Fill out the form below to get email updates about Pryce series… will be sending out an email very soon with a link to the exclusive clip we showed at Celebrate the Web during Comic Con in San Diego.

Zacuto

Zacuto, makers of FilmFellas, is one of the best companies I’ve ever interacted with. The employees are happy, everyone is friendly and I even found out some inside information… employee benefits are amazing at Zacuto. So… naturally only the best of people work there and they really do give the best service.

Vu and I travel a lot for business. We’re fortunate enough to have companies fly us around the world to teach and work (and sometimes play)… this trip to Chicago really stood out as amazing. Every little detail was planned out by the great Zacuto staff, from having a fantastic driver pick us up from the airport to having us pre checked in to the hotel… everything was smooth and I felt completely taken care of. That really made an impact… Zacuto genuinely cares about people.

FilmFellas Cast 8

The cast of FilmFellas season 8: ACS Cinematographers:

Rodney Charters ASC, CSC, (Television Series: 24)
Nancy Schreiber ASC (The Nines)
Stephen Goldblatt ASC, BSC, (Julie & Julia, Lethal Weapon)
Jens Bogehegn (DP/Producer of FilmFellas/critics)

FilmFellas is directed by Steve Weiss.

Polaroid during show setup

Vu and I had never had the chance to meet Nancy Schreiber or Stephen Goldblatt before arriving in Chicago for FilmFellas season 8. Since my flight was delayed Nancy and I were picked up by the same driver and we talked the entire way to the hotel. It was really cool to get to know such a fantastic person like Nancy. She is really smart.

Nancy Schreiber, ASC

After the boat ride, which I’ll talk about in a bit, Stephen, Rodney, Nancy, Vu and I went to a bar and talked for a couple hours. It was such a great chance to get to know Steven and was very inspiring. Stephen has worked on so many great films (and is an accomplished photographer)… hearing him tell stories about his career was awesome. He also shared some never before seen photos he took way back in the day of some of the most iconic musicians… I was again inspired.

Stephen Goldblatt, ASC

Rodney has become a friend over the last year and I love to hang out with him. I’ve learned so much from Rodney… it seems like if you spend 5 minutes with him you learn something new.

Rodney Charters, ASC

Jens and Steve are the kind of guys I want to be like when our company gets bigger. Awesome people that really care about what they do and care even more about the people around them.

Jens Bogehegn

Steve Weiss

Z-Boat

Holga shot from the boat

One of the special parts of attending FilmFellas 8 filming was getting to go to the party the day before. Yes, it was on a boat!!! We took a river and lake cruise and got to see one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how Zacuto planned it… but they ordered up the perfect sunset.

While on the boat I figured I’d make a time lapse of the cruise. So here it is, FilmFellas Cast 8 Chicago Lake Michigan Time-Lapse Video.

That cruise was so cool, we got to go in the rivers under the bridges… which are very low… and have a great meal. It was so cool to see the city that way, especially since it was my first time there.

The Bui Brothers and Rodney

The Shoot

On day 2 we met at Zacuto headquarters early-ish in the morning… where the Zacuto crew had seemingly been working for a while already… as they were completely set up and ready to go. Shooting FilmFellas is no small ordeal… they completely rearrange a giant room in their building to accommodate the shoot. There were black drapes covering all the walls, 6 cameras (all HVX-200′s) set up on tripods, a dolly and a jib… and in the center of it all, a small table with a single light above it.

the setup

the setup

This hanging light is the only light source during the shoot, and with the white tablecloth and tablewear as bounce provides the perfect light setup for the shoot. They have 4 cameras on sticks, each set up to shoot one person from the front, then one camera on a track that constantly circles the table and one on a jib for some awesome movement in the shots. It’s no small production… when Zacuto wants to shoot something, they get serious about it. Filmfellas is one of the best looking shows (with some of the most insightful content as well) on the web.

Everyone was busy and setting up until the last minute when the food was served and the taping began. The entire shoot lasted around 90 minutes or so (I don’t really remember exactly). We just sat there in silence and soaked up the conversation happening at the table. It was a fantastic experience.

the food before it was devoured

Zacuto is awesome

Our experience in Chicago with Zacuto and the 3 ASC cinematographers was short but so very memorable. We’ll be forever grateful for the experience!

To see the rest of the photos we shot from the trip (half shot digital, half on film), see the flickr gallery HERE.

To see the episodes of FilmFellas season 8 click HERE.

Thanks for reading, click here to follow me on twitter:

When Vu and I attended the filming of FilmFellas 8 we were brought on a really cool boat tour of Downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan. Zacuto took us on the Free Spirit Yacht and Captain Joe did some cool maneuvers to make the time-lapse have some really nice shots in it.

It is a bit long, but I figured I’d just leave the river boat tour time lapse of downtown Chicago as it is…

I have not done many time lapse videos but right after we left and I knew we were going to go on the lake and under the bridges I knew I had to make a timelapse video. It was pretty funny, when I finished making the time lapse I didn’t really want to edit it so I just looked in Soundtrack Pro and there ended up being a song exactly the length of the video.

The video was edited in Final Cut Pro and each photo is one frame of video at 30p.

I really want to go back to downtown Chicago some day.

Thank you so much Zacuto for bringing us out on such an amazing boat tour!!! You guys rock.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting a same day edit wedding fusion video for Southern California wedding photographers gabriel.ryan.photographers. Gabriel and his wife and partner Carlie Renee were the photographers for the wedding and they brought me on with the sole purpose of shooting and editing a wedding video the same day.

The wedding floral and design was by Carissa Jones and the wedding coordination and planning was by Jesi Haack. It was great to work with such a magical team.

A few days earlier I was talking to Aaron Dieppa about photographers offering video products to their clients and I ended up wondering if I could show up to a wedding by myself and make a wedding fusion video same day edit. The goal would be to offer photographers a cost effective way to add video to the day without adding much expense or effort.

So… after talking to Aaron I tweeted to see if anyone had a wedding coming up… I got a number of responses and the most promising one was with Gabriel Ryan. So began the planning…

How could I possibly shoot high quality video from multiple angles, capture sound, bring tripods and stedicams and other video stabilization gear, shoot video of everything… then capture it all and edit something together with photos from the photographer? I was thinking about it all wrong. A same day edit wedding fusion video would have to be less complicated.

My first goal to make this fusion wedding video a success was to gear down to the bare minimum. That would be the only way a crew of one could pull this off. So I set out to have only one camera bag and just bring pretty much what I could fit in it. The following is what I ended up with in my wedding fusion video camera kit:

- Canon 5D Mark II
- Canon 28mm 1.8 lens
- Canon 50mm 1.4 lens
- Canon 100mm 2.8 L IS lens
- Steadicam Merlin
- Zacuto Cross Fire
- Zacuto Z-Finder
- Tripod with Manfrotto 301 fluid head
- MacBook Pro

I’m sure you noticed but the tripod and the Zacuto rig didn’t really fit in the camera bag… but that was fine. They stand on their own.

My second goal was to shoot for the edit. So while I shot I would delete clips that were bad, I would only shoot things I knew I would use and I didn’t waste any recording time. I did end up with over an hour of recorded video but in the final wedding fusion video I think I did a good job of shooting for the edit.

My last goal was to make sure I had enough time to make the edit. My plan was to stop shooting and get started editing during the portraits session and that ended up working perfectly. If you are really interested in the editing workflow please let me know in the comments below and I’ll make a post about it if you all really want to know how the editing went.

Over all I am very happy with what we ended up with and I think I will do this again. If you are interested in hiring me to come and shoot a same day edit wedding fusion video please contact me with our contact form.

