New Personal Account on Facebook

After many years of avoiding Facebook, I have established a new personal account. Please feel free to connect with me by clicking here.

New Business Twitter and Facebook

Last week I introduced my new business website. This week I want to invite you to connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. These are new accounts so I am trying to build connections.

Twitter - Our business Twitter is https://twitter.com/kennamermedia Please follow us and share this link with our followers.

Facebook - We are also new to Facebook. Please like our page and share it with your friends. https://www.facebook.com/kennamermedia

Linked In - You may also wish to follow our Linked In page by clicking here.

My personal accounts (linked to this blog) are:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/mikekennamer
Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/profile/public-profile-settings?trk=prof-edit-edit-public_profile

Let's connect!

New Business Website Launched

I recently launched a new website for my business. Ready in time for 2015, the new site better represents our business and was designed to help promote our services to existing customers and to reach out to new customers. Please give it a look and let me know what you think.

If you are unfamiliar with our work, we are a boutique content development and content management company. Most of our clients are major publishers, although we work for a variety of clients. Our services include:

Content Development

• Writing Services
• Photography 
• Graphic Design

Content Management

• Editing and Publishing Services
• Photo Licensing 
• Print Brokerage

Be sure to check out our new site at KennamerMediaGroup.com and if you know anyone who is responsible for hiring freelancers for copywriting, photo acquisition, or graphic design, have them to contact us at info@kennamer.net. 

2014 Photo Locations Revealed

My last post included iPhone snapshots I took while on trips in 2014. You were asked to match the location with the photo. Here are the answers.

This is the Bromo Seltzer Tower in Baltimore Maryland. It now anchors the corner of the nation's busiest fire station. 

This shot was taken just after we took off from Lubbock, Texas and shows the dust storms occurring below.

This was made at Rehobeth Beach, Maryland during a June trip.

I took this shot at St. Pete Beach, Florida as we watched the sunset. 

This section of the Berlin Wall was displayed in Portland, Maine.

We stopped in at this Harvey's in Saint Theophile, QC.

This was taken near the end of a quick trip to Dallas. The guy sitting in front of me had the flu.

Until next time...

Mike

Happy 2015!

How time flies when you are having fun! 2014 has come and gone without any activity on the Manual DSLR site. Even so, people are still reading the articles. For that, I am appreciative.

My resolution for this year is to revive The Manual DSLR site by posting at least one photography article per month. I've been quite busy with writing projects of late, and haven't taken the time to post anything about photography projects.

At the very least I should have posted some photos from trips taken in 2014, which included:

• St. Pete Beach, Florida
• Dallas, Texas
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Lubbock, Texas
• Chincoteague Island, Virginia
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Rehoboth Beach, Maryland
• Portland, Maine
• Saint Theophile, Canada
• and others

See if you can match the iPhone snapshots below with the locations listed above. Some locations are not represented by photos. Answers will follow in a few days. 

This was the view from our hotel window. In what city will you find this iconic tower?

This was taken just after we took off from a dusty, windy city. Guess which one.

Which beach is this one?

This was taken during the golden hour at one of our destinations. Which one?

Where will you find this section of the Berlin wall?

Harvey's anyone? In what city was this taken?

This is the most exciting view I had on this business trip. I also came home with the flu.

So make your guesses in the comments section and watch this site to see if you are correct. Until later, then...

Book Cover Photo

I recently had an opportunity to make a photo for the cover of an upcoming book that I revised for Jones & Barlett Publishing. The customer needed a photo that would fit within a set cover template for the series, but the photos they had showed poor technique. With the help of my wife and son, who served as hand models for the shoot, I was able to quickly grab the shot and license it to the publisher for this book.

Here is the final cover image.

This image, and others, are available for licensing at our website. I hope to add many others to these in the coming months. 

The book may be ordered for advanced purchase here. 

Lake Superior Lighthouses

Split Rock Lighthouse, Minnesota

During a recent trip to the Minneapolis area, I had an opportunity to travel to Duluth to see Lake Superior. The first photo is of Split Rock Lighthouse and the second is of the Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Light.

Look for more images to be posted later. 

Duluth (MN) Harbor South Breakwater Light

Change in Twitter Name

As regular readers of this blog know, I began the Manual DSLR Project in 2010 to chronicle my journey of learning to use my Nikon D300 in manual mode. I also started a Twitter account using the name, manualdslr, through which I shared my post and other photos.

