Ed Goodfellow Photography

New BLOG!

2010-02-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, so, I'm guilty of not posting in like, FOREVER! But, I have an excuse.... I moved and didn't have internet service at the new place, so something had to suffer... blogging. The good news is that I have a new blog, which I'm hosting on my own website. It's a standard WordPress blog which seems to work fine (for now) even with my limited internet/web authoring ability. This blog will probably stay active until Google gets tired of hosting it, then it'll be all on my new one. Please stop by, visit and leave me a comment.

www.edgoodfellowphotography.com/blog

New images on the way!

2009-07-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'll keep it short: New wedding, beautiful people, beautiful images coming soon. Stay tuned........

Radio Poppers Part 2

2009-07-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I sat down, unpacked my Radio Poppers and set them up. They come configured for Canon, but since I shoot Nikon, there was one setting I needed to change. From then on, they worked like a charm! These things are really COOL! Now, I can hide a flash anywhere and it still works! On full TTL! Their arrival and set-up is none too soon, either, since I have a wedding to shoot in Gaspe next weekend. I'm really looking forward to the trip, although all these trips to Quebec are making me more of a "destination" wedding photographer than a regular photographer. That's still kinda neat, though. Watch for some sample pics in the upcoming future.

Radio Poppers

2009-07-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

RADIO POPPERS are HERE!! Muahahahahaha!!!!!!

Seriously, the Radio Popper flash controllers I ordered the other day arrived, and quite speedily too. If you haven't heard of them, they are small units you add to your on-camera and off-camera flashes which convert the visible-light TTL control signal to a radio signal, then back again. Sounds kinda geeky (my middle name) but it allows you to skip worrying about having you off-camera flash "see" the flash on your camera so it can get its control signal. This allows you to do things like hide a flash in the roof of a gazebo, or put it behind someone to back-light them or put it inside a box or cupboard and have the light shining out, the list goes on and on. C'est tres cool! I'll post a few pics once I get time to start playing with them.

Website down

2009-07-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

Just a note to let everyone know my website is down. I'm checking on it, but I think the hosting company is doing maintenance or something. I'll post again as soon as it's back up.

0900 AM The site's back up. This is hosted on the West coast, so I think there was just some overnight maintenance.

CANADA DAY!!

2009-07-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

Today is Canada Day! This is a day set aside for parades (which started in my hometown, by the way) and celebration of all things Canadian. To add an East Coast twist, I think I'll have King Cole tea with my Poutine for supper!

Ed Goodfellow

2009-06-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to speak with the "other" Ed Goodfellow this afternoon. He's a very accomplished photographer in Windsor, Ontario, and a great guy as well (must be the name). Anyway, I'm definitely going to buy him lunch or something next time I'm in his area. Look him up here

Online Print Ordering

2009-06-11T15:41:00.001-07:00

Good News! Online print ordering is now available! This means clients will be able to purchase prints from me (like they always could) but now do it online and even pay with their credit card. When the prints are ordered, I get an email advising me which ones were requested, I have them printed at my own lab and then ship them out or hold them for pick-up. Too Easy, both for my clients and for myself. And, the high quality processing that I demand for my work is still intact. Don't get me wrong... big box stores and online or 1-hour developing definitely has its place, but when I'm doing paid work and someone has hired me for quality photography, I don't want it ruined by low-quality printing and neither does the client.

Feel free to check out the interface here

Vendor clients

2009-05-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is SOO true!!

Grad Photos

2009-04-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

The first of the Grad photos for 2009 is here!

New Wedding Albums

2009-04-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

IRISbook has recently announced a new design structure and price scheme. This is great, because it now allows more options than last year's and will allow me to serve more clients with their Awesome quality printing. I've created a new (interim) price list just for their albums which can be downloaded from my site here. Can't wait to see the new linen covers!

Senior Portraits

2009-04-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it's mid-April and time to start planning senior portraits for the upcoming graduation. This year, I'm going to offer both a formal sitting with the gown, background, etc. and also some on location when requested. This will allow my clients to have something that stands out from the normal images taken by school photographers. Maybe I can do a package which includes both, if that's what is requested. Shouldn't be too difficult to cook something up.........

