The Nikon D3100 is Nikon’s latest offering to the consumer entry-level line and successor to the Nikon D3000. What’s particular exciting about this camera is that this is Nikon’s first full HD dSLR. Previous Nikon dSLRs including the professional D3s only do 720p so this is particularly exciting for those who use Nikon and like to do video with their dSLR. There’s also a nice little bump in resolution from 10.2 MP to 14.2 MP, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. A very simplified explanation, when more pixels are packed tightly together on the same size sensor, each pixel’s light gathering capability is diminished because the pixel size has to be reduced to fit more pixels on the sensor. That’s why the Nikon D3s (12 MP on a full-frame sensor) has such incredible low-light capability. Other added features is one more stop in the ISO range (12,800 versus 3200), Live View, a faster processor (EXPEED 2), and a HDMI port. MSRP price for the Nikon D3100 with 18-55 kit lens is $699.95 and available for pre-order at B&H here.

Our Recommendation: If you’re looking for an affordable, feature rich, easy to carry around camera for family vacations, day trips, photographing your children/family/friends/significant other, then we certainly recommend this camera for you.  The Nikon D3100′s small size and ability to use some 100+ Nikkor lenses make this a killer choice. With 1080p HD video, you can capture important memories such as your child’s first step or record a heart-felt message for your boyfriend/girlfriend to share on Facebook.

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.4G

For professional photographers and serious amateurs who use Nikon, this is probably the most important announcement of the four lenses. Many Nikon photographers have been waiting for a much needed update to the Nikon AF 85mm f/1.4D and it has finally arrived. The new Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4G now has AF-S for faster focusing, loses the aperture ring, features the Nano Crystal Coat (eliminates lens reflection, ghosting, and flares), and has full-time manual focus. Like the previous 85mm f/1.4D, the 85mm f/1.4G also has a 9-blade diaphragm meaning that you can get nice circular bokeh as well as nice pretty sun-stars. This lens will work great on FX or DX Nikon bodies. The Nikon 85mm f/1.4G will be available on September 2, 2010 with a MSRP of $1,649.99.

Our Recommendation: If you don’t already have a 85mm, you definitely need one. The 85mm is a great focal length for portraits and well as limited telephoto shots. Also having fast glass means you can shoot in lower-light situations or you can isolate your subject from the background easily. A definite must buy in our book. If you already own the 85mm f/1.4D, you might find that you’re hard-pressed to upgrade given the cost, but the increase in focusing speed will certainly make up for the cost. If you’re just an amateur photographer, we recommend skipping this lens and getting the more affordable Nikon AF 85mm f/1.8D and save yourself ~$1,000+. The 85mm f/1.8D is definitely no slouch and will be more than plenty for many folks.

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR

One of types of lenses that Nikon has been lacking are pro-sumer/professional carry-around lenses. Canon has long offered a secondary professional line that combines the build quality and optics of the L lenses, but in a lighter and more portable package such as the 17-40mm f/4L, 24-105mm f/4L IS, and 70-200mm f/4L IS. Nikon has upped the ante and have started introducing this same line, first seen with the 16-35mm f/4 VR and now the 24-120mm f/4 VR; this is not to be confused with the consumer grade Nikon AF-S 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6ED-IF VR that was not very highly rated. This 24-120mm is all pro with Nikon’s latest 4-stop image stabilization and constant aperture of f/4 throughout the zoom range and works great on full-frame (FX) or crop-frames (DX). MSRP is $1,299.95.

Our Recommendation: If you’re type of photography doesn’t require photographing in low-light situations, save yourself the money and weight by buying this lens. In comparison to the Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, this lens only weighs 25 oz versus 31.75 oz, that’s quite a noticeable difference. So if you’re looking for a light-weight professional lens with wide-angle and reach, this is the lens for you. I can certainly see this lens being used in the studio where studio strobes are being used, on vacations, photoshoots outdoors with decent-to-plenty of light, and as a general carry-around lens. This lens will certainly become very popular and we recommend you pre-ordering one now or else you’ll be waiting a long time for it.

