Getting into the biz...

[ShoxX]

Ok so my wife has been big into photography for 20 years now. Well I manned up and bought her a DSLR a few months back. A Nikon D5000. She has always been "old skool" and used film, hell we even have dark room equipment. So the digital side we are both learning. She has done a couple of weddings and she has decided that it is way to stress full for her laid back personality. She has always enjoyed portraits and landscapes so we think we will concentrate her business towards that.

Now it really isn't a business since she has a full time job and she is still learning the ins and outs of digital photography. We just plan on doing free stuff for friends and family until she get comfortable enough seeking out work. So I have a few questions that maybe you seasoned guys can help me with.

First off lenses....I want to get her a few good portrait lenses. Her birthday is in Dec. so I plan to get her one by then. What do you guys recommend? We are on an extreme budget so be easy on me. She has mentioned a single focal lens?

Second off. I am the computer savy one in the family. We have an old dell laptop that I kept after my company upgraded me to a better one. It is crap....going in my rig for a nav computer. Lately she has been using my company laptop. It is pimped out with an i7 and tons of ram and all that. Should I get her a laptop so that she can carry it with her on shoots or would a desktop with a decent monitor for editing be better? Also what kind of photoshops should we be looking at?

Third and final. A few of my friends wives and girlfriends have asked for boudoir photos. She is actually really liking this idea, because of the relaxed and fun settings. I must admit I'm cool with it too:wings: BUT there is the issue of access to the photos. Professionally only she should see them. So what would the best way to secure them while they are on the computer? And what processing companies develop that kind of stuff? Most of the ladies have insisted that it be entirely personal with only my wife, the model and a friend being at the shoot and only my wife will see them while they are being edited. Some don't care if I am there but we need a game plan for the ones that don't. So I want to be prepared on the tech side for restricted access for just my wife. I don't even want to know the passwords because at the end of the day it is not any of my business.

Any advice you guys have would be awesome.

 

[RusherRacing]

I am not a pro but I do read alot about photography.
First Pro Glass and Budget don't go hand in hand

What "kit" did you get? Do you have just the 18-55? or did you get the dual lens kit?

I have been told the 55-200 is decent lense photo quality wise. The build quality could be improved (plastic..)but thats what you get with entry level glass. Also that focal range is good for portraits.

I personally have a 18-200 tamron which I think is crap and can't wait to buy the 18-200 Nikon VRII (my next purchase), but I got it as part of the used camera bundle.

I also have the Tokina 11-16mm it is an awesome wide angle. Good build quality, great optics...

I would recommend reading on Ken Rockwell's website. He has some decent info.

As for photo editing I have a new desktop (i7....) with a 23" viewsonic IPS monitor. It works great. I think having a good monitor regardless of what is actually processing the pictures is important. If your notebook you have now runs smoothly with the photo editing software on it then keep it. Just make sure you have a good monitor.

I also have a netbook that I carry with me in my travels to upload the daily photos to... I sometimes will do a quick edit on it in google picasa for email, facebook.... But the heavy hitting is done by the desktop when I can actually see the issues (blemishes, fine details etc).

 

[Tucson T4R]

Just a hobby for me but from my perspective. Either laptop or desktop but make it beefy. The benefit of the desktop would be the larger monitor. For Software unless you need to get artistically creative and need the pixel poking power of Photoshop I would first just get Adobe LightRoom 3. That is an amazing photo processing package and should cover about 90% of any post processing you need to do.

Since I'm not in the business I don't have much advise there except to recommend www.dgrin.com. Over 50K members many of which are pros. They readily offer advise and have a wealth of experience they are happy to share.

They even have "Go Figure" sub category that focuses on the more adult photo shoots. I'm sure those photogs would have a ton of advise on how to protect those type of images throughout the process to keep your clients happy.

Good luck on your path. :victory:

 

[Longrange]

I to am getting looking into digital images as a second job. I went to the local book store and found several books on my specific camera and what I liked to shoot. (Landscapes/portraits) I also looked at how to keep the images private for some bodior shots. Epson printers were a good compromise of quality vs price. A friend recommended an ipad for viewing/editing images on the spot. I read lighting is more important than expensive lenses for portraits. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Wander]

The Nikon 105 f 2.0 is an old standard for portrait head and shoulders shots, but she's shooting DX format so that 105 becomes a 168 so too long. For the boudoir shots I'm thinking she'll need something like the 17-55 f2.8 or maybe the 16-85 to give her some zoom capacity.

