Category: Live Show

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Live Show Recap: Landscapes

I think I can say that we’re on a roll lately. It might be the whisky. We looked at your landscape photos this week, and you all really showed up. There were some great shots!

Also this episode, Chelsea reveals that she is a part-time ghost. We won’t be on next week as Tony and Chelsea are traveling, but the week after that (March 16th) we’ll be looking at photos on the theme of “lines.” So lines need to be the main compositional element of your shot, not just incidental.

We start the show off with chit-chat, to get Chelsea’s spirits up. It seems to work:

  • T&C should make a baby because they have too much time on their hands? Seems like a reasonable solution.
  • Balki Bartokamous. Cousin Larrying is a real term, we swear.
  • angry Pentax users. I’m sure that person is really a lovely woman.
  • boring focus breathing comment
  • Tony’s dad is a bobblehead
  • very mixed reviews of Tony and Chelsea’s voice
  • Pauline is hella positive

Okay, let’s get into your photos. For some reason they keep putting them in alphabetical order, sorry guys!

  • gorgeous fog over the water
  • “Rock Ness Monster”
  • I think they forgot that picks were a thing for a while here
  • silhouette
  • rolling hills
  • Justin does a great Windows 98 impression
  • Fyn sent us a calendar! It’s gorgeous.
  • Table Mountain
  • “set up a tent, live your life there”
  • “HDR is like plastic surgery, you only notice the bad stuff”
  • don’t Bart Simpson us
  • a gorgeous sunrise
  • “that gets a picture from me”
  • this just in: Nikon Snapbridge still sucks
  • windmill

Over to me for a question:

  • Nikon wants to focus on higher end cameras, what does that mean for consumer cameras? We need better bridge cameras with smooth touch screens and intuitive controls. 

Now for a portfolio. Janis Farhat, we are so so sorry about Chelsea’s pronunciation of your name. It all goes downhill from here. Lovely portfolio though! Turn off auto-scroll, choose a different first shot. Tony’s hair is like a fluffy cloud. “Very slimming to cut your body in half with the sun!” Great work, get rid of your drop menus and have them each be one page.

Hahaha Chelsea is losing it over “Janus” being a name. We all have dumb names.

 

Back to photos:

  • infrared
  • how can we tell what spectrum of colors animals see? Science!
  • “I only see light that bounces off of predators, should I go to a doctor?”
  • “she’s my little goose poop”
  • Taranaki
  • C is not in the middle of the alphabet
  • “I saw that movie, that’s where the demons come from”
  • dad heaven
  • “backbutt”
  • this would be so good without that fake moon
  • dramatic sky “that’s what my soul feels like when I’m going through a spiritual conflict”
  • sun and church
  • foggy road

Now some questions from me:

  • expose for the sky or the foreground? Expose for the brightest part and raise shadows in post.
  • why don’t you use super expensive cameras like the Phase 1? Because they’re intimidating and expensive. We’d love to try one though!
  • a version of this show where T&C are Chef Ramsay brutal
  • if you had to choose, do you sacrifice composition or light for a landscape? Composition.
  • what motivates you as a photographer? The feeling when you get the shot you’re going for. Competition with yourself.

Back to your photos:

Back to me for some reason?

  • relevant to Janus
  • a confusing drone question for Justin
  • which of the new Sigma lenses are you looking forward to? The 24-70 f/2.8
  • Chris Reddy, will you make us pancakes?
  • infomercials for the books? 

And back to photos:

And your last questions:

  • can you bracket with a moving subject? No! But you can shoot raw, make virtual copies in LR and then adjust the exposure and blend them together.
  • how do you make money from landscape photography? Stock photos, open a gallery in a tourist town, get a job at a national park? Education, workshops. Add a model and sell them as ads.

That’s our show! Join us in two weeks for lines.

 

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Live Show Recap: Black & White Part 2

You jerks got an extra show this week because YouTube is the worst!

We reviewed your black and white shots again this week, and we have a new way to submit photos! Straight to Dropbox, no password and we got a flood of images. We also streamed live in 4k this week for the first time!

