Courthouse wedding

I spent some time recently photographing a wedding for some friends of my neighbors.  The ceremony took place at the county courthouse and lasted just 15 minutes.  I was a little concerned going in that I wouldn't be able to get very many photos from such a short event, but by showing up early & staying late (for a whopping 45 minutes on the job), it all worked out.

Choosing your first DSLR

Thanksgiving is approaching here in the US, and with it, the abundance of ads enticing us to do our Christmas shopping at their establishment.  Many people will use this opportunity to upgrade their camera beyond their current point-and-shoot model.  With the enormous selection of camera models available, how do you choose the right model?  I'll give you a few guidelines below.

Old glass: Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 (52B) macro

If you've been reading a while, you know that I have a weak spot for old things.  This includes old, manual-focus lenses -- some of which are older than I am.  Today marks another installment of my "old glass" series.  This time we'll feature the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 (52B) macro lens -- a well-built, well-respected beauty of a lens that works equally well for close-ups and portraits.

One-light pocket watch

For my previous blog post, I wanted a photo of a watch -- and I wanted it quick.  My son is the latest owner of an old, well-worn pocket watch that originally belonged to my great-grandfather, and I figured that would be a perfect subject for my shot.  I was able to throw together a graphically-simple image using a single flash and some found props to create just the right image straight out of the camera.

Working behind the scenes

Don't worry, I'm still out here.  Things have been a little slow on the PRI blog lately, due in part to some great new things that we've got in the pipeline.  I can't spill the beans on them just yet, but watch for something resembling a formal announcement before the year's out.  In the mean time, I'll still keep turning out new photography posts as frequently as I can, and that won't change after the big announcement.  Don't touch that dial!

Interview with Khara Plicanic

This post marks the first of an upcoming series of interviews with photographers doing unique, interesting, and/or exceptional things.  When I recently learned about Lincoln, Nebraska, based wedding photographer and instructor Khara Plicanic, I could think of no better person for my kick-off interview.  Besides doing some excellent wedding (and formerly, portrait) work at KaBloom Studios, she has just published her first book, Your Camera Loves You:  Learn to Love It Back, and she is an avid speaker who loves sharing her passion and workflow techniques with the world.  In fact, she and husband Emir are currently in the midst of the [UN]tour, a cross-country bicycle tour on which Khara is presenting two free photography workshops in a handful of cities across the southern United States.

New camera releases

I'm not generally going to focus much on newly released equipment in this blog, but I'll make an exception here because I've already posted my speculations on one of these new cameras a few months ago.  Today, Lytro finally announced the commercial offering of their new light field camera.  Canon also announced a refresh of their flagship DSLR, the 1DX, earlier this week.