THe 16-85 is not a "pro" lens (low f numbers-robust build) so it's not pro cost. The 50 f1/4 might due for a fixed lens as it will be an 85 in DX format.

What does she have for her film carmeras/lenses? If she can stay with a common mount she will be able to use most of the lenses on both. If she is going to stay with digital she will want to look into the full format or FX format bodies like the D700. The digital sensor in an FX body is the same size as a 35mm film body so you can use the lenses without having to adjust for focal length.

Find a pro lab in your area-search for Kodak Q lab or ask other pro's. They can handle the processing if she doesn't want to do it herself.

 

[AYIAPhoto]

She has done a couple of weddings and she has decided that it is way to stress full for her laid back personality. She has always enjoyed portraits and landscapes so we think we will concentrate her business towards that.

Weddings are nuts. You need to be a portrait/product/landscape/event and a few more specialist. I did my cousins engagement shoot as a wedding present, but told him to find someone local for his wedding next year in H.I.. It's only going to be about 20 people but that was way too hectic for me. I can't blame her for getting stressed. She may be able to get in with a few local real estate agents and shoot listings for them(that landscape thing is pretty broad).

We just plan on doing free stuff for friends and family until she get comfortable enough seeking out work.

Don't give it away free. You don't need to charge friends/family for the photography work, but make sure they pay for prints. Sure you could just give them everything on a disk, but then their prints will come out a million different ways. No ones monitors are the same, and different printers have different color profiles. Getting shots that look good on everyone's too bright computer monitor is easy, the hard part is for them to look good on paper. I'll get back to that.
The reason I say to have them pay for print is two fold. One your wife has control of the quality of the final product, and two she treats it like a business to some degree so people don't suddenly expect her to just work for nothing. When you have something of skill to offer it is amazing how even the greatest of family thinks they have a right to your work.

First off lenses....I want to get her a few good portrait lenses. Her birthday is in Dec. so I plan to get her one by then. What do you guys recommend? We are on an extreme budget so be easy on me. She has mentioned a single focal lens?

Single or fixed focal length. She needs a lens without zoom. The advantage of fixed lenses is that they tend to be much sharper(unless it's cheap) and have a larger aperture than zooms. The larger aperture(lower f- number) the brighter the lens is and the better it can throw the background out of focus, drawing your attention to the subject(I assume she knows this as you stated she has been doing this long, just not digitally). As Wander stated, the sensor in her camera is not the same size as a 35mm negative, causing the focal length to increase 1.5-1.6 times. Where a 105 was the standard portrait lens for years on film, a DX or crop sensor digital lens should be around 70mm for portraits. I am not up on Nikon lenses as I use Pentax, so specific lenses I'll leave to others. Here are some focal lengths to look for:
50mm(75 on DX)-good for half length portraits
70mm(105 " ")-headshots
something around 40mm for those boudoir photos where the woman is laying down.
Always look for the lowest f-stop available for the reasons mentioned earlier and also because you will need it for the lower light used for those "special gift" shots her lady friends want. Deer in the headlights because you needed monster flash isn't sexy.

Should I get her a laptop so that she can carry it with her on shoots or would a desktop with a decent monitor for editing be better? Also what kind of photoshops should we be looking at?

Get a laptop of her own. It doesn't need to be expensive or super fast. It doesn't even need a huge monitor as I would recommend a separate monitor anyway. As long as it has enough memory to run her editing program of choice it will work. Two 1tb external drives to back everything up, and leave nothing on the computer might run you $200(get cheaper 500mb ones until finances improve if you have to). I wouldn't even get a laptop with WiFi so she isn't temped to browse the net and pick up all the junk out there. Spec the laptop out and load it with programs only needed for work. Oh yeah, get a tablet. The Wacom Bamboo is only about $100, and retouching photos is much easier(once you get used to using it) than with a mouse.

BUT there is the issue of access to the photos. Professionally only she should see them. So what would the best way to secure them while they are on the computer? And what processing companies develop that kind of stuff? Most of the ladies have insisted that it be entirely personal with only my wife, the model and a friend being at the shoot and only my wife will see them while they are being edited.