In a mere 2 days, we’ll have another live show on landscapes.

Chelsea mentioned that I like “ranchos” and if you don’t know what those are, ask me about it. I will extol the virtues of my new favorite show to you.

Photo news:

  •  Go buy our Lightroom book on sale! sdp.io/lr and it’s only $19.99 for the paperback, PLUS 10% off if you use the coupon code YouTube.
  • Fuji X-T20

Ok, let’s get into your photos:

  • lovely portrait
  • “that’s super timely” in response to Tony mentioning Laverne and Shirley
  • bridge and fog
  • film noir
  • “I bet he flips tires at the gym“
  • “you thought you could sneak spot color by us, Pedro! No sir.”

Over to me for some questions:

  • why does lens compression happen? It’s because of the angle of view. I can’t type out this explanation for you.
  • opinions on the new digital medium format system? Tony’s excited to see something new, but wants to give it time to develop fully. Also medium format files are huge.
  • what should we expect from HighRes scanned film pictures? Digital is just better.

 

Back to your photos:

Time to look at a portfolio! Mason Unrau. Gorgeous colors and lighting in your shots. Great full screen layout, not too many shots on the front page. Wonderful portfolio!

Over to me for some questions:

  • one of your top three places you want to photograph in your career? African safari, New Zealand, Iceland.
  • Photoshop composites? Great!
  • mirroless, M6 vs M3? The M6 isn’t out yet!

Back to your photos:

  • face in the crowd
  • storybook
  • oncoming train
  • snow and fog
  • portrait reflection
  • maternity
  • Shanghai
  • illegal miner “what’s he mining?” “From the look of his fingers it could be chocolate?”
  • “that’s why I named our daughter Aardvark”
  • old-timey kid
  • old-timey man
  • environmental portrait
  • “this rope is dope”
  • “mom. give me back my Pokemon Go account”
  • “this makes me want to get new perfume and go clubbing“
  • landscape
  • lake view
  • “oh, I didn’t now I had this fear” “He’s like the ninja turtle that the other ninja turtles wouldn’t accept”
  • spooky baby
  • “this guy’s good“
  • no one knows, but I have a one inch by one inch camera
  • next week, dogscapes
  • lovely urban portrait
  • and another!
  • thoughtful kid
  • izquierdo= left
  • “how do you know no animals?”
  • volcano
  • “like, if someone broke up with me I’d go look at this rock” “someone?”
  • Zach Divine “thanks, dad” “you made me take the last name Northrup, the whitest name for the coolest girl” “I like how he has a military haircut“
  • “Zachary Stoner, now there’s a name you can really get behind”
  • gorgeous overhead shot
  • “and our channel will be so much more popular when it’s called Divine Stoner”

Over to me for some more questions:

  • least favorite gadget? This is a tricky question for us to answer on air…
  • trip to the US for street photography? New York, of course!
  • any trouble traveling with gear? Flying home into Boston once, but no, nothing really. 
  • what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started shooting? That the most important factor of your photograph is the subject, and the art. To shoot what you love, not what you think you should shoot.

Now some speedy photo reviews:

  • kids
  • skateboard
  • Zakim
  • buoy
  • dodgy birds
  • “that’s too much book”
  • bus
  • “Jack Brown, but he also is a cop.” “But not he kind that’s gonna hassle you.”
  • “everything you can’t explain in your picture is ghosts”
  • Hyper-speed round
  • elephant
  • spaghetti slurping
  • “Tony likes old people“
  • “this owl will murder you”
  • happy dog
  • “did you know my dog has his own Instagram, but I don’t know who owns it? It’s not weird.” “It is weird, but you should check it out.”

And that’s all! Our show is called Divine Stoner now. Join us on Thursday for your landscapes.

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Live Show Recap: Black and White

Hey there! Last night’s show was unofficially sponsored by Jameson and it was a blast. We looked at your black and white (and monochrome) shots and got some amazing ones. Thanks for watching and (attempting) to submit. If you want to know why you’d convert to black and white, read my blog post on it here.