Image Processing

2009-03-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm trying out a plug-in called Silver Effects by Nik Software. It's designed for doing black and white images, which I really like, and it has all these presets that allow you to replicate the grain and appearance of shooting some of the popular films used prior to the big migration to digital image capture. I processed one image like that, and it's kinda cool. I can see there'll be quite a learning curve with this, however, before I'm really getting stunning images. Have a look at an early attempt:

2009-03-05T13:14:00.001-08:00

Deer Portraits

2009-03-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

Well, haven't been at my blog for a while. I was out yesterday with a fellow photographer after hearing the deer yard in Warwick. We sorta used my truck as a portable blind, which allowed us to have our equipment at hand and also helped us keep from disturbing the animals. It turned out to be an eventful trip, with a couple of good pics as well.

Portraits

2009-02-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

Hey! Since I seem to be doing some portraits in the off-season, I broke down and bought a background kit. That's really just a fancy name for two heavy-duty light-stands and a crossbar, but it sounds nice anyway. I think this'll also make a nice addition to some of the services I can provide to my wedding clients, since in our neck of the woods, it takes a big occasion for everyone to get together and allow their photo to be taken. I'm thinking I'll be able to set up the background and a couple of lights and do family and guest portraits...... I dunno, might be fun for the wedding couple to offer this to their guests.

Oh, and the two or three people in the world that might actually read this may have noticed I'm on Twitter now. I thought it'd be cool.

Brag Book

2009-01-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Many photography clients are now lugging their precious wedding albums around to work and to friends' houses to show off their awesome day. This is usually great, but sometimes can be a real pain! Because I recognize this, as have many other photographers, this year I'm offering a couple of options for a Brag Book. The book will be a smaller sized album, with a few different options. There is the portfolio-type, which will hold a number of 4x6 or 5x7 prints, a printed album similar to the wedding album, or the Ultimate Brag Book: an Apple iPod Touch with your images installed, and engraved with your wedding info on the back. (image courtesy of Apple)

Lenses

2008-12-31T11:04:00.000-08:00

I just received my new Nikon lens. It's the AFS 70-200 f/2.8 IF-ED VR. That's a long name, but it's a long lens too. I rented this lens for a recent wedding and I loved it so much, it became a to-me/from-me Christmas gift this year. I love to-me/from-me gifts.... I always get exactly what I want! This thing has shallow depth of field with a large f-stop, which I really love. You just can't beat pro-level glass.

Brides

2008-12-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, here's a very clearly wedding-oriented post. I find myself speaking with brides who are looking for the services of a wedding photographer. I photograph weddings. This should be a good mix, right? Well, maybe/maybe not. Some brides are doing their homework and some are not. The ones that are not seem to simply ask their friends who did their wedding and, if they like the images, call the photog and ask the price. If the price is within their budget for photography, they make a deal. Now, don't get me wrong: word of mouth advertising is the best, but this method of hiring someone to document one of the most important days in your life? Hmmm....not so much. I frequently find myself encouraging the client to look around, do some homework, see what's available, then talk to me again. ASK QUESTIONS!!! LOTS OF QUESTIONS! To that end, I'm in the process of constructing a short list of questions every bride should be asking prospective photographers prior to hiring them. I'm even asking for help from former clients who, in my opinion, did their homework before hiring me. I'll eventually make this list available as a downloadable PDF which any bride or groom can grab from my website for their personal use in making informed choices about the photographer they hire. Anyone who would like to have input on this list is hereby invited to comment on my blog. I reserve the right to agree or disagree (which translates to us/not use) your comments. :) This is gonna be fun!

the Question

2008-12-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

OK, today, I'm going to answer questions. I don't do photography as a full-time job, but rather as a profession adjuvant to another profession. One thing I'm frequently asked is, would I like to do photography full-time and nothing else? The true answer is: yes and no. I love my "real" job. I also love photography. The problem, however, lays in several layers. First of all, if I start doing photography as a full time job and my sole source of income, I'd probably have to do whatever jobs come my way and/or move to a bigger centre. I really like the autonomy I get with not needing to accept every job I'm offered. In fact, I often joke that my sales pitch is, "I don't need the money, so hire me because I'm doing what I love to do". Additionally, I might have to put my prices up because the equipment and technology is always changing and the big camera makers, like Nikon (my fav) don't give away their stuff. I currently show up at a shoot with several thousand dollars worth of equipment, and I'm holding it in just one hand! My beloved wife is not too keen on my even spending more time on the computer (although, this might become an excuse to get a new machine, but I digress). More pics mean more processing, more bandwidth, more more more. More fun too, though! On the up side, right now I seem to be travelling quite a bit to do what I do, and that's pretty cool! I don't mind travelling, but I guess I'm not much of a businessman because I hate having to charge extra for all the expenses this incurs. I'd like to go for free, but this just isn't possible.