We’ve teamed up with photographer Leeann Marie to help bring a full-day Bui Brothers “affordable lighting” workshop to the Pittsburgh, PA area on July 13th, 2010. Leeann will be handling all the logistics and venue planning, and we’ll be flying in to teach the workshop itself.

Workshop Description

Our “affordable lighting” workshop will teach you how to use natural light and inexpensive flashes off-camera with your DSLR to shoot headshots, portraits and fashion photographs. One of the lighting kits we will be teaching with costs less than $300 for everything (two flashes, wireless triggers, light stands and light modifiers). We’ll be showing you the actual reasons behind each lighting setup with the intention to teach you to be able to create your own… not just replicate the exact things we show you at the workshop. Finally we’ll take the images we’ve all shot from the day and do a complete workflow and simple Lightroom/Photoshop editing lesson.

Buy now, seats are only $249. We are selling only 25 seats, and they may sell out, so book now to reserve yours. (note: after 7/01 there will be no refunds on booking deposits)

Course Breakdown

The workshop will cover these general topics and more:
In-class education:
- natural light and off-camera lighting examples and placement
- selecting gear
- gear explanation
- camera settings explanation
- image selection workflow
- editing in Lightroom
- Photoshop editing techniques
Outdoor shoot:
- the perfect headshot
- shooting headshots/portraits with natural light
- small flash off-camera dramatic lighting
- small flash off-camera fill lighting
- using studio lights outdoors
- overpowering the sun

You’ll need to bring your camera and lenses and you’ll want to bring a laptop if you have one… or at least something to take notes on if you don’t. We’ll be breaking off into two groups for most of the outdoor session and will be shooting live models.

UPDATE:

We now have our location!
The Rex
1602 East Carson Street

Basic Schedule (times are subject to change slightly but the general structure will remain the same)

noon-2pm: in-class education (lighting theory, gear, camera settings)
2pm-3pm: lunch break with Q&A
3pm-6pm: outdoor shoot
6pm-8:30pm: in-class education (workflow, Lightroom, Photoshop)

BOOK NOW:

Buy now, seats are only $249. (note: after 7/01 there will be no refunds on booking deposits)

While in London for Converge Two, Vu and I were playing with Drew Gardner‘s Kessler Pocket Dolly… this is my first time using it.

Up close with the RED EPIC camera

Vu and I were at Cine Gear 2010 at The Studios at Paramount and were browsing the expo when we spotted a red epic camera. We could not hold back and had to ask to play with it. If we had more time with the red epic we would have loved to make a longer video showing you the production feature set… It would have also been nice to get some more detailed video footage of the red epic or better yet some real test video from the red epic. Now that would have been great to get awesome test footage from the red epic, even if it was a pre production red epic…

Ok, so some new goals will be to get some real test footage from a an epic camera and then make a red epic demo video.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this quick clip of the RED EPIC.

Come see Vu and I in UK May 4 and 5 for Converge Two.

We will be giving a one hour talk about video marketing and give real life examples of our video marketing success. If you are interested in all of the gear we use on our shoots you wont want to miss our HDSLR gear workshop. We will be showing off some great new gear and taking about what gear to use on various types of HDSLR shoots.

Here is the schedule:

We are very excited to be speaking along side of the following super fantastic people:

Rodney Charters (director of photography for the show 24, cinematographer, director)
Phillip Bloom (DP, director, filmmaker)
Drew Gardner (photographer, advanced lighting expert)
Richard Jobson (writer, director, convergence innovator)
One Dead Pixel (digital media production house)
Pinknoise (location audio specialist)

Buy your tickets here.

UPDATE:
“Den Lennie from F-Stop Academy found Rodney Charters at NAB and spoke to him about Converge Two”
(via Converge Two Blog)

“Whilst at NAB, Den Lennie from F-Stop Academy met up with The Bui Brothers and asked them about Converge…”
(via Converge Two Blog)

At SXSW Interactive Vu and I gave a presentation about what DSLR gear we use and recommend using.

We were very happy when Kent Nichols asked us to participate in the DSLR 3 part workshop SXSWi 2010. We were up there with Philip Bloom, Barry Green and Kent. Philip gave a presentation about how to unlocking new visual possibilities. Barry gave a presentation on understanding strengths and weaknesses. We gave ours about gearing up for success. Kent moderated us.

Here is our presentation, I modified it to include links to the videos:

SXSW 2010 DSLR Gear Presentation PDF

There has been so much talk about the Streamy Awards 2010 this year. Our experience of the awards show was magically unique because we were hidden away with one goal… to document the event with photographs.

This is our version of motion portraits for the award winners and presenters.

We knew nothing outside of our photo area, so please enjoy the video above and see how we experienced the Streamy Awards 2010.

If you liked the look of the video take a look at the photos we took in that setup here.

Actually, without our production team we could not have done this either:
Josh Allard
Megan Chrisofferson
Mark Bealo
Scott Kearse

The Bui Brothers Exclusive Streamys Photos

We’ve teamed up with photographer Lydia Shannon to help bring a full-day Bui Brothers “affordable lighting” workshop to the Ft. Lauderdale / Miami, Florida area on May 11th, 2010. Lydia will be handling all the logistics and venue planning, and we’ll be flying in to teach the workshop itself.

Workshop Description

Our “affordable lighting” workshop will teach you how to use natural light and inexpensive flashes off-camera with your DSLR to shoot headshots, portraits and fashion photographs. One of the lighting kits we will be teaching with costs less than $300 for everything (two flashes, wireless triggers, light stands and light modifiers). We’ll be showing you the actual reasons behind each lighting setup with the intention to teach you to be able to create your own… not just replicate the exact things we show you at the workshop. Finally we’ll take the images from the day and do a complete workflow and simple Lightroom/Photoshop editing lesson.

We’ve made the price an affordable $129. We are selling 30 seats, and they may sell out, so book now to reserve yours. (note: after 4/27 there will be no refunds on booking deposits)

Course Breakdown

The workshop will cover these general topics and more:
In-class education:
- natural light and off-camera lighting examples and placement
- selecting gear
- gear explanation
- camera settings explanation
- image selection workflow
- editing in Lightroom
- Photoshop editing techniques
Outdoor shoot:
- the perfect headshot
- shooting headshots/portraits with natural light
- small flash off-camera dramatic lighting
- small flash off-camera fill lighting

You’ll need to bring your camera and lenses and you’ll want to bring a laptop if you have one… or at least something to take notes on if you don’t. We’ll be breaking off into two groups for most of the outdoor session and will be shooting live models. Makeup will be provided by Giselle Sanchez.

Basic Schedule (times are subject to change slightly but the general structure will remain the same)

noon-2pm: in-class education (lighting theory, gear, camera settings)
2pm-3pm: lunch break with Q&A
3pm-6pm: outdoor shoot
6pm-7:30pm: in-class education (workflow, Lightroom, Photoshop)
7:30pm-8:30pm: image competition and critique (optional) and giveaways

Giveaways

We’ll be giving away amazing items from Shootsac, borrowlenses.com, Blinkbid and more.