It is now mid-2013 and manualdslr does not clearly describe all that I do. Therefore, after receiving advice from Joe and Trevor at Digital Photography Cafe, I have changed my Twitter, Instagram, and tadaa name to...(drum roll please)...MikeKennamer. Oh well, that wasn't really all that exciting, was it?

My hope is that this new user name will help me to continue to connect with photographers, but also with writers and others that I know through my business, Kennamer Media Group, Inc.

Interested in hearing more about my decision to change user name? Are you considering a similar change? Then check out the Digital Photography Cafe show that addresses my question.

Shooting Big - Finished Product

In the last post I talked about some photos I shot for a graphic wrap for a 20' cargo trailer. The design was done by Rejas Business Solutions, using photos that I shot with my 12 megapixel Nikon D300. I am very pleased with the quality and clarity of the photos, especially since they are quite large. Rejas did a great job translating my ideas into the wrap.

The theme is "Industrial Strength" which plays off the industrial training programs at Northeast Alabama Community College.

The photos of the finished trailer were shot with my iPhone. I plan to shoot some better quality shots soon.

The largest print I had ever made before was a 30 inch canvas. It was fun to have a chance to shoot big. It just goes to prove that for most projects, more megapixels are not necessarily needed.

Now it's time to figure out to design the inside of the trailer...

All the best... Mike

Shooting Big!

I recently had the opportunity to provide some shots for graphics on a large (20 foot-long) trailer. We were looking for photos that could be integrated in the graphics on the trailer that would not be stale or dated looking in 5 years. On the day that I did the shooting, I decided that I would go with shots of equipment and parts only -- no people -- and that I would focus on simplicity. After all, this rolling billboard will be driving down the road at 70 mph. The photos do not need to be 'busy' or have a lot going on.

Here are a couple of shots that I took for the project. The first one is of a bearing. When I say bearing, it is not like any bearing that I have ever seen. I'm talking big and heavy. Substantial. I liked the way the light was playing off the shiny parts and decided to limit light so that the outer housing tended to blend into the black background. It turned out very industrial looking, but a little artsy looking too.

The second photo is of a micrometer, or some related type of precision measuring equipment. In contrast to the bearing, I wanted it to be light so I used a combination of backlighting from a window and a slow shutter speed to get the effect I wanted. I also focused on the item that was being measured and purposefully allowed the instrument itself to blur into the background.

In a time that I haven't been doing much photography, this was a good exercise that required me to think about what I would photograph, previsualize the end product, and then use the principles learned in The Manual DSLR Project to bring my creative vision to fruition. 

The graphic wrap should be installed in the next couple of weeks; I will share a photo of the trailer at that time.

All the best... Mike

Off Camera Flash on a Budget

I have been slow to post lately, for a variety of reasons, but plan to start posting again as my schedule allows. As a step toward the manual flash part of this project, I decided to purchase remote triggers that would allow me to take the flash off the camera, while controlling it manually.

I have the Sekonic L-758DR Light Meter (Black), which is able to work with a Pocketwizard, so when the Pocket Wizard 801-130 Plus III Transceiver was announced, I thought I might go with those. But it took a long time for those to be in stock. In the meanwhile, I read a post on The Digital Story that reviewed the Cowboy Studio Trigger Set. Derrick was impressed, so I took another look at these wireless triggers. But while looking at this set, I ran across the Yongnuo RF-603 N1 2.4GHz Wireless Flash Trigger/Wireless Shutter Release Transceiver Kit for Nikon D1/D2/D3/D200/D300/D700  that allowed the ability to trigger the camera shutter also.

At a cost of $33.64 I figured it couldn't hurt to try a set. And while I only received them this afternoon, I am impressed. I took a quick photo for my son's EMT license and used these to trigger the flash. It worked like a charm. Over the next several weeks I'll run these through their paces. In fact, I think I will order a second set so that I will be able to run 2 flashes and still have another available to operate the shutter. Can you believe a set of 2 with a synch cable for less than $35? And with Amazon Prime, I received 2-day shipping. Not bad at all!

Here's a bonus. I pulled a dusty old Vivitar flash out of my desk drawer, popped in some fresh Eneloop batteries, and hooked it up to one of these triggers. And it worked just fine. While I have a Nikon SB-600, it's good to know that I can use the Vivitar when I want to add a second speedlight.

