San Diego Photographer

Starting the NEW Right Light Studios newsletter!

We post equipment recommendations, blogs, and tips multiple times a week all over the internet, but we know how hard it can be to find the information you want when you need it most! We have decided to create this newsletter for the new year that will come once a week and organize all the great content and information we give you to be easily viewed and referenced at your leisure. 

This newsletter will include a new photography tip every week, the equipment recommendation, class schedules, current events, and even a new feature: Photograph of the Week. With this new feature, one photograph will be chosen every week from our archives and/or from new products of recent classes and will be featured in the newsletter to be admired and given credit where credit is due. Sign up now and know that your information will only be used for this newsletter and to make all the amazing photography information we offer available right at your fingertips. . 

Follow the link below to become part of our Right Light Studios Community Newsletter starting January 2012 
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER HERE

By: Lauren Lopez
San Diego Photographer

Recently, The Right Light Photography’s very own, Jason Kirby, took a trip to the beautiful city of Vancouver, Canada. When thinking of vacations Vancouver is not always on the top of the list, but there is so much to do and many opportunities for some great photography. Vancouver is best known for the adventure, culture, being bike friendly, Eco friendly, entertainment, culinary, and shopping. According to Frommer’s guide, the best times to travel are December through February and April to October. Jason decided to go in the risky time of October and the best tip he could give for this is “pack for wet weather”. 

Though not his first time, he always finds something new and interesting to do in Vancouver. Vancouver is ringed by snow-capped, forested mountains (great for skiing or snowboarding) leading down to miles of sandy beaches (perfect for tanning and relaxing). It is a playground for residents and visitors including assortments of activities, culture, and food. Against the stunning scenic backdrop of the city there are infinite varieties of sophisticated restaurants and vast and fertile parks. “Cosmopolitan Vancouver is “young”--- just over 100 years old—and its outdoorsy energy complement its easygoing West Coast style.” (Frommer).

Jason has traveled all over the United States and the World, but there are some unique and beautiful parts of Vancouver that left a lasting memory. All of these places are key points of interest in Vancouver and their beauty is perfect for photography and capturing effortless and memorable photos. The places suggested by Jason included Stanley Park, Chinatown, BC place Stadium and the town of Victoria nearby.   

Stanley Park is Vancouver's first park and one of the city's main tourist attractions. It is an evergreen oasis of 1,000 acres at the edge of the bay. This park is covered by fresh and majestic variety of trees including cedars, hemlock, and fir trees. This park is full of amazing trails and offers a tranquil piece of nature very near to downtown. The park is full of an array of wildlife and it features appeal to the naturalist, the plant lover or one who would do nothing more than relax in beautiful surroundings. Stanley Park also includes the famous Seawall! This seawall goes over 5.5 miles in Stanley park and stretches a total of 13.7 miles long around Vancouver’s waterfront, from the convention center on Burrard Inlet (Coal Harbour), around Stanley Park and False Creek, past Granville Island ending at Kitsilano Beach Park. This seawall has incredible views and is a great activity to do with family or friends. If you want to find a way to experience the full beauty of Vancouver, the Seawall captures the city at its best and is ideal for a walk or bike ride. Jason found a spot about ½ mile from Stanley park on the Seawall to rent bikes and bike rode the entire seawall and truly fell in love with the beauty of Vancouver. Also a part of Stanley Park is its divine restaurants, a train, an aquarium, swimming, and golfing. Overall, there are plenty of things to do in Stanley Park that bring family and friends together for exploration and photography of Vancouver. 

A place many bypass is the Chinatown in Vancouver. Chinatown’s span all across North America including in San Francisco, New York, and many other places. However, Vancouver’s Chinatown tops the list as one of North America’s cleanest modern day Chinatowns. Founded in the late 1800’s, the popular Canton Alley was created in 1904 as a Chinese style courtyard. The Alleys were the convergence of vibrant nightlife, opera music, shopping, political and cultural activities. Today, Chinatown is an amazing place to find traditional food, shopping and cultural bonding. Jason walked through Chinatown admiring the beautiful art and decorations that filled the windows of the stores. It was also hard for him not to feel his stomach growl with the smell of amazing cuisine filling the street outside of each restaurant. With beautiful gardens and incredible little shops, the feel of Chinatown brings a truly unique experience.    