If anyone IS looking for a free photographer, Chase Jarvis is looking for an interesting idea that he can shoot. He'll go anywhere in the world. Look him up at www.chasejarvis.com . He does some awesome stuff.

Feel free to post some more questions here in the comments section, and I'll try to answer what I can.

Sushi !!

2008-12-15T22:08:00.000-08:00

OK, I admit it: I actually like sushi. And if you're in Moncton, go to Pink Sushi. Their service is great, and it's some of the best sushi I've eaten (warning: my experience is limited). Anyway, I'm happy so I'm giving them a plug.

Christmas Formal

2008-12-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Funny, how I always seem to be "volun-told" that I'm going to be taking pics at home before all the little kiddies go out for their Christmas Formal at school. Oh well, more chance to play with my new studio lights. Heh heh.

Halloween

2008-11-04T16:59:00.001-08:00

Halloween has come and gone, and all the ghouls and goblins are back in their dens until next year. Nice that I still find it fun to carve a pumpkin with my daughter, who doesn't seem to have outgrown it yet either. :)

Upcoming price increase ! :(

2008-10-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody.

I'm afraid I have bad news. The publisher I use for my Premium Albums just notified me that as of January 1, 2009, the price is going to increase. I'm still going to stay with them, though, because they have an AWESOME product and their service is great too. I don't know how much the increase will be, but they state it's going to pay for their recent purchase of new and better equipment. We'll see, I guess. Anyway, if you're interested in a Premium album, better order it soon to stay at the current price.

RAID !!!

2008-10-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

Well, everyone being probably the 2 people that show me the kindness of reading this blog...anyway

I just installed a RAID system to my computer set-up. It's great. I'm using the LaCie 2Big which is a great machine. There was a little speed-bump in setting it up, because when you set it to one of its versions of RAID 1, you have to let it sit and rebuild itself which can take up to 12 hours. I was panicking because I was getting warning lights and I didn't think it should take any longer than the formatting process, since the unit contained no data. All was good, though, and a quick email to tech support fixed me right up!

Until recently, I didn't know what a RAID was, so let me provide a bit of background. RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independant Disks. There are several versions of RAID, and mine is set to RAID 1 which means multiple copies of the data. My LaCie drive contains 2 500Gb harddrives inside which are set up to maintain 2 mirror images of whatever data I send to the drive. When (not "if" but "when") one of the hard disks fails, I just need to replace that disk and let the system rebuild itself with no loss of my data. Cool, eh! I realize this sounds a bit paranoid with regards to data backup and security, but when I'm charging people $####+ for photography of their special event and then putting tons of work into their processing, site building and other services, I really need to be sure that the time will not come where I have to contact the client and tell them I had a drive failure and their images are toasted. Being sued would only be the beginning of the havoc something like that would create! No-sir, not for me! Sure, I could pull a failed drive from my machine and send it away for recovery, but that's MEGA expensive and there are no guarantees! For a little over $400 tax included, I bought a large amount (500Gb) of peace of mind.

Plus, it looks cool! Here's a pic I got from LaCie's website to show you. I don't have a specific letter of permission to use the image, but I doubt LaCie will whine about the free advertisement. :)

A few more from one of my favourite couples!

2008-10-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

Wedding Images

2008-09-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

A few quick pics from Jenny and John's wedding. You just can't take a bad picture of this couple. They were awesome!

More to come,

Jenny's Big Day

2008-09-07T20:31:00.001-07:00

Well, the Major Wedding has come and gone, and I'm still going through tons of images. This was great couple and I'm having a hard time finding pics I don't like. They were tons of fun!

