photography! For example, depth of field on each lens will change. So be careful not to get to used to focal lengths on your DX camera if you ever plan to upgrade to a FX body, everything will change! Personally I love having one FX and one DX camera in my bag at all times. Why, because it doubles the lens options I have without paying for additional lenses! Previously I shot with the Nikon D3 and Nikon D300s, but recently sold the D300s to replace it with the D800, which is a FX body, reasons behind this can be found in the blog post Gear.. I wrote a while ago.  (little insight, the D800 is a beast and produces great DX shots!) If you have no experience with either a FX or DX camera, check out BorrowLenses.com and rent one!

Rent something, play with your focal lengths & Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’

Remember to ask any questions in the comments or on FormSpring! I don’t want you leaving confused!

Don’t put all of your faith in this little box though! Save yourself a lot of headache and Save Early & Save Often!

Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’

• Coffee -

  Grandma only stocks the cheap stuff, and only makes it when we come up.. (I’m kind of a snob) Sorry Grandma, but its got to be fresh. I was going to go as far as bring my French Press & Grinder but I thought that was going a little overboard…

• iPhone Tethering-

  Grandma doesn’t have internet. I use my iPhone to tether internet to my iPad and/or laptop, whatever I’m working with at the time. I’m young & love to keep on top of things. I say its all business related, which is mostly true.. 75% of the blogs I read are all photo related, but do I really need it this weekend for my business? No, its mostly a comfort item, but just in case I need to link up to my desktop in Indianapolis (Using LogMeIn) to get a client a file, I can.

• iPad -

  Stocked full of games, magazines, sketch pads & photos. Its the perfect tool for any traveler. Whether you want to kill some time (Angry Birds Space), do some research (TED, 500px, National Geographic, American Photo, Professional Photographer…) plan future shoots (Paper|53), and having your portfolio on you at all times is never a bad thing.

• Camera -

  Of course I never leave home with out this… Seriously? Plus Grandma is a beautiful lady and hopefully I can talk her into letting me take some portraits of her!

• Power Inverter -

  What use are all these gadgets if they go dead?? Its happened to you before and you know charging anything from your cars cigarette lighter with a power inverter. Might as well use it for something if you not using it to pollute the environment and health of everyone around you!

• Laptop -

  Got to get a little work done while I’m on the road. Unfortunately my battery just exploded, so its a laptop that needs constant supply of power.. Bummer. It kind of needs replaced anyway, Looking to the MacBook Air for all my memory card dumping / hard drive copying / camera tethering / editing in the field needs.

• Wacom Tablet -

  Nothing is worse than trying to edit photos with the trackpad.. Be honest with yourself. You may ‘enjoy’ or ‘prefer’ it because its all you know. Try a Wacom, it will rock your world.

• Hard Drive -

  Always have a backup! Plus the hard drive has all of my digital movies on it in case things get really boring and all my work magically gets done. I pretty much need a hard drive at all times. The disk space on my laptop is minimal, plus with my laptop in its current state, I don’t really trust it 100%..

• DropBox -

  A tool that is with my anywhere I go. I love working on collaborative projects, but these projects require infinite sharing. DropBox is one of the best FREE tools on the market right now. There are hundreds to choose from though. DropBox is great because there is a restore feature incase you are working with a klutz who is always deleting files.. Also love the integration on your computer and wonderful iOS app.

• Books -

  What did he say?! A physical book?? In the digital word we are living in?? Yep. Its hard to pass up the experience of holding a good book. Plus I got these two as a gift and I don’t feel like paying to have them on my iPad… The Language of God by Francis Collins and Professional Business Practices in Photography from ASMP. I’m in love with The Language of God because it blends Scientific thought with Religious belief, two very fascinating walks of life! Personally I grew up in a house full of science and religion, so I’ve always been on a eager to define with science what Sunday School and the Bible have taught me. (Another book I was in love with was Love Wins by Rob Bell, although I don’t agree with everything, it was a great conversion starter in my small group! Personally I love the idea of Heaven & Hell being a mindset not a physical location, which are not original Rob Bell thought, just in the book I read.) Professional Business Practices speaks for its self. I’m a professional freelance photographer, one can never have too much business knowledge!

Hopefully this little survival kit help me with whatever situation arises this weekend! My guess is I’ll be too busy with socializing and helping Grandma with chores she can’t do on her own anymore to utilize anything on this list (with exception of the coffee!!), but I’m under the mindset of ‘Its better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it’

Have a fantastic Easter Weekend!! I wonder if I can talk Grandma into doing an easter egg hunt…

Keep shooting!
Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’

Ever wonder why the F/Stop numbers are what they are? Of course you have. Here is a fantastic video by Dylan Bennett explaining why the F/Stop values are what they are. If anything in this video is a little confusing please Contact me and I’ll break it down for you!

Caution! This video contains math & science.. Don’t let that stop you, its amazing!

Dylan Bennett also does a great job explaining ISO & Depth of Field which you can view by following by the attached link. Fascinating science behind all of the images you shoot!

Enjoy the use of the left side of your brain! Keep Shooting!

Chris W ‘WhonPhoto’