Before its remodel, BC Place Stadium was an emblem for over 25 years. It was and still is the largest event facility of its kind in the province and has hosted over 26 million people since opening in 1983. The BC Place stadium was recently rebuilt to include a new retractable roof. This roof now reveals over 7500 square meters of clear blue sky and has become a new architectural signature for Vancouver. This new cable-supported roof is the biggest of its kind in the world, and creates the atmosphere for any event, from summer festivals to football, from indoor exhibitions to trade and consumer shows. The BC Place stadium is beautiful and brings you right down to the life of Vancouver, by the water and in the midst of downtown for some great memories. Jason walked through the BC Place Stadium, but could not get tickets to an actual game. While hearing about the depth of beauty of the venue and how the spirit of the fans creates a great atmosphere, he put it on his MUST do list when returning.

Nearby Vancouver just a drive and ferry ride away, Victoria sits as a quaint beautiful city with loads of colonial history and activities. While they have nice paths to hike and a variety of restaurants, Jason decided to take his activities to the next level. He chose to go zip lining with Adrenaline, Zip line Adventure Tours. This experience is a way to get your heart pounding and get deep into nature. This experience takes you through two draw bridges and 8 zip lines that take you 150 feet off the ground at speeds close to 38 miles per hours. These zip lines range in length from 150 feet to an incredible 1000 foot long zip line that sends you flying! Zip lining is a priceless experience that should be done at least once in your life.


(<- Jason Kirby Ziplining)

Overall, Vancouver is an amazing place to go for a weekend or two weeks with plenty of activities, food entertainment, nature, and with just overall serene atmosphere. Not only is it a great place to visit, but all of these features lend themselves to great opportunities for street and architectural photography to add to your scrapbook. 

So, the next time you are trying to decide a new place to go on a single, couple, friends, or family trip, don't forget about the beautiful city of Vancouver.

Something we promote in our photography community is being able to capture everything around you from all types of perspectives. This is carried over when you travel! We want to see your amazing travel photos and want to hear where you go. We have added a new photo album to our Facebook Fanpage called Show us where you go! And we want you to share a photo of new places you have visited and an activity or tip about the place. To include your picture and experience CLICK HERE.

By: Lauren Lopez
San Diego Photographer

Equipment Recommendations: Canon 430 EXII & Nikon SB-700

Nikon SB-700

Description: The Nikon SB-700 is a superb high performance medium size portable flash. We recommend this flash because it has incredible capabilities to make your flash photography simple, accurate, and gives you the ability to be creative with your shots. It can be used to its fullest abilities with all Nikon DSLR cameras that are compatible with Nikon Creative Lighting system, but can still be used functionally with other Nikon cameras also. This flash is easy to use and instead of having to charge it, it is easily powered by 4- AA batteries or NiMH rechargeable batteries, which is so helpful when traveling. Just by carrying some AA batteries in your camera bag you will always have your flash ready to use.

This Flash has a recycle time of 3 seconds, which is important when taking pictures of a person or portrait. The recycle time is the speed in which you can take the next shot, so when taking a portrait or headshot it is important to be able to take pictures quickly with the improvements of flash to catch that natural smile or look!

It also has flash tube overheating protection, which prevents overheating by increasing flash recycle times when it detects heat build-up. This will protect your flash from being ruined by overheating.

This Nikon flash has precision i-TTL flash control. This means it supplies precise flash exposure and great fill-flash performance. This is very helpful when you are set with a challenging lighting situation with different sources of lighting that create shadows and holes in the photo. This can be from a dimly lit room to a picture outside at sunset.

Overall the flash comes out to around 360 grams, which is a little less than a pound and is a very good weight to carry around. This compact medium sized flash gives you all of the ability of the larger flash with a light structure that can be carried with you at all times so you won’t miss out on upgrading your photos with a great flash.

