Okay, so a couple weeks ago I experienced a 'first' in my photography business. Not my first celebrity session. Not my first $10,000 order. Not even my first [insert anything good here]. No, this isn't the kind of 'first' to be proud of. Quite contrary, it's the kind that's more likely to give me an ulcer and cause me to question - at least for a couple seconds - how (and possibly why) I ever managed to start my own business. A couple of friends and long time clients - Robyn and Gary - had scheduled a session with me to photograph some wonderful images of their precious kiddos Emily, Shelby and little Luke. And capture some wonderful images we did. (Is it just me, or did that last sentence sound a little Yoda-ish?) I couldn't wait to get home and download the images because their family is ridiculously beautiful, and I was stoked to see all the amazing moments I remember us capturing.
As image after image came up on my screen, my excitement and anticipation quickly headed south and turned into a near panic attack as more than half the images were a little soft on the focus. To make a long story short and spare you the technical details, I think there is an issue with a lens I was using as a friend of mine has had the same issue with that particular lens when she has used it.
Well, if you're handed a bunch of lemons, you might as well make lemonade, right?... unless, of course, the lemons you've been handed are rotten in which case you should probably just throw them out or at the very least deeply discount the price of your lemonade. When I called Robyn to let her know what had happened, I could tell she was [rightfully] a little bummed, probably a little because of some of the images that didn't turn out, and I'm guessing a lot she and Gary now had to get three kids ready again, drive 30 minutes again, and basically do the same session... again.
Robyn and Gary are great, though, and they really were such good sports about the whole thing, and we made the best of the situation. On top of that, the blessing in this story is that I think we ended up with an amazing collection of images, some of which we wouldn't have gotten if the images from the first session would have turned out. Ahh... lemonade.
Emily, Shelby and Luke really are so precious... it's hard to pick favorite images from this session. Here's a couple that are near the top, though. Look for the slideshow later this week.
3 comments:
Hi Matt,
What kind of lens was it that was soft? I had that exact experience, but I couldn't re-do the shoot because the out-of-town family had to return to Florida! Being that I took WAY too many pictures, we still had several to choose from, thankfully!
The lens I had an issue with was a 50mm f/1.4, so I returned that one and made quite the upgrade (why not just go whole hog?) and bought the 24-70mm f/2.8, and that's been nothing but a joy to work with! :)
Hi, Julie.
I'll fill you in on "the rest of the story". I have a Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 that I like to use quite a bit as my mid-range work horse, but I had damaged this lens at a previous session and sent it in for repair. For this particular session, I was using a friend's Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 as this lens has gotten great reviews and is half the price of the Nikon lens (which is why I recommended it to this friend). However, almost all the images I took with that lens were a little soft, but I think there's a problem with her particular lens as I know others that have that lens and have tack sharp images. In fact, I've tried their lenses on my Nikon bodies since that shoot and gotten beautiful results.
On a side note, I've found myself using primarily my 70-200mm f2.8 with VR, 60mm f/2.8, and 85mm f/1.4 lately. I'll mix in a 17-55mm f2.8 and a couple others, but I just love the 700-200 and the 2 primes are incredibly sharp. Still twirling my thumbs waiting impatiently to get my 28-70 back. though. I'm also getting a nervous twitch about picking up a 14mm f/2.8... really want a solid wide angle prime to add to the stock pile.
BTW, where are you located?
Blessings, Matt
gorgeous matt!
if you need to borrow a 28-70, I'm not using my nikon these days.
I need to sell it. But that would take time. And initiative. Of which I have neither!
LMK
Jen
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