Christina and Anthony | Salvage One Chicago
When we finally arrived, it was a gorgeous, albeit, scorching hot and humid afternoon. The skyline dissolved into the hot haze as we took photographs in the lovely Milton Lee Olive Park before finally heading to Salvage One for the reception.
Do Wedding Photographers Charge Too Much?
I keep a very tight record on expenses and accounts receivable. There are two good reasons to do this. One; it’s how you run a business. Two; it’s how you should run a business. I could look at any year, but since 2014 is coming to a close, let’s take a look at our expenses this year. I am going to break down the expenses into categories, the same way the IRS does.
A disclaimer; every business is unique and we are not suggesting we are representative of all wedding photographers. We only aim to illustrate some of the expenses and challenges that most wedding photographers face. In 2014, as a photography company, we spent:
Bridal Meetings with Photographer | and Mom and Dad
Photography Meeting Weddings are obviously expensive, we all know that. Often times the photographer is one of the biggest bills on the wedding day – accounting for 10-15% of the total wedding budget. That means that the average wedding photographer is asking for a 2500-3500 dollar check. That’s a lot of …
Ashley + Joey | Coming Soon
Coming Soon Ashley and Joey – you guys are awesome. We know you are itching to see just a moment from your amazing day. We can’t continue to keep ALL this wonderful footage to ourselves. Here is a teaser, a taste, a glimpse. Also, a special shout-out to a kick-ass bridal …
Make it about the Work First
MAKE IT ABOUT THE WORK FIRST
Sometimes we forget that we are more than brands. Sure, we are Pabst Photo, but we are also just people. We interact with others. We are selling more than photography, more than art even. We are selling ourselves. Not in the dirty way. 
Jamie and I are people and almost every time, we become friends with our clients. We share such a special day with our couples. It is such a unique experience. We are grateful every time we get to shoot a wedding. It truly is a privilege to share in their day. When we have satisfied clients it does feel amazing. Sure, there’s money involved, but hearing from a bride/groom about how happy they are with their photos feels pretty incredible.
Breakfast and Baseball
Brunch at the Dawson, Drinks at Citizen Bar, and Wrigley Field As we move into fall and our wedding load goes down we have more time to catch up on our social lives. My sister Cassie and her husband Tom were up for the weekend. We started our Saturday with our …
Bridal Party Photography | Make it Fun
Dealing with a large bridal party. Make it fun. Photography tips and how we got the shot. Before and After Bonus. This post is two parts. First, I want to talk about the importance of having fun. As a wedding photographer, we are often asked to wear a lot of …
Outdoor Farm Wedding | DIY
Film Style Farm Wedding | Outdoor Barn | DIY Jen and Josh Married on her father’s farm, Jen and Josh had a truly beautiful DIY wedding. Jen worked really hard on every detail. Along with her family, they did all the flowers, food, and decorating. We were so thrilled and …
Shooting the Dress | Before and After
Shooting the Wedding Dress | Before and After Photojournalism in wedding photography is not exactly photojournalism at all. It’s not like we are shooting the news overseas. If there is a Corner Bakery bag in every shot while the girls are getting ready nobody is going to be happy about that. …
Art Institute Chicago | Wedding Photography
Ariana and RD | Art Institute Chicago Wedding Photography The groom woke up and his car was gone. This is not how most wedding days begin, but every wedding is unique. RD quickly realized he’d parked in a spot clearly marked No-Parking. “No Worries,” he thought, “it’s my wedding day.” …
Riverside Reception Hall | Geneva, IL.
