Hey Matt
I live in Atlanta and have seen your work first hand.  I was at a wedding that you shot and have been a fan ever since. I would love to work with you in May or any other time that you need help. I have been working with someone I think you know, Patrick Williams of PWP. Patrick said if I ever get a chance to work with you to take it. Since Patrick has switched gears to mostly corporate events, I am looking for another Master Wedding Photographer to assist and learn from. Thanks for your time and hope to hear from you soon.

I would have gladly paid my own travel expenses to get an opportunity to shoot 2nd photog at a wedding.  I have my own first wedding coming up.  Not my first really, but will be my first in a really long time, and first time for covering it with a DSLr.

Fabulous photography!  love your site.  Wish I could make it to ATL!

That ceremony location is amazing. What an incredible image.

I’d be all over it if it weren’t for our annual block party on the 16th!  I’ll pass this around to those I know.

Cheers,
Zack

Hey Matt, dude, that’s one of the Haciendas (Uayamon, right?) where Susan had her ceremony when I was down there and shot with you in Cancun. In the first shot with the groom in the background, that’s the exact bench I shot Susan. They had the ceremony in the ruins down the path to your right, and dined under that big huge tree in the courtyard to your left.

That place ROCKS!

Let me know if you want help with your 3/16 wedding.

I’d love to help you.
Unfortunately I’m not up to the job of a 2nd shooter. More likely a 3rd shooter (assistant)!

Anyway good luck

I just sent you an email about being a 2nd shooter!  I’d love to help out.  I’m in the Charlotte area but wouldn’t mind making the quick drive down and I have plenty of places to stay in the Atlanta area!  Let me know!

Check with Zach Arias http://www.zarias.com/ to see if he knows someone up to the task

The northwest has some really clean photographers that shoot tilt-shift. Check out sergiomottola.com. You will enjoy

You should check out JeffNewsom.com CameronIngalls.com JeredScott.com and JoshuaCaine.com they are from my area and they all use the 45 tilt shift and they are all amazing photographers check it

I’d love to get into some T/S stuff - when used right, it creates such a unique effect.  Looking forward to seeing you put them into use.

I hear the 135 f2.0 is just awesome. Guys on Sportsshooter.com swear by it. I really want that, but I need a 70-200 something bad.

M.D.

I got to test out the 17mm TS-E at the Canon booth at NAB last week. On a Full Frame sensor, it is just AMAZING!!!! Unfort, I was unable to take any test shots on my CF card :P That lens has some MEGA glass.

I picked up the 45mm ts-e a couple months back and am loving it—it’s a super-sharp lens, so even if not tiling or shifting, this lens is amazing.  As for some good shooters using the same lens (or another ts-e lens), check these guys out:

http://benjhaisch.com/blog/
http://sergiomottola.com/blog/

Good stuff.

-craig

Telmo,

We have 2 28 1.8’s, 1 50 1.4 and 2 85 1.8’s.  Yep, we use them as backups some of our 2nd shooters use them as Primarys.  The 85 1.8 is my FAV of all 3 of them.  With the 5d Mark II, it is amazing for receptions.

will not be a bad investment… but the 35mm L is worth the weight in gold :)

For quite a time I wanted to get some primes. On my mind are the 35mm and 135mm, but I’m waiting for a mkII (since other lenses got mkII versions).
For some one like me (started last year solo), I think I’ll be getting the cheaper versions like 28 f1.8, and 85 f1.8, swap them later.
What’s your opinion on that?

What to say? I’m just happy with 135/2.0L :))))

Yeah, the 135 has been on my mind for a while.  Before primes, I used the 70-200 like it was my work horse… but like Zach says, when you point that beast at someobody it can draw attention (look at this big honkin white stupid lens)... i really have enjoyed it, but have used it WAY less in the last 12 months.

90% of the time, the 85 mm 1.2 is my long lens.  I think the 135 will be perfect because its almost smaller than the big 24-70, another old work lens of mine, that currently hasn’t seen my camera in an eternity.