We get into the photo reviews quickly, starting here:

  • street motion
  • “cash me off guard” No, Tony.
  • boots on the ground
  • portrait
  • “I don’t know what he’s about to do, but it’s gonna be dangerous, right?”

Happy birthday Kyle Wolfe! And wow, Rod, thanks for the booze! We need to do things that upset people and make them send us alcohol more often.

A bit of photo news:

  • you can post multiple photos on Instagram in one post
  • Sigma announced 4 new art lenses which we’re excited about

Over to me for some questions:

  • how do you feel about color photography for street photos? Totally fine.
  • any technical advantage to shooting in b&w verses converting in post? Not technically, but there’s an advantage to doing it to teach yourself to see in black and white.

Back to your photos:

  • sport portrait
  • Chelsea coined “the devil’s candy”
  • “I don’t like people being happy in tunnels“
  • guy on a cliff
  • “you don’t feel like there was just too much white in there?” “I feel that about a lot of things, but not this picture.”
  • much talk about the coliseum and aqua battles
  • stair case
  • “damn, sexual selection at work”
  • snow
  • selfie
  • pigeons
  • Tony trolls the nerds
  • scared baby “she had a scary dream about a wiener dog” “it’s a common nightmare”
  • bridge

Time for chit-chat! Our favorite part of the show where you are mean, or correct us a bunch, or say something dumb and we reply for some reason.

  • that’s great, Howard. Also, “nit-pickery.”
  • very disappointed in baby Jesus
  • married or brother and sister? Why not both?
  • “but unfortunately he chose a country that hasn’t existed for several decades.” “That sounds like a terrible, creepy way to separate yourself from your brain.”

Time to review portfolios! Justin picks one for us. “Dr. Fear Co.” Good, good golden-doodle. Good layout, just flesh it out a bit. Put a name and photo of yourself on the contact page.

Then Greg Noel’s portfolio. Lovely shots, nice layout, very well done! Take out the repeats, get rid of the watermarks. Canadian mummers.

Okay, at minute 48 the audio and video go wildly out of sync for some reason! So I’m going to end this recap here, but to make up for it, we’ll be doing a bonus live show on Monday! So keep an eye out for that. Thanks folks!

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Live Show Recap: Storytelling

Hey there! This show was fun, although the topic proved to be a bit tough to meet. Although every photo may be a piece of a story, we were looking for photos that conveyed a full story in one shot. You can see my attempt at it here. Next week we’ll look at your black and white photos.

First off, photo news:

  • Canon announced three new cameras: EOS M6, T7i and the 77D. Meh.

Let’s look at some pictures:

  • “this is the story of a child born from the sea”
  • “I’ve always wanted to be someplace where monkeys are a pest” “You’re gonna be patient zero of something with that attitude”
  • street kid
  • “this is principle buzzkill” “ten kids a year die from graduation hat related injuries”
  • firefighter practice
  • eeek
  • win
  • protest
  • “oh my gosh you darling dandy”
  • BLM <3
  • “when you’re cruising on your bike and you need to stop and grab a banana”
  • basket carrying
  • “I lived that life, I’m gonna give it a pick”
  • “is this for real or is this like Plymouth Rock?”
  • “oh my god, what is she gonna do with that rock? This is a terrifying story.”
  • ghost dancer
  • “oooh, they’re mole people“
  • “he caught a dog! My dream come true.”
  • dog envy
  • Tony has limited Spanish understanding
  • this is how you lose her

Time for chit-chat! You know the deal.

  • this is a real slang roller coaster
  • Tony sees dead people
  • omg you guys actually learn things from us sometimes
  • “if it’s never happened to me, it doesn’t happen!” You’ve obviously never heard of the Craigslist killer.
  • couples counseling
  • don’t listen to torque of the devil
  • “slightly less-chill Tony”

Let’s go over to me for your questions:

  • where are you travelling next? Charleston for fun, Thailand for work.
  • stop spot metering.
  • we are totally in control of how our cameras make us look
  • Flashpoint strobes? “I like things that are the same but slightly different” “You must be a big fan of Canon” “And pop music!”
  • where to order from and ship a print? Congrats on a sale! Get a pro account from Mpix.