This flash head contains a bounce card, which some of the previous models did not. The Bounce card is very important because it is used to instantly add catchlights in people’s eyes. Catchlight is that glimmer in that person’s eyes that truly pops. This is really important and beneficial when taking headshots or portraits and brings your photos up to the next level. This flash head can also tilt down 7 degrees or up to 90 degrees with click stops at -7, 0, 45, 60, 75, and 90 degrees. The flash head also rotates horizontally 180 degrees to the left and right with click stops at 0, 30, 60, 75, 90, 120, 150, 180 degrees. All of this range of movement truly gives you the ability to work creatively with the light and gives you the freedom to move lighting according to your surrounding and already present light sources.

This flash has both an on-camera master and wireless commander setting. This gives you the ability to use the strobe directly on your camera, which keeps it steady with the movement of you hand. Or, you can use it as a Commander or Remote setting that can be set around the focus and truly become an alternate source of lighting from different angles. Commander setting works in conjunction with your camera’s flash and with remote it can be controlled by your camera or another Speedlight. This allows there to be light and flash working together making the focus of your piece stand out from the background.

The SB-700 is a key piece in becoming a stellar photographer giving you great power and depth of field control. We recommend this specific flash for all of the reasons above and because it also is a great deal coming not only with the flash, but all of the accessories!

Find it here at Amazon.com

Canon 430 EX II 

Description: The Canon 430 EX ii is a great flash recommendation for Canon because it brings a high level of versatility and capabilities to your flash photography. This flash provides a powerful flash in a compact and durable body. This flash is compatible with all Canon EOS cameras and the Powershot G series of cameras. This covers the most popular and best cameras made by Canon and gives you the range to use it on an array of the Canon cameras and not just one.

It is a convenient flash taking 4- AA batteries as well as the option of NiMH rechargeable batteries. Both are very convenient to always have with you in your camera bag. Many people choose to carry around AA batteries, but like using NiMH batteries because they are more cost efficient and better for the environment. This flash also gives you a battery power indicator, which some do not and this can help you always be prepared with batteries so you don’t miss out on using your flash. 

The Canon 430 EXii has a great range for recycle times from 1-3.7 seconds, which makes for quick recovery and is very helpful when wanting to take a sequence of pictures quickly. This is very helpful in taking pictures of people for headshots because sometimes it takes only seconds to catch that natural pose or look. This specific flash prides itself on having a near silent flash recycle, which decreases the distraction of a flash recovering sound and makes for smooth and natural shooting time.

This flash can be used in E-TTL II, E-TTL, TTL & Manual Modes. It proudly supports E-TTL II, which is Canon’s latest “Evaluative Through the Lens” auto exposure technology. When used, this mode takes into consideration the subject of your shots distance and other information and will automatically modify the flash power. In certain distances and light, the full power of the flash is not always necessary. The E-TTL II takes all the factors and modifies the flash resulting in an accurate and optimal flash exposure regardless of the reflecting in the shot, the subject size, or the composition of the shot. This is great for beginning flash users and photographers that like to shoot high contrast or reflective subjects. This type of flash mode makes sure that you catch every color and detail with great even lighting.

The Canon 430 EXii is 330 grams which is slightly over half a pound. Compared to a lot of flashes this is very lightweight, but is built for strength. It was made to be easy to attach or detach with a one-touch quick-lock mechanism and was built with a metal foot for added durability. In wanting to keep this flash very light so to make it easy to carry around with you, Canon wanted to make sure that it was still made with extremely precise and pronounced quality.

This flash also contains a tilt and swivel head that can be moves up from 0-90 degrees (5 settings), left from 0 to 180 degrees (7 settings), and right 0 to 90 degrees (4 settings). This results in a very maneuverable head that is capable of a large range of angles for bouncing flash illumination. By having this range, you are given the flexibility to use that bounce flash technique to have more natural, shadowless, and red-eye free shots. 

The Canon 430