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 55-300mm f/4-5.6G ED VR DX

Not to leave the photographers who use DX bodies out in the cold, Nikon has released a new DX-only lens, the AF-S 55-300 f/4-5.6G ED VR DX. This lens also uses Nikon’s latest generation VR, 4-stop image stabilization. Weighing only 18.7 oz, this lens is light but has a lot of reach making this an ideal lens for traveling. At 55mm, you’ll still be able to do shots of couples and groups (provided you can stand back far enough) and with a reach of 300mm, you’ll be able to get some nice tight crops of landscapes and scenics. MSRP for this lens is $399.95 and available for pre-order on B&H here.

Our Recommendation: While this lens has a lot of nice range, it’s biggest draw back is the slower aperture meaning you’ll need more light to avoid getting blurry pictures. The good news is that many new Nikon bodies can go into the higher ISO range which means you can increase your ISO to get more light sensitivity to compensate for the slower aperture at the cost of noise. If you do a lot of traveling and looking for a single lens that will let you shoot far, this would be it. This lens will also work great for out-door well lit portraits. Otherwise, skip this lens. If you try to use this lens for, say, trying to capturing you son or daughter’s basketball game, you won’t be very happy with the performance.

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

Have a Nikon D700 or even a D3s and looking for a single lens solution for daily carry around, then this lens, the Nikon AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR might be for you. With it’s incredibly 11x zoom ratio, you can photograph groups and wide mountains and zoom into a bird in flight. What makes this lens stand-out from say the Nikon AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G is that this lens can be used on a full-frame camera whereas the 18-200mm is limited to DX bodies. This lens will work great for many purposes. Going on a day-trip and not quite sure what you want to shoot, grab this lens. Going trail hiking, grab this lens. Spend the day in San Francisco with your boyfriend/girlfriend/family, this is the lens. Vacationing? You can’t go wrong with this lens either. The only thing this lens won’t do well at is low-light shooting with fast moving subjects/objects.

Our Recommendation: I’m personally not a big fan of “super-zoom” lenses because you sacrifice a lot. For a “super-zoom” lens like this, you lose image quality, deal with higher distortion, slower aperture, and it also makes you a lazier photographer. That’s right, a lens like this will diminish the artistic quality of your images because instead of training your brain to look for different perspectives, you can just zoom into your subject or object. But if you’re looking for a “snap-shot” lens, a lens that you can just take pictures with, here it is. For only $1,049.95, you can’t beat the range you get. If I had a D700 or D3s, I guarantee you, it will never see this lens. Cameras of that professional quality would benefit from a better lens like the Nikon 24-120mm (above) and that is the lens I would recommend for you to get instead of this one. Photographer Bob Krist seems to like this lens. Read his review here.

Being a huge fan of Bambi Cantrell, I was definitely excited to see that she was going to be speaking on Friday from 7 PM to 10 PM. Bambi is one of the giants in our wedding photography industry with over two-decades of experience; if you can last that long and remain significant in this industry, you must be doing something amazing. So Eric Lee, Jinggoy Montenejo, and I attended “Cantrell Couture Weddings” and for the next three-hours we were mesmerized. For those who have never met Bambi Cantrell, she’s a blast to listen to speak. Her Georgia accent and Southern charm is both entertaining and lively. She spoke at length about her beginnings moving from Georgia to the Bay Area, the first time she had to get a job, to assisting Don Gearheart. She had many anecdotes about photographing weddings, offered many suggestions, tips, and answered many audience questions. It was well worth the time. We even had a surprise guest, Canon Explorer of Light and wedding photographer Hanson Fong showed up near the end. He had done an early workshop, “Safari With The Masters” at the Palace of Fine Arts.

The next morning we attend an early workshop at 7:30 AM, John Teague’s “Seeing The Light”. I found it not to be as useful as I had hoped. The discussion was mainly centered around studio lighting, Inverse Square Law, and different lighting techniques. I’m sure other attendees might have found this interesting.

The last talk we attended was Canon Explorer of Light and commercial photographer Jim DiVitale‘s “The Complete Digital Process”, a very worthwhile talk to watch. I had vaguely heard Jim DiVitale’s name before this show, but haven’t really seen his work until now and I’m definitely impressed. He does some amazing things with Adobe Photoshop. He spoke at length about this digital workflow, his love for art, as well as various other topics including Photoshop, NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals), and so on. He’s certainly a very lively speaker talking at like 100 words per minute, but he was interesting to see and hear.