Time to review some portfolios! We do a few this week, quickly.

  • Bryce: lovely portfolio, not too many pictures, varied subjects. Just unify your layouts.
  • Infinite Photography: interesting, surreal work. Pare down your portraits a bit, lead with your marketable work. Put a shot of yourself on your contact page and add a pricing page.
  • Kyle Medina: great cover page, maybe simplify the layout. Your work is beautiful! 
  • Capture Candy: great shots, edit your about me page so it doesn’t pop out, simplify your categories and pare down photos. Great, diverse work though!
  • Maya Rose Bird: you’re the best! Lovely work, great layout. You’re a pro! 
  • Jordan Brown: nice, simple layout. Just pare down a bit, maybe make just one portfolio page not separated into categories. Great shots!
  • Chris Reddy: hi friend! Nice full screen layout. Pare down some shots, make your sub-menus your main menus. Good work!
  • Mordini Photo: beautiful work, nice full screen layout, take out the projects menu and just put up your subjects. Add your name and a photo and some personal info.
  • Sebastian Le Calvez: good layout, wonderful shots. You have a great eye.

Some more questions:

  • Fyn is Flynn now. Kyle is Lyle. Up is down. Cats are dogs.
  • what’s the deal with flying drones near heliports? 
  • what’s your favorite animal? Tony’s are red pandas, baby rhinos, and dogs. Chelsea’s is Alex the African Grey Parrot. He’s ded tho.

Back to your photos:

  • Miss America
  • hike
  • hockey
  • “he has to wear that skirt for medical purposes”
  • drone selfie
  • Chelsea forgot that picks were a thing
  • “this is Westworld. He’s gonna go do awful things to a robot.”
  • soccer death
  • invisible
  • whistling at the woods
  • the set up
  • “is this also Westworld?”

More questions:

  • hiiii Roxy!
  • any tips on product photography? Lighting is key. It’s really difficult, avoid reflections and dust.
  • add your location to our Stunner map! sdp.io/stunnermap

More photos, speed round:

And that’s our show! Next week is black and white photos. Have a great long weekend!

Chickens in pants.

 

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Live Show Recap: Sports

SPORTZ! This show was pretty fun. Justin was snowed out of the office, so he was controlling cameras remotely which is insane. His presence was notably missed in the office, but we prevailed.

You guys really showed up this week, there were a lot of great shots. Next week is storytelling, which I’m looking forward to.

Our Photoshop book is on sale! Get it here with coupon code PS10.

We start off with some photo news:

  • ENHANCE! Google AI let’s you add detail to low-res images, but it’s just guessing.
  • we got in the Olympus E-M1 Mark II and we’ll put out a review of it soon
  • Tamron announced a new 70-200 f/2.8 as a budget alternative to the Canon and Nikon. Tony mathed it.
  • Sony 100 f/2.8 GM very expensive, but it has awesome bokeh
  • Sony 85mm f/1.8 as a cheaper alternative to their G-Master

Time to look at your pictures! I’ll highlight our picks and notable quotes below:

  • beautiful foggy running shot
  • “old person joke“
  • poor goalie
  • “mini FedEx truck racing is a popular sport”
  • there’s that motion!
  • surfer
  • horse racing
  • “we got two crotch touchers, two face touchers, a face licker, and a judgy kid. There’s something for everyone in this picture.”
  • extreme kiting?
  • “tiger rappelling, that seems inhumane”
  • motorsports

Over to me for some questions:

  • clean, low ISO or slower shutter speed for sports? You want some movement, you gotta split the difference. Depends on what you’re shooting.
  • 16×9 prints? Only for TV. That’s a weird format.

Time for a portfolio review. Our talented friend Iris Epping! Dogs and sports. You might want to get rid of the sub-menus, most people won’t bother with them. Your work is beautiful! Great pricing page.

 

Time for chit-chat! Our favorite part of the show where we dissect your YouTube comments:

  • generic rich villains? Thank you.
  • rascal !!!
  • wow, that’s a lot of hate for our Chrome love
  • passion lost.
  • Tony wrote the wrong word and he will never live it down

Turns out we have a lot to say about product reviews.