Kristen and Brian at Riverside Reception Kristen and Brian were married on August 9th 2014 at St. Mary’s Church in Huntley, IL. This lovely couple celebrated in style with family and friends at the cozy Riverside Reception hall in Geneva, IL. We has such a great time working with the two. When …
Columbia Club Downtown Indianapolis
Margot and Mitch | Indianapolis Wedding Photography Margot and Mitch are two of the sweetest people you could hope to meet. While it is very satisfying to meet new people and share in their most special day, it’s such a pleasure to share the day with a family we have …
Wedding Reception at the Rookery | Chicago
Wedding at the Rookery Mandy and Chad Jamie and her sister Kim grew up with Mandy Gibson who married Chad Wells last night. While we love shooting weddings, it was really refreshing to attend one as a guest. It’s been a busy summer to say the least. Of course we …
Bride and Groom Portrait Before and After
Bride and Groom Before and After This is a simple before and after shot. As we were walking around the Chicago Art Institute we were looking for good light. We were just wandering the halls waiting to see something that looked interesting. I always look for large walls of color or …
Artistic Night | Wedding Photography
Artistic Night – Wedding Photography using Flash This post has two purposes. First, I want to talk about doing an artistic shot to end your wedding day. Second, I want to talk about this shot in particular. When we shoot a wedding we spend almost all day with the bride …
The Woes of Owning a Business | Photography
The Business side of Photography Starting, owning, and operating a small business is hard work. For those outside looking in, it might seem glamorous at times. It is not. There is this impression that you get to make your own hours, work from home often, and do what you love to …
Before and After Bridal Party | The Little Things
Before and After, bridal party, and fixing the floor. Great photos don’t happen by accident. At least not very often. This is a very simple post, but I think it’s an important not to make. We live and shoot in an imperfect world. We cannot control our environment all the …
Bridal Party Pictures | Tips
How to take large bridal party pictures Taking large group photographs is not easy. Nay, doing it well is very difficult. It’s not something you master overnight. In fact, I volunteer to say it’s one of the things I still struggle with. It’s difficult. First of all you are trying …
Bridal Portrait Posing | Over the Shoulder
Bridal Portrait Posing Tip Posing is hard. In fact, it’s so difficult, I think it’s why half of the photographers in the industry are claiming to be ‘pure photojournalists’. Bogus I think. A true photojournalist would never tell a bride how to pose – they would only shoot the event …
Retouching the Background | Bridal | Before and After
There are many things that make a good wedding portrait. Lighting, posing, background, just to name a few. Don’t let anyone fool you, they are all important, but lighting is the most critical. Light is what allows us to take a picture in the first place. It is a necessary ingredient …
Chicago Wedding Photographer Prices
What do most people spend on a Wedding Photographer? The average bride spends 8-12% of the wedding budget on the photographer. Does that sound reasonable to you? The average cost of a wedding in the Chicago area is between $35,000 and $45,000 – so, if we assume the stats are …
How I Got the Shot | Senior
Outdoors| How I Got the Shot I really wanted to share this photo from a recent senior portrait session because I love the way it turned out and I think there are several things worth pointing out. As we were walking the west loop looking for locations to shoot we …
Photography Styling, Trends, Fads and the Future
Photography in the Past When we flip through our parents wedding albums we can’t help but laugh at many of the pictures. Why is that? Is it because everyone is lined up staring straight at the camera or is it because dad has a handlebar mustache and long hair and …
Godox Ving 860c Review and First Impressions
First Impressions Godox Ving 860c You asked for first impressions and first impressions are mixed. I love the feel of this thing right out of the box. It is heavy. Feels great in the hands like its Canon counterpart. The battery door opens and closes like it’s meant to last. …
Chicago Courthouse Wedding | City Hall
Yang and Rongbo Wedding We have been shooting together in Chicago for over five years and yet we have never been to city hall – for a wedding or otherwise. Often when people think about a courthouse wedding they think of elopement. For Yang and Rongbo – it’s not like …
How To Install Lightroom Presets
How to Install Your Lightroom Presets: Go into Lightroom and click on Edit at the top (next to File). Go down to Preferences and click on it. There will be a new screen that pulls up. There will be six tabs at the top, click on Presets (second tab). Click on the box titled, Show Lightroom Presets Folder. This will reveal the folder in Explorer Double click on Lightroom Folder. Next double click on Develop Presets Folder. Copy your downloaded preset into the “Develop Presets” folder or into the “User Presets” Folder. Restart Lightroom and you are complete.