The rest of the time we spent at Pro Photo Expo 2010 was in the dealer hall checking out the latest new products and services from Nik, Wacom, BorrowLenses.com, Bay Photo Lab (our favorite lab), and etc. Great event overall and we’re definitely looking forward to Pro Photo Expo 2011! You can see the rest of my photos in our Events gallery here.

On the day of the Wong Family portraits, a wedding was setting up to take place, so we couldn’t photograph around the actual Montalvo building as we had hoped, but fortunately the large grass field in the front with surrounding walkways and the nicely tendered gardens (you’d be surprised how many gardens aren’t) provided plenty of usable backdrops for our family portraits. We spent a good solid two hours photographing the Wongs at various places around Montalvo. While it was quite warm by Bay Area standards (77° F), that didn’t stop us from having fun with the entire Wong Family. A beautiful Sunday well spent with a beautiful and fun-loving family! Also congratulations to Cal and Tina who was just engaged last week in Las Vegas!

A special thanks to Eric Lee for providing valuable lighting help and shoot advice. Here are some of the photos from Sunday:

We approach family portraits just like our wedding portraits: be daring and be different. That’s our approach and our style. If you and your family are interested in family portraits by Bui Photography, please contact us and let us see what we can do for you.

And because I’m constantly getting asked technical questions and thought processes regarding photoshoots we do, I’ve decided to incorporate them into our blog posts for those who are interested. Photographing large groups are always challenging, especially family portraits because occasionally you’ll get ones where there are generations of family (parents and their children and then their children’s children) and as professional photographers, you definitely want to make sure you get a good mixture. The camera and lenses you pack should be dictated by your shooting style, location limitations, and clients needs. If your shooting style is close crop portraits, you might not want to pack many wide-angle lenses, but rather more telephoto lenses. But don’t forget about location limitations such as available shooting space. Some places, because of the setup, you can’t stand very far back from your subject(s), so If you only have a working distances of 4-feet, packing a 70-200mm with an 8-feet minimum focusing distance will not be helpful. Lately, it’s popular (even trendy) to photograph at large apertures of f/2.8 or wider for the creamy bokeh, but if your clients select a specific place for its backdrops or elements, you definitely want to include those into your shots and f/2.8 isn’t going to give a sense of place in a photograph. Prior to the family portrait session, I did some online research on the venue using Flickr, a great resource for virtual scouting, but it definitely doesn’t replace physically scouting your location. So I packed my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with my Canon EOS 1D Mark II as backup (very important to always have a backup) and two lenses: the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM (24-70mm vs. 24-105mm debate) and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. I chose the 24-70mm because I knew I was going to have a large group to photograph and they wanted scenes of Montalvo included in the pictures, so the wide-angle zoom is very versatile in this situation. I brought along the 70-200mm as a backup lens and because long telephoto lenses is very flattering for subjects when it comes to portraits, but ended up not using it, but important to have a back-up lens. I packed a number of Speedlites with Quantum Turbo battery packs and light stands as my style is to shoot with artificial lights, even on bright sunny days, for the lighting control. I did pack a Lastolite 8-in-1 TriFlip diffuser/reflector as those always comes in handy. For most of the shoot, my aperture was never lower than f/8 for depth-of-field and shutter speed was around the 1/100th to 1/250th, depending on how much exposure I wanted on the background. ISO was around 100-400. I like to travel as light as possible when doing family portraits to move around quickly and not disturb the flow by having your subjects wait idly.

We started out shooting around Main St. in Half Moon Bay with all the beautiful store fronts and along the sidewalk and just working our way up to Half Moon Bay Coffee Co. and across the street at the Welcome to Half Moon Bay sign.

Brenizer Method shot:

We had a couple of other places in mind, but unfortunately due to high-tide, we were unable to photograph there. Our final engagement shoot location was at the beautiful Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay hotel. Around the lobby:

We thought it would be nice to get some casual, unposed shots at the Navio’s bar:

We ended our Half Moon Bay engagement shoot on the beach nearby the Ritz Carlton. Let us say, the water was definitely cold.

Margaret and Ronnie are an amazing couple who work in the pharmaceutical field and met through mutual friends. Spend a minute with these two and you can definitely tell how much fun and in love they are with each other. Every time I’ve met with the couple, we end up chatting it up for hours. Can’t wait to photograph their wedding in October, it’s going to be a blast!

A special thanks to Eric Lee for doing video of this engagement shoot and also to Rendy Lai for the great assist on holding the lighting.

Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay
1 Miramontes Point Road
Half Moon Bay, CA
Visit website

Half Moon Bay Coffee Co.
20 Stone Pine Road
Half Moon Bay, CA
(650) 726-3664
Visit website

Click here to view the embedded video.

I knew I had to be involved with this great project! How often, as photographers, we get an opportunity to do something meaningful for others using our craft? Sure, we can donate money, but donating time has more sentimental impact and value. And what a great concept Help-Portrait is: find someone in need, take their portrait, print their portrait, and deliver them.

The SF SMUG/Help-Portrait Session was a huge success! Major kudos to the amazing SF SMUG leader Joey Chandler and Shelly Waldman for coordinating and organizing the photographers and make-up artist. Big thanks to Rendy Lai for securing Raquel Siders and her amazing team of make-up artists of Image Provocateur and thanks to them for donating their time, energy, and most of all creativity. Also a big thanks to Laine Hendricks and the Salvation Army for hosting us. A big thank you to all the amazing photographers (J.C. Dill, Arken Studios, Light & Shade Imaging, MM Photography, Gustavo Fernadez, Brooke Bryand Photography, David Kim, Joey Chandler Photography, Shelly Waldman Photography,  BLLEW Photography, and so many other kick-ass photographers that I didn’t get a chance to meet) who volunteered, our amazing print master (Mr. K and Big Mike), the amazing video production by Kirk Whitcombe of Simply Safe Videography, and all the helpers/”runners”. And last, but certainly not least, thank you to SF SMUG’s biggest sponsor, SmugMug, for all the help, time, dedication, and love and sending Markham Bennett, VP of BizDev, to help us out!

From what I can tell, the energy, the quality of the photo sessions, the mood, the collaboration, and the clients all made for a great time! According to Joey, the SF SMUG group collectively did over 100+ portraits including two free prints per session over a 12-hour time period! We had four make-up stations, one print station, three indoor portrait studio, and four or five outdoor portrait studios all setup to take portraits. And here’s what the director of the location mentioned to Joey:

The clients loved their photos & are carrying them around still & sharing them with each other. Not only was this a great self-esteem builder for our clients but it also was a great bonding experience for them as well. One client mentioned to me this morning that this event brought him together with other clients he had never really interacted with.

Safe to say, mission accomplished. Also, thank you David Kim for letting me try your Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro lens, that thing is wicked sharp and amazing and features Canon’s newest Hybrid Image Stabilization (HIS) technology. I wish I could share the photos we took of our clients because they look so great, but because of confidentiality and privacy reasons, I’m not able to. Instead I will share photos of all the volunteers and the fun we had, all shots straight out of camera:

You can see many more photos in our Events Gallery. If you are a photographer (doesn’t matter if you are an amateur, professional, weekend warrior, etc.) and interested in taking part in the next Help-Portrait session, there are talks about another Help-Portrait session happening December 4, 2010. To keep up-to-date and take part in the Dec 4 Help-Portrait, join the SF SMUG Meetup page or continue checking back here for more information. Thank you again to Shelly, Joey, Laine for all the hard work in setting this very successful event!

And for anyone who is interested in some of the technical details, I’ll explain in hopes of helping others out. To make it simple, I’ll talk about Station #2, where I photographed at with Jinggoy Montenejo, my station buddy. All the behind-the-scene were shot with ambient lighting only using a Canon EOS 1D Mark II with Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM. At Station #2, we were lucky to have three studio strobes courtesy of Meg Messina. Meg’s studio strobes are the Calumet 750R monolights triggered with the Calumet LiteLink, but for the most part, any brand of studio strobes will work perfectly. Different brands come with different costs and options drive up the cost as well. One cool feature of Meg’s Calumet 750R lights is the built-in modeling light that helps greatly with autofocus acquisition in low-light conditions. Plus her studio strobes have built-in remote triggers meaning you don’t need to buy separate remote triggers like PocketWizards (what we use and recommend). And let me say, I am a HUGE fan of wireless remote triggers, but you can do the tried and true method of using a sync cable, at the end of the day, you have to use what works best for you. So here is the lighting diagram:

Here’s an actual shot of the setup:

