Another studio session with the Sony a6000, Nikon Pocket Wizards (Plus III, MiniTT1, FlexTT5) and Nikon SB-900 & SB-800 Flashes. It's a little more work to use your flashes set to manual, but once set, they have been very reliable. The Pocket Wizards have really been working well with the Sony a6000 setup. I'm definitely enjoying flash photography again and not stressing out about misfires.

The venturous duo Callie & Crissy have been around the world together. Congrats to your ultimate adventure together!

With a little direction, Callie & Crissy filmed themselves with their GoPro and sent me the footage along with their personal photos of their adventures together. I then created this engagement video for them. I was really trying to showcase their chemistry and the fun times they both have had, and will have, going forward.

This really isn't a "high noon" Nikon vs Sony shootout. I just happened to shoot with both cameras and the results, to me, are very interesting.These two cameras are very capable. I guess what strikes me is the Sony a6000 APC sensor looks just as good as my Nikon with nice bokeh, rich color, and sharp. To me the Sony is a lot sharper than my Nikon. I'm still blown away with the results this little a6000 produces. Both were shot in RAW. Both at f2.8.

So my question to you is: If I told you what camera I took these in, would it matter?

One of the main things I wanted to know about the Sony a6000 was could I use my Nikon SB 900 & Nikon SB 800 Flashes with my Nikon Pocket Wizards. The answer is Yes! I actually think the pocket wizards work better on the Sony than on my Nikon D700. I had zero mis-fires, where as on my D700, I was always fiddling with the pocket wizards to work properly and even trigger. To get the pocket wizards to work on the Sony a6000 I had to go into the software and make them basic triggers, this means you have to work with your flashes manually no TTL. I also chose a channel for all of them (trigger and receiver) to share. So here is a list of the Pocket Wizard transmitters and receivers I got to work on the Sony a6000:

1. PocketWizard Plus III Transceiver (works great but a little bulky)
2. MiniTT1-Nikon (AC3 ZoneController DOES NOT WORK)
3. FlexTT5-Nikon
4. Works great with my Nikon SB 900 & SB 800 Flashes

The only difference between the Nikon D700 & a6000 is sync speed, I can only get 1/160th max sync on the Sony a6000 with no TTL, but it's not that difficult to work the flashes manually.

Hopefully this will help others with this decision because it concerned me for the longest time and was the only decision not to buy the Sony a6000 because I have so much invested in my Nikon. Side note: the files seem to be way sharper than my D700 I almost don't need to sharpen them in post. The photo below was shot on standard profile

I can't think of anything better than enjoying the outdoors, drinking a nice cup of joe and watching the super moon rise above the horizon. When I saw my friend drinking his coffee an idea came about. The motion of tilting back to drink his coffee kind of reminded me of a wolf leaning back howling at the moon. I wanted the moon to be the centerpiece, because, well, it's the super moon. I brought my Nikon flash with me so I slapped the orange filter on it and tilted facing towards the sky. I was trying to create a fire effect. I positioned my subject by "the fire" tilting back to drink his coffee essentially howling at the moon.

I love Leo Carrillo State Beach. This place has way too many places to photograph and create stunning imagery. It's a must see beach, even if you don't own a camera. The sea caves are incredible. 

Unleash your creativity! Shooting a portrait is one thing, but being able to mix that portrait with the superpower of photoshop can create stunning results. Shooting a green screen backdrop can be difficult giving nasty green spill. If you do it properly and with a little color correcting and masking you can remove a background pretty quick and easy. Then, all that is left to do is fill in your background with a fancy design and some neato text.

Technical: Shot in studio. Green screen backdrop. Photographed Individuals Separately. Edited in Photoshop. Color Corrected using Google Nik Collection. Text done in Illustrator. Captured using Nikon D700. Nikkor 70-200mm Lens.

A fun shoot I did a few weeks ago for an upcoming online series. Photographed on green screen and edited with photoshop. Shot with Nikon D700 and Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 lens.