Blackstone Hotel Wedding Chicago | Photography
Michelle and Michael Wedding at the Blackstone Hotel Pabst Photo had the privilege of shooting the Miller-Shea wedding this past weekend. It was our first wedding of the Spring and the weather cooperated in fashion. Michelle and Michael were married on April 5th 2014 at St. Mary of the Lake Church …
Cancun Vacation 2014 | Casa Manga | Hotel Zone
2014 Cancun Vacation | Hotel Zone A few facts to start this post. We live in Chicago. Chicago has had one of the coldest winters in 30 years. This was the 5th snowiest winter in Chicago’s recorded history. Going to Cancun in February was a must. Jamie and I set …
Photo Case | Lowepro Pro Roller x200 | Review
Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Review vs the x100 We were in the market for a gig bag to be used primarily shooting weddings. Ordering such things online is difficult because you can’t touch it, can’t load it, roll it, lift it, or get a feel for its overall size. We …
Wedding Photography Image Backup Strategy | Digital Workflow and Cloud Storage
Digital Images Backup Strategy | Lightroom, the Cloud, NAS, and more Backing up and keeping our data secure is something we take very seriously at Pabst Photo. Weddings are big business and they only happen once. Forget about lawsuits and all the terrible things that could happen if you lost …
Chicago Cinegraphs | Pictures in Motion
Chicago Cinegraphs Cinegraphs: uncharted territory for me, but I really like the idea. Since I came from a videography background I still love the art. Video is simply nothing but 24 pictures taken every second. The concept of stills in motion is really appealing. I think it is important for …
Matt and Christina | Engaged at The Rookery
My good buddy and his beautiful girlfriend Christina got engaged today. Matt chose the Rookery in Chicago. I didn’t ask him the exact significance, but I can offer my two cents – for what that’s worth – very little I suppose. The Rookery is a great symbol of Chicago architecture …
Natural Light Wedding Photographer
Natural Light Wedding Photography What does it really mean to be a natural light wedding photographer? Is it a good thing? I’ll do my best to answer these questions and more in the following paragraphs. But first, I want to state that when I first started taking pictures I was …
High End Wedding Photography | Editorial and Fashion Inspired
Chicago Weddings by Pabst Photo We just wanted to share a few spreads from 2013. It’s been a good, prosperous, and fun year. We’ve been published. We’ve broken out of our own market. We shot in Chicago, Indianapolis, Evansville, and all the suburbs (or at least a lot of them.) …
Taking Large Group Formal Pictures | Wedding Photography
Large Family Pictures Lighting Setup after the Ceremony Let’s face it – these pictures are not the most fun to do and rarely will they show up in a photographers portfolio. That said, they are an important part of what a wedding photographer does. This is also not to be …
Bucktown and Wicker Park Engagement Session | Bloomingdale Trail | Chicago
E-Session in Chicago – Mandy and Chad About a week ago we had the pleasure of photographing Mandy and Chad. We met them in their Bucktown neighborhood where they recently purchased an awesome new home. It was a weekday in October – so we knew we were up against the …
Face to the Light – Body Away to the Shade | Posing Bride
Posing is not easy to learn, but it is critical to take your photography to the next level. There are many wedding photographers out there who claim to be pure photojournalists – and if that’s true, I believe it’s because they don’t know how to pose, they don’t know how …
Shooting a Wedding with a Canon Rebel | Photography
T1i, T2i, T3i, T4i, xsi, Rebel Wedding Photography (d3300, d3400, d5300, d5500, d5600) Get Over It There are going to be a lot of people who will not like, will not agree with, this post. I don’t care. A camera is just a camera. Real talent, real artistry, comes from …
Bride and Groom | Wedding Photo | 3D How I Got The Shot
How I Got The Shot | Pabst Photo Part of the ongoing How I Got The Shot series from Pabst Photo encouraging better photography for all. Gear: Canon 5D Mark II, 50mm f/1.4, Yongnuo TN-622C Wireless E-TTL trigger, 2x Yongnuo TN-468 II TTL The following diagrams illustrate the lighting scheme …
Rachel and Evan | Engagement Session Chicago River West
River West E-Session in Chicago – Rachel and Evan and Miles the dog! We had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Rachel and Evan this past Monday. They brought along the newest addition to their family – Miles – a rambunctious and beautiful boxer mix. Anyone that knows my Jamie is …
06 Don’t Compare Your Chapter 1 to Someone Else’s Chapter 20 | Wedding Photography
I intend to keep this short and sweet. As always, the Photography Business Journal series on Pabst Photo is as much for me to document my ups and downs with owning a business as it is for any reader. I came across the quote – in the title – and it resonated with me and how I think about Pabst Photo. It’s very dangerous to look at another photographer and the success they may be having that you don’t. However, we never look the other way and see how far we have come or see how much further along we …
Photography Delivery | Custom USB Drive for Digital Images
