Shoot the Breeze

This week on Shoot the Breeze, strap in and brace yourself for another hour of me talking to myself about photography (and black holes). After a close encounter with a mirrorless camera earlier in the week, I try to get my head around the tidal wave of mirrorless technology that threatens to make my D850 obsolete by next Tuesday. I also sing the praises of the FujiFilm X-T3 mirrorless camera, explain why Lightroom presets are a waste of time and money, tip my hat to the geniuses that photographed a black hole, and tell you everything you need to know to photograph the moon.

For more information about the Event Horizon Telescope and the stunning black hole photograph, check out this article from Inverse by the excellent Peter Hess.

And for Andy Mumford's spirited review of the Fujifilm X-T3 you need look no further than HERE.

Here are some awesome images from the Fujifilm X-T3, shot by the incomparable Martin Howard...

If none of that floats your boat, head over to my website and tell me what you want to talk about.

Thanks for listening and for being a cool person.

Greetings and welcome back to STB! I hope you have had a better week than me, at least in terms of blood loss.

Enough stuff happened this week that I couldn't resist sharing it with you. We walk through a fairly typical week in the life of a product photographer, but with enough gore to make it interesting for the rest of us. Turns out that I did enough dumb stuff this week to make it an object lesson in how not to make a living from photography. But even if you aren't doing photography for money, you still need to listen to the podcast so that you can learn how to avoid partially amputating your thumbs.

I was going to include upsetting pictures of thumb-related carnage but I wasn't clear on whether or not the fine folks over at iTunes would see the humor in it. So here is a picture of a pen, instead.

Anyway.... thanks for dropping by (both of you) and please make a point of subscribing so you don't miss a single episode or injury. Super excited about next week's show when we will be joined by acclaimed Mississippi fashion photographer, Dr. Martin Howard, who will explain to us why "Mississippi fashion" is not an oxymoron.

Need more stuff? Go over to the website for "all you can eat" photography-based fodder and, while you are over there, leave me a message so that I can drop your name in a future episode. How cool would that be?!

In episode 3 of Shoot the Breeze we turn our attention to studio lighting and try to demystify the various functions and features of the modern studio strobe. There is a ton of useful information that will be especially valuable for anyone who is currently in the market for new lighting. We also touch on a few classic single-light techniques that should be helpful for beginners and anyone getting started with a new home-studio setup. 

We also get into a controversial story about cheating in photography competitions, tell you how to save money on color gels, and more.

If you want more photography tips, tutorials, reviews, or rants, head over to Allan Walls Photography and, while you're there, sign up for our newsletter.

Thanks for listening in! We'll be back in 7 days with an episode all about product photography. Don't miss it!

This week we get into a studio DIY tip, portrait pointers, A Tamron wide-angle lens review, the dangers of offering discounts on your photography services, upsetting people with your camera, the right way to use HDR, the basics of ISO, and a couple of basic composition suggestions. There may be more, but I forgot to write it down.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Welcome to Shoot the Breeze! 

This is our first episode and we cover quite a bit of ground. First up is an in-depth discussion about the 6 key components of a good photograph: an interesting subject, creative composition, good timing, effective lighting, using color, and editing gently.

Here is the photograph referred to in the section on timing a photograph:

Later in the show we get into portfolio reviews, ND filters, teaching photography, our must-have 50mm prime lens, and plenty more.

Please leave a comment and tell us what you want to discuss in future episodes - this is a conversation, after all!

If you would like to submit a photograph for us to review on next week's show, please email the JPEG to [email protected] and include "photo review" in the email subject line.

If you want to know more about us, check out our website, allanwallsphotography.com. 

Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week!