BOOK NOW:

Click to book your reservation $129 – (note: after 4/27 there will be no refunds on booking deposits)

Gustavo Fernandez was gracious enough to pretty much do all the work in setting up a lighting workshop for us to teach in Concord, CA the day after our talk at the SF East Bay SMUG (also hosted by Gustavo). All the gear we needed for the shoot was sponsored by borrowlenses.com:

We were a little worried that the location for our workshop was going to be at someone’s house… we’ve done lighting workshops at hotels, parks, cafes and studios… but not private residences. THEN we saw the house and met the hosts. The house is an Eichler (don’t worry, I didn’t know who it was either… shhhh just pretend) and is very open, airy and bright! The backyard was large, had a really cool industrial strength (which means I could play on it) swingset and offered the perfect setting for a couple of the things we planned… and the living room was giant and comfortably seated all the workshop attendees and the projector and screen.

photo by Carrie Stuk:

The owners, Sara and Chris Goetz… um… what can I say about them to actually do them justice? They were the most amazing hosts I could ever hope or dream for and are truly wonderful people. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn’t at all. Not only did they open their home to us and our workshop attendees, but they made muffins, offered coffee and beverages… it was AMAZING and I am eternally grateful to them. (notice that the muffins made it FIRST on the list of awesomeness? Future workshop hosts take note ;)

photo by Carrie Stuk:

The workshop itself was split into three parts. 2 hours of indoor lighting theory, lighting setups and explanation and general questions; 3 hours of outdoor shooting in natural light and with the off camera flashes and also Profoto heads; then 2 hours of workflow, Lightroom and Photoshop training with the images we shot from the day. Everyone edited at least one of their images from the day and we did an image competition to finish up and the prize was a brand new Shootsac and cover.

Almost all of our gear was sponsored and provided at no cost for this workshop by borrowlenses.com. It was VERY cool that we didn’t have to fly with anything, we just showed up and the gear was there. We got a 5D mark II, 3 580EXII flashes, 4 pocket wizards, a 3-head Profoto kit and a bunch of stands. Basically everything we needed for the lighting workshop. It was really nice to fly carry-on only with our clothes in our carry-on bags and no gear to lug!!! It was our first experience with them… but I can see that at future workshops we’ll likely use the same service, because traveling with gear is costly, dangerous… and honestly a pain. We did bring one 5D mark II with us (ALWAYS have a backup) but if you have the gear arrive the day before you do at your hotel you’ll be able to keep everything tracked and know exactly where it is.

photo by Sara Goetz:

We were also lucky to have some awesome models. Goldie Chan, Sam Harnack, Madison, Crystal Peterson and Marissa Louie.

All in all it was a great day for a workshop and we had a really fantastic group of people. After seeing all the work done by everyone that same day (after the workflow and editing portion of the workshop) it was awesome to see that not only did the attendees come away with great images from our instruction and setups, but also from breaking away from the group and trying things out on their own. Here are a few of the images from the day:

Thanks to our photographers for the great images, here are all the ones they sent in from the workshop (including some behind-the-scenes stuff) in one nifty slideshow.

Images by:

Stephen Wong
Sara Goetz
Rosaura Sandoval
Ron Rutkowski
Pepe Abarca
Kathi Cook Photography
Joseph Pascua
Jessie Cho
Exquisit Photography
Carrie Stuk

We had a great time, and can’t wait to do our next one! Look for more lighting workshops coming throughout the year.

photo by Lydia Shannon

Wow, what a week in Vegas we had.

I’m sure that same thought has passed the minds and fingers of many of the 12,000 or so attendants of WPPI 2010. It truly was an amazing week, and it flew by.

We started this year with big plans for our actual time at WPPI. Last year we teamed up with Dane Sanders to bring the first WiFi Blogging Lounge to a photo industry event… and this year we all wanted to one-up it. Pictage had stepped up as sponsor for the booth… it was renamed the New Media Lounge… Dane was providing live streaming interviews and vignettes… so we decided to try something new and provide a live photo stream and a general presence to help people with their new media questions on a one-on-one basis.

We were also asked by our friends at SmugMug to speak at their booth about video marketing, we were hired by KISS to shoot a fun party video, we planned our own lighting workshop for 20 people the day before the tradeshow started (will be shown in another post), we planned on attending numerous parties… and of course hoped to do the usual and make new friends and strengthen old relationships.

You know, just a couple of small plans.

New Media Lounge

Instead of just having a lounge like we did last year, we wanted to actually offer something fun and different. We settled on a live photo stream that would literally update itself as we took photos no matter where we were, as we took them. We knew the technology existed, we just had to figure out what would work for us.

Pictage

Pictage really did an awesome job of making the New Media Lounge what it was this year. They were also completely supportive and helpful in getting us exactly what we needed for our contributions to the booth (two large LCDs for one thing) so that we could make this happen.

They also had their Pictagerazzi (absolutely brilliant idea) who were taking pictures all around WPPI, and a few of them were contributing content to the booth’s live photo stream as well. It was great! If you were at WPPI there’s a REALLY good chance your photo was taken by one of them… you can find them here. They are also doing a special where you can get 5 prints free, so check it out!

We truly couldn’t have asked for a better partner for the lounge, and are very hopeful that we will team up again and be able to take it to the next level and make something even more amazing next year.

Whrrl

We got in contact with the amazing folks at Pelago, the company who created Whrrl (a location based photo/text/check-in sharing service). We liked their service, their iPhone app and their web interface. As we spoke with them and worked out our plan with them… we came to like their people too. They basically set up a custom page for us that would look great on one of the big screens at the booth and would automatically update itself every time a new photo was taken on the stream. Before we found Whrrl we had looked EVERYWHERE for a solution that would do what we wanted… and found nothing. Coming across Whrrl was truly the most lucky thing that could have happened to us.

The Whrrl service itself is based on location check-ins… and everything you do revolves around them. You check into a location (it uses your phone’s location service to give you a list of places in your immediate vicinity but also has a search function in case you don’t see it listed) and once you’re checked in you can do a variety of things. We were using it mainly to add photos. The unique and wonderful thing about Whrrl is that you can add many photos to one check-in and they become a visual story that is contained nicely in one post. So no matter how many photos (or text posts) you upload… they are all in one spot and saved in chronological order… which allows you to view them as a slide show, and makes them REALLY easy to share.

Not only is the iPhone app amazing (and in our opinion better than Foursquare, Gowalla and Brightkite combined) but their web interfaced is designed in a similar fashion and works seamlessly with the app. You can caption your photos, tweet them, facebook them or share the event front page. You can also pretty much comment on anything in the Whrrl universe.

There is also a sort of game behind all the check-ins and you actually earn points not just for checking into places but also for making recommendations (favorite food or secret menu items at a restaurant or bar, etc) or for completing other peoples’ recommendations. There are also special offers that certain vendors (restaurants, shops, etc) can offer directly through the app. This will grow as the company and service grows, but it was nice to see some great discounts when we were at SXSW in Austin the week after WPPI.

We actually have more to say about Whrrl and the service and will write a longer review in a separate post coming soon! For now, go to Whrrl.com, install the app, and check out our WPPI photo stream!

Eye-Fi

Whrrl also put us in contact with Eye-Fi, the only company that makes memory cards with built-in wireless capabilities. It’s amazing. I really mean it. Like… I have no idea how they fit it all in such a tiny package. It seems impossible. It’s an SD card with built-in Wi-Fi that wirelessly uploads your photos.

We pitched Eye-Fi our project and they were able to send us 6 2GB Geo cards to be used by us and some of the Pictagerazzi who would be live photo-streaming the event.

Eye-Fi cards are equipped to upload wirelessly to any network you set them up for… and are already made to link directly with many services including Whrrl, SmugMug, Flickr and a host of other services. What’s great is that you can also have them send a backup copy of each image directly to your computer where it can be set to either drop into a folder or go straight into iPhoto. The images sit on Eye-Fi servers until your computer is on… then they download automatically… no action required on your part. Perfect!!!

We also used Sprint MyFi cards (3G mobile wireless routers) that we had connected our Eye-Fi (yes, we mixed them up all the time) cards to so we literally could upload live from wherever we were!