So keep a watch out here for more testing of these inexpensive, but functional, devices. There is a link below where you can order these from Amazon.com. Just make sure you get the right ones for your camera.

All the best...Mike


  

Photo Op: Helping Others

If you have been around the photography industry for a while you have no doubt heard of some of the organizations in which photographers help others through their photography skills. The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation is one such organization, founded by Sandy Puc and Cheryl Haggard, that provides professional remembrance photography services to parents who have suffered the loss of a baby. Help Portrait, founded by Jeremy Cowart, provides free portraits to those who would otherwise not have access to professional photography. Many of us volunteer our time to photograph charity events in our local area. Clearly, there is opportunity for photographers to help others with their photography.

This is the first photo request that I received through Findagrave.

Recently I discovered another opportunity to reach out through photography. While on a business trip in Dallas I recalled that my dad recently mentioned his grandfather, who often visited his hometown of Grapevine, Texas. We had the opportunity to visit historic Grapevine and walk the same streets (well, sort of) that my great grandfather walked in the early 1900s. While eating in a restaurant in Grapevine I searched Google for my great grandfather's name, hoping that I could find his grave site. That's when I discovered www.findagrave.com, which not only showed the cemetery (in Dallas) where he was buried, but also included a photo of his tombstone. Because of that site I was able to visit his grave on my way to the airport before returning home on Sunday.

Once I got home I visited the website again to find that my great, great grandfather was buried just south of Fort Worth. Again, there was a photo of his tombstone, provided by a kind stranger. I also learned that my great, great, great grandfather's grave is in South Carolina, though a photo is not yet available of his grave site.

This cemetery was about 11 miles from my home.

This piqued my curiosity and I decided to learn more. Findagrave.com is a very cool site that depends upon volunteers to populate the pages. It currently contains more than 79 million grave records. Here is how you, as a photographer, can become involved. Simply create an account on the site and let them know that you are willing to take photos of graves near your home. When a member wants to see a photo of an ancestor's grave, they will fill out a request online. If you are near that cemetery, you will receive an email showing the request. You can then claim that request and, once you find the grave and take the photo, can fulfill the request by posting the photo. I've been a member for less than a week, and this morning was able to fulfill two requests. I intend to fulfill two more that I couldn't get to today.

This is, of course, all voluntary. I am appreciative enough of the person who posted photos of my ancestors graves (and helped me to locate them) that I am willing to volunteer my time to take photos of the graves of other people's ancestors. Of course, you may submit photos that have not yet been requested. So while we were at the two cemeteries we visited this morning we also took photos of several other graves that will be posted on the site. Perhaps someone that doesn't even know about this site will find their ancestor's grave sites because of my willingness to take a few photos on a Saturday morning.

So if you are looking for an opportunity to serve others through photography, there are lots of possibilities for you, including the four I mentioned here. I hope that you will find an opportunity to serve others with your photography skills. And be sure to check out findagrave.com. You might just find some of your history there.

Although I am not posting to this site as often as I did a couple years ago, remember that I am still writing iPhone and iPad app reviews every week on CurrentPhotographer.com. So be sure to check them out, and be sure to visit our (relatively new) business site at http://www.kennamermediagroup.com/. It's a work in progress, but then again, what part of life isn't?

All the best...Mike

Getting Started with Manual Flash

Don't you love Spring? I do. I love the weather, the flowers blooming, the birds singing, etc. I have been pretty busy lately, but have had a few chances to get out in the back yard lately and take a few shots most afternoons.

I recently purchased a new Nikon 24-70 f2.8. While I haven't done any "serious" photography since I bought it, it has been on my D300 and I bring it out to use it every chance I get. It's a sweet lens.

And don't think that I have abandoned the Manual DSLR project - Year Two. What I am doing now is getting used to the controls of my Nikon SB600 speedlight. Has this ever happened to you? You pull out a piece of equipment that you use a fair amount to find that you don't quite remember how to get it off of commander mode? That's as simple as a reset of the settings, but my goal is to be as familiar with its controls as I am with my camera's controls.

If you are new to manual flash like I am I have an exercise for you. Place your flash on full power and point it toward a dark area in your house. I pointed it down a dark hallway in which a photo is hanging. Test fire the flash at full power to see how much light it puts out and how long it takes to recycle. Then cut it to 1/2 power and do the same thing. Then go down to, say, 1/16 power. Continue doing this until you get to its lowest power setting. For the SB600 that is 1/64 power.