Back to your photos:

  • “we always like to see the ball in any ball sport”
  • motor bike
  • good motion
  • “you are not the father!”
  • Tony does some ball sorcery on this shot
  • “you always lift the youngest man to catch the ball, and that’s called a wifflepuff…”
  • handsome snow puppers (it’s called heterochromia)
  • sportrait
  • bike tricks
  • great crop
  • Tokyo drift
  • fish with an incidental diver

Over to me for some questions:

  • Matt Granger, come over
  • Tony, what’s your beer? Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA, always.
  • G5 for review? Never, seemingly. Tell Panasonic to lend us gear. Nah, we ordered it, so we’ll have it eventually.
  • why do you hate Sony? Oh dear, are we sponsored by them or do we hate them? Make up your minds.
  • any future plans for the live show? The live show is for you, it doesn’t change much. We have other shows that we are working on, Wanderlust right now. And another book in the works!

Back to photos:

Back to me for some questions:

  • good sports cameras that aren’t Canon or Nikon? Not really.  You need a good DSLR, mirrorless have lag.
  • “I’d like if we zoomed back and he just had a bunch of sea gulls on a string”
  • all time favorite iconic photo? Both from this podcast episode we did on Arnold Newman!

Tony and Chelsea were here for this shot. Who would have guessed that the tattooed beefcake didn’t win?!

A few more questions as we speed through the end:

  • if you wanted to show your undying love for Sony, where would you get the Alpha logo tattooed on you? Neck, lower back.

More photos:

  • I blush when they show mine
  • “are they fighting with corn dogs?”
  • golden hour surf
  • “all those big football players look like little babies” “the brain is so dumb”
  • back light
  • full contact basketball
  • spartan

“…I don’t need all that. You’re just proving that you can be electrocuted at any point in time and be fine.”

Back to me for your last question:

  • set up a remote camera behind a goal, how to keep it from getting stolen? “You could use a Sony, no one will want to steal that piece of crap.” Why would you need to be that far from your camera? You should be fine. 

And that’s our show. Join us next week for storytelling!

 

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Live Show Recap: Animals & Wildlife

Animals, you guys! What could be a better topic? Nothing, that’s what. Animals are great. We had SO MANY submissions this week, so I’m very sorry that statistically, you did not get yours seen. But you got to see cute animals, so no one lost.

We have a few topics up for the next two weeks live shows, next week is Sports and the week after is Storytelling. You can see the upcoming topics here.

Photo News:

  • Our friend Chris Gampat, the Phoblographer, has an analog zine coming out! You can fund it and get a copy at sdp.io/zine.
  • “Here’s a story I personally related to as an astronaut and a dog lover.” Leland Melvin is an American hero.
  • Beyonce is having twins and got some real weird pictures taken by Awol Erizku. All hail Queen Bey.

Here’s Justin entertaining you while Tony imports pictures.

Ok, let’s get into your photos:

  • this sweet angel pibble
  • “Justin, I love you cause you think I’m funny even if I’m not”
  • Buffalo goes viral
  • damn, Kyle. This is a great sea lion.
  • “some of my closest friends are groundhogs”
  • backlit moth
  • and a backlit monkey
  • dragonfly
  • “bokeh balls”

Time for chit-chat! The part of the show where… ah you know what it is:

  • let’s celebrate Tony getting his drone certification! 
  • how bow dah?
  • pantsuit Chelsea
  • “I HATE GEAR NERD AND TEACHER”
  • nobody cares about digital anymore?
  • did radiation make Tony’s hair grey?
  • listening fatigue victims

Comment tips!

Now over to me for your questions:

  • Roxy!
  • food photography lighting?
  • how do you keep wildlife shooting interesting? Shoot new species, try to get your best shot of each.
  • when you first started shooting, how did you get outside your comfort zone? Have man confidence. “If someone else deserves to be mediocre, I do to!” Take classes to expand your focus, shoot for contests like DPReview. Shoot with groups.
  • culling process for your shots? Weed out the worst shots based on focus or framing, depends on the subject. Use star ratings to keep just the best.