Olympus

We also pitched the project to Olympus when we visited their booth at PMA and they provided us with two fantastic little micro 4/3rds cameras, the Olympus PEN E-P2. Wow. I am absolutely infatuated with this camera… and will write more about it in a full review in a separate post. Not only did it draw questions everywhere we went (mostly because of the awesome retro design) but the image quality and video quality were fantastic (you can see some of the video quality in the KISS video below).

The Results

The plan worked pretty seamlessly. Over 3,000 people viewed the Whrrl photo stream, mostly people from home who couldn’t make it to the WPPI and wanted to live vicariously through our cameras. Some were people who installed the Whrrl app at WPPI and just wanted to see what was going on. The photos also updated live on screen at the booth, right beside another monitor which provided a really cool view of all the tweets with the hashtag WPPI… and there were tons of them.

SmugMug Booth Talks

Videoblogs can be a powerful tool in not only educating your clients but in allowing them to feel they already know you before your first meeting. They’re also a great look behind the scenes of what you’re doing for other photographers who might be fans of your work and style.

SmugMug put together quite a good variety of talks and we were happy to be a part of it! They also printed an AMAZING metal print of one of our more popular photographs… a shot of Brigitte Dale.

The Parties

One of the big attractions of any major expo/tradeshow is the fact that everyone throws a party. Some of the skill that one develops over the years has a lot to do with which parties you want to attend. We had our eyes on a few but pretty much like to go with the flow… the only one we knew for a fact we’d attend was the KISS/Pictage Studio 54 party because we would actually be working part of the event.

Sunday: Pictage Party / GO|BEE Party at the Luxor

After our lighting workshop on Sunday we decided to head over to the Pictage WPPI Private Party at the Luxor which then turned into the WPPI GO|BEE party. Last year this one was off the chain, so to speak, and was at one point at shoulder-to-shoulder capacity. We decided to attend this one a little earlier this year and came as things were just getting fun. As always the photo booth was a blast… and we got to hook up with Mike Larson again after hanging out a bit earlier in the day at our workshop.

We of course attended with our friends Joe Philipson, Lydia Shannon, Jessica Ashley and Erin Campbell.

Afterwards we took off for some delicious McDonald’s where Joe showed off his amazing burger eating skills (literally an entire burger in ONE BITE that you can see over on this post on Lydia’s blog.

Monday: Mike Larson’s Character Talk

I’ve met Mike Larson on numerous occasions, but we really got to know him this year at WPPI. I hope to some day write a post JUST about the importance of using WPPI not ONLY to run around meeting lots of people and making new connections… but also to spend the time to strengthen relationships with old connections.

Mike stopped by our workshop on Sunday for a bit to check it out (with Eric Farewell who we’ll talk all about in our post about our workshop), then talked with us for a while at the GO|BEE party, then came by the New Media Lounge and spent a good deal of time chatting with us there on Monday morning. Although we’d never invested time in getting to know each other… I was SO extremely pleased to get to know him now. I came to find that he is a kind, genuine, giving person who’s also just a cool, fun guy to hang around. So when he invited us to stop by his talk on character Monday night… we just had to… and although we meant to just stop in for a little while, his words and message were so compelling we had to stay for the full session.

It was awesome. We sadly missed the beginning but what we heard was wonderful and the reaction from his audience was amazing. I look forward to a lot more time spent with Mike in the future and was grateful to have the time with him we did at WPPI this year. The man’s got character (get it?)!

Tuesday part 1: Pictage Studio 54 Party with KISS and ShootQ

Studio 54 is a pretty darn cool place… and Studio 54 during WPPI is a pretty crazy place… and KISS and Pictage made it a heck of a lot cooler AND crazier for a few hours on Tuesday night. This was the party we had been looking forward to… and it was also the party that KISS had brought us in to shoot. They basically just wanted a simple but fun party video that would showcase their awesome fashion show which displayed their colors on some beautiful models in a runway setting. You know… every day normal stuff.

The party was fun, the alcohol flowed, the crowd was RIDICULOUS, and the show was amazing. I guess better than mere words, the video will speak for itself. Needless to say, it was a great time for all who attended and we were happy just to have been there.

Tuesday part 2: SmugMug Sleepover Snuggie Party

After a little bit of shaking it on the dance floor at Studio 54 we headed upstairs to the SmugMug sleepover party… where there was definitely no sleeping going on… but there were a heck of a lot of Snuggies.

I will admit, I’m not a fan of the Snuggie. The function makes total sense… but the look of it… I just can’t get over it. I will ALSO admit though that on the cold outside balcony… I had a little bit of Snuggie envy. Oh yes I did.

photo by PhotoCabina and SmugMug

Word has it the party was shut down soon after we left… which was sad but also understandable… no one should be allowed to have THAT much fun for too long.

At the SmugMug party was Scott Jarvie, who was doing some amazing things with his Jarvie Cam.

Friends

LAST, but most definitely not least… we have a lot of friends we rarely get to see… and WPPI is one of the places where they all end up at once. I won’t even try to list all the amazing people we got to hang out with from our past… or great new people we met… but here are a few photos of just some of the people that we saw AND were fortunate enough to actually break out a camera with. If only everyone would share their photos on places where you can tag your friends (hint: Facebook, Flickr) we’d have so many more! ;)

Special friendly thanks definitely go out to Lydia Shannon, Jessica Ashley, Erin Campbell and Megan Beth. They spent a ton of time with us and made sure we were ALWAYS having fun. We had an amazing time and would change none of it… except maybe when Erin wandered off to the oxygen bar and we had to go searching for her.

A few days ago Canon released the EOS Movie Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro (download it here). It is very exciting for all of us using the Canon DSLRs and Final Cut Pro. We (Vu and I) mostly use the Canon 5D mark II and Canon 7D for our videos… both cameras are supported natively in the new E1 plugin. Unfortunatley the new Canon T2i is not supported in the E1 plugin yet.

This is very upsetting because the video quality from this T2i is actually very good!!! I had a chance to play with Rodney Charters’ T2i a few weeks ago and talk to him about it… basically the T2i is a 7D in a plastic body.

So, for all of you that want to use the T2i in Final Cut Pro and want to use the E1 plugin for FCP… watch the video above to see how to get it to work. I basically follow this method (by Nathan Beaman) on finalcutuser.com) I found on a post on Planet5D.

That method will work for future videos because you need the entire file structure of the card… so what about past videos you have made???

Well… for past videos you shot on the T2i or 550D you can see in the video how to just add some files to your directory with your original .MOV files and get the E1 plugin to work with your 550D or T2i in FCP. The files are all .THM files and all you really need to do is add them to your directory of original T2i .MOV files. If for some reason you have renamed the original .MOV files just rename the .THM files to the same name of the .MOV files from the T2i.

Download the T2i 550D E1 compatibility files here

Rodney was kind enough to send me some T2i files for testing (Thanks so much!!!)

UPDATE!!! – Not working???

I’ve received a few comments and a few emails saying that you all are doing exactly what I did and it is not working… Well.. after quite a bit of troubleshooting Joe Fitzgerald ended up trying a bunch of different things and we came to the following:

Use a a real text only editor to edit the .plsit file. Don’t use the default mac TextEdit. I used TextWrangler because it is free and works great.

The day is almost upon us… when we toss aside thoughts of sleep, rest or relaxation and drown ourselves in a sea of fellow photographers who want to soak in everything they can from the multitudes that surround them.

People attend WPPI for such a variety of reasons. From the practical: “I come to see the exhibits and learn at the classes” to the hippie: “I want to make friends and love each other” to the brutally honest: “I wanna get wasted on free booze!”

This year we’re doing a few new things and a few old things… and we thought we’d take this opportunity to let everyone know some of the cool projects we’ll be up to.