You should learn two things. First, you should get an idea of how bright your flash is at various power settings. Secondly, you should understand how much faster the flash recycles when at a lower power setting. This should reinforce the philosophy of using two speedlights at half power or four speedlights at 1/4 power instead of using one at full power. Kerry Garrison, at Camera Dojo, got me thinking about this after hearing one of his recent podcasts. It makes sense, and after comparing the flash and recycle time at various power settings, I'm convinced that's the way to go.

Now if I can find my old Vivitar flash that I have had for years...

All the best...Mike

New Year = Do Over

Hi, everyone. If you follow this blog you can see that the Manual DSLR project has been neglected over the past several months. While I did a lot of photography and blogging in 2010, it was much tougher to do so in 2011. A number of factors contributed to this, but the two biggest factors were this:

We closed one business and opened another, which means that we totally changed our business structure, but not much else changed. We still do the same thing, but we now operate as a corporation instead of a sole proprietorship. On April 14, 2011 Kennamer Media Group, Inc. was incorporated. We are currently working on a number of projects that will release in 2012. If you want to check out what we are about, visit our website at www.kennamermediagroup.com.  

At just before 7 am on April 27, 2011 our home phone rang. It was the county's Code Red service, which warns you if there is a weather emergency in your specific area. We had heard the day before that we might have some storms that day, but nobody could have predicted what happened. That first call was for a tornado warning. Though we did not know if until days later, a small tornado passed (in the air) at the end of our street and then touched down about a half a mile past our house. We lost a few trees, one of which landed on our son's car. It was parked just outside of the garage and the tree barely missed the house. Trees were down on our (dead end) street so we used our chainsaw to clear the street and then went back to our house to cut the tree off Cody's car. But that was only the beginning of what would be a very rough day. By the time the day was over, our county had been hit by 6 tornadoes and 33 people were killed. The largest tornado was an EF5 which varied from 1/2 to 1 mile wide and cut a path of destruction for 28 miles.

This is one of the sheds we built for tornado victims.

We have done some disaster relief work before. We were in Biloxi, MS three weeks after Katrina hit and went back to help with relief work later on; we also helped with flood relief in Iowa. But it is different when it is your community and your neighbors who are devastated. Through our church and our denomination's Mission to North America Disaster Response organization, we put together a team of people from our church that would organize work and host teams from out of town to help with the recovery work. In the months since the storm, 29 teams have stayed at our church and worked in the community doing debris clean up, chainsaw work, and construction. We had teams visit from as far away as Delaware, Maryland, and Iowa. We even had a group from Delaware that we had met when we were in Iowa to come work with us twice for three weeks at a time. This experience has been a great blessing and we met dozens of great people, but it took a great deal of time.

So photography has been on the back burner this year. Phase two of the Manual DSLR project did not quite get off the ground. But a new year is a great time to start fresh and that is my plan. Look for posts on lighting and manual flash during 2012. 

My other photography related activity is writing iPhone and iPad app reviews for www.currentphotographer.com. Since late 2010 I have been writing a weekly review of an app or accessory for the iPhone or iPad. If you have suggestions about apps to review, let me know. 

If you are unfamiliar with Current Photographer, check it out. There is a wealth of information regarding the art and business of photography. And be sure to check out my app reviews: http://currentphotographer.com/contributors/mike-kennamer/. 

Don't you love do-overs? Sometimes we need them.

Please feel free to interact as I reembark on this journey. 

All the best...

Mike

Using Someone Else's Lighting: Shooting a Theatrical Production

In the last posting, I discussed natural lighting and how to use the light you have to produce the best results. That same day I had shot a The Prince & the Pauper, produced by Blackberry Little Theater in Fort Payne, Alabama. That will be the subject of this post.

I have shot other plays before, both live as they were happening and in a series of staged shots that the director wanted photos of. The latter is, of course, easier. But shooting a play as it happens is always interesting. The main disadvantage is that you don't have an opportunity to move to various locations as you shoot.

My first suggestion is that you see the play before you shoot it. Since our youngest son was in the play, we had the opportunity to see it before I shot it. I decided to shoot the Saturday matinee and opted to shoot from the balcony to assure that I didn't disturb others. Be sure you obtain permission from management in advance, so that you don't break any theater rules.