It was also quite a distance from home, so I brought my wife with me for the weekend and I've got to say; I've seldom been treated so well. Jenny & John, their families and friends made us feel right at home and it was a pleasure to be with them.

I feel really honoured to be part of their event and I really want them to know how much I appreciate it! Jenny & John, THANK YOU!

Well, gotta go. I hope to have some pics up here this week, so check back often.

Upcoming Major Wedding

2008-08-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm blogging about this big upcoming wedding.....Why this one in particular? Well, lemme see:

First thoughts: DAMN I have a LOT of batteries to charge!!!!
Second: UhOh....MORE batteries to charge....... and memory cards to format....hope my wife doesn't know I have all this crap ;)

OK! The big deal is, this really nice young lady has contracted me to photograph her wedding this weekend in Gaspe and she's even willing to do a "trash the dress" session on Sunday. I haven't met her fiance yet, but if he's marrying her he's got to be a great guy.

I know, this sounds like a real load of (you know what) but when we had our first client meeting, it was like... Yeah, I want to do this wedding, I know we're going to have a great time. That's a big deal to me because if I'm really having fun, I know I'm also being really creative and I'm making my best images. This is too big a day in these people's lives to get second-rate service from me, or anyone else, and I know I'm really going to be on my game this weekend. I feel good about that.

This is going to be a long weekend with photos on Friday, the Big Event on Saturday and TTD on Sunday so it's MAJOR work, but like I said, I'm psyched because it's also going to a MAJOR blast!

OK, enough babbling on for now. Maybe another post before the weekend, but DEFINITELY pics afterward (so I can show off).

Later,

The Logo is Here

2008-08-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

My new Logo has arrived, and will be adorning my future images. This is really just more of the "branding" business type stuff. Anyway, hope you like it. And, thanks to Paulette Hachey for her great work.

SB 900

2008-08-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

OK, my new Nikon SB-900 is here! This is the new flagship portable flash from Nikon. It's HUGE... a BEAST! But, there's increased zoom range, power and battery life. I took some time to play around with it today and it's even easier to use than my SB-800! My poor dog is probably still seeing spots from all the flashes going off. :)

None of the reviews I've read talk about the new case that comes with it, but I gotta say, it's way way better designed than the last one, plus it's padded to protect your investment.

Men love toys, preferably shiny!

Now, if my RadioPoppers would just get here...........

New Logo

2008-08-08T08:58:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody,

Stay tuned for a new concept for my Logo! Yes, it's true, I actually asked for outside help. There's a great team of creatives on the job and so far, the suggestions are all so good I'm having a hard time choosing. When the time comes, there will be a slight change here as well as one on my website. It's all for the good, though.

Until next time,

the Contract

2008-07-24T13:37:00.001-07:00

Hey!

Yeah, I know I've been slacking off with the blog posts, but...........well........... OK, no excuse. Anyway, the lawyer finally finished my new contract, so it's all good now. Contract, you say? Yes, I'm a big believer in saying what you mean and meaning what you say, so I like to put things in writing. No Surprises! Especially if there's $$ involved.

Go ahead, post a comment to tell me what you think on that subject.

Looking around

2008-07-08T09:35:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, ya just gotta stop and look around at where you are. This spring, on vacation, we just took the time to soak in our surroundings and the result was a few great images of some local vegetation. At least, I think it was of local origin....it was growing there anyway!

Prom pics

2008-06-22T14:45:00.001-07:00

Our local high schools had their senior proms recently, and I found out that I had volunteered to take a few pictures of some friends. (I always enjoy volunteering for things without even opening my mouth!! :) Anyway, I'm not one to pass up an opportunity to photograph people that want to model for me for free, so it was all good.

By the way, I'm really lovin' Lightroom 2.0Beta. There is no Photoshop on this picture.

Hands

2008-06-13T10:33:00.001-07:00

Hi.

Well, here goes. I thought I'd share one of the images from a recent photo shoot. I'd have to say it's quickly becoming one of my favourites. Simple, just a child's hand in his father's, black and white, of course.

New to Blogging

2008-06-11T17:54:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody,

Welcome to my new blog. I'm not feeling very "verbose" at the moment, but I thought I should put something here. I can tell you that I'll try to update this at least weekly, and I'll always try to provide a peek of whatever I'm working on and also upcoming events. Wish me luck!