New Media Lounge

Last year we teamed up with WPPI and Dane Sanders to bring the photography industry’s first WPPI Blogger’s Lounge. It was a comfortable space for you to come and sit in plush LoveSacs and use free WiFi… which having access to people who could help you with your questions about blogging, Twitter and other social media platforms. It was quite a success and stayed pretty much packed the entire duration of the tradeshow.

This year we’re taking it one step further. Pictage took the helm this year by sponsoring the booth and brought both The Bui Brothers and Dane Sanders back in for what is now called the New Media Lounge. We’ll still have super comfy furniture supplied by LoveSac and free WiFi… but this year we’re also focusing on bringing WPPI to those who can’t actually attend. Dane will be doing live streaming videos from the booth… while Lan and I will be shooting a live photo stream at all times from the tradeshow floor, the various booths, and even the parties at night. Thanks to Whrrl, EyeFi and Olympus, we’ll be shooting photos that will be uploaded wirelessly within seconds no matter where we are in the city to the special page we’ll have set up specifically for this stream. If you see us any time, Sunday night through Thursday, strike a pose noteworthy enough to make it to the live stream! More details are to follow about this awesome project.

One on One With a Bui

A few people have asked and we know others are doing this so we’re going to have a signup sheet at the booth where you can reserve a time to speak one on one with us about anything you want. Each session is 20 minutes long, and we’ll be available for 1 hour a day. Visit the booth for more details on this.

Smug Mug Booth

We’ll also be speaking at the SmugMug booth at 11:30am on Tuesday the 9th for 20 minutes, then again at 2:00pm on Wednesday. We’ll be taking questions and talking about how merging video with photos doing behind-the-scenes videos has worked for us. There are going to be great speakers there all day long so make sure you check it out!

P-P-P-Parties!

Yes, we’ll be attending parties. As many as possible. It’s part of our live photo streaming project to attend as many things as we can, but I can’t deny that attending these functions is just plain fun. Visiting with industry friends you only see a couple times a year is a blast… and standing shoulder to shoulder in a hotel room while laughing your ass of at the crazy things the more rowdy attendees are up to is always enjoyable.

We’re particularly excited about the Pictage/KISS party at Studio 54 where we’ll be shooting THE party video of WPPI, but there are lots more to attend every single night of the show!

Stalk Us With Ease

You can find out what we’re doing at any time by following our twitter feeds, @lanbui and @vubui. We’ll be geotagging our tweets wherever we are!

What will YOU be up to at WPPI? Comment below and let us know.

- Vu

We’ve been contacted by a few people in the past few days asking if we’d be doing a lighting workshop at WPPI. Our answer for the first two people was a quick no, but after the third we started to reconsider.

We are giving a 4-hour outdoor on-location lighting workshop for Sunday afternoon (the 7th) from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. We’ll have 2 models and you’ll each get to photograph each lighting setup, so yes, bring your cameras.

We’ve made the price an absolute no-brainer $75 (so we don’t take away too much of your gambling funds). We’re only taking 20 people max, so seats may sell out. Book now to reserve yours.

UPDATE:

Sold Out

If you missed this one, be first to find out about all of our upcoming events by subscribing here now:
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The workshop will cover:
- the perfect headshot
- shooting headshots/portraits with natural light
- small flash off-camera dramatic lighting
- small flash off-camera fill lighting

We’ll obviously be in an urban setting and will do a number of fashion-style shots. We’ll also explain the reasoning behind each light placement choice and camera setting, so you’ll be able to not only replicate the scenes but use the knowledge to create your own.

Special workflow and editing add-on $45 :

(I’ve been meaning to write about photographers and SXSW for a while when suddenly yesterday I received a message from Jasmine Star asking the exact question I wanted to answer… Thanks Jasmine for motivating me to actually write this)

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First, for those that know what SXSW is and do not want to read this post… Yes, you should go. It will change your life.

Second, for those of you that don’t know what SXSW is… South By Shouthwest (or SXSX) is a music, film and interactive media festival held in Austin, Texas each year. That description does it no justice though so I’ll elaborate. SXSW attracts 29,000 registrants each year to teach, party and mix with each other. Of the three parts of SXSW I’ll mostly talk about SXSWi (or South By Southwest Interactive) because that is where it all happened for me. I have participated in some of the music festivities; I love to walk down Sixth Street and stop in and listed to a random band that makes me wonder why they are not signed to some major label (and making it in the top ten on iTunes). I’ve also been to a few films at SXSW; many are independent films that you may never hear of again but they are gems, and you can also see early releases of what will become major independent films months later.

So… SXSW Interactive…

SXSWi… Is where I first really started using Twitter… Three years ago… Yep, three years ago, way before Oprah and Miley Cyrus and likely even you had even heard of it. I feel lucky that when I started using Twitter, we didn’t even know what it was really going to become. It was just the best way for groups of friends to follow each other and keep in touch. That, again, was three years ago… I can’t wait to find out what is new this year at SXSWi that will change my life.

SXSWi… Is where you will really learn what New Media is. I’ve been able to sit down and have dinner with major players at Facebook, DIGG, Myspace and been able to sit and talk face to face with the people that are changing the world.

SXSWi… Is where I’ve sat in a session and learned mind-blowing things. The speakers don’t get chosen because of how cool they are or how popular they are… They are chosen because of how they have changed the world… or because they truly are the one person in the world that should be speaking on that subject.

SXSWi… Is where I’ve built business relationships that are lasting years. Photography industry trade shows are great for learning how a rockstar photographer built their business. They even will teach you the perfect lighting setup or the perfect workflow… but it won’t introduce you to your clients. It won’t let you sit down with, hang out, listen to live music, have a good time, get to know… and most importantly… bond with the people that just might pay your salary for the next few years.

That is where it is totally worth going. If not to find out what is cool, if not to learn about New Media, if not to hear someone speak about something mind blowing… Go to SXSW because the other attendees, speakers, trade show vendors and businesses need your services. You just need to be there to meet them.

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Oh, and one last thing… Vu and I are speaking this year… if you come you have to attend to our session, read the details here now.

-Lan

It has been quite a while since we shot this promo video for Furious Photographers… I think the result is still pretty awesome.

Furious Photographers hired us to go with them to Cancun and Isla Mujeres to shoot two weddings back to back. Well… we were there to shoot a promo of them and not really the weddings. We did end up shooting a Cancun wedding video as well, but that was just for fun.

Many of you may be interested in how we shot the photography promo video, what equipment was used and how it was edited. Here are tome technical details about the promo video:

Cameras used: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon HV20
Camera Stabalizers: Stedicam Merlin and monopod
Software used: iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Motion, PFhoe, photoshop and compressor.
Music used with permission by: Paul Dateh and Ken Belcher

Some of my favorite shots are when we took two boats out to sea off the coast of Tulum. It was pretty amazing to be shooting out there on the water, the Canon 5D Mark II even got a little wet.

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This page is the home of the Canon 7D Film Challenge (or we can call it a deathmatch, some of you OG people remember…)

We will update you here as things advance and ideas grow… but for now here is the idea:

1. Shoot on a Canon 7D
2. Take only 7 hours to complete EVERYTHING
3. Final video is exactly 70 seconds
4. Challenge Date TBD

Sign up below to get email notifications of all up to date information:

Canon 7D Slow Motion

We took the 7D out and shot some fun footage at the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval. The parts with audio were shot in 24p with the 7D and the slow motion parts were shot in 60p. We used cinema tools to conform the 60p videos to 24p, we could have slowed the 60p video down to 30p but wanted to shoot in 24p for coolness.

Looking to buy a Canon 7D? Click our affiliate link here to buy one!