The aforementioned external drives, and leaving nothing on the HDD should net all the security she needs. When she's not working on the photos, just keep the drives someplace safe. There is plenty of software out there that she can use to encrypt or password protect the drives if she wants to go a little overboard.
As for printing that kind of stuff, there are really only two options. First is to spend $5-600 at the minimum on a good photo printer(and I do mean photo, not all in one or your average inkjet) plus the added cost of ink. The second is to find a good photo shop in the area. They will be able to print much more consistently and cheaper than a home setup just due to the shear volume of work they do. Don't fret about Bob at the print shop screwing around with copies of the photos as the place has a reputation to maintain. They're pros who have seen it all and now it's just work.
I mentioned earlier about the need to control the quality of the final product. In order to do that, any monitor she uses will need to be calibrated and its color profile saved into her editing software of choice(lightroom for example). She also needs the printers color profile(any pro printshop should provide it or at least give you the make/model of their printer so she can download it). With these two profiles Lightroom will allow her to see what the prints will actually look like. There is a video on blurb.com that explains it better than I could, just look around the video section for "monitor calibration".
I hope the preceding info helped a little.

 

[Tucson T4R]

OK, now there is some great advise. Well said. :wings:

 

[ShoxX]

Wow thanks for all the advice already..... I'll try and answer a few things brought up.

I am not a pro but I do read alot about photography.
First Pro Glass and Budget don't go hand in hand

What "kit" did you get? Do you have just the 18-55? or did you get the dual lens kit?.

This is the package I picked up Clicky Basic 18-55 and a 55-200 both with VR. Her old 35mm was a Minolta so none of her lenses will work. Which is too bad since she had a nice collection.

Just a hobby for me but from my perspective. Either laptop or desktop but make it beefy. The benefit of the desktop would be the larger monitor. For Software unless you need to get artistically creative and need the pixel poking power of Photoshop I would first just get Adobe LightRoom 3. That is an amazing photo processing package and should cover about 90% of any post processing you need to do.

Since I'm not in the business I don't have much advise there except to recommend www.dgrin.com. Over 50K members many of which are pros. They readily offer advise and have a wealth of experience they are happy to share.

They even have "Go Figure" sub category that focuses on the more adult photo shoots. I'm sure those photogs would have a ton of advise on how to protect those type of images throughout the process to keep your clients happy.

Good luck on your path. :victory:

I was thinking along the same lines for a computer. I also checked out the website:Wow1: She is a bit shy so I doubt there will be any nude photos, though some of the ladies said they may be interested. It will take my wife some time to get over the giggles when the bra hits the ground.:coffeedrink:

The Nikon 105 f 2.0 is an old standard for portrait head and shoulders shots, but she's shooting DX format so that 105 becomes a 168 so too long. For the boudoir shots I'm thinking she'll need something like the 17-55 f2.8 or maybe the 16-85 to give her some zoom capacity.

THe 16-85 is not a "pro" lens (low f numbers-robust build) so it's not pro cost. The 50 f1/4 might due for a fixed lens as it will be an 85 in DX format.

What does she have for her film carmeras/lenses? If she can stay with a common mount she will be able to use most of the lenses on both. If she is going to stay with digital she will want to look into the full format or FX format bodies like the D700. The digital sensor in an FX body is the same size as a 35mm film body so you can use the lenses without having to adjust for focal length.

Find a pro lab in your area-search for Kodak Q lab or ask other pro's. They can handle the processing if she doesn't want to do it herself.

Like I stated above her 35mm lenses won't work and she has the basic 18-55. She borrowed a 14mm SF at one point but it wouldn't work on the camera. Is it because of the DX vs FX? The camera was bought and paid for earlier in the summer so if we need to upgrade the it will have to wait until she make a little bit of money.

