ANDRE PRSONAL TRAINER

A sister site of Strobist.com, the Photographer's Oil Collective partners photographers with specially trained master painters in Xiamen, China. With POC, any photographer can offer a museum-quality oil painting to their clients — and do so affordably. The painting seen above measures 36x48", and was done by POC artist Zhixing Zhang from a photo by R.J. Kern. It is typical of the work POC painters can create from a professional wedding photographer's reference image. Considering the size, and level of detail (two full-length subjects) a painting of this quality would cost USD $10,000 or more to commission in the west. At POC, we can do it for about 10% of that cost. Which creates some exciting possibilities for portrait photographers. I first started exploring the concept of high-end oil reproduction in 2012. Seen above is the first painting I commissioned, by artist Zhixing Zhang in China. Seen in person, the painting is remarkable. And it is a high-value product that an...

Long-time readers of this site are already familiar with my family, having watched my kids grow up in photos. Seen above, on the left, is my daughter Emily. You guys met her when she was eight . She's seventeen now, and headed off to college next year. Which meant this is the last time we'll put up a Christmas tree while we are all living here together. I have always tried take lots of photos around the holiday season. And even more so, now that the kids will be graduating soon. And as we have successively remodeled many of the rooms in our house, I have made it a point to pay special attention to the lighting. Why? Because you can get a lot of bang for your buck when it comes how a room looks just by thinking like a photographer during the remodel. And another bonus is that your quick available light grab shots will look much better, too. Even if you are just using your iPhone to shoot it. Take the living room, for instance. Before remodel, it was lit mainly by a small, four-b...

(UPDATE: You missed it. The close-out sale is gone. We have now moved onto the price-gouging portion of our show. Don't bite. Much better to buy used on eBay. These things are near indestructible. If it is not visibly damaged, you can feel pretty safe buying used.) __________ For those of you late to the party, the Orbis Ring Flash Adpater is a passive, add-on light shaping device that turns your speedlight into a ring flash. There are others, but for a slew of reasons the Orbis has long been my favorite of the lot. And it is about to go away forever. This post is a quick heads-up to grab one while you can—and a pointer to a fantastic deal on the last units as they are closed out. The Orbis was developed in 2008 as a sophisticated answer to the DIY efforts of the Strobist community. After seeing what was possible with cereal boxes, aluminum foil and gaffer's tape, reader James Madelin wanted to build something better. Meaning nicer looks, better durability, more efficiency, m...