The 7D slowmo shots came out really good. Since we were just out to have fun, all of the 7D footage was done handheld. It actually looks great handheld because once you slow the 60p videos down to 24p you don’t see how shaky the clips it.

So, if you have a Canon 7d, I would recommend you go out and shoot some stuff in 60p to make some good 7d slow motion movies.

I think this is a great 7D slow motion test video or Canon 7D slowmo example.

UPDATE:
Lot’s of you have 5D mark II’s and would like to shoot slow motion video with it… there isn’t a great way to do that right now. We hoped that they would have given us 60p for the new 5D mark II firmware and we would be able to use it for slow motion video but that did not happen. We did get standard frame rates though!

If you are looking to shoot slow motion with a 5D mark II then I would recommend either buying a 7D or T2i to do it or just renting a 7D. I know that is not the perfect solution… but it is the only way to get good looking slowm with a DSLR.

We have tested a few software solutions for making 5D2 footage slow… but none of them are worth recommending. You are better off buying a T2i and using that… and on that note:

Click here to buy a Canon T2i and start shooting 60p for slow motion video!!!

Ok, that’s all…

-Lan

We have been fortunate enough to have photographed some amazing talent (and great people) in the past year… and two of our clients and now-friends (Veronica Belmont and Brigitte Dale) have been featured on G4 Television’s Attack of the Show – Women of the Web, with our photographs being showcased on their television program.

This lead up to G4 approaching us about being the photographers for their Women of the Web contest, which is going on right now. Basically the contest is open to women (sorry, dudes) who submit up to a 1-minute video of themselves expressing why they should be chosen as the next “Woman of the Web”. 20 will be chosen by Attack of the Show and posted to their website, where viewers will vote for their favorite. The top 5 will be aired on the show… and the most highly rated girl wins a trip for 2 to Los Angeles and a photo shoot with The Bui Brothers which will be filmed and aired on television.

Neat, huh?

All the details can be found on the official contest page, where you can also upload your video submission. So check it out and enter! Deadline is November 2nd!

A few weeks ago Vu and I shot Paul Dateh and Ken Bencher‘s first music video. Here is a quick behind the scenes look into what we did while shooting the video for 99 dollar music videos.

Last weekend I was in Las Vegas working with Jack Hollingsworth shooting some promo videos for Fotolia at Photoshop World in Las Vegas. More on this great weekend to come in a later post…

Well, what I’m posting today is from Brad Nielson (a great guy that works with Jack)… he is basically a grand master digital tech guy. He just sent me an email with a photo which I think will be classified as The Bui Brothers first “Fan Art” piece:

Marshall V-LCD70P-HDMI first impressions

Today I received a Marshall V-LCD70P-HDMI HD monitor to use with our Canon 5D mark II as a demo unit to test out on a music video shoot tomorrow. The HD monitor looks great so far… I have not yet read the manual but the Marshall V-LCD70P-HDMI seems to be pretty easy to use even though it has a lot of robust features.

I’ll be writing a full writeup about our experience with it after we have a chance to use it on a shoot. For now, if you are looking to buy a Marshall V-LCD70P-HDMI as an HD monitor for your 5d Mark II, you can from the link below (we get a small percentage of the sale).

Ok, I’ve been trying to get this blog post up all day… I wanted to do something clever… but the day is almost over and this just needs to get posted…

Philip Bloom is a fantastic Director of Photography, Director and Editor of moving pictures. We met Philip once while shooting a commercial in Joshua Tree which is in the middle of the desert in California. Not that we were working together… actually, he was shooting some footage with a prerelease Panasonic GH1 and Vu and I were shooting a commercial for Hog for Kids. We just so happen to choose the same spot for shooting.

We chatted for less than 10 minutes, and I ended up saying… “You are the guy with a popular blog right?”… little did I really know who I was speaking to!!! After getting home and looking him up I then realized we should have brought him out for dinner to talk about the future of film! It’s all good, we ended up keeping in touch via Twitter here and there.

That is until now, when I find this video…

In Philip’s words… “Just a word of warning. There is the odd F word in there, so don’t watch if easily offended! Sorry about the odd typo in there…”

If you watched the entire thing, and read the entire thing, you will have noticed why I think this is so funny and why I posted it here.

Rock on Philip!

About a year ago we worked with a company to launch a membership website… and the first week of the launch brought in a total of $147,000.

It was not due to luck, lies or magic.

We’re trying to get our SXSW panel voted in… where we go over exactly what steps it took to create the following, buzz and ultimately the frenzy that it took to generate such a successful launch.

This has nothing to do with the product at all, but the plan that went in place to launch it. When we set the plan in motion we knew it would have an effect on the number of people who would be excited to “buy now” during the launch, but we actually were unprepared for how well it worked.

It was so successful that there were actually people who hacked into (it was hidden behind a password) the purchase page the night before the sale so they could pay their money and make sure they didn’t miss out on the launch sale.

Please click the link below to vote for our panel to be included in SXSW 2010, and we’ll tell you all about it when we see you there!

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UPDATE:
A lot of people are asking what we are selling…

We are NOT selling anything, or promoting any services… just going to share what we did and how we did it.

In a few days the TV commercial we shot for J!NX will air on TV. We (The Bui Brothers) shot the entire commercial on a Canon 5D Mark II. In this post we want to talk a little about the good, the bad and everything in-between that we encountered while shooting a TV commercial on a DSLR.

Taken from www.JINX.com:
“J!NX is a clothing brand heavily influenced by gaming and geeky interests.”

First, we want to thank Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz from Smashface for bringing us on to be the directors of photography and sound for this TV commercial. We also want to thank J!NX for being so awesome, Tracie Cotta for providing excellent makeup and style, and Sarah Atwood for keeping things together!

Here is a look the team that made the first US TV commercial shot on a Canon 5D mk 2:

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The Good

Let’s start by talking about the good. The good actually started with excellent planning by Steve and Zadi… they had a great script written and a very thorough shot list… also it didn’t hurt that Zadi was the main subject of the commercial… and we know each other and have shot together (photo, not video) before. Also, we decided to bring along a 26″ HDTV as an external monitor. Although bulky and not that easy to move around the set, we were able to focus extremely easily on such a large screen. Pull focus is not easy, ever… but it’s really difficult to nail any kind of focus at all on the 3″ screen on the 5D mark II. All we needed was the TV and an HDMI cable, and we had a giant monitor.

Of course another part of the good is that the files that come out of the 5D mark II are AMAZING. While reviewing footage on the huge monitor… we were always very pleased. This helped move the shoot along well as everyone was literally stoked with every shot we reviewed. Using the 100mm macro let us really get in tight with ridiculous shots of minute details… able to focus in on words on a MacBook Pro monitor to the point where you could see the pixels on the screen. Of course, with the larger scenes, it was all about lighting. Colored gels, a hallmark of Smashface/Epic Fu style… really have the background some interest… and of course… color.

Another amazing thing is that even at high ISOs the footage is still fantastic. This means that if you are lighting your sets on a budget, you have a lot more flexibility. We were lighting most everything with a couple Arri 350s and an Arri 600 fresnel… which would actually be tough in some situations with, for instance, an HVX200 which we’ve also shot with. You just don’t need that much light, and our travel kit will now include just a bunch of Lowell Omni lights and a Tota or two. Small, light and more than bright enough for the amazing and wonderful light-sucking sensor in the 5d mark II.

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The Bad

Then there was the bad. First, worst, and FIXED NOW (thank you Canon!)… at the time the 5D mark II didn’t have any manual control… so we were going from shot to shot trying to match exposure of the last shot… which was pretty much impossible. It was frustrating enough while shooting… I can only imagine how tough it was to edit. Not only did we not have manual control, but we were sticking ourselves with wide-open because attempting to control the aperture with the set, DOF preview, and unlock lens method just wasn’t worth it… so we just went with the wide-open unlocked lens solution.