Kevin, Susan Stripling tried to tell me about the Prime side of the equation way back in 2006 but I wouldnt listen to her… she told me about the 135 and even borrowed my 70-200 at my sister’s wedding, only to return it back to me...too heavy.

with the Tilt and shift thing… I can see me purchasing the entire set in the next 2 to 3 years.  It is my goal to have 3 35mm 1.4’s, 2 or 3 50’s, 2 85 1.2’s and 2 or 3 135’s… We want to own Every tilt and shift lens too, just because the are so experimental and damn expensive.  Anything we can do to add a flame to the fire and change up the scene… I personally love the look of the T&S;and think our clients will too…

I’ll probably be on the 135’s, for sure!  I’m still open for any links...Thanks Breck & Brett for the links so far....

thanks for the thoughts and links, plase keep em coming :)
cheers,
matt

http://www.blog.markbrooke.com/

Mark Brooke uses massive amounts of amazing tilt-shifty goodness. He’s a master.

135 f2 is as everyone has said, with the side benefit that shots out of the camera have tremendous contrast.  Feels like it’s doing the post processing while you are shooting even with difficult shots. The Isolation is awesome.

Hey Matt, we use the 45mm Tilt-shift occasionally at weddings.  Even sometimes with some off-camera “Flash Flavor” :) But the 135mm f/2 is a mainstay for us.  We sold our 70-200mm and just use the 135mm solely as our longest lens.

I did some test with the TS series and found the 45mm the best (on a full frame). Not so much because of image quality (the 24 is better) but for usability.

That 17mm is very intriguing to focus plane manipulation, so if you end up getting it, please give us your impression!

I have both the 24 1.4 and the 135 and I LOVE them both. The 135 gets used less as the 70-200 2.8 IS often fits my needs better at a wedding, but man, when the 135 is the lens for the job, DAAANNNNG! So good. And it doesn’t scream “Hey look at the HUGE lens I’m pointing at you!” another bonus. In fact they let me take it into a hockey game recently becuase it didn’t look like a “professional” lens. Mwa haha. It also doesn’t replace a good arm workout at the gym the way the 70-200 does. The 24 is just fun. Feels and acts very similar to the 35 (my ultimate fav lens) but it’s a little squattier, and of course you already know how the focal length feels. To be able to get away with a 25th or less at 1.4 and 1600 is pretty nuts. Feels like cheating. Primes as just so fun, glad to see you’re loving them too!

Love your blog btw, very helpful/inspiring.

-Zach

I LOVE my 135 f/2. Sharp, contrasty, great bokeh and a good price. Here are a few shots with it:

http://brecksargent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/fav03.jpg
http://brecksargent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cn12.jpg
http://brecksargent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cn13.jpg

If you want more examples shoot me an email!

I love the 135 2.0! It really is razor sharp and creates a fantastic effect for portraits. The subject isolation is incredible and the telephoto effect is really nice. It isn’t quite as easy to use in tight situations, but it truly is a great lens.

The 135 f2 is a great lens.  Great.  The TS lenses look really fun, I hope to get one in the next few months and will start with the 45mm.  This guy uses it a decent amount:  http://benjhaisch.com/blog/

Now if you’re really dreaming about gear… 200 f2.0 IS… drool.

Hey Scott, if you’re going to be the homophonic spelling police (and it’s a worthy job…), watch out for your possessive pronoun there, it’s ‘its’, not it’s… ‘not only for its educational side’. ;-)

Thanks Man...cleaned up the sensor…

on the go lights are so nice...just small and low power and portable.... takes up no room and opens up a room at the same time :)

Cheers!
matt

I love what you do and congrats on the write up. I do credit you with the developement of my ability to light well, especially with “on the go” small lights. I’ve referred so many people to your blog not only for it’s educational side, but the inspirational imagery as well. Quick spelling police though… you spelled the camera form of “sensor” like the preventative “censor.”

Hey Matt, great blog! My wife and I have been 5D JPEG shooters now for three years. You really made my day saying that your 5D JPEGS are superior to the mark ii’s! And as far as high ISO goes, I find the 5D classic’s 1600 is plenty… A kiss of flash, and Bob’s your uncle. Who needs that gritty high ISO skin tone anyway! We recently did a 20 page 8.5x11 brochure (thanks to Sarah Quiara’s template) and our color guy wanted all of our files at 400 dpi and wanted to know why we didn’t shoot RAW. I told him it slows us down too much, in post, but especially in the field. No blinking red lights for us! No missed moments! The brochure came out awesome using our humble JPEGs!

