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Cuernavaca….the Orphans.
As I posted recently I was going down to Mexico City (Cuernavaca to be exact) to shoot a Wedding for a youth pastor from Gilbert, AZ. The orphanage where he works is called Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. The trip to the orphanage was not so much about taking pics as it was about just spending some time with the kids and handing out some clothes to them that they would probably never own on their own. Name brands were mucho appreciated.
Make no bones about it, these kids are all parentless and not wanted. Except by this orphanage. Most have been found or dropped off by a relative who could not afford them, their parents died or the parents just could not take care of them.
If you ever go to Mexico and want to visit an orphanage (and I reccomend you do) here is a quick tip to score on a bunch of clothes for the kids. Take a trip to the clearance racks at Target! Awesome deals to be had. I picked up about 35 t-shirts for about 75 cents each.
Enjoy the pics. We will be back on track with posting wedding pics soon. We have been super busy around here and unfortunately, Blogging is not our biggest Forte’. Bare with.
The infants are the only kids at this place that really get adopted out right away. Hence the reason their beds are all empty. Good news for them! Bad for the 8-15yr olds that are all over this Orphanage unfortunately.
Breeder pig. The orphanage raises their own chickens and pigs to eat. The kids take care of them.
Intent to Randomize
Over the next few month we will be adding various pics with little text. Blogging for us is a demon as we have hundreds of thousands of images, literally, over the past 6 years or so. Many have been shared with photographers worldwide on forums but we want to slowly start adding some hopefully thought provoking images here for our brides to enjoy.
Some new, some old, no words, just imagery. Afterall, we’re photographers, not writers.
Mexico City…..Here I come
Heading down to Mexico City tomorrow morning to shoot a Wedding in a little town outside called Cuernavaca.
I will be spending some time prior to and after the Wedding at an Orphanage helping out and doing some personal Photography.
Hopefully some pics to follow the trip.
What makes the long flight better than an Upgrade? Not much.
Pocket Wizard Flexx TT5 and Mini TT1 test findings by Gino Lucadamo
Carried over from previous review on www.digitalweddingchat.com
“A tad frustrated as ive not gotten the range on these that I got since I first turned them on, since I turned them on!
Used these for the first time on a shoot. Dependable as hell up to about 30ft and around 1 wall (drywall) at the same time. 40ft in high sun and no obstructions about 52ft at night with no obstrutions. Put a average sized truck between you and the reciever and you can cut those numbers in half.
They have some things you have to learn, these wizards are not much like the ones of old. You need to connect with at least 1 shot to “connect” to them. Then your assistant can walk way with the slave flash and it works fine.
The thing im not liking is if your assitant happens to be 30ft away and you decide you want to use that flash, it often times will not connect. They need to walk back to within 3-5ft of you and then it connects. Then its all good.
A tad frustrating indeed.
I have done extensive testing with 3 different sets with friends here locally and have come to the conclusion im 80% happy with them.
The thing is, I will ONLY really be using these on beaches and in bright sunlight when the St-e2 does not work. Keeping that in mind, 30ft is plenty of range for most Wedding Photographers. Commercial guys might want to wait until version 2.
Ratios work well on them simply by placing the St-e2 on top of the transmitter. We did a bunch of testing for accuracy until 1am and concluded they are good to go with the exposures.
We mixed them with the original wizards to find out if the much shorter viable range of these had to do more with the SENDING of a signal or the RETURNING of the ETTL, indeed it was the return. When using the Mini TT1 with a previous generation Plus II we got about 110ft. Switching the Plus II back to the TT5 we got back down to 50ft.
So the “short” is definately in the units processing of the Ettl and sending data back to the camera.
These are like a new relationship, you have to learn what they do and do not like and it might take a bit of time to learn all the the ways it likes to be touched. Im going to do some more tests when we get back into the Country next week and put up some more pics and also my test video which I hope you will all find very thorough and unbiased.
Pocketwizard has a great product on their hand here that will be even better with soem firmware updates no doubt. If they could increase the range im sure the commercial shooter nerds would be appreciative as well.
Pros: Hotshoe placement (Ease of use, plug and play), USB updatability (FIRMWARE updates on the way), Build Quality, No need for brackets, velcro, tape etc, functions flawlessly with previous Pocket Wizards.
Cons: Not 100% dependable over 30-50ft, Channel buttons could have had better placement.”
The set:

Whats in the box:

Mini TT1 profile:

TT5 Profile:

Set together:

Max Distance for 10 consectutive shots 46ft in Bright sunlight 52 @ Night :

New Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5
Have not had much time to play with these yet but lets just say my confidence is high and I have a feeling my work is about to hit a new level of creativity this year.
CANT WAIT!

Photog nerdness:
Issues currently at 1/350-1/500 ss. Sync fix for this yet? Easy enough to stay out of that range but still need to get it dialed in. Will play with it more when we get back to town.
gFUNK Photoshop Lightroom Presets
For the Wedding and Portrait Photographers.
New Lightroom Presets that are sure to improve your workflow and image quality in a heartbeat. The great thing about these (other than the fact I designed most of the effects myself) is that they create a simple to follow file string for your workflow which so many presets are missing.
Lightroom is very easy to turn into a MESSY program with the addition of presets. This is a solid and comprehensive selection of workflow tools such as contrast, clipping and general adjustments with a single click. All the way through thigns such as the Sexy Porno and Hot Sex presets which are sure to spice up your images.
Over Lightroom 75 Presets for only $45??!?!?!?!?!? Uh….yes please!
Brigitte and Tom- by Gino Lucadamo
We got the call from fellow www.digitalweddingchat.com member Brigitte Millar (www.belisephotography.com) to come up and shoot her Wedding in Canada. Obviously we said yes. Brigitte is an incredibly talented Childrens Photographer in the Toronto area.
Here is a small handful of the pics from their day.
All images processed in Lightroom using gFUNK Lightroom Presets by www.digitalweddingpro.com
Sunset on a Frozen Vineyard
Just snapped this with the new G1 cel phone while driving through Niagara on the Lake. This is a fantastic region for Ice Wine and all white wine varietals. As the sun was setting and the snow was resting on the vineyard we pulled over and snapped this quick pic.
I thought it had an amazing feel to it. After uploading it I thought “its great but about 1/2 stop too dark” damn cel phones.
Pic: G1 Android Phone
Poutine
Well this is one of those local staples in this neck of the world. We like to call it 2000 calories of artery clogging goodness. They call it Poutine. A pile of french fries with a big pile of cheese curds on it then topped with hot Beef gravy. Amazingly bad for you yet good in a glutonous, “Its time to do cardio” kinda way.
Happy, Happy, Merry, Merry
Story by Photo and Susie Coelho…published!
Once again Story by Photo has been published! This new book that has been released by Susie Coelho “the Martha Stewart of the West Coast” is sure to be an incredible guide for the most discerning bride.
The will be available in all major bookstores soon and is also available directly on Susies website.
































































Some real nice pics of what sounds like a great trip! I could sure go for some bacon right about now!
Thanks for sharing this. Gripping story and great photo’s.
Thanks for making the effort to spend time with these kids… they will remember you for that. Thanks for sharing.
Loving the breeder pig, he is pretty cute. Good work on donating the clothes and time to the kids there : ) Its amazing the psychological rewards we get from doing stuff like this, and how much it can benefit the kids.
Great images. Really got some emotion from me! Love your photography!