So the shutter speed and ISO pretty much changed itself from shot to shot… we were able to lock it with exposure lock, but not set it.

(NOTE: now that the manual controls have been fixed with the Canon 5d mark II firmware update, this is not an issue at all. We have since shot another television commercial, and it was a perfect experience)

Another issue has to do with the way the 5d mark II handles its HDMI output. I am not sure what Canon was thinking… and whether or not this can be fixed with another firmware update… but basically you only have the proper aspect ratio while reviewing clips you’ve already shot. While setting up your shot everything is super squeezed, and while actually recording it’s stretched. This isn’t a huge issue, especially once you’re used to it, but if you’re working with clients who aren’t able to visualize what things are going to look like when they are perfect… it may be tough for them to approve and like a shot without you shooting some footage and playing it back for them.

We also had a couple cases where there was something in the frame that we didn’t notice because it was covered by the overlaid display data… something to note.

Using the giant HDTV was great when it was already in place and we were using it to focus, but not so good when it was time to move to the next shot. Bigger isn’t always better… and we actually had a much better (and EXTREMELY economical) solution for our next commercial that we’ll talk about in that post.

Audio. Yes, audio is an issue with the 5D mark II. There is no way to disable the auto-regulation that goes on… and the only solution we’ve heard of is by Beachtek and has to do with outputting a continuous tone into one channel in order to keep the levels… well… level (UPDATE: We have learned about a few more solutions, a follow up blog post will be made about this). If you are shooting something for the web… and the audio isn’t that important or is going to be well masked by other sounds or by music… go ahead and do it. If you are shooting a television commercial as we were… find another option.

We opted to record audio through a Sennheiser MKE-66 shotgun microphone into a Firepod into a Macbook pro into Final Cut. We recorded into the ADR module, because it was easy to set up and use… and it worked perfectly. Luckily we only needed audio for the “talking head” segments, so there was minimal syncing that was needed. This went perfectly… but we also now have a much better solution for this that we’ll talk about in the next post.

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Conclusion

The Canon 5D mark II was literally perfect for the television commercial shoot (if you don’t count the exposure problems which have been fixed)… we just needed to learn a little bit about the things that need to be done surrounding the camera to get the best out of it. The commercial looks fantastic and will air soon and be available online, at which time we’ll post it on this blog as well.

We shot all of the talking head shots tripod mounted and locked down… and most of the B-roll (which is most of the commercial) either handheld directly on the camera or on a gorrilla pod which offered a small amount of stabilization but left the real-life movement we were looking for.

There were quite a few challenges we ran into, and some minor inconveniences… almost all of which have been completely solved for us. We’ll talk about all the new devices, software and workarounds we are using now in the next post… which took our next commercial shoot to the literal next level.

Sign up below to get updates from us via email and you will be notified when the commercial goes live:

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Rick wrote us an email, I thought I’d post his questions here and my response so everyone can chime in.

Rick’s questions:
Are you aware of any workshops, or DVD’s that teach how to go about shooting weddings?
I feel overwhelmed and need direction…any thoughts?

My response:

Hi Rick!

First, I took a look at your work, I really like the wedding love story. It tells their story well. Also, congratulations on getting a 40D!!! They are great cameras, I’m sure it will take you very far in your photography.

Second, thanks so much for the great compliments!!!

Lastly, I cannot recommend any workshops to you… There are so many great teachers and so many horrible teachers doing workshops; I would instead recommend you call up some photographers who you admire and ask them out to lunch to pick their brains. Most photographers will love the opportunity to get a free lunch… I mean… share their knowledge over lunch… HAHA. If you click with them, don’t hesitate to ask if you could shoot with them at a wedding. That is the best workshop in the world, live life experience.

Ok, so… I’m not that cold… I’ll recommend a few things to get you started. The hands down best resource for a photographer that is kind of stuck, maybe feeling overwhelmed, needing direction or just want inspiration is The [ b ] School blog archives (or watch them in iTunes). I guarantee if you watch them all you will be inspired and have direction.

Don’t let the fact that the videos are FREE make you feel they are less valuable than DVDs or workshops you can pay for. [ b ] School paid A LOT of money to produce those videos… A LOT… more money than many people make in a whole year… LOTS. They are the most valuable videos available to wedding photographers out there. We, The Bui Brothers, produced the first 75 of the videos and Becker produced the other 75 or so (yep, he is a great photographer and a video blogger).

After you are all done watching the [ b ] school blog videos, sign up for twitter and start to talk to other photographers, get to know them and hang out with them. It will inspire you.

I’m sure there is much more I can say, but I’ll keep it short. I’ve decided to post this reply to our blog so others can discuss it too.

Let’s chat in the comments.

-Lan

A couple weeks ago I received an email with a Facebook notification stating that someone had shared a note with me. That’s actually one of the many Facebook sharing types that I’m NOT used to getting… so I clicked it out of curiosity… most of these noticed I either don’t have enabled or I just delete them and go check it out when I get a chance.

The note ended up being a neat tip from a photographer about photo editing… there was no link to selling anything… no request for donations if you like the tip… just a plain old tip, with example and instructions on how to do it.

I didn’t know the sender of the message, which isn’t all that uncommon. I approve pretty much any friendship request where the person has more than 10 friends in common… I use Facebook much like I use Twitter… for posting information to those interested… and to check out interesting things in my communities and networks. Most of the people on Facebook who add me who I don’t know are photographers.

I chalked it up to a mistake, sending that note out to everyone instead of just a smaller select group of recipients, deleted the email, and moved on… until two days later when I received a second one, from the same person, to the same huge group of people (hundreds), with another useful (to some, I’m sure) tip on photography… with example and instructions.

This time I considered just blocking the person… but honestly their profile photo was really friendly… and I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt… and so I emailed them instead. Lan and I teach social media… and in our workshops we try to include a little etiquette… and so here was the chance to teach someone something… right? I ALSO wanted to just do it nicely.

Hi xxx,

Just got this in my inbox… VERY cool tip. The polaroid transfer one was also cool, and probably appreciated by many.

The only thing is… I would really rather not receive these via email (facebook messaging). That should be reserved for personal communication, not mass mailings. I’m sure some people love it… and those people should subscribe to your blog’s RSS or pay attention to your feed, or even subscribe to your feed via email if you give them that option.

Sending it out like this without it being requested, however, is actually spam, even though I realize you probably mean no harm with it at all, and it seems like you are sharing information and not trying to sell anything.

You seem like a nice guy, even though I don’t know you (you have a very friendly profile pic) and that’s why I’m writing this to you instead of just flagging you or blocking you on FB. I am quite busy and only really have time for information I seek out myself… not stuff that is fed to me unrequested. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

I teach social media etiquette and share my knowledge with the community as much as possible, hence the personal note to you, hoping you will understand this is about helping you and not attacking you.

Take care, and I do hope to see more of your work in the future… when I come visit your page. :)

Thanks,
Vu

I actually got a response, too… a couple days later. They thanked me for contacting them directly… and actually let me know that their Facebook account had been suspended… then asked if I knew of the best route to get their account reinstated.

I don’t.

Sadly, I think that a lot of people go through this kind of thing. It’s his fault for not reading the terms of service… so it’s completely within Facebook’s authority, right AND duty to disable accounts like these… but I wonder if there wasn’t a better resource out there… an Internet 101… something you had to read before you could ever sign on… that would make sure you knew the rules before you got out there and unknowingly wreaked havoc on others’ inboxes… if things like this could be avoided.