The two studio strobes with the umbrella in reflective configuration is used as background lights. By lighting up a white seamless, you ensure that you’re white stays white in photos, otherwise they look like a dull gray or black. The main strobe, referred to as the key-light, with the softbox is used to expose the subject. Power was set to 1/2 power. The portraits on the white seamless was shot using a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM with the lights triggered by Calumet LiteLink wireless triggers. This setup produces a shot like this:

Settings: 1/200th, f/8, ISO 100

In retrospect, I should have dialed up the power on background light by 1-stop to completely blow out the white background. Normally you want to avoid blown highlights as you lose detail, but because this is a plain white background, it doesn’t matter. If I was using a muslin with designs and details, I would definitely be more worried about blown highlights. Using a lightmeter would definitely help in preventing blown highlights.

Some of you may wonder, is it really necessary to use three studio strobes? Probably not, but it does offer some major advantages: faster recycle times because you don’t have to dial in as much power and more flexibility with light placement and lighting of subject and background. In this case where we had three studio strobes to work with, if you compare the photo above of Jinggoy with the photo below of Rendy, you’ll see what a difference it can make. Here’s a picture of Rendy where only the key-light fired, camera settings remained the same:

Settings: 1/200th, f/8, ISO 100

Definitely creates more of a dramatic shot with the shadows on his face, but for the types of shots we wanted, the shadows are a bit too much. Also, did you notice that the background has gone from white to a much darker color. So that shows that the two background lights did more than just light the background, they also provide side lighting for our subject! Here’s another shot of Rendy with all three studio strobes firing:

Settings: 1/200th, f/8, ISO 100

As part of this new service introduction, we’re proud to showcase our very first clients for the Signature Love Portraits: the beautiful Jane Hwang and her boyfriend Cuthbert “Cutty” Wong. Jane and Cutty are such a beautiful couple; so in love with each other. They can literally spend hours together staring dreamily into each other eyes, we know because we’ve seen it. Jane and Cutty first met at the San Francisco Miss Asian American Pageant and have been inseparable ever since. As wedding photographers who love doing wedding photography, how can we not equally love the couples and engagement photoshoots? This is the best time where we really get to know our clients.

As the popular saying goes, home is where the heart is, this holds true for Jane and Cutty. Jane currently resides in Central Valley attending college while Cutty lives in San Franicsco Bay Area, sufficient to say, they don’t often see each other. Rather than having a particular special spot or place, to them, any place is fine so long as they are together. We happened to have done a photoshoot earlier in the day when we decided to meet-up at the picturesque California State University East Bay to do their Signature Love Portraits.

Part of the offering of the Signature Love Portrait package is a custom HD-quality slideshow provided with all the high-resolution photographs. Here is a sample of what the slideshow looks like:

Thank you Jane and Cutty for a wonderful time together, we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

So if you’re looking for the perfect, meaningful gift to give to your significant other, contact us today to schedule your appointment for a Signature Love Portrait. You won’t be disappointed.

And surprisingly, while we have always sang praises of SmugMug, we’ve never committed any of that into writing. Well, today ends that injustice.

So why do we love SmugMug so much and why did we choose them over the other photo management sites? Many reasons, but here are the top 5.

Reason #5: SmugMug Customization

We love how customizable SmugMug is. Whether you are clueless about HTML or a full-fledged web designer/developer, customizing the look of your SmugMug is a pain-free experience with their advanced “skinning” system, a term in the web industry meaning changing the look of a website without affecting the data and not some Hannibal Lector food preparation method. There is a few top-notch SmugMug customization companies out there like New Skin Media and Wolf Snap Designs that do some killer SmugMug skinning for you.

Arken Studios by New Skin Media

Wiley Photo Challenge by Wolf Snap Designs

I would definitely give both a call to see what they can do for you. I know and vouch for Melissa Crain of New Skin Media. As a fellow photographer, Melissa can definitely make a killer SmugMug site for your photography studio as well as help you brand it.

Reason #4: Customer Support

I love that if I working on my SmugMug site at 2:00 AM in the morning and run into an issue, I can send an email to their 24/7 support team an confidently know I will get an answer in a reasonable amount of time. I understand that not all problems are solved at all hours of the night, but as long as the ticket is in their system, it lets me sleep soundly knowing someone will address the problem in the morning.

Their support staff is friendly and knowledgeable and while I’ve only used support once, it’s nice to know they are there ready to help.