Don't give it away free. You don't need to charge friends/family for the photography work, but make sure they pay for prints. Sure you could just give them everything on a disk, but then their prints will come out a million different ways. No ones monitors are the same, and different printers have different color profiles. Getting shots that look good on everyone's too bright computer monitor is easy, the hard part is for them to look good on paper. I'll get back to that.
The reason I say to have them pay for print is two fold. One your wife has control of the quality of the final product, and two she treats it like a business to some degree so people don't suddenly expect her to just work for nothing. When you have something of skill to offer it is amazing how even the greatest of family thinks they have a right to your work.Single or fixed focal length. She needs a lens without zoom. The advantage of fixed lenses is that they tend to be much sharper(unless it's cheap) and have a larger aperture than zooms. The larger aperture(lower f- number) the brighter the lens is and the better it can throw the background out of focus, drawing your attention to the subject(I assume she knows this as you stated she has been doing this long, just not digitally). As Wander stated, the sensor in her camera is not the same size as a 35mm negative, causing the focal length to increase 1.5-1.6 times. Where a 105 was the standard portrait lens for years on film, a DX or crop sensor digital lens should be around 70mm for portraits. I am not up on Nikon lenses as I use Pentax, so specific lenses I'll leave to others. Here are some focal lengths to look for:
50mm(75 on DX)-good for half length portraits
70mm(105 " ")-headshots
something around 40mm for those boudoir photos where the woman is laying down.
Always look for the lowest f-stop available for the reasons mentioned earlier and also because you will need it for the lower light used for those "special gift" shots her lady friends want. Deer in the headlights because you needed monster flash isn't sexy.Get a laptop of her own. It doesn't need to be expensive or super fast. It doesn't even need a huge monitor as I would recommend a separate monitor anyway. As long as it has enough memory to run her editing program of choice it will work. Two 1tb external drives to back everything up, and leave nothing on the computer might run you $200(get cheaper 500mb ones until finances improve if you have to). I wouldn't even get a laptop with WiFi so she isn't temped to browse the net and pick up all the junk out there. Spec the laptop out and load it with programs only needed for work. Oh yeah, get a tablet. The Wacom Bamboo is only about $100, and retouching photos is much easier(once you get used to using it) than with a mouse.The aforementioned external drives, and leaving nothing on the HDD should net all the security she needs. When she's not working on the photos, just keep the drives someplace safe. There is plenty of software out there that she can use to encrypt or password protect the drives if she wants to go a little overboard.
As for printing that kind of stuff, there are really only two options. First is to spend $5-600 at the minimum on a good photo printer(and I do mean photo, not all in one or your average inkjet) plus the added cost of ink. The second is to find a good photo shop in the area. They will be able to print much more consistently and cheaper than a home setup just due to the shear volume of work they do. Don't fret about Bob at the print shop screwing around with copies of the photos as the place has a reputation to maintain. They're pros who have seen it all and now it's just work.
I mentioned earlier about the need to control the quality of the final product. In order to do that, any monitor she uses will need to be calibrated and its color profile saved into her editing software of choice(lightroom for example). She also needs the printers color profile(any pro printshop should provide it or at least give you the make/model of their printer so she can download it). With these two profiles Lightroom will allow her to see what the prints will actually look like. There is a video on blurb.com that explains it better than I could, just look around the video section for "monitor calibration".
I hope the preceding info helped a little.

We won't be giving our friends and family any prints. She wrote up a contract for her wedding jobs and we will use the same with friends. Minus the actual shoot cost. She takes the shots, edits them and gives them some low res copies to choose from. Then she will use a print shop of her choice to have them made with a 20% mark up on top of her costs. There are a few high quality prints shops in the area but I am not sure about how discrete they are. Most of the photos are easily seen my most of the employees. We have used online shops but there are shipping times involved plus IMHO this quality of the print and the paper isn't worth the money.

Here is the desktop I've been looking at. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i570-5189PBK-Desktop-Piano/dp/B003LPUYL6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1286242828&sr=8-1"]Dell[/ame] I'm not sold on it yet because I'm not wild about the AMD processor. Any opinions on them?
I understand the convenience of a laptop but I figure a desktop it easier to upgrade in 6mos when everything is out of date.....though I am not 100% I'll go with it since she has complained about how much desk space she will loose with a desktop.


Thanks so far for the advice keep them coming! I am the business man in the family (run the tower division of a telecom construction co) so I am trying my best to help her the best I can.

 

[AYIAPhoto]

She is a bit shy so I doubt there will be any nude photos, though some of the ladies said they may be interested. It will take my wife some time to get over the giggles when the bra hits the ground.

Best advice is to do a few shoots with friends first. Even if no shots make it to print it will help her get used to working with models, particularly those wearing less clothing. A lot of boudoir photography is implied nude rather than actual nude anyway. Lingerie, sheets/pillows covering sensitive areas. Once more comfortable(it's fine to laugh and giggle with friends) she will still need a portfolio to show prospective clients. Easiest way to do that is Craigslist. Run an add under "gigs" looking for models. Be honest about the purpose and experience of the photographer. Offer "trade for print" or small compensation. Offer headshots to go along with the boudoir shots. But make it clear that the photos are for a portfolio for prospective clients.
DON'T FORGET MODEL RELEASES!!! Any photos she intends to use even for her own advertising, she will need them. There are a few simple ones downloadable on the web. Also take a photo(in RAW format) of the models I.D. to prove she is 18+. Releases are not needed for customers if her contract with them stipulates that your wife will not use their images, but keeping a photo of their I.D. with the images is still advised.