Internet etiquette is not as obvious to everyone as it is to us users who have been around for a while. I get downright pissed when people break the “rules” and my first instinct is to block or flag them. But I’m glad in this case I chose to try something different. It certainly didn’t save him… and he had to learn the hard way, like many people do. And hard it likely was, as he had over 1,000 friends on Facebook… and as my friend can attest to… Facebook doesn’t like when you add too many friends too quickly. He got a warning after doing 50 in a day, then another warning after trying 5 more the next day. More rules we need to follow because of all the jackasses out there spamming the crap out of everything.

I don’t even want to get started on how pissed I am that people keep falling for the phishing and spamming crap… which is the only reason they are able to keep doing it. Well, for the most part.

I suppose that as time goes on people will just learn. Sometimes the easy way, and sometime hard. Eventually there really won’t be any older people who are just now getting online. Just people who grew up using computers and the internet… and then weirdos who think computers are the devil. That’s right, there are only two categories.

-Vu

Yesterday Vu and I… well Vu, Bonny, Doug (from Furious Photographers), Tracie Cotta and I did a photo shoot of Justine Ezarik (aka iJustine) at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel. I think that is the biggest team we have had on a photo shoot; I wish we could have that big of a team when we shoot weddings. Which by the way… shooting a wedding at Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel would be so awesome!!!

Anyhow, I wanted to share a behind the scenes photo from my favorite setting that we shot Justine in.

There is another cool photo from the shoot here.

Doug helped us out with some fashion posing, which we learned he does very well in his wedding photography when we worked with him during a wedding in Cancun.

Tracie did Justine’s hair and makeup. We are really liking what she has been doing for us on these latest shoots. You can see Zadi’s shoot here, and Felicia’s shoot here.

We are also going to have a lighting workshop here tonight too. Lawrence from Tofurious teamed up with Vu and I to offer an off camera lighting workshop for photographers. We sold out within 4 hours on announcing it!!! That was pretty exciting. We will be using this lawn at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel to show some lighting that photographers can use during headshots, portrait sessions, weddings and just for fun:

-Lan

Vu and I had a great time the other day when we shot a promo video for Kabloom Studios. Here are some photos Emir shot of us while we were shooting.

You can read a bit more about the day on Khara’s blog.

Vu and I are teaching on the Camera Cruise!!!

A few months ago we got in touch with Carl who is putting on a fantastic mash-up of workshops. He is inviting a handful of top photographers to give their workshops on a cruise ship. That’s all I’ll write for now… more details will be posted soon.

The above photo was taken at a meeting we had in Las Vegas planning out the Cruise.

If you’re new to our site and just seeing us for the first time you should head on over to our about page or check out the latest on the blog. Or see photos and videos from some of our favorite shoots:

Felicia Day

Veronica Belmont

iJustine:

This page, however, is about The Brothers Bui Photography.

Our friend, mentor and sometimes work colleague Steve Woolf has for the last few years continually supported our name change to The Brothers Bui… which would make our business name either The Brothers Bui Photography or possibly The Brothers Bui Media. It’s funny because every time he says it I’m reminded of previous names we’ve had… Bui Studios… Bui Photography… and now just The Bui Brothers… we’ve had a few so-called business names.

We actually started our name in photography… back when we were still amateurs and had no true intentions of making photography our full-time job as Bui Studios. We bought buistudios.com and used it as a little portfolio page (this was back in 2000 or 2001 before we’d ever even shot a wedding). At the time you wanted to sound bigger than you really were in your web presence… so having “studios” in our name made it sound like we were something special… or so we thought. Due to me changing email addresses and not using auto-renew on my domain names at the time… I lost the domain. It was snatched up by one of those companies that buys a ton of domains and puts ads on them… and Bui Studios was dead.

After that we considered changing our name to Bui Photography. If you think about it… Bui Photography was quite the perfectly descriptive name for us at the time… but after flirting with the idea for a short while… we decided to take “photography” out of the name… just in case we decided to do something a little different. So just as quickly as it was born… Bui Photography was gone.

We ended up just going with the name The Bui Brothers because it was who we were… it had a little alliteration and honestly we couldn’t really think of a different name at the time. Losing buistudios.com and abandoning Bui Photography were probably the smartest things we ever did… because The Bui Brothers is truly the perfect name for us and has thus far served us well.

Ok after writing all this I realize that I’m too tired and it’s hardly even a story… but oh well… it’s now written. Two brothers decided to do some work together, Bui Studios then Bui Photography became The Bui Brothers… and then it became now. Wow yeah tired… I got nuthin’.

Lan and I spent a few days with Carlie in San Francisco shooting various people and having a generally good time. We had to fly Carlie back early, but we were driving (lots of lighting gear) and decided to come back on Saturday afternoon. Maybe 2 hours out of the city we saw a cool looking orchard coming up on the left… so we exited to investigate.

There were no fences to jump or signs to ignore, so we quickly set up lights, shot for a bit, tore down and got the hell out of there. All told we were probably there for just over an hour… this video and these images are the result.

Photos shot on Canon 5D mark II, video on Nikon D90.

Our Boudoir Divas at the KISSmas party.

Lamborghini plus Shaun plus driving plus police =’s this video…

Trevor Meeks gives the “day with a Lamborghini” he just won away at the KISSmas Party.

Kevin Swan and Shaun Austin thank the sponsors and others at the KISSmas Party.

This is a video test for our workshop.

Get some photos of yourself that is!!!

Vu and I will be in San Francisco doing a couple photo shoots from December 17th though the 20th (Wednesday until Saturday). We thought since over the years we have had a lot of requests from that area and since we rarely make it up there, we would open up and let everyone know they can take advantage of us being there.

Here’s the deal; since we will already be there fully geared up, it is last minute, the economy sucks, and we have currently have gaps between shoots… we want to help anyone out that needs photos. We want to make sure all of you that need photos can afford them (or just get a killer deal). So we figure we would make it a no-brainer if you need photos you can get them price… 

Contact us here or leave a comment below to book us in San Francisco.

Oh, and you LA people want something cool like this? Contact us and we can work something out for you too.

First, we want to set an expectation for how often you will hear from us (via our newsletter, if you are not subscribed click here to subscribe). We know how busy you are and we know how much of a pain unwanted email is. In order to respect that, we only plan on sending either one or two emails per month and we’ll always keep them short. Basically if we don’t have something at least interesting to say, you won’t get an email just in the interest of reminding you we do in fact still exist and that yes, we are still really cool.

As many of you have probably seen, we have recently released the Boudoir Divas promo here as well as the beginning of what will encompass the Gabriel Ryan Photographers EPK (Electronic Press Kit) here and here. We’d actually like to hear from you… we’re trying to take the look, feel and possibilities of these promotional videos to another level, one you would only usually see in movies or on TV. So if there was no limit, what would you want in your video? For example, in case you need a quick creative jog… special effects like you floating over the wedding ceremony snapping aerial photos? Space ships? Black hole technology?

Be Seen.

Take a look at this quick video:

oh, by the way, this video will play right on your iPhone.

We believe in order for you to stand out you must be seen (um, duh). We have so much to say about this topic we cannot cover it in an email. Instead we want to invite you to a free workshop! We have taught video blogging, online video and Internet etiquette for 3 years now, starting when we were invited to speak at the Apple store in LA. It’s been a blast teaching and helping others learn, but we have not had time to do it for the last few months, which has left us with quite a few requests we’ve had to leave unfulfilled.

So… this will be our last free workshop… and we’re inviting you all to come. The workshop will be held in Orange County on Tuesday, December 16th, exact times to be announced. Space is very limited. Sign up here.

Again, if there was no limit, what would you want in your videos? Let’s discuss it below.