USB Drive Engagement and Wedding Photography Delivery All of our engagement sessions and wedding photography packages come with digital file delivery in a customized Pabst Photo metal tin. The USB drives themselves range in 4gb – 16gb depending on the breadth of the shoot. It’s important to note that we …
Lincoln Park Engagement Photography Session | Chicago
Just three days ago Jamie and I set out with Eli and Stefanie on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to capture some engagement photos. Stefanie and Eli are set to be married in TEXAS, but wanted their engagement photos to capture the city in which they met and live – Chicago! …
Indianapolis Museum of Art | Wedding Photography | IMA
Lauren + Mike | Wedding | Museum of Art (IMA) Indianapolis Just three days ago we attended the beautiful wedding of Lauren Staub and Mike Hewitt. The ceremony and reception took place at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It is a beautiful museum both inside and out. The expansive grounds …
Yongnuo YN-468 II E-TTL | Review from Wedding Photographer
Yongnuo YN-468 II E-TTL vs Canon 430EX II (Speedlite) Seriously, this flash kicks so much ass. I genuinely prefer it to my Canon 430EX II. It seems like every time I use the Canon speedlite I’m disappointed or annoyed. It goes to sleep or won’t perform when the batteries are …
The Griswold’s are Here | California
The joke carried through the week with the Pabst clan laughing at themselves as the out-of-town mid-western folk arriving in each location claiming, “the Griswold’s are here!” Unfamiliar with 5 lanes of traffic and motorcycles zipping between the cars we made our way from LAX to our temporary home in Long Beach, CA. From there we ventured in every direction in search of familiar faces, friends, and family members we’ve lost to the left-coast. In short, we had a great time exploiting the fruits, fun, friends, and food of Malibu, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, Aliso Creek Beach, Huntington Beach and …
Chicago History Museum Wedding Photography
Kim Barrash and Mark Kappelman Tie the Knot Chicago History Museum Wedding This magical wedding took place on July 6th 2013. Just imagine if you will, summer, Chicago, 4th of July weekend, and the Chicago History Museum. Add a couple beautiful people, a white horse and carriage, a gorgeous evening for an outdoor wedding, a patio-cocktail serenaded by a string-quartet, and a DJ to light up the dance floor. Those are just a handful of the ingredients that added up to one heck of a Chicago summer night. The holiday weekend ushered in tons of family and friends for an …
Cocktail Hour | The Tasting Room | Chicago, IL
Julie and Anthony Wedding Reception Part II Julie and Anthony were married in California not long ago and had the full wedding experience out west. However, the couple wanted to come home to Chicago and share the joy with even more friends and family and decided to throw a beautiful …
Chevy Chase Country Club | Wheeling-IL | Dancing-Reception | Light Painting Wedding Photography
J+J Wedding Reception Light Painting Photography The wedding reception of John Garb and Jane Heller It should be noted that I was a guest at this wedding, not the hired gun. Although I love this style of photography, I wouldn’t have taken every picture using this technique if I was …
05 | I hate Posing Photography and Shoot Only Natural Light
Wedding Photography | Photojournalism | Posing and Natural Light The title of this blog post is meant to be ridiculous. I would NEVER say that. I think that photographers that say such things are photographers that only know how to shoot natural light. They don’t know how to pose a couple or a bride and groom. If they don’t know how to shoot flash – well – it’s easier to say, “I’m a natural light photographer,” than it is to learn flash-photography. Similarly, if a photographer says they never pose a couple, they just shoot the day as it unfolds …
04 | Looking at other Photographers | Reference Imagery
Other Photographers Work It’s amazing how many wannabe photographers I meet – especially online and in forums – that are truly self depreciating. Websites like Digital Photography School are full of these types. So many photographers, especially those starting out look at the work of others and drool. They convince …
Evansville Indiana | Wedding Photography
Evansville Wedding Photographer | Kokies | Echo Valley This beautiful wedding took place on Memorial Day Weekend 2013. Jaci and Adam are both from Indiana and the parents of the bride, Judy and Tim, live in Evansville, Indiana – which is exactly where this wedding took place. The ceremony and …
Chicago Engagement Photography Session
E-Session | Chicago | Loop – Millennium Park We really wanted to capture the city as much as the couple. The e-session started in the west loop near the Pabst Photo studio and then moved east toward Millennium Park. We shot around the Frank Ghery band shell and Crown Fountain where digital faces spit water throughout the summer. We also took advantage of the beautiful flowers and landscaping of the Lurie Garden. We opted not to fight the crowds around ‘The Bean’ (Cloud Gate) and we ultimately finished our shoot in the center of Michigan Avenue – the city’s most …
How I Got The Shot | Beautiful Bride Wedding Dress
How I Got The Shot – Bride Putting On Dress As with all the HOW I GOT THE SHOT series I have started with a 3D diagram to better illustrate the concepts behind what is happening. This was a difficult spot, but we can’t always control where the bride has decided …
03 | Photographers Laid Off | Sun Times | What it means?