She borrowed a 14mm SF at one point but it wouldn't work on the camera. Is it because of the DX vs FX?

More than likely. As I said I don't use Nikon, But I do believe the lenses aren't interchangeable.

We won't be giving our friends and family any prints. She wrote up a contract for her wedding jobs and we will use the same with friends. Minus the actual shoot cost. She takes the shots, edits them and gives them some low res copies to choose from. Then she will use a print shop of her choice to have them made with a 20% mark up on top of her costs.

That's what I was talking about. That is a fine level to charge when starting out, but I would add a stipulation into the contract to allow her to use those photos in her portfolio also. It does sound like you have the business end pretty much figured out.

There are a few high quality prints shops in the area but I am not sure about how discrete they are. Most of the photos are easily seen my most of the employees.

And as I stated, most of those places deal with lots of photographers who also shoot racier things. They want to keep customers, they will be discrete.

Here is the desktop I've been looking at. Dell I'm not sold on it yet because I'm not wild about the AMD processor. Any opinions on them?
I understand the convenience of a laptop but I figure a desktop it easier to upgrade in 6mos when everything is out of date.....though I am not 100% I'll go with it since she has complained about how much desk space she will loose with a desktop.

I can't help with choosing a computer as I'm lucky I can operate mine. Computers aren't my thing, which is why my work computer is currently with my father after a crash earlier this weekend. I did suggest a laptop though for a reason. A 20+ inch flat panel monitor takes up little space on a desk and can be tethered to a laptop. The advantage is she can then take the LT and an external drive to show clients more than she would like to keep in here print portfolios. And I did say portfolios. You don't want too many items in any one, and each one being a different form of photography. One for family portraits/Christmas card shots. One for head and glamor shots. One for boudoir, and so on. You only bring the one that fits a clients needs, and only put 15-20 of your best in there.

Thanks so far for the advice keep them coming! I am the business man in the family (run the tower division of a telecom construction co) so I am trying my best to help her the best I can.

It seems like you have a very good start already. Far too many believe that spending money on gear is all it takes to get great shots and the rest will fall into place.

 

[RusherRacing]

Do you have a local Best Buy?

about a month ago you could pick up a Dell XPS 8100 with an i7 processor and the works. It runs CS5 with no sweat!! for like $700 bucks.
The deal wasn't advertised online as it was a discontinued model... I don't know the specific sku number but could probably find it tonight if your interested.

I priced it out on dells site for $1300 and a comparable HP was $1500

 

[smslavin]

I ran my own studio for about 5 years. 90% of what I shot were weddings and families. The other 10% was stock, advertising and magazine work. However, that doesn't mean I was out shooting 90% of the time. Exact opposite. 90% of my time was sucked up with editing and running the business. 10% was shooting.

I don't have time at the moment to give the complete answers that I want to but I will return to this later today.

In the meantime, give nothing away for free, even if it's friends and family. Charge them something. Word travels fast and if someone innocently says it was free, you'll have a very difficult uphill battle in overcoming that.

Also, even if it is more hobby than business in the beginning, treat it as a business. Keep track of all costs, purchases, contacts, etc. It'll will be a good introduction to what's like when it actually becomes a business. It's way more work than most people imagine.

More later.

 

[smslavin]

Ok, I have a little bit more time now for a more complete reply. I'm going to try not to repeat what has already been mentioned and I apologize up front if I do. I'm also going to stay away from gear recommendations. Nikon vs Canon is a lot like Windows vs Apple. Make your choice and stick with it.

Making the leap from hobby to potential source of income is huge. I don't want to make any assumptions or slap on a stereotype but I have seen a lot of folks try to make that leap. A large percentage fail because they don't have the skill set needed to make it work. What they don't realize is that very very few people become successful photographers. They think that all they need to do is buy a digital camera and start snapping photos. They become "Uncle Bob". They don't understand the time or costs involved and when they do decide to charge, it's so far below market value that it becomes hard to compete. When people came to my studio referencing an "Uncle Bob" down the street, I always turned them away.

So, to do this and do it well you need a few things.

First, you need to pay to play. This business is expensive. If you want to make money at it, don't skimp, you'll be kicking yourself later. Buy the best gear you can. Remember, a camera body is a light proof box. It does not decide the quality of the image. Image quality comes from a single thing, the glass you attach to the light proof box. Your initial investments should all be in lenses. Pro level glass is very very pricey. You don't need a lot to get started. As the years went on, I began leaving more and more at home. Primes (fixed focal length lenses) will serve you better than zooms and will force you to think more about the shot you are about to take. Most of my work these days is shot with a 50/1.2 or a 35/1.4. The big zooms stay in the bag in my closet.

