Category Archives: Family Portraits

Here are few favorites from a recent portrait session.  Jenny has an awesome laugh and great smiling eyes, and she was relaxed, cheerful and self-possessed.  She’s got a lot of hobbies and interests, but we stuck to simple prop-free portraiture with her and her sister, around her house and at Agua Caliente park  - a great spot for photography that requires a permit to shoot at, curiously enough.  When I found out a few days before the shoot, I wasn’t sure I could get one in time, but the kind volunteers over there fast-tracked my permit, which was awesome.

This was the first shoot with my brand-spanking-new Canon 5D Mark III, which was very exciting.  I’m hooked on Canon full-frame cameras, and I’ve always sprung for the latest-greatest because I use ‘em pretty hard and pretty often. And hey, they’re a tax write-off because I do this for a living, so why scrimp?  Along with my bag of lenses, they’re my eyes, really.

It’s been more than three years since a fresh new full-frame model, which is an eternity in camera time. The previous version, the Mark II, was a great camera (as was the original version before that), but I was ready for something even better.  And cameras get tired – my original 5D camera had more than half a million shutter activations when it finally needed a rebuild, according to Canon Factory Service – and that was just one of a pair.

Because of some last minute hiccups (which don’t bother me in the least), they suspended delivery almost immediately, and I’m not sure if they’ve even started again. Not many got delivered – but one of the two I ordered made it out, so I consider myself quite lucky.

So far, it absolutely succeeds at helping me make great shots, with a better tonal range, better autofocus and better low light usability.  I’m stoked. But no new piece of gear ever gets integrated totally seamlessly…it’s also meant a byzantine process of upgrading all the software I use to process the RAW format images I prefer, but that’s another story (and a boring one).  Now all I need is a second one so I can retire both Mark II’s to the backup bin!