Let’s look at a portfolio! Peter Bartlett. Great macros! Pare down the wildlife shots, one per species. “I wanna know about you. You’re a flower.” Most people don’t leave the first page, so maybe have one main page of your best shots. Great work!

 

Back to your photos!

Back to me for some questions:

  • YouTube paid comments? Oh good, people with money can be heard.
  • Tony, why you no do astrophotography? Because NASA is doing what we need.
  • You can see Eric feeding my dog
  • classic camera posters from Etsy

This dog is my favorite.

Tony hates ostriches and had a dog growing up named Willie Nelson.

And that’s our show! We love your animals. Join us next week for sports.

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Live Show Recap: Fashion with Roxy Rodriguez

This show was so fun! Roxy is an absolute delight and was such a wonderful guest. If you aren’t familiar with Roxy’s work, you can see her portfolio here. She was a contestant on Top Photographer and was a fan favorite. Roxy reviewed your fashion photos with us this week.

You may have heard rumors of Tony and Chelsea being the cheese couple, you can see why here.

Next week’s topic is animals! And Cowboy was in the studio with T&C.

We start the show off with some photo news:

Now to your pictures, here are our favorites and some fashion photography tips:

  • pay attention to details! Hair ties, nails, etc.
  • coat
  • “I think her arms are looking great, but her knees need work.”
  • great tips on styling here
  • a big theme this show seems to be mismatching the clothes and the setting

Time for a portfolio! Daniel Skog, you get a man card. Maybe combine your categories and pare down photos. Your architecture is a stand out.

They get real weird with the Squarespace ad here.

Now over to me for your questions:

  • how do you define fashion vs lifestyle or boudoir? Attitude. Tell a story in an image that fashion is just an element of.
  • what percentage of your shots are planned vs incidental? Roll with the punches, it can go either way.

Back to photos:

  • glamour, frokeh
  • “fashion is so boring”
  • cloning out stray hair is hard
  • lots of people shooting with the 50mm f/1.8
  • Roxy has shot with a 60D almost her whole career with a manual lens! Then Adorama gave her a 5D Mark IV.
  • Chelsea sings some Journey
  • bored dude
  • howbouda?

Back to me for some questions:

  • my dog tries to break into my house
  • how do you style, shoot and model yourself? Don’t! Get a team.
  • what do you do when you shoot a model but it doesn’t come out well and you don’t want to share the photos? Tell the model they can share it without your name! 
  • is it harder to do a creative shoot when you don’t like the fashion? Yes.

Back to some last photos:

A few more questions from you before we head out:

  • how to get paid shoots as an experienced photog? Act like you have clients! Do test shoots to fill out your portfolio, shoot what you’re looking to get hired for.
  • Roxy, the colors in your photos? Use color to tell the story you want for that shoot.

And that’s our show! Check out Roxy and follow her on Instagram. It was great to meet her and we look forward to working with her in the future!

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Live Show Recap: Natural Framing

Happy Friday! This week we’re looking at your “natural framing” photos and we were really amazed at the submissions we got. Usually our more artistic topics narrow down the submissions, but you all really showed up! It was a great show.

So if you somehow haven’t heard about or seen it yet, our first 4 episodes of our new travel photography show, Wanderlust, are up now! And we’re taking video submissions to choose who we go visit next. So submit a 30 second clip telling us about yourself and your little area of the world to sdp.io/travel.

Next week we’ll have Roxy Rodriguez on the show to review your fashion photography! I’m really excited for that one.

Sandy the dog (and Chelsea) got on the cover of a magazine! Our friend Erkki is a great dog photographer who got his shot picked up.

Some photo news at the top of the show:

Ok, let’s get into your photos! I’ll link to all our picks and 5 stars below:

  • great black and white
  • Chelsea talks about buttering up a baby
  • guys on a cliff “hey you, look better!”
  • “a baby in its natural habitat”

Over to me for your questions:

  • what does Tony think of hydrogen for an alternative fuel for cars? Seems very complicated.
  • a video series or book on the business of photography? They’re conflicted about it.
  • buy our shirts! sdp.io/tshirt Who wore it better? Also, get t-shirts made by jmackstudios.com

Now to chit-chat, the part of the show where you say mean things and we laugh at you even though our souls are deeply wounded.

