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My Gear
Check out, read about and purchase all of the camera, computer, accessories and other gear that Cowbelly uses on location, on the road and in the office.
Author Archives: Jamie 'Cowbelly'
what I am up to now
November 19, 2008 – 2:53 am
It has been a long day today. (I still consider it ‘today’ because I haven’t gone to bed yet). Starting with a shoot at 11am, followed by the rest of the day and night spent in the studio working on client orders. Things would have gone fine, except that NOTHING WAS WORKING RIGHT. ‘Nothing’ meaning, software, internet, phone, even simple little image uploaders weren’t working. I am convinced that I have some sort of weird magnetic force field that every so often goes awry, causing all electronic equipment near me to get all freaked out. Either that or mercury is in retrograde or something. Whateve. It’s more than a little irritating.
I have been toiling away lately. Nearly every day for the last two weeks I have either had a photo shoot, studio consult with a client, phone meeting or other appointment. Christina has been doing an AWESOME job keeping me on track. I think I have something like 42 clients on my boards right now. (Crazy I know). How do I do it? My aforementioned assistant. Let me tell you there is NO WAY I could do all of this without regular help. Christina only works about 15 hours per week but she rocks so hard that every day I grow closer to only doing what I love- taking pictures, working in photoshop and lightroom and designing art. Awesome. Thank you Christina for everything you do for me!
Anyway, I am working my way through my pile of client orders (*finally* made order forms, whoopee!!), and thought I would share with you guys some of the things I worked on today, in case you maybe thought I fell off the planet.
Yorkies photobooks. Tiggz below.
Back cover (L). Front cover (R). The front cover was his mom’s idea. Brilliant eh? If you are in a service-based business, I recommend always being open to your client’s suggestions. Often they can be smarter and more creative than you.
Photobook pages.
I love the end page. Makes me laugh out loud.
More yorkies photobooks. Brodie & Taz. Oh, and Roscoe the kitty! Roscoe is the coolest, most laid back, friendliest, most affectionate cat EVER. I love him so much and want to steal him and have him live with me.
I believe below it’s supposed to say Charles something-or-other. (Brilliant observation Jamie). Sorry, it’s late….
The shot below looks like a poster or something. No, it’s a real photograph and I actually took it. Amazing outfit, eh? Remember the shoes?
Ok, so that’s one, actually, two orders. The next order is Loodie and Max. They are both getting prints and canvases. The canvases are my favorites. I feel so incredibly honored that they are being hung in their soon-to-be new baby twins nursery. Huge congrats Peter and Hope!!
Then there’s Junepug and Shelby. Just in case anyone is confused, Junepug’s name is actually June, but I have given her the moniker ‘Junepug’ because it seems to fit her so. And Shelby, what can I say about Shelby. She touched my heart from the second I met her, and is the first dog to ever be in the company of a pug that I paid more attention to than said pug. *Especially* a baby pug. I just don’t have words to express my experience with Shelby. I think I am going to stop trying, because I’m not sure that anyone would understand.
June’s canvas. Her first experience with water. Check out her first time with feet in water. Hee hee.
Shelby’s prints. I think the shot on the right is my favorite of her.
June’s print. Weird, what’s up with all of the stripey lines? I swear things look perfect in LR and bridge, and when I upload them they get all wacked out. I need to check my ’save for web’ settings; I have been noticing too many problems lately. Don’t even get me started on the whole sharpening thing. Ugh, technology. 
And the last thing I worked on today was a CD for Kaiya. She is another dog I fell in love with. Ok, truth be told, I fall in love with them all! I wish you guys could have seen the fawn doberman I shot today. A christmas gift so it will have to wait.
I have lots more new dog photos to share, but first need to meet my photobook printer’s deadline which is this Friday! (One more photobook to go!) Thanks everyone for being so patient with me. You guys, my lovely blog readers, rock!!
Shelby in memoriam: 1993-2008
November 15, 2008 – 8:00 am
A couple of days before leaving for California I had a studio consult with Shelby and June’s parents. You guys remember the sweet girls I photographed at Greenlake? Their parents informed me that Shelby passed away on September 11th.