That’s crazy - how’d you make that happen?  (not the image itself - but getting the B&G;there, etc)

I have always admired your cave/pond images. Love the placement of the flash and gels. Gorgeous!!!

Hey Matt, I didn’t know if you knew it, but there’s an article in USA Today today about Joe McNally and the rise in popularity with small flash units.  Anyways, they mention Flash Flavor in a list with folks like Strobist, Pixsylated, and Digital Pro Talk.  Here’s the link to the article if you want to read it.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-04-07-cameras-photographers-flash_N.htm

Your shadow issue is quite similar to mine when I opened 5D2’s sRaw1 in Lightroom 2.2 in the first week. Shadows were not gray but a bit like dark magenta mixed in it. I thought it was our 5D2’s problem. However, it works well in Canon’s latest DPP. I found this problem is quite common (online) if the software doesn’t have a correct camera profile. I fixed it by changing Lightroom 2.2’s 5D2 profile. After Lightroom upgraded to 2.3, the problem was totally gone.

Back to your problem… We don’t have any shadow problem with Jpeg. However, my Raw problem shows your 5D2 may be a software issue. I guess the best way is rent/borrow another 5D2 back and test it with your lenses. If I’m not mistaken, you can set your color profile in 5D2 body. Of course, I think you should talk to Canon guys and see what they can do for you.

I hope it helps,

Ray

*We think 5D2’s color production is really close to 1-series cameras which out score 5D1.

Thanks for the comments amigos :)
We too find certain happy thoughts from time to time with the 5d II.  But, I must say 20+ meg file (if you go 16 bit, I’m sure file sizes go 50 or 60 megs… editing.... bummer when we are shooting at our volume.  Really, its difficult to process that many files. 

So, we are a very rare group of JPG shooters in the land of photographers these days.  I have considered shooting a RAW TTD as a 3rd shooter, just to see what I felt about certain conditions..

5d II seems to give us problems and I can’t really get a grip on when the highlights blow… it is so sensitive that I am tending to make some mistakes.  I watch the histogram / small picture display to try to get an exact science out of whatever I’m doing...sometimes, thats not enough.

Also, I’m finding that my shadows are falling magenta / purple / blue.  Crazy shifting too.  I’m almost thinking something may be wrong with our 2 cameras because they perform like twins.  They are consecutive serial numbers....its possible.  This bluish shift is my BIGGEST PROBLEM all together.

Side by Side JPEG comparison from old 5d to new 5d II is night and day.  Old 5d wins, side by side straight out of the camera.  The 5d JPEG is king, just an amazing beautiful.

We are trying all different user defined settings like tweaking the contrast to +4 and bumping some saturation. 

Low light is the 5d II’s friend, for sure its King in that arena.  We just invested in 2 new cameras:  2 old 5d’s.  We love them that much and were that disappointed with the II’s JPEG. 

Any JPG 5d II shooters, please give a shout out…

I have a 5DMrkII and never tried the JPEGs and I dont know if I will ever try to. The only reason why I could see myself doing this would be if I had to process a huge list of images in a very short amount of time. Because lets admit it, processing 21meg RAW files is long, very long!

So far, my only problem with this camera is the AF. I lose a lot of shots because of it…

Great shot btw!

Hey.  Shooting the 5DII and am repeatedly blown away by both its amazingness and suckiness in certain areas.  Noise: unprecidented.  Resolution: amazing (if you use the right glass) Video: sweet! (more of a toy to me at this point - but may consider having a second shooter shoot video) Autofocus: gag!  In anything less than daylight it seems to hunt with the peripheral points.  But I’ll live - I guess I just have to change my autofocusing style under those circumstances. 

JPEGS?  Very tempting!  On the low setting, the noise reduction is a good starting place, and if you set the sharpening right I find I can actually get further ahead *easier* than with RAW.  But for the few times that I only find out in post processing that I could really use that extra stop of dynamic range from RAW, failure is worse than inconvenience.  Also, depending on how intensively you edit, I find the extra flexibility of 16 bit can really help.

Just my thoughts.  Give me a shout (I admire your work!!)

~
Justin

I LOVE my 5DII, just got home from a wedding an hour ago and my 40D literally went untouched.  However, I don’t shoot JPEGs, RAW only.  I’d be happy to chat if that helps anyway, brettmaxwell at gmail.