  • Chelsea’s
  • crumbling infrastructure
  • Tony is Brian Moser from Dexter? Or Jamie Foxx? 
  • more is less? That’s not a thing.
  • “what a load of waffle” “why does science have to infect art with it’s dogma?” That sentence is for sure not a thing. In fact, it’s antithetical.

Back to your photos:

  • bride
  • “I believe this is a boat“
  • “that’s Matthew McConaughey”

Time to look at a portfolio! Friend of the show Louis Chan. “You know, you’re kissing up a little bit and I do not hate it.” Stunning portfolio, think about adding your time lapse to the background, also get rid of the menu that links to your Flickr, just link it somewhere else with your social media accounts.

More questions from you:

  • Tony and Chelsea got scared of how many viewers we had
  • special requirements for Wanderlust hosts? You need to be familiar with the area you’re showing us. It could only be a few days. Running water is a requirement. Justin used the outhouses a lot. “I’ve never seen it.” Preferably not a screamy person.

Back to photos:

  • look at this cute chinstrap penguin, Chelsea undid Tony’s crop
  • look how gorgeous this gets after the exposure is brought up
  • beautiful light frame
  • “this is a human baby” “yes, and it’s in some sort of confine, some sort of prison”
  • oh hey, it me. You can see my husband in a bathtub here.

Now back to me for some questions:

  • Chelsea has oddly specific fears
  • what do you do in your downtime? Play trombone? Chelsea plays guitar and piano and sings karaoke online. Tony plays video games, they got a VR setup, they fly drones.
  • would you give up auto focus or raw format if you had to choose? Raw for both of them.
  • Tony as a bond villain. Which Bond would you kill? Daniel Craig for Chelsea, all of them for Tony.

Back to photos:

  • interacting with art
  • sunny window
  • “cherry blossoms? Overrated. Sad.” Nice dig, Chels.
  • lonely house
  • we speed through for a while at the end here
  • happy harvest, six stars!
  • texture

Tony and Chelsea talk over each other, then over to me for your last few questions:

  • what to do for photography projects in the winter? Everything’s grey. Grab a go bag and travel. Try new projects indoors like still lifes and product photography, self portraits. Try astrophotography.
  • Tony just called Star Trek fans “trekkers”
  • pros and cons of putting work on social media? Cons are that it’s a time suck, people could steal your work, you probably won’t get money from it. But it’s good for feedback and networking.

They gave some picks while they were answering that question, I’ll note them here:

This was a great show! The work shown was really impressive, Chelsea was super punchy, it was fun all around.

Also a touching moment for our friend Jerry Johnson who passed away this week. He was with us since the beginning and was a wonderful man and an impressive photographer, especially with such a huge physical disability. 

Join us next week for fashion with Roxy Rodriguez.

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Live Show Recap: Shadows

Hey there! This week was a fun one, I love more abstract concepts like this one. This week the subject was shadows (you can see my blog on the subject here.) We got some great submissions. Next week we’re doing natural framing, which I love!

AHHHHH the first 4 episodes of our new travel show, Wanderlust, are out now! Only the first episode is listed, but there are links below each video with the link for the next episode, shhhh.

In two weeks we’ll have the very talented fashion photographer Roxy Rodriguez on the show!

Ok, so we start the show, inexplicably, by going over to me with a single question:

  • plans on going south for the solar eclipse? Nope!

Ok, let’s look at your photos:

Now for some photo news:

Now some chit-chat! The part of the show where you say things and we make fun of you maybe:

  • how to turn on notifications for YouTube channels? Click the little bell next to the Subscribe button and choose “turn on notifications”
  • tips on how to be chill like Tony? Have a cool hobby, be Tony.
  • Captain and Tennille of photography? “Are his eyes real or is he one of those cave cats?”
  • millennial hate is booooooring
  • who is choosing our thumbnails? No one! They’re arbitrary. “Yeah, we’re not great at YouTube stuff.” “I don’t know how we got here.”