But the good news is she died of old age- living to be 15 years old, after having a very rough start early on in life. She was such a special soul and will be dearly missed by her parents. And I know I will never forget her.
I want to take this opportunity to encourage everyone who has an elderly dog to get some good pictures taken of them. It doesn’t have to be with a professional- grab your camera, or a friend’s camera, or even commission a photography student, and some yummy treats, and head outside in natural light, and spend an hour with your sweet pooch snapping lots of pictures of them. With dogs there are no second chances, and I can’t tell you how meaningful those images become once your best friend is gone. I promise this is something you will never regret. 
new telephoto lens- the answer
November 14, 2008 – 5:03 pm
Are you ready?
I got the Canon 70-200mm L-series IS 4.0 lens. NOT the 2.8.
Here is why.
First, money was not the issue. I had $1800 cash to spend on a lens, but wanted to be absolutely sure that the lens I bought was the one I really wanted, regardless of cost.
It came down to weight vs. sharpness vs. speed. I had to ask myself, how much is speed really a consideration? I decided that speed wasn’t the primary consideration, and that sharpness and weight were the top two issues. BUT, having said that, the 4.0 buys you two whole stops with the image stabilization enabled. (On still shots anyway). This narrowed the competition a bit on speed.
The 4.0 is also *considerably* lighter than the 2.8, which is important when one is traveling and covering lots of ground with their gear, like I did for my Sonoma/Napa shoots. Trust me, the lighter your camera bag when trying to stuff it in a tiny overhead compartment on a tiny plane, the happier you will be.
Back when I was asking for advice I recalled people saying “you get what you pay for” and “the 2.8 is a much better lens”.
Which leads me to sharpness. For those who say “the 2.8 is a much better lens” the 4.0 is actually much sharper. If you equate sharpness with quality then which lens do you think is better?
The 4.0 is so sharp that the images that come from the lens *need no sharpening* post-process. Simon touched on the fact that some of my images from my Sonoma shoots are overly sharp- this is totally right as I am discovering that the images coming from the lens, again, need no extra sharpening in PS.
Need proof? This is what was the deciding factor for me. Scroll your mouse over the little arrow above the middle of the image to compare lenses:
the digital picture 100% crop comparison between the 4.0 IS L and the 2.8 IS L
The 4.0 may not be the best lens for everyone, but I can tell you it’s perfect for my needs. Also, after doing my research online, I learned there is small but significant movement of people who are selling their 2.8 lenses for the 4.0. Interesting.
Now, having said that, I somewhat regret buying the lens in the first place. Why? Because it’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from where I am happiest shooting- the wide end. There is something about a wide dog photograph that I find immensely appealing, and the lens that I have been really wanting- my dream lens if you will, is the 16-35mm 2.8 L-series. I have a feeling that if I had bought that instead it would be on my camera at least 50% of the time. I love, love, love my 20mm prime lens, and only wish it were an L-series as it’s pretty soft. But, I have been using it more and more recently, and am reminded every time I look at the images why I love it so much.
BUT, I needed a telephoto at least 10% of the time, so I am glad I got it. But I can promise you, the next lens I buy will be the 16-35. I just need to come up with $1500 first, lol.
Thank you to all of those who helped me with this, especially Craig, for generously sharing image samples and unbiased advice. And to Mia, for agreeing with light weight vs. fast speed.
Lens stuff can be so complicated, but when you get ones you really love it just makes shooting that much more fun.
new telephoto lens- the question
November 13, 2008 – 3:12 pm
A bunch of you have been asking me which lens I ended up buying. To prolong your agony one more day, I am going to make you guess (again). I’ll then post the answer tomorrow. But here are some hints.
Super sharp at 200mm (no sharpening was applied to this image)
Impressive 100% crop
Nice, soft buttery bokeh
Great images in low-light wide open. (These were taken after the sun went down behind the hills at around 5:30
Leave your guess as a comment below! Tomorrow I’ll post the answer.