SWPP Convention 2009

Went to The Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers (SWPP) Convention 2009 with Joanne last Friday.

There are many wedding related business in the convention, especially those wedding album printing business. I'm now compiling some of my travel photos, trying to publish my own photo book using blurb, the pricing is very competitive and the quality looks good. This can be an extra service for my photography business in near future :)

Of course, all the major DSLR makers demonstrate their latest products in the convention, including the latest Nikon D3X, Canon 5D Mark II and Sony A900. Canon 5D Mark II's HD video impressed me a lot, and that's something I would like to have in my next DSLR.


A sample video using different lens.

Sony booth was a bit quiet hence I had the opportunity to play with A900 and all the top notch Sony / Carl-Zeiss lens.

Some of the Sony glass, including the AF 70-400 F4-5.6 G SSM, however, the grey colour is not my cup of tea and it feels a bit too plastic.

Shooting Sony AF 70-300 F4.5-5.6 G SSM using Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T 16-35/2.8 ZA SSM at 35mm focal length F2.8 - solid, sharp, nice bokeh, and of course, expensive.

Another shot at 35mm focal length F2.8

Taken using Sony AF 16 F2.8 fisheye, wide angle lens with large aperture, very nice effect compared to the Sigma 10-20mm which I owned.

Sony also set up a studio and invited a professional photographer Michael Wayne Plant to demonstrate A900's excellent low ISO performance. Michael was very kind indeed to share his professional studio lighting experience and let me try it with my A700. Photo above was taken with 2 soft light boxes and a silver reflector in front of the model.

These were taken using my cheapo Tamron 17-50/2.8.

This was taken using Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135 F1.8 at F14 1/250s, an exceptional lens, who says Sony can't compete with Canon / Nikon?

Michael had convinced me that I made a right decision to stay with Sony. He also taught me to learn how to shoot with prime lens, to try to capture image at different perspective using same focal length.

When I came across the long speakers list, guess what, Gary Fong was there! He's also the creator of the famous Lightsphere and WhaleTail flash diffusers.

His talk on wedding photography business was very inspiring indeed. He had a star price of $150 per day with no limit. According to Wikipedia, by the last shoot of his career, his fee to shoot a wedding was published at a minimum fee of $120,000. What I learnt from him is to be successful in wedding photography, one has to be with the right attitude, learn how to do marketing without advertising and how to do the pricing strategy.

A very fruitful session indeed.