More questions?

  • any tips on lighting senior citizens? Don’t underestimate people’s vanity. Side-lighting is a no-go. Use a big softbox on axis with the camera if you’re looking to eliminate wrinkles.

Now let’s look at a portfolio! Hey Matthias, that’s a weird way to sign off. Lovely shots. Kinda weird layout, but great having the images full-screen. Pare down some images, combine the categories, simplify.

Over to me for a few more questions:

  • wanna visit Dubai? Yes.
  • any tips for shooting a wedding on top of a mountain? Pack light, dress accordingly, bring oil blotter sheets. Use Google Earth to figure out the lighting and landscape to plan ahead. Watch your alcohol intake in high altitudes!
  • how do you see the future of photography due to people learning online? Chelsea says better work due to more people being educated and exposed to it. Trends come and go quicker, they make people have to be more experimental. The format is a good challenge.

Back to your photos!

  • two of a kind
  • motorcycle selfie
  • mirror image
  • ski lift (Kyle Medina!)
  • parkour 
  • oh heyyy I got a pick! “Girls are so smart.”
  • three men accidental composition
  • “they make these goofy dummies look like big dangerous animals“

Questions:

  • rude dudes
  • how to overcome photo pricing low-balling? Call um cheap. Let them go with the better deal, you can’t convince someone of your value. Some projects are worth parsing out with them though, you can’t cheap out on a wedding.

Back to your photos:

A few last questions:

  • wildlife body? D500 for flying birds, but the 5DSR is the home set-up for backyard perched birds.
  • how to get shots of running dogs and get the eye in focus? Your focusing points make all the difference.
  • rumored RGBW sensors in future cameras? Yes! Very technical explanation to follow.

Speeding through shots at the end of the show, here are some standouts.

And that’s our show! Check out Wanderlust at sdp.io/WL1 and join us next week for “natural framing.” Thanks guys!

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Live Show Recap: Slice of Life

Happy new year! We start the show off well by being mostly on time and having Justin back in the house. We also have some guest doggos in the studio! 

Apparently London goes from posh to sloshed come nightfall.

So this week the topic was “slice of life” which I love. A photo that captures a story in a moment, a candid and not a posed photo.

Ok, we start looking at your photos here, and these were our faves:

Time for PhotoNews!

Over to me for some questions:

  • what do you think Nikon will do for it’s 100th anniversary? Maybe a new DF? Maybe have a beer and relax?
  • what’s up with Tony’s new aerial photography business? Nothing yet, need FAA certifications first.

Now to review a portfolio! Vanexus Photography, absolutely stunning landscapes. Another husband and wife team! Keep your interface consistent between your main page and your categories, also change your store page so they can order directly. Otherwise, it’s lovely.

Ok, back to your photos:

Now to Chit-Chat! The part of the show where we read your weird comments on our videos.

  • stoners
  • droning
  • how to shoot with your spouse
  • buy our books
  • i love you babes
  • badittude
  • apparently we don’t answer this one dude’s questions, but he asks dumb ones

Back to photos!

Over to me for some more of your questions:

  • new years resolutions? Nah, not really. Justin has some, I do not.
  • how old is too old to become a professional photographer? Never. 
  • a review of sharpness tools in PS? It’s in our Photoshop book.
  • what’s the best sandwich? Reubens for Tony, Thanksgiving turkey sandwich for Chelsea or a lobster roll, pulled pork for Justin, chicken cheesesteak for me.

Back to photos, Tony sped through them and picked some out:

More questions!

  • tips on shooting a model for the first time? Watch a shoot on YouTube to learn how to direct a model. If you have an experienced model, follow their lead, if not, look up posing. Pay attention to the overall aesthetic and mood. Take time to interact and develop a rapport first.
  • are all crop sensors of the same brand equal? No, close but not exact. A bigger sensor or faster lens will make a lot of difference.

A few more photos, rapid-fire:

And that’s our show! Join us next week for the subject “shadows” where shadows are a part of the composition, not just incidental.