Reason #3: Affordable Priced Accounts

For all the features offered, SmugMug comes in three very affordable packages. And not only that, the packages aren’t designed in a way that you are forced to upgrade for features that you would like or want. For example, want custom domain names instead of http://yourname.smugmug.com, you just need the Power package for $59.99 a year, where other sites require you to buy their highest package to get that option. The Standard package is plenty for those who want to just host photos to share among friends, family, and/or the public that is safe, simple, reliable, and easy to use for only $39.95 a year. The Power package for a measly $20 more a year gives you the ability to upload 1080p HD videos, customize HTML, and set a custom domain name to just name a few top features. And for a professional photography boutique like Bui Photography, the Pro package fits the bill giving us near unlimited control for branding, showcasing of photos, custom watermarks, assistant login, selling prints, and more. Did I also mention there is no storage limit, upload limit, or bandwidth limits on any of the three plans?

Reason #2: SMUGs: SmugMug User Groups

What other online photo sharing company is passionate and wants to offer FREE and open to anyone grassroots support, knowledge, and networking for photographers? Often times in this industry, photographers (especially wedding photographers) feel they are competing amongst their peers; we actually don’t. And thanks to SMUGs, or SmugMug User Groups, we can start tearing down that myth and work towards increasing the quality of the wedding photography industry to the benefit of our clients and each other. SMUGs are monthly meetings held throughout various cities in the United States where photographers connect, listen to other photographers, talk, discuss, learn, and network. When was the last time you heard Canon, Nikon, or any other major photography related company bringing together groups of talented photographers to share their knowledge with the goal of improving the photography industry? They’re not even trying to sell you anything! That’s right, you don’t have to be a SmugMug user to come and learn. SmugMug also provides free snacks, drinks, and BEER, how can you not come?

We’ve been to almost all the San Francisco SMUG meetings since the beginning. Originally led by rock star wedding photographer Gene Higa and now in the hands of kick-ass photographer Joey Chandler, we’ve met some of the top names in the wedding industry such as David Jay, The Becker, Ed Pingol, F.C. Wong as well as other equally talented photographers that are in the photography fields like architectural, landscape, macro, and more. July’s San Francisco SMUG guest speaker is Alisha Todd of Alisha & Brooks Photography who will be discussing marketing and branding, for FREE. They’ve been on Oprah and can charge make moola for their workshops and she’s coming to talk to us for free. Nice!

If you are a photographer, find out if your city has a SMUG and come out! If they don’t, consider taking up the mantle and being a city coordinator for a SMUG.

Here’s a sample video of what goes on at a SMUG meeting. I recorded this when Ed Pingol came to speak to the San Francisco SMUGers on April 27, 2010. Please note this video is a very small part of a 2-hour long non-stop talk by Ed Pingol:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reason #1: SmugMug’s Killer Features

Within the couple of years that we’ve used SmugMug, they have introduced a number of much wanted features: packages, coupons, HTML5 Slideshows (for iPad and iPhone support!), upload HD videos from your iPhone, SmugMug API, SmugMug’s numerous partnerships (Animoto and Moo to just name a few), and so much more. Ever use a web software that was good, but would be great if it just did [insert wanted feature]? So you go to the support forum or send a request ticket only to be told this feature is not doable or might be available as a paid upgrade? With SmugMug, the features are available as soon as they are ready for no additional fees. As a wedding photographer, being able to offer my clients wedding print packages and/or coupons is a huge benefit to us and our clients. By generating the slideshows in HTML5, that means the millions of iPhone users can see our galleries with no impediments! Remember, if things don’t just work, most people usually give up. It’s just another way SmugMug adds value to our business.

I love how SmugMug automatically creates six different image sizes for us or our visitors. No more having to manually create re-sized photos for embedding into our web-page or for email. We just go to the gallery, select the photo we want to use, hover over it and select the image size. You can also set the sizes that your clients can download, view, and use.

Watermarks. I never have to do them in Photoshop again! SmugMug handles all the watermarking of my photos for me automatically. What’s more, as a Pro user, I can have a near unlimited amount of customized watermarks! This is great when one of our staff photographers does a shoot and we want to properly credit him or her by using a specialized watermark with their name on it. How awesome is that?