You’ve probably heard about the 28 full time photographers that were recently laid off by the Chicago Sun-Times. I want to talk about it in a different light than most of the news; I’ve heard a lot of Armageddon-like chatter from the photography industry and I’m not buying it. What I hear Photographers Saying There are many who think that the photographer is being further marginalized as cameras get better and better and phones like the Galaxy S4 and iPhone5 sport incredibly good cameras that people have on them at nearly all times. The concept of crowd sourced news and journalism imagery is ever increasing; especially …
Planning the Perfect Wedding – Featuring Pabst Photo – Obviouschild Productions, LLC.
Planning the Perfect Wedding – Book – Available now on Amazon.com Obviouschild Productions, LLC. DBA Pabst Photo’s very own Josh Pabst shares his wedding expertise about hiring the right photographer – videographer. It was my privilege to offer some of what I’ve learned in the past seven years about what to look for when hiring a photographer or videographer. I think I’ve learned more than the 15 pages I contributed to this effort, but that is an aside. For those that don’t know, Jamie and I got our start in this industry doing videography, not photography. Our wedding videography website …
Natural Light | Flash Photography | Sun as Rim Light
Natural Light vs Flash Photography This post isn’t really about natural light versus flash photography, it’s about making our photographs the best that they can be. That is the point of our profession after all. I shoot natural light all the time, but I also know WHEN and HOW to use a flash …
W-9 For Photographers as an LLC | Limited Liability Company
So, you are a photographer and a company has asked you for a W-9. Don’t panic, it’s not a big deal at all. It’s mostly just for tax purposes on their end and it really shouldn’t change anything for you. The form is 3-4 pages, but really you only need to fill out the top half of page one. The first box is your Name and should be simple enough. If you don’t know what your Name is, I’m afraid I can’t help you. Next is the Business Name. I am writing for those that have an LLC. like I do. If …
Color Schemes and Combinations | Colour Ideas
Color Ideas just got easier thanks to Kuler by Adobe Doing graphic design work, painting your house, or learning art or photography – understanding color theory and how colors compliment each other does not come easily to all people. Hopefully this post can offer some help.Whether you are looking for a color …
Creative Live | Free Live Workshops for Photographers
Creative Live is full of talented photographers eager to share their tips and tricks with us. Workshops can be expensive, and if you don’t live in a big city, then they are difficult to get to. CreativeLive has changed that and I have to admit that when I can, I watch them all. You can watch them for free while they are live, and afterward you can buy the workshop – usually for around 100 dollars – more after the event.This week has been jam packed with talent. I’ve listened to Scott Robert Lim talk about manual off-camera flash photography, …
Necessary Steps to Becoming an Amazing Photographer | Funny Answers to a Silly Question
Becoming a Professional Photographer the Easy Way Sometimes you will hear the question asked from someone just starting out in photography, “How can I take amazing pictures like…” Anyone who is a professional in the industry has had someone approach them with a similar questions because he/she has purchased a DSLR and thinks they are going to be making beautiful pictures and a fortune in no time. I want to just SARCASTICALLY say, “all you have to do….” To Become a Professional Photographer Simple. Put the camera in full auto mode. Depending on the model it will likely be the green …
Before and After | Studio Portrait | Female
Adobe Photoshop Portrait Before and After First of all, this beautiful girl really doesn’t need any Photoshop touchup. That said, what girl doesn’t want a little post-airbrushing? We’ve all seen the magazines, why not let your wedding photographer do the same thing? We here at Pabst Photo do not like …
Terminology and Acronyms | Lens Guide | Canon Compatible
IS, VC, DG, DX, Canon, Sigma, Tamron, EF-S, L, USM, XR, LD, IF, DI, DI-ii – Making Sense of all the different lens terminology. Just about every camera lens manufacturer has the same features in their lenses. They of course all use different terms to describe those features.
