This is a great idea for any mom’s gifts for Mother’s Day. I’m available so let me know if you’d like to set up a shoot. Don’t forget Father’s day is coming up too (June 20).

Enjoy!

So in today’s discussion on this I’m only going to talk about Canon cameras for the most part, because I know them more in this range of professional equipment and might give you the wrong info on what to buy if you want to go pro in your art and equipment.
In Nikon the two top cameras are the Nikon D3x and the D3. These are similar to the qualities of the 1Ds and 1D bodies by Canon. Both the Nikon D3 and the Canon 1D bodies have the cropped sensor. This is great for action type photography and is usually found on the sidelines of professional sporting events. They are faster than the other bodies because they don’t take as long as to think. They are great for weddings as well when you have a groom running off from the site. Sorry lame joke, I know. Both of these bodies shoot HD video as well. The rumors are that the Canon 1Ds Mk4 will have video as well and more megapixels than it currently does of 21. Rumors’ are in the 30’s Megapixel arena. My guess is that Nikon will do the same and add Video to their newer updated version. It only makes sense to go where the competition is going. Anyways, I’m not here to talk about rumors or what I think might happen with cameras.

So in the Canon realm, there are two cameras to majorly consider and a third as well to think about.
They are the Canon 1ds Mk3, the 1d Mk4, and the 5d Mk2.

Canon 1Ds Mk3, Please don’t go out and buy this one right now, wait another 6 months or so and buy the new 1ds Mk4 when it comes out. The current specs are, 21.1 Megapixel, 5fps (frames per second), Full-frame CMOS sensor. Currently B&H has it priced at $6,299.95. Which is great, when it first came out it was in the $8,000 range.
Canon 1D Mk4, I have the older version of this, which I love (1d Mk3). I would love to own one of these with its new Video capability too. Here are the new specs for this body: 16.1 Megapixels, ISO that goes up to 102,400 (are you kidding me?), 10 fps, 45 AF points, and like I mentioned shoots video. It’s a pretty awesome camera. It just came out so its still at a full price of $4999.95 from B&H.
Canon 5D Mk2, This camera has a full frame sensor and shoots HD video. It’s a great camera for those who want to shoot HD video and have a full frame to do it as. Currently it’s the only Canon that shoots HD with a full frame sensor. It shoots 3.9 fps. The ISO has a great range as well from 50-25600. Also it’s at a great price, $2,499.95 right now at B&H.

My dream Camera body list would be: The new Canon 1Ds Mk4 (as long as it has video, and a Canon 1D Mk4 as my back up camera.

Now we need to discuss what lens to buy. I’m so confused with Nikon lenses that I’m not even going to try to recommend them. But for examples of what the Nikon pro’s use check out these two links:
1. Mike Colon – wedding photographer, http://www.mikecolon.com/pages/equipment.htm
2. Joe McNally- all types of photography, http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2006/07/01/equipment/

The Canon lens’ that I would recommend to buy right of the back would be to first get these two lens’. They are in the order of buying them as well. Once again this is my opinion.
1. 24-70mm f/2.8L The price is $ 1,329.00 This is a great lens and one of the normal “go to lens”. It’s great for tight space in a room and you can zoom a bit so your not up in someone’s grill.
2. 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II This is a brand new lens that Canon just came out with. It’s a new and improved lens of the famous 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. The quality that makes this lens better is improved glass, you can now get closer to the subject and it will focus for you, it seems to focus faster, and the Image Stabilizer also was improved. It is quite a bit more than its older version but worth the money. I got to play with one of these on my camera a few weeks ago and it’s awesome. The price of this new lens is $2,499.00 (the older version is $1,899.00).
Once you have purchased those two lens that I’d recommend you buying the following lens’. They are in no particular order, but I have explained why you might want them.
1. 85mm f/1.2L II This is an awesome portrait lens. Its main use is for portraits. It’s not the fastest focus lens but that’s not what it’s made for. It’s created to get great detail out of your subject. It makes portraits become beautiful. I love mine. Price is $ 1,970.00
2. 50mm f/1.2L This is another famous lens by Canon. I currently don’t own one, but it will be my next purchase. It’s a great lens. It’s in between the closeness of the portrait lens (the 85mm) and a fixed wide angel lens. It’s great to use to also pick up detail in your subject. Price is $ 1,469.00
3. 16-35mm f/2.8L II This lens is great for a tight room that you might be in and you want to shoot the majority of the room. It’s also great to get a wide view for things such as a landscape. I use my often to photograph the reception area to get the whole area in the shot, or during the ceremony of a wedding to show the ceremony area as well as include all the guests in the image. The cost is $1,520.00

It’s pretty obvious if you’ve added all these prices up that you don’t have the money to buy all this right now. That’s normal. So buy one thing at a time. Stretch these expenses out by a few years. Please don’t see these prices and say I can never afford these either. You don’t want to use other lens at this point to shoot professional events and photographs for clients. There is a difference. Also don’t go and buy a lens that is $300-600 and say I’ll buy that $1,500 one later. Buy the more expensive one now and you won’t ever have to upgrade. Pay the extra amount and you won’t ever have to buy a newer better one. As you continue to talk to photographers and grow in your experience that the lens or what its called often is the glass is one of the most important parts of the photography. Without the proper f/stop you might not be able to achieve what you or your client is looking for.
The expenses don’t stop here; next week I’ll cover accessories.

Photography is not a cheap at all, if you want to become a professional you need to spend money. I hear often from friends, you need to spend some to make some.

Please let me know what you think of my camera and lens choices and let me know if you agree or have other suggestions. Thanks for reading, and now go out and shoot something!

Tips
1. Make sure everyone knows where to be and what time they should be there!- this includes the following: family, your vendors, knowing when you can get into your venue and what room to be in, your bridal party. We didn’t have any accidents, but if any of these things went bad, there would be trouble that would delay things and so on.
2. Make sure you’ve spent money where you should spend money We did a few things ourselves, but much of it was done by professionals. This is huge because what we think will look good and will work, might just not. We were able to save money in many ways, but in big important things spend the needed money. I will write a blog about how we were able to save money soon.
3. Have fun! One of the reasons we were able to have so much fun was I believe was because we hired professionals. Vanessa didn’t have to do much that day, we had friends help put things together the morning of and family. Also on the fun note, Please have fun yourself and don’t stress out if something bad happens. We didn’t have anything bad happen, which helped, but we were both able to enjoy ourselves the entire wedding.
4. When people say your wedding will fly by, trust them. From when my beautiful wife walked down the aisle till we waived goodbye and got into the car that took us away, the wedding flew by. Things happened so quickly, we didn’t have the chance to thank everyone for coming. Things really went fast. Luckily, we had wonderful photographers and a videographer to capture everything so we can go back and look at the day time and time again, but things fly.

A huge Thank You to our friends and family that helped. This was definitely one of the happiest days of my life.

Our vendors:
D2 Photography- http://www.d2photoblog.com/?p=3874
Aldo of Step1 Productions- http://www.step1productions.com/
Alan of 5 Star Mobile DJ- http://5starmobiledj.com/index.html
Venue was at Canyon Lake Lodge- http://www.canyonlakepoa.com/facilities/lodge.asp
Flowers by Tulips Trophies and Treasures- http://www.tulipstrophies.com/
Food catered by Pat and Oscars-http://www.patandoscars.com/