The SmugMug API is a wonderful thing that allows third-party software access to all the photos. For example, our main website is built using ShowIt. The wedding and engagement galleries that show, grab the images from SmugMug giving us the ability to keep all our photos in one spot but use them in many places. Our blog is powered by WordPress and by using Adam Tow’s wonderful WP-SmugMug plugin, we can easily embed any of our SmugMug galleries into any posts and customize how we want it displayed when a user clicks on it. This saves server space as well as keep photos in one central location. So if we ever needed to replace a photo, we just need to do it in SmugMug and not have to fumble all around the different places that photo needs to replace. Here’s a sample of WP-SmugMug plugin in action:

Conclusion

For all that SmugMug has achieved, it retains an easy to approach and friendly company to work with, even the CEO, Don MacAskill, is a friendly and approachable person who enjoys meeting and talking with other photographers. You can tell the people who work for SmugMug love what they do, just check out the fun they have at In-N-Out as an example. And if you have ever been to SmugMug HQ, you’ll also know what I’m talking about. Back when our old photography group, Camera Owners of they Bay Area (COBA), lost our usual meeting place at Standford University, SmugMug stepped up and hosted us at HQ after hours and even catered for us!

I could go on forever with all the great features and offerings of SmugMug and start sounding like a sales rep, but I’m not going to. At the end of the day, we use this product and service and we’re extremely satisfied with it. More often than not, there are people who take all the time in the world to rally against a crappy product or service or why they got mistreated and etc., but rarely do you have people who take the time out to write about a positive experience. But that’s how it is at Bui Photography, we like to take the time to recommend a great product or service when we use one, it’s only fair to them.

I’m sure people will read this article and comment that we didn’t mention any drawbacks. Yes, there are some drawbacks, just as any product or service, but all the great features and service that we have gotten from SmugMug far outweigh any of those. Sound off in the comments if you disagree with us.

Ready to sign-up and save $5 off the first year’s price? Here’s a $5 off coupon code you can use: uIByI6CmMc6Tc. Just enter that into the Email/Coupon field when signing up.

Thanks SmugMug!

While we weren’t able to attend Anime Expo this year, we were definitely there in spirit. There are so many amazing cosplay photographers (and cosplayers) down in Southern California, a small group of whom I’ve personally met at other conventions such as Fanime, I wanted to share and showcase the amazing work of just a few that went to Anime Expo this year. And that’s also not to say that there aren’t any talented and equally amazing cosplay photographers up North and I’ve also included a few in this list as well. Also I wanted to make this post as often times the photographers rarely get much credit. The cosplayers definitely did a lot of amazing work in putting together their costume, but these cosplay photographers have also spent hours during the shoots and after the shoots to fully do each costume and character justice.

I’m quite aware that there are many other amazing cosplay photographers that also did photoshoots at Anime Expo and while we would love to feature everyone here, there just isn’t enough space. But if it’s any consolation, when we make a post for next year’s Anime Expo, it’ll be a different group of cosplay photographers for fairness.

Come inside to see the pictures, but be forewarned, there are 33 large size images, so if you’re on dial-up, your connection will cry.

Andy Rak

Andy Rak is one of the amazing SoCal cosplay photograpers. His images are very unique with his distinctive post processing and amazing use of lighting and there is little doubt about why he’s often considered a favorite photographer among many people, including myself. I’ve been a long time fan of Andy since seeing his work on DeviantArt. Andy is also a approachable and fun to hang out with.

Eric Ng

Having met Eric Ng at Fanime 2010, I became an instant fan upon seeing his work. As an art teacher and naturally artistic, Eric’s pictures are powerful. Pay particular attention to his effective use of shadows, one of the most important, yet often overlooked aspects of photography. Eric Ng shows us that you don’t need fancy lights to create powerful and stunning images. Also if you’re a cosplayer, be sure to checkout Eric Ng’s other project, ConYearbook.

Anything Eric Ng does is amazing. Watch his video of Anime Expo coverage:

Click here to view the embedded video.

See more on his Vimeo site here.

Abbott Wang

I first became a fan of Abbott Wang when I saw his work on DeviantArt. Lots of killer cosplay images and powerful compositions. I even managed to get a picture with him at Fanime here, excuse my awkward facial expression, I was just too excited to finally meet him. I really like Abbott’s use of light and shadows in his images as well as his point-of-view and angles. Browsing through his gallery, you can’t help but be impressed. Also if you’re interested in being in the ConYearbook, Abbott is one of the staff photographers as well.