Yongnuo Yn-622C vs Pixel King Flash Triggers
Yongnuo YN-622C wins the day.
Shamrock Shuffle | Chicago, IL | 2013
Sponsored by Bank of ‘Merica the Shamrock Shuffle is an 8k race through the streets of Chicago. The race just so happens to go right by the Pabst Photo studio. The race took place this morning at 8:30am. I was also pumped to see the Chive flag being flown proudly …
Bitcasa For Large amounts of Data | Professional Photographers
I have been using Bitcasa Infinite Storage for a couple days and will give my initial thoughts below. I am coming at this post from the perspective of a photographer, but anyone with hundreds of gigabytes of data will hopefully find this post helpful. I’d love to keep every RAW …
Dropping Mad Beats 2013
I can’t really explain these pictures. I’m not going to try.
Photoshop Tutorials | Green Screen Compositing
Tutorial on green/blue screen Chroma Key Photoshop Compositing Steps in text below. Chroma Key In this tutorial, we search the net for a previously shot green/blue screen chroma image. Make sure to search for a large image when using Google Image Search. Next, we have to remove our image from the background. …
Tutorial | Black and White Variations | Photoshop | Lightroom
Photoshop Tutorial – Making your images Black and White and other Variations This is a quick video tutorial about a few different ways to make your images black and white, both in Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. Yes, there are more ways. We also look at a couple unique ways to …
Canon 50mm 1.8 Sample Pictures
Canon 50mm 1.8 Sample Pictures – Photo’s, Images, and Test Shots Sometimes you just want to see pictures taken with a lens you are interested in buying and that’s all there is to it. You have read the reviews, you know the price points, now you just want to see …
Exposure Compensation | Camera Settings
Camera Exposure Compensation-Metering There’s a reasonable chance that you have never used or adjusted your exposure compensation. That’s okay. Some photographers never do. Let me start by saying it is an advanced feature. Photographers at this level often shoot in full manual or shoot in a semi-auto mode like AV or …
02 | Free Photography Services | Getting Started
Offering free photography services sounds terrible, but we have to keep a long term perspective on this endeavour. When I started my wedding videography company I was terrified. I truly didn’t know if I could do it. I had purchased a professional video camera at the cost of 2000 dollars while working as an architect in Chicago, IL. It was a lot of money, but it was money I had. I purchased the camera as a toy as much as anything – I thought I would tinker in short films with friends. I soon realized that I did love shooting …
Chicago Engagement Photography | Union Station
Engagement Session in Chicago | Mike and Lauren Union Station and the Studio of Pabst Photo Jamie and I had such a blast photographing Mike and Lauren this past weekend. They are wonderful together and we just loved the way their photos turned out. A mix of traditional and contemporary …
Aperture Settings | Numbers in Photography
A look at Aperture Settings and the Numbers in Photography I’m sure we can both agree, there a lot of numbers in photography; especially to those just starting out. It’s a lot to keep track of. There are fundamentally only three ways you control your camera to take a picture. …
Camera ISO | A Simple and Awesome Explanation
Camera ISO, What is it? One of the questions I get most often from people just learning to use their DSLR camera is what is Camera ISO and what does it do? Most people are pretty keen on shutter speed and aperture even if they don’t know exactly what they …
Face Explosion | How I Got The Shot
How I Got The Shot of My Face Exploding! This is another post with some high level post production and is not for everyone. I want this blog to be helpful and enjoyable for photographers and designers of all skill-levels, so if this post is not for you, close your …
How I Got The Shot | 3D Green Screen Composite
This is not the typical “how I got the shot“. It’s more involved, but it does represent an idea that anyone can play with. Let’s start with the concept of taking a picture, in the studio or anywhere for that matter, and then transporting our subject matter to some other …
01 | Building a Photography Business
