yesterday was amazing in all the ways that a day can be. nima and i got an early start, her to get herself ready for a photo shoot, and me to get my gear ready. originally stock and i were planning to run through our first session of the church of accountability (i just made that name up but i think i like it), but he slept in and we both had to get moving on our days so we postponed the launch for now. nima and i left home at around 8:30am and made it to the brooklyn botanical garden at around 10:30am.

i am shooting engagement photos next sunday for a couple from ohio and our photo permit is only good for an hour, so the visit was mostly business. i need to go in ready to tactically move from place to place, spending the least amount of time setting up and the most amount of time taking photos and creating an enjoyable experience for the couple.

the weather was absolutely beautiful, warm enough that a sweater was plenty to fend off the chill breeze, and the light was crisp and sharp. after some confusion at the front gate, we were able to walk through the garden and find several locations for the photo shoot next week that are going to be beautiful. essentially, when shanima and i showed up, me carrying all of my photo gear and her dressed and made up for a photo shoot, the security made it very clear that the permit was only for next week, and that if it appeared we were doing a photo shoot this week, there would be problems. given that i did not want to cause any problems for my clients next week, i kept my camera in the bag and just used my cell phone and the map of the grounds to pick out my chosen locations.

after we took a loop of the garden, we headed down flatbush ave to grab some lunch and found a nice little mexican hole in the wall restaurant with decent tacos, pupusas and asada. once we were fed, i broke out the eos rp and we got some great photos in front of some beautiful graffiti walls along the avenue. i mostly shot natural light, but i did break out the softbox for one particular location where the sun became my rim light and the softbox was my key. the photos turned out great, and to be honest i will barely have to do any work on them in lightroom. all the fun will be in photoshop, where i’ll work on the skin texture and eye color a bit and do some light dodging and burning.

after two photo shoots with the rp, i can say that without a doubt it was a huge step up experientially for me. the workflow is such an update, and the autofocus system works phenomenally, meaning that i am spending a whole lot less time checking the back of my camera to make sure i got a sharp shot and a whole lot more time just guiding the model and working the scene. being able to review the photos on my iphone or ipad after the shoot is a sweet bonus. i didn’t have time to edit the photos yesterday, but we did review them and pick our favorites on the bus ride home, so that when i do edit them, i can only import and upload the starred images and get straight to work. that will save me a good ten to fifteen minutes of time at home sorting through pictures. image quality is roughly the same as my 5d mark iii, maybe a little better, but the workflow is miles ahead.