Click on any image above to connect to Suzette's class schedule. by Skip Cohen Two weeks ago I shared a post from Panasonic's archives and I mentioned the "Queen of Hybrid", Suzette Allen. Suzette is one of the most diverse artists in professional photography today. She's also one of the industry's leading educators, and her programs are always loaded with information to help you raise the bar on your images and presentations. Suzette's YouTube channel is home to 190+ videos and always growing. As the seasonality of the fourth quarter approaches, now is the time for you to be thinking about new ideas/products to offer your clients this holiday season. My personal favorites are hybrid videos, combining still images with video and great music. This is an ideal way for you to separate yourself from the competition. You've got to offer them something different, and at the same time enhance your reputation as the most fun photographer they've ever worked with! Check out these five short videos from Suzette. They're all created with LUMIX cameras. It's time for you to take advantage of so many different aspects of new technology. And, wander over to the LUMIX Lounge and meet the other member of Panasonic's Luminary Team. This is a pretty remarkable group of artists with an amazing passion for imaging.
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 Watch the video to see the example of how this is turned into a cinemagraph! by Skip Cohen Although the video below was posted in Panasonic's YouTube channel over a year ago, I have no idea how I missed it. It's the perfect video to get so many of you up to speed on four incredible creative tools in photography: still images from 4K, hybrid videos, cinemagraphs and 4K video. It's only 2 1/2 minutes long, but well worth watching. There are two reasons I wanted to share it - first, so many of you haven't picked up on the benefits of all the new technology. Here are a few more ways to make your work look different from your competition. Put new techniques/applications to work on your images, along with your ever-growing skill set, and you've got the potential to regularly exceed client expectations. The other reason to share this is the simplicity of the way they're telling the LUMIX story. Think about how you'd tell your own story just by showing some specific examples of your work, with minimal text and no narrative - all in under three minutes. Think about some of the applications they're sharing in this video and how to incorporate them into your business, especially hybrid. Is there any client who wouldn't love to send out a hybrid holiday card this season? Even better, you're the one who can give it to them! Check out this hybrid holiday card from Suzette Allen. Stay in touch with what's going on with LUMIX and meet one of the most diverse groups of artists in the industry, Panasonic's Luminary team. They're just a click away in the LUMIX Lounge.  I've written a lot about the fun of the photographic industry and the fact that the best part of it has nothing to do with imaging, but the friendships. Welcome back my pal, Mark Toal. He's part of Panasonic's LUMIX team and has become a great friend over the last couple of years. He's also part of the Mirrorless Photo Tips team, joining Joe and Mary Farace, two more talented artists and writers who should be on your radar. Every day they're adding more great content with solid tips, not just about mirrorless technology, but on technique, applications and great advice to help you raise the bar on your skill set. Wandering through the archives of Mirrorless Photo Tips, I ran across this May post from "The Best of Mark Toal." I love the topic, because while Mark's covered it as a mirrorless question, it's one that comes up with just about every camera owner, hobbyist or professional. His closing line applies to every camera owner, with the only change for a professional being "...what you need to shoot." Before you buy a lens think about what you like to shoot, not what lens you want to buy. To see more of Mark's work visit his website. And, to check out more of what's going on with Lumix cameras visit the LumixLounge and meet the rest of the Luminary team. Whenever I attend a camera event or meet somebody that has a Micro Four-thirds camera one of the first questions they ask is “what lens should I buy next?” Frequently they have already purchased a Panasonic Lumix or Olympus body along with a kit lens and can’t wait to buy a few accessories.   I usually suggest people shoot with the kit lens for a while, especially if they don’t know what they like to shoot and see what focal length they end up using the most. If they shoot at the wide end of the lens then a fixed focal length wide angle prime lens might be perfect for them. It they constantly want to zoom closer, then a zoom telephoto is best. Frequently they have a lens in mind like the Lumix 20mm f/1.7. The 20mm seems to be the best selling Micro Four-thirds lens but it’s not for everybody. It was the first lens I bought for my Lumix G1 and I loved its sharpness and speed, but I ended up selling it after a few months and buying the equally affordable Lumix 14mm f2/5.Keep in mind that you have to multiply the focal length by two to get the full frame equivalent (field-of-view) on Micro Four-thirds bodies. I had fallen for the excitement around the 20mm lens and forget that I’m really a wide angle lens shooter. The 40mm equivalent was just too long for me. The 14mm (28mm in full frame) has been my favorite lens ever since then.  If you like to shoot wildlife, birds or sports then you’ll want a longer zoom lens like the Lumix Leica 100-400mm f/4–5.6 or the Olympus 300mm f/4. A longer zoom can be limiting if you want to shoot something closer. I usually recommend that a photographer start with a lens in the 45-200mm focal length range. This focal length range works great for portraits since it throws the background out of focus and compresses objects so they don’t look distorted. It’s also a great lens for sports and landscape shooting. It’s also not such a long telephoto that you can’t shoot closer action if you need to.
Before you buy a lens think about what you like to shoot, not what lens you want to buy. |
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