Second, you should select the right lens. I used a Nikon 80-200 f2.8 to shoot the entire play. If I owned a 24-70 f2.8, I would have used it. But alas, I have not bitten the $2000 bullet yet. Even so, the 24-70 2.8 is very high on my wish list. While the 80-200 was good for some of the close-up shots, a shorter lens would have been handy as well. As is always a good idea in photography, use what you have in your bag to get the job done.

Now for the camera settings...I set the ISO on my Nikon D300 at 3200, to take advantage of the low light performance of the body. Using Shutter Priority, I set the shutter speed at 1/250 sec, which is the slowest speed with which I thought I could handhold this lens. Here are a few of the results.

This shoot yielded 269 useable, non-duplicated images.

I had intended to post a great deal more by now. However, we have been knee deep in tornado relief work, so this project has been pushed to the back burner. As the summer is almost over, I expect that our teams and work will decline and I'll have more time to work on this blog.

Thanks for reading. I always enjoy your comments.

All the best... Mike

Lighting 101: Using What You've Got

When I first started the Manual DSLR project the first thing I did was to turn my camera to "Manual" and start shooting...experimenting. So where do you start when the subject changes to lighting? I guess the most natural place to start is with natural light, or sunlight. So let's talk about a shot I took recently using natural light and no modifiers (reflectors, diffusers, etc.)

Our youngest son was involved in a children's theater production this summer. Performances were Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights with a matinee thrown in at 2 pm on Saturday. This meant that we had a couple hours of free time between the first and second shows on Saturday. So what do you want to do? I don't know...(repeat, repeat, repeat). But alas, we both had our cameras, so I suggested driving over to the old Davis Mill. This is a great old building that I've been driving by for the past 20 years but haven't ever really stopped and looked at it. Once a booming sock factory, the mill is now an antique mall. They had just closed when we arrived Saturday, but we did get to walk around outside to take some photos.

The first photo you see is my favorite from the afternoon, with Trisha leaning against the frame of an old garage door. I wasn't sure if that was poison ivy at the time, but did caution her against touching it (although I later determined that it did not match the photos of poison ivy that I found on Google Images). With only natural light to play with, I had to make sure that her face would be out of the shadows. It was about 5:30 in the afternoon, so the sun was low in the western sky. However, we had just gotten a pretty good rain shower, so the sky was a little overcast. This door is located on the west side of the building, so what we got was a diffused sunlight coming in from about 30 degrees to her left. If this had been a planned shoot with an assistant I would have likely used a reflector or perhaps some fill light, but for what I had in my hand, I felt pretty good about how it worked.

My goal for this phase of the manual DSLR project is to train my eye to see the light and to learn how to best use the light I have available (whether natural or controlled) to make the picture. I hope you will join me in this journey and let me know what you think.

The other shot is an HDR image of the building. I didn't have a tripod with me so this is 5 shots (2 above, 2 below) taken while sitting on the edge of the railroad track that was just behind me. It gives you a good idea of the layout of the building (that side is facing west), and how cloudy it was, which gave me a nice diffused light.

By the way, I took photos at the theater, using only stage lighting. Look for some of those in the next post and a discussion of how I chose to shoot it. And yes, I'm going to whine that I really need that 24-70 2.8 for just that type of shooting situation. Well I do...

All the best...Mike

Storm Update

Here a team from Lexington SC is working on electrical and finishing drywall.

Hi, Folks! It has been a crazy past several weeks, and while I have had the chance to shoot and write a bit, I didn't have a chance to bring both together on this blog.

As many of you know, our area was hit by severe storms on April 27. According to the National Weather Service, six confirmed tornadoes touched down in DeKalb County on that day and 33 lives were lost. Hundreds of homes were destroyed.

This is one of the portable showers at our church.

Much of our lives since April 27 has revolved around relief efforts to help our communities recover from the storms. Our church is hosting teams from all across the country who are taking vacation time to visit our area to help with the relief effort. Working with our denomination's Mission to North America organization, I am serving as the initial contact for groups who come to our area and my wife, Trisha, is coordinating the work once the teams get here.

To date, we have hosted teams from Delaware, Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Florida, and a couple of full-time RVers whose home is wherever they park their motor home. It has been great to meet these good people who donate their time and expertise to help their fellow man. There is still much work to do and we will be here working and hosting teams as long as there is work to do and volunteers keep coming.