Your photography skills need to be top notch. If they aren't, you need to be able to find the time and learn. Close the gap. Switching from a primarily film workflow to digital is huge and there are lots of issues. Storage and backups being the primaries. One of the best resources I've come across over the years is "The DAM Book" and it's accompanying forums. Coming from a background of software engineering, a lot of this was easy but that isn't the case with everyone.

If your wife wants to shoot nudes, that's great. It's definitely a niche market but you better have a place to set up a studio. You'll need to learn how to work with "big" lights to light skin. Retouching is whole other ballgame. There are plenty of starter studio kits and if you hunt around a bit, you'll probably find lots of used ones as well. Calumet has great starter packages. I purchased my studio lights from Alien Bees and couldn't be happier. I've used them in studio as well as on location with battery packs and generators. They are the best bang for your buck in my opinion.

Weddings are nothing to be fearful of. I enjoyed them but they are extremely time consuming. For me, it was typically a 10-14 hour day, excluding travel times, of being "on". I normally came home with about 2000 frames and edited that down to 600. The 600 frames were then given to my clients as proofs. From the 600, I went down to about 75 for the album.

With weddings, you need to be a story teller. By just looking at the photos, you should get the feeling of being there. Even when I'm not shooting, I'm taking stills in my head and constructing stories.

Another big thing you need to learn how to do well is editing and I don't mean color correcting. It's okay to throw things away. You don't need to keep every frame you shoot.

For your editing, I recommend Adobe's Lightroom as the first step in your workflow. This application can do 95% of what you need. It will be your catalog and where you will organize, edit and color correct. The images you export from LR can go directly to print, there's no need to make a stop in Photoshop.

I had 2 manual steps in my editing process, editing and color correcting. Color correcting was more half-manual as you can apply presets in LR to multiple images. So if I had 40 frames that were shot in the same lighting conditions, I just corrected one then pasted it on the other 39. The rest of my workflow was totally automated through OS X's Automator scripting environment. I had it setup to export from LR, generate a PSD, generate a 4x6 proof then upload all proofs to my lab's FTP site. I had it down so that I could sit down on a Monday morning to edit a wedding and be done with the manual process is about 4 hours. Then I clicked a button and walked away.

I feel like I'm kind of jumping around a bit but I'm just typing as I'm thinking. It's starting to turn into a bit of book.

I'd like to step back to film for a minute. In my head, film is still king and always will be. Digital is a convenience. Something that fills the instant gratification factor of today's society. Photography isn't about instant gratification. It's a process and a thoughtful one at that. Yes, there are situations where it moves very quickly and you don't have the time to be all Ansel Adams about your setups. But, you plan ahead for those situations. You teach yourself to read the light and be prepared for the shift in conditions. Your goal is to make the camera an extension of you. I say shoot film when you can, then have it scanned and start the digital side of the workflow. There's an organic-ness and a feel that digital will never replicate. Yes, shooting film is more expensive but my pricing had reflected that. People came to me because I still shot film and the cost was justified. It's what made me a little bit different from the bazillion other photographers here in San Diego.

That being said, it may not always be practical. For example, traveling with film these days is a giant PITA. Asking that super friendly TSA agent at the security screening to hand check 100 rolls of film can give you unexpected results. :Wow1:

For me, I was a late comer to digital and I'm not caught up in the latest and greatest. I waited until there was a full frame camera and then made the switch. My Canon 5Ds are almost 8 years old and still going strong. I am an anomaly and other pros I know are floored that I haven't upgraded. My true loves though are my 1Vs and 30 year old Minolta. That Minolta makes better images than any camera I own.

I treat my digital bodies as film bodies. The LCD is always off and I very very rarely "chimp". If you're reviewing images on the LCD while working, you're missing moments that ought to be captured.

I'm going to try and wrap this up although there is a ton more that could be said.

You guys need to think long and hard about doing this. Once it becomes a business it has a tendency to not be fun anymore. Do it because you love it. Research other photographers in the area. Find out their specialties and pricing. Review information at ASMP and get an understanding of the legal issues. Look up some the local chapters of ABC or NACE and see if they'll let you come to a meeting to check it out. 90% of this job is footwork and networking.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. I'm more than happy to help out (contracts, workflow, setups, etc). There's way too much info to put into a single post.