I wish I had started something like this years ago when I was beginning in the wedding industry. If nothing else to remind myself how hard it is to start and maintain your own business. I’m not sure if this ‘journal series’ is aimed at other people starting their photography business or it’s selfishly for me to look back at someday. I’ve thought about writing posts like this in the past, but always thought it was too late – but I finally decided that was foolish and it’s never too late to start something. The same goes for starting a …
Revolution Brewery | Brew Tour Experience
Brew Tour at Revolution Brewery Chicago A while ago we went to the Revolution Brewery here in Chicago and as expected, I had my camera with me. I intend to keep this post short and sweet, but as usual it’s always fun to share some personal photography and videography work. A blog …
How I Got The Shot | Window Light
This Is How I Got The Shot | Natural Window Light Not every picture we take is a huge production. In fact, more often than not we have our camera and little else. No strobes and reflectors and so forth.That means we have to take advantage of what the natural environment has …
How I Got The Shot | Snow Flake Focus
This is How I Got The Shot | In The Snow This photo was taken in the winter of 2012 (see more from this photo shoot in the snow. There was about five inches of snow on the ground. As any photographer knows, shooting in the snow offers a unique set of …
Image Manipulation in Photoshop | How much is too much?
Photoshop Image Manipulation | Post-Processing Photoshop is an extremely valuable and powerful tool for tweaking images. Just about every photographer who shoots digital photography uses Photoshop. It can be used subtly and to excess and both are not hard to do. To do the simple tweaks like brightness and contrast …
How I Got The Shot | Photography Studio Lighting
This is How I Got the Shot This senior portrait was taken in our Chicago Photo Studio. In this short tutorial of sorts, above you can see 4 images in the slide-show. This is a recurring theme from Pabst Photo, check back for more 3D photography tips. Number 01 | …
Canon 50mm 1.8 vs Canon 50mm 1.4
The Nifty Fifty : Canon 50mm 1.8 vs Canon 50mm 1.4 When comparing these two lenses, I don’t think it matters whether or not you are using a full-frame camera or a crop-sensor camera. So we’re past that. Now let’s look at the two lenses a little more closely.First of all we have to recognize that there is a 300 dollar difference. In terms of the cost of lenses, that’s really not a whole lot. But, every photographer has a different budget and different needs. It might seem that if money was no object that the canon 50mm 1.4 would be …
Polar Bear Plunge Chicago | January 26 2013
Lakeview Polar Bear Club | Chicago Polar Plunge 2013 A Celebration of shrinkage at Oak Street Beach: My good friend John Testa has been talking about jumping into Lake Michigan for the past couple weeks. This is not the first time he’s done it, but it is 15 degrees today, so for …
5d and 7d | Canon Camera Head to Head | DSLR
5d vs 7d Many people get stuck on the fence when it comes time to shop for a new DLSR. One of the common places many people get stuck is when trying to decide whether to buy a high end crop-sensor camera like the 7D or making the move to …
Canon Lenses to Have | 100mm f2
Canon EF 100mm f/2.0 | Lenses to Have Can you really afford not to own this lens–that is the question. Now, I am assuming that we are talking about portraits or general shooting firstly. Okay, if you are looking at this lens seriously, there’s a good chance you do not …
Studio Pictures | Photo Studio
Shooting in the Photo Studio I absolutely love shooting in the photo studio. I think the main reason is that I love to control light. I love shooting on location too, but it’s obviously harder to control the environment. A good photographer can do both really well, and I like …
Tilt Shift Camera Lens | Try Before you Buy
Rent a Tilt Shift Camera Lens Before you Buy | Photography There are many purposes a tilt-shift lens can serve, but one of the most popular uses, and the one I use, is for architectural photography. I am not going to focus on that however. This article will be more broad and …
NAS For Photographers | Network Storage Drive | Wedding
Hard Drive Storage Space for Photos My Budget: only 500 dollars. That five hundred dollar budget includes the purchase of the Network Device and dual hard disk drives. Storage is like a bear we just keep having to fight. It never seems to go away. As the size of hard …