We have made some new friends and renewed some old friendships. For example, we went to Iowa for flood relief in 2008 and met two couples from Delaware. After the tornadoes hit here, these great folks called and let us know that they would be here to work for three weeks. And work they did!

A partial completed Shed For Hope stands among the rubble.

The work has been anything from debris clean up, chainsaw work, house repairs, helping to build houses, and building Sheds for Hope. Sheds for Hope is a project started on the Gulf Coast after Katrina where storage sheds are provided at no cost to those who have lost so much in storms. The sheds provide storage room for those who are living in temporary housing, like FEMA trailers. An 8' x 12' wooden shed costs about $600 and takes 2-3 days to build. While it would be more efficient to prefab these buildings off site, part of the value of working in the storm area for 2-3 days is the contact with the families and their neighbors while the shed is built.

As a rural community, our area has not received a lot of press coverage. Even so, I am heartened by the outpouring of support that we have received by our sister churches across the U.S. The children in Vacation Bible school at Perry Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Perry Georgia raised more than $1,200 to support our Sheds for Hope project. Thanks to these children, two families now have a building to store their belongings.


Enough for now. My next installment will actually be about photography and the most manual of lighting situations: natural light. We will start there and move into reflectors and modifiers, hot lights, and flash. All the best...Mike

After the Storms...

What a week. Last Wednesday morning we were just waking up when our weather emergency service called to let us know there was a tornado warning for our immediate area. That started a crazy day and week. In the first round of storms a large pine tree in our front yard fell on my middle son's (Cody's) car. Although it will still run, his car is about 6-8 inches shorter than it once was and not safe to drive. Due to strong straight-line winds in our area we lost power from about 7:40 am Wednesday until about 9:30 pm on Saturday.

The rest of Wednesday brought wave after wave of storms with the last two bringing tornadoes both to our northwest (Flat Rock and Pisgah) and east (Rainsville, Sylvania, and Henagar). By the time the day was over, 33 DeKalb County residents had lost their lives.

We were blessed to have lost nothing more valuable than a car. My oldest son Devin, who works with the student weekly at his college, got press credentials for President Obama's visit to Tuscaloosa. After that was over he returned home to visit, shoot some footage for his paper, and to be with his family. During the next couple of days he shot several photos and a good deal of video footage, some of which he compiled into this video. Check it out here, or through this link to YouTube. Click the link to be able to watch it in full-screen, HD mode.

I will post more in the coming days, but wanted to get something out there this week. Thanks for all the kind words and for those who inquired about our well-being. We are truly blessed... MK

One more thing...If you want to see a video of the Rainsville tornado as it formed, check out this eery video. Rainsville, Alabama tornado

Stormy Weather

Hello all:

Our area was hit hard by storms yesterday. We are fine but without electricity. We lost several trees and my son's car in the storm. I'll post photos later. Sadly, many of our neighbors lost so much more.

For a few storm-related photos please check my Twitter feed @manualdslr. Once we get electricity (which could be as long as two weeks) I'll catch up with blog posts.

All the best...

Sent from my iPhone
Mike Kennamer

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Hi, gang! You haven't heard much out of me lately because I've been busy with a number of other projects. Here's a quick rundown of what I'm currently working on:

•  Writing Projects - While I can't divulge the details, I am working on three significant writing projects--all in different stages of completion--related to my background in healthcare. These are the jobs that pay the bills, so you can understand why they have been a top priority. While some of the these projects will be active for a number of months, I hope to get back to The Manual DSLR project very soon. 
• New Business Structure - After seeing a large percentage of my writing income going to Uncle Sam in the form of income and self-employment taxes, I have worked with a CPA and an attorney to restructure my business from a sole proprietorship to a sub-chapter S corporation. This change should help us to avoid (not evade) excessive taxation while building a business structure that will allow for future growth. It also allows us to combine what we do in photography with our writing business. I took several of the photos in my first book (published in 2002), but because I'm getting paid primarily for the writing, I have never considered myself to be a "professional" photographer. But I guess it's official now.

Our company is called Kennamer Media Group, Inc. Look for more details as we develop it further. Thankfully, most of the leg work in putting together is complete, so I'll be able to get started with manual flash soon.

I'm considering ordering some of Kerry Garrison's Black Belt Lighting products as that would be a good way to learn manual off-camera flash. Look for a review once I get a chance to order it.

Until then, all the best...