And as if photography wasn’t enough for the talented Abbott, here’s video also:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ricky Ching-Yen Pai – Shiroin

Ricky Pai is an elusive photographer who I’ve never met in person, but we share common cosplayer friends. His work is well-known throughout the cosplay community as well as his love for Taiwanese beer. With a strong focus on compositions and minimal post production, Ricky’s images are always a pleasure to view. You can see many more of his killer shots on his website Cos-World.

Bruce Heinsius – Brucer007

As another photographer I’ve yet to meet, Bruce Heinsius is of a rare breed as you rarely meet professional photographers who also do cosplay photography. Bruce is relatively new to the scene of cosplay photography and I first became aware of his work on Cosplay.com and have since become a fan. Bruce brings a unique flavor and flare to his cosplay photos by introducing action elements to create exciting and captivating cosplay photos.

Quito de Sequera

I would also like to mention Quito, as I didn’t want to leave anyone out, but I don’t think he does cosplay photography, or even photography, anymore. His time is spent serving spending it with his girlfriend, Steff (Anti Ai-Chan).

Rachael Masako Ing (aka masa-kocha)

Rachael Masako Ing suddenly popped up on my radar one day and I was instantly intrigued and captivated by her amazing cosplay photos. Her compositions are compelling and great. She is also a welcome addition to the small group of NorCal cosplay photographers and splits her time between San Francisco and her home, Hawaii. You can see her amazing work on Flickr and her DeviantArt page.

Michael Cabusi

While we’re friends on Facebook, I never got the opportunity to meet Michael Cabusi in person. As part of the Socal cosplay photographers group, Michael has a great demeanor and attitude, the kind of person you could sit down and enjoy a beer with and chat it up until the cows come home, as well as being a kick-ass photographer! I love the strong contrasts of his images and his excellent use of lighting.

Aitsuito as Benio from Zone-00

AoiMuzuno as Lebreau from Final Fantasy XII

Bheng Bheng as Velvet from Odin Sphere

Minh Soi

Another one of the talented SoCal cosplay photographers, Minh Soi‘s compositions and post processing are definitely very captivating.

Zemotion

There really is much needed to be said about Zhang Jingna other than her photography is amazing. I don’t think she did any photography at Anime Expo, but she was there and one of these days, I would love to meet her.

Conclusion

Thank you to all the photographers who opted to be part of this. Amazing work by everyone and it’s truly inspirational. Keep up the amazing work.

Here’s a very cool video that has been getting quite a bit of attention on the blogsphere by Lee Morris of Fstoppers.com (cool website and concept BTW) that is well worth watching and showing to photographers who think that a new or the latest camera can make their images better:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now a number of people have criticized on the blogsphere about this video and the high cost of studio strobes used and that at that point, any camera could be used to get similar results. And that may be true, but doesn’t that really just reinforce the message that your camera doesn’t really matter? I would definitely like to see another professional photoshoot done with maybe the iPhone 4, but in an outdoors setting with reflectors and diffusers. I think that would certainly silence a number of the critics in regards to the expensive lighting equipment. Actually that does sound like a fun project that might be a really good idea for us to try on a future photoshoot… Stay tuned.

Now a bit about Lynn. She’s our only female wedding photographer on staff as well as one of only two Nikon photographers in our group. Originally Lynn started out doing event photography, but naturally deviated towards the exciting adrenaline rush of wedding photography when she joined up with us and being the dedicated wedding photographer she is, she was photographing weddings right up into the 8-month of pregnancy!

Now normally at Bui Photography, we favor magazine style type of shots, but in this case we opted to do more classy style shots. We were also planning an outdoor shoot, but when I shot these maternity photos, the weather was not so permitting, so we ended up shooting entirely inside Lynn’s house. From my experience, no matter how beautifully decorated a home is, rarely does it work as a photographic back-drop with common problems being distracting backgrounds, difficult color walls, available distance to photograph, furniture placement, and etc. And while most of the issues can be relatively worked through, it still does present some challenge.

Most of all the shots taken with a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM with a single Canon 580EX II Speedlite with a Lastolite EzyBox 24″ Speedlite softbox mounted on a Lumopro LP604. Speedlite triggered using Canon’s Wireless Flash System (E-TTL).

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