Lens Focus Testing

I just read an article that I thought was interesting enough to pass along, assuming at least some of you have SLRs! =)

Seems like I recently heard some pro photographers saying that they send their lenses in every year for re-calibration. My MarkIII has a built in calibration tool that I can use to make minor adjustments to each/any lens individually, but I've never really had to use it so far. Even on lenses I've had for years. Maybe buying "L" (professional) lenses is the difference, but we do have a couple of plain ol' EF lenses that have never given us any trouble so far.

Anyway, when I saw this focus test article, I was pleased to have a good way to actually scientifically test each one just to be sure. If you use it and find it helpful, I'd be interested in hearing about it! I plan to test mine as soon as I have an hour to take my time and go through all of my lenses and camera bodies. Should be fun! I like that kind of thing.

Here's what the target looks like:

And that's the setup.

And here are the results (or what *should* be the results if your lens is in focus). If your lens is out of focus, you'll get something more like this...

...in which case it's time to send it back for adjustments!

(Oh, for the record, all of these photos came from http://photo.net/learn/focustest, not my lenses, thankfully! =)

Tillanie & Clay's Wedding Photos are Online!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Tillanie & Clay's wedding photos are online and ready to view!


Click on the photo above or go to PrintsCharmingPhotography.com/proofing to view the rest! (Tillanie's maiden name is the gallery password.)

I'll blog several of my favorites soon, but it's late and time for a break! =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone is enjoying Valentines Day. If nothing else, it's a great excuse to enjoy candy all day. =)

I managed to think ahead this year and avoid the long line of suckers paying $100/dozen for roses. I've worked with Rebecca's Silver Rose on two or three occasions now and have always been impressed with her cheerful attitude and quality flowers, so I was delighted to hear she was delivering roses for Valentines Day. Here's a quick picture I took a moment ago of the Black Magic roses she did for me (for Holly).


Isn't that purple heart-shaped thingy cool? (Right in the middle). I don't know what it's called, but it's a real living flower/plant! Yeah, I'm not impressing any botanists and florists out there with my descriptions...

Holly said it's the nicest arrangement she's ever had! So, very well done, Rebecca! Thanks for making me look good. And any brides out there wanting to look good, consider Rebecca for your wedding flowers and arrangements! You can see more on her website if you're interested. Just a little plug out of gratitude... Thanks again, Rebecca!

Megapixels: how many is enough?

"How many megapixels should I get in my next new camera?" That is the question of the century, isn't it? =)

If you wonder that from time to time, here's a handy chart to help (thanks to Design215 of Ft. Lauderdale, FL). The numbers inside the chart (in the colored area) represent megapixels and the numbers on the outside represent print sizes in inches.


Basically, you can print up to 8x10 with an 8 mega-pixel camera. For most families, this is probably adequate, but if you like to be able to print larger photos from time-to-time, then you may actually benefit from some of these 10+ megapixel cameras that are out now.

I mentioned the Canon G7 a while back and actually have heard from at least a half-dozen readers who ended up buying one as a result. Wow! That's really cool... especially since they all love them and were really happy for the recommendation. Canon has since released their new G9 which is even better than the G7 in a lot of ways, so just wanted to keep our readers informed.


If you ever need a site to review a broad range of photo equipment, the one I like best is dpreview.com. I actually have their blog in my RSS reader so I get their daily updates which are always interesting (to me at least!). =)

Okay, time to go crank out some wedding retouching! I have a couple of wonderful brides patiently waiting.

Photography Lunch

Well, I got my first invitation to lunch with a photographer and I'm excited! I can see this being really a fun way to get to meet a lot of the up and coming photogs in the area in addition to being able to help them however I can.

This Thursday's lunch is with Garrick Voth whom I met at the recent Celebrity Chef event I covered for St. Anthony Hospital. (His website is being renovated, so the link doesn't work as of today, but hopefully it will soon so bookmark it! Wanted to at least give him a plug while I was thinking about it. =) Photography is still being grown as his side-business, but his work shows promise and creativity, so it will be fun to visit and talk shop together.

Hope to hear from some more of you shy blog stalkers if there's anything we can help you with!

Oh, if you signed up for the Ed Pierce seminar coming to town today (2/11), and you can make it early, we're going to grab a bite to eat over at the closest Charleston's restaurant there on Meridian near the airport around 4:30... Open invitation! Just let me know so we have enough seating -- my cell is 405.623.7381.

Holly & Clint's Engagement

Okay, this post is packed with portraits! I'm making up for not having posted many other photos lately. =)

As promised, here are some favorites from our most recent engagement session - Holly & Clint's. If I ever need a model couple for a photography lesson or some such thing, Holly and Clint are going to get a call from me. They were just the perfect couple: romantic, affectionate, fun to be around and they laughed easily. In my experience, the two common denominators in amazing portraits are 1) the subjects are having a good time. 2) they're relaxed and comfortable. I guess both of those are closely related, aren't they?

This was one of my absolute favorites from the day. Love this B&W image! Guys, I think this needs to be a 20x30 in your living room. Seriously, I think I'm going to order one for my office I like it so much.

(I'm captioning below the photos now, did you notice?) I love this one, too. Great colors and moody cracked concrete & bricks... One of my favorite spots for sure.

Check out this red phone booth! Ever since I saw them on campus as OU I've been waiting for the right couple to photograph there. Holly & Clint were game, so we drove down and got some fun shots in the phone booth. The sun was about to set and the colors were intense!

To see the rest of the proofs click here. (The password is Holly's last name.)

Thanks for checking out the latest at Prints Charming! Hope you have an awesome weekend!!

What a great day! Let's do lunch.

It's just been one of those days that things seem to be falling into place...

-The new MacPro is SO fast and has just been a great productivity enhancer for us

-I got my cell phone to sync with my computer so now I have everyone's phone number programmed and my phone will tell me who is calling!! I don't know why I didn't try this sooner, but with my Mac it was really painless and easy to do. Crazy!

-I'm almost entirely caught up with weddings and portrait sessions and I'm working on one of my all-time favorites: Holly & Clint's. This couple was so much fun... keep an eye open for some samples from their session! I hope to post some soon... They're just too cute and I can't wait for their wedding!

-I'm eating leftover Little Ceasar's pizza. Mmm mm!


I got an idea from one of my all-time fave photogs out in SoCal (Becker) that I'd like to try out. On Thursdays, Holly goes to our church to help plan and organize the children's programs. Anyway, that usually leaves me open to do lunch (or eat leftovers as the case is today) with friends and fellow photographers and I've been doing that for a while, but I wanted to make an offer to any blog stalking beginner photographers, etc. out there... If you'll buy me lunch, I'll be happy to spend an hour or so visiting with you and helping you with your business and your photography however I can!

It's a fun way to get to know each other and a small way that I can give back since others have given me so much as well by way of help and training. No, friends, you don't have to buy my lunch now on Thursdays if you call to invite me. And the main point isn't about buying lunch, really, I can afford my own lunch. =) I do frequently get calls and emails from folks who have so many questions and want to learn that I thought this may be a great way to facilitate that.

As of right now, next week Thursday (Valentine's Day) is open but the next one is booked (2/21). Leave me a comment, call me or drop me a line and we'll make it happen! I look forward to meeting some of you!

Print Sale through Feb. 15th

The large print sale will run through mid-February and we just wanted to be sure you knew about it! Just one week (and a half) left to get your large and/or metallic prints on sale for 20% off.

Here's are the details:

Our pro lab announced a winter sale and we want to pass along the savings to you! So, starting now and running through the 15th of February...

• Save 20% on large wall prints 20"x 24" and larger
• Also, metallic prints 11"x 14" and larger will be on sale as well for the same price as normal prints, saving you the standard 20% up charge for metallic prints

Drop us an email or use our website contact form to let us know if you're interested. These large wall prints will probably never be this inexpensive again, so there's never been a better time to update those walls! =)

Nice Weather!

We were spoiled today with 80-degree weather and sunshine. Hope everyone was able to soak up a bit of it, because tomorrow they're calling for snow-showers. I love it! =)

Great Customer Service Experiences

We're finally all set up with credit card processing on our sweet new proofing system by Luckity Pixel! As of early January, '08, we moved to a new self-hosted proofing solution that allows us a lot more control over orders, quality, and what we offer for sale on our proofing site. It's been a huge project that's taken probably hundreds of hours of work, but it's been worth it I am very happy to say. Luckity Pixel's customer service and support throughout the entire process has been fantastic.

If you're a photographer looking for a good proofing/ordering solution, don't overlook PickPic. You can see how ours looks here if you're interested.

I had another really impressive customer service experience recently that I wanted to pass on to you as well... As you can imagine, we go through hundreds of batteries every year. Or at least we used to! A couple of years ago we invested in some PowerEx rechargeable AA batteries and a sweet digital analyzer/recharger/reconditioner from Maha company. Photographers out there, you will love these batteries! They recycle faster and last longer than any Lithium AA batteries out there, they're lighter, and you can recharge them like 1000 times.

Anyway, I was having trouble reconditioning them after a full season of regular charges, so I contacted Maha and told them the symptoms. Without requesting any personal information (i.e. credit card, order number, etc.), the representative told me he would ship out a new one and send a UPS call tag for me to use to return the defective one.

Wow, I was blown away! Sure enough, when the new charger arrived, it reconditioned the batteries just fine. So I packed up the old one and sent it back. What a refreshing experience to deal with a company that was so trusting and quickly did whatever needed to be done to fix the problem!

Seriously, experiences like that are what make me (and you) tell all of our friends about the company/product and it inspired me to be sure to always treat our own customers to the same extraordinary level of service.

Have More Than One Admin User Account!

Here's a little public service announcement:

It's best to have more than one administrator account on any computer. That way if anything were to ever go wrong with one of the admin accounts, you have another that you can login with to correct the problem.

Not a big deal, but we just got a new computer and while I was installing applications, I managed to mess up a critical user account file (to the first and only user account setup so far). So, we're reinstalling the operating system and are starting over. Thankfully I was only on step #2 when this happened!

Anyway, just thought it might be a helpful thing for you all to keep in mind as well. Hope you had a great weekend!