After today's shooting session, a group of us went out to eat at a so-so restaurant and but then treated ourselves to dessert at Serendipity...and I made myself sick with a strawberry cheesecake & ice cream concoction. The important thing is that I finished it!

Did I mention the catered lunches were amazingly good?! Hale & Hearty catered soup and salad the first day. After everyone was done eating I couldn't stop eating although everyone was grabbing their cameras. So Allan took these while everyone was shooting a model. I'm such a pig.

New York, New York

Xtreme! day 2 wrapped up tonight after I got to go out with Sherry in her bridal dress. She looked fabulous in her dress! She's getting married in 2 weeks and while working with her I found out we were actually born in the same city-Taipei, Taiwan. Our intention was to trek down to Chinatown but we never actually made our way deep enough into it before we rattled these off...

New York, New York

The Xtreme Seminar started today and after breakfast and 41 introductions class was underway! It was great to finally meet many of the photographers I had communicated with via forum before this week. Will and Shella answered the modeling call Jessica and Liana had sent out earlier this month. They currently live in New York and are getting married April 20th, 2007. This was the fastest e-session I have ever done-under an hour! These made the top 10...

The first day in the Big Apple is in the bag...rolled off the plane @ 7:30pm (after sitting on the DFW tarmac for 1.5 hours waiting for northeast winds to die down) and checked into The Manhattan Inn hostel, grabbed a bite of New York Japanese cuisine and the headed up to the 80th something floor of the Empire State Building with some Xtreme! attendees and took a peek around at the view.

Lately I've been finding some photographers [amatuers and aspiring professionals alike] are actually interested in what lenses I use-so I thought Tips & Tricks would be a good place to let everyone in on what glass I use, how much cash you'll have to pony up for it and some examples of photos shot with each lens. Sound good?

I shoot strictly Canon glass right now. Before we get to examples, I'll go ahead and express my theory on purchasing lenses. Now this theory isn't for everyone but because I place myself in the "Professional" arena I abide by this theory:

Tip #4: When purchasing lenses, don't buy what you can afford now-find a way to buy the best...whether you can afford it now or not.

I'll explain. As technology changes camera bodies are the first thing to get tossed because we're always coming up with better sensors, more megapixels, more 'on-camera' options etc; however, a single lense can outlive 3...4...maybe even 5 camera bodies! So you see where you should be spending your money. Lenses are a long term investment in photography world. I have found it's cheaper to spend the extra money up front for the better lens than to buy a third party lens and sell it later (for much less than you paid for it) and pony up the difference. Buying a lens once is usually always cheaper.

Canon EF 16-35mm 2.8L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom [$1320]: with me every shoot
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro [$480]: for all the wedding details, usually shot at maximum aperture
Canon 50mm f/1.4 [$290]: hands down my favorite lens, often shot wide open
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Wide Angle Lens [$580]: makes for very cool specialty shots
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Zoom [$1700]: great wedding lens and I love the max aperture of 2.8

My shooting style tends to draw me close to my subjects. This is just how I've always worked...and this is why you will find me using a 50mm prime instead of an 85mm prime-I just feel too far away with the 85mm. This is why I don't use my 70-200mm except at weddings. This IS why I love my 16-35mm wide angle zoom since I can be close but yet appear further away. Analyze your shooting style and find out what lenses accomodate it the best. On the horizon is Canon's new 50mm f/1.2 which you can practically see in the dark with...more importantly is the bokehit can create. I love shallow depth of field!

fredegan.com version 1.1 has been unveiled today!  New photos, rockin music, fresh colors and logo make it all worthwhile to stop by!  Behind the Camera has also once again found itself with a face lift so I can better communicate with you guys and so you can more easily find posts you may be looking for. I promise I'm going to leave Behind the Camera at its current home for awhile-there is so much work involved in overhaulin' the blog , its crazy!  I am happy here for now and the blogging will continue.

I've got my sweet links and friends' links over to the left and also links to what gear I use...I know its cliche, but "they" say gear doesn't make you a better photographer; however, gear does contribute to better quality of work, efficiency and speed. So that's why I use what I use...and I feel its the best for what I do.

Sorry it has taken over 45 days to get the new Behind the Camera up-I've been a bad blogger :( So, on that note-let me know who you are if you are stopping by and scold me if you've stopped by more than 4 times expecting new insights into my life but found none since September 4th!!!

**Both sites are also best viewed at screen resolutions of at least 1024 × 768