This is my Contax 645. I bought it for my birthday a few  years ago and I toy with selling it every couple of months.  I don’t use it that much. It’s big and heavy.  It’s currently worth more than I paid for it (by a modest amount). But, if you watch my blog,  you know I’ve been using it off and on over the past month.  When I use it, and when I get the scanned images back from Richard Photo Lab (arguably the best lab in the US), then I know one thing for sure.  I can’t part with my Contax 645. 

Updated as some equipment has been sold!  Here’s a list of equipment for sale.  You can either pick it up or I can ship it to you (but I’ll add a shipping fee)

• Crumpler 6 Million Dollar home (camera bag/red)
• Lens baby Canon Mount
• Lomo lenses for Canon mount
• Sunpak  383 flash
• Contax 645 (Medium format) with Ziess 80mm lens.  Film back, strap, hoya macro filters and about 10 rolls of 220 film.  Final price will include insured shipping to anywhere in US only.
• Assorted Backgrounds (large paper in white, black, pink, evergreen)
• red and white tutu
• white tutu

Guerilla Marketing,  Jay Conrad Levinson, 3rd edition

Photoshop elements 3, 50 ways to create cool pictures

Photographer’s Market Guide to Bulding your own photography business, Vik Orenstein

How to start a home-based photography business, Kenn Oberrecht

The business of studio photography, Edward Lilley

The photograher’s guide to marketing and self-promotion, Maria Piscopo

Digital Wedding photography, Glen Johnson

The hot shot diaries,  Joe McNally

At work, Annie Libovitz

sellphotos.com, Rohn Engh

Sell and resell your photos, Rohn Engh

Light, Science and Magic, Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fugua

The Adobe PS CS3 book, Scott Kelby

Wedding photography unveiled:  jacequline tobin

Step by Step Wedding Photography, Damon Tucci

Professional Wedding Photography, Lou Jacobs, Jr.

Shooting and Selling your photos, Jim zuckerman

Photo Portfolio Success, John Kaplan

The best of wedding photography,  Bill Hurter

Portrait Photographer’s handbook, Bill Hurter

The business of portrait photography, Tom McDonald

Portrait photography, Mark Cleghorn

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Michael Grecco

The complete guide to professional wedding photography, Damien Lovegrove

This winter I took a good luck at my home office which is packed w/ STUFF.  If you know me, you know I hate  being unorganized.  I am truly OCD when it comes to being neat and clean and that’s why my office has been bugging me for a long time.  I’ve been selling some stuff and a few weeks ago I sold some Alien Bees, books and a camera bag.  Now I have more stuff to sell.  Here’s the list and if you are interested either call me at 856-469-3633 or send me an email (link above):

CANON 5D,  used only one year and then professionally cleaned by Canon

Crumpler 6 Million Dollar home (camera bag/red)

Lens baby Canon Mount

Sigma 50mm macro 2.8

Lomo lenses for Canon mount

White Holga (takes 120 film)

Sunpak  383 flash:

Books  10.00 each:

The complete guide to professional wedding photography, Damien Lovegrove

Guerilla Marketing,  Jay Conrad Levinson, 3rd edition

Photoshop elements 3, 50 ways to create cool pictures

Photographer’s Market Guide to Bulding your own photography business, Vik Orenstein

How to start a home-based photography business, Kenn Oberrecht

The business of studio photography, Edward Lilley

The photograher’s guide to marketing and self-promotion, Maria Piscopo

Digital Wedding photography, Glen Johnson

The hot shot diaries,  Joe McNally

At work, Annie Libovitz

sellphotos.com, Rohn Engh

Sell and resell your photos, Rohn Engh

Light, Science and Magic, Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fugua

The Adobe PS CS3 book, Scott Kelby

Wedding photography unveiled:  jacequline tobin

Power Marketing, Mitche Graf

Step by Step Wedding Photography, Damon Tucci

Professional Wedding Photography, Lou Jacobs, Jr.

Shooting and Selling your photos, Jim zuckerman

Legal Handbook for Photographers, Bert Krages, Jr.

Photo Portfolio Success, John Kaplan

The best of wedding photography,  Bill Hurter

Portrait Photographer’s handbook, Bill Hurter

The business of portrait photography, Tom McDonald

Portrait photography, Mark Cleghorn

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Michael Grecco

I bought a fun T-shirt from Jonathan Canlas which says: “Film is Not Dead”.  I invited another photog on an Engagement shoot with me the other day, and I asked her to take a shot of me holding my circa 1980′s Minolta X-700. Photo courtesy of Sue Smith (a link to her blog coming soon).  Ironically, taken via digital and edited in Photoshop.  Here is Sue’s blog and here is Film is not dead if you’d like to check them out!

If you aren’t a photographer, this post isn’t going to mean a whole heck of a lot to you…but you can see a pretty shot if you stick with this!  I use Apple’s Aperture to organize my shots, to design albums, and to do some basic editing of my images.  Usually, when I do a blog post or design a wedding album, I edit each shot in Photoshop.  Aperture just didn’t have enough functionality for me, that is, until this past Tuesday when Apple released Aperture 3! Yay!  Now I can really do a lot of editing to my images without ever needing to go to Photoshop.  That’s going to save me a lot of time, and I couldn’t be happier.  I have two favorites from the release:  1. Apple finally introduced presets and brushes and 2. you can design custom albums using templates and then send the designs right to certain album companies (like Leather Craftsman and Queensbury)!  I tried making an album for Leather Craftsman and the design was amazing!

Here’s an image straight out of the camera:

And here is the same image using a preset that I bought from Sara France here.    I love the presets, both from Sara France, and the ones that Apple included in Aperture 3!  One click and this image was perfect….thanks Sara! I could have smoothed my bride’s skin out using one of Aperture’s new brushes, but I left it  alone to show that the presets, alone, are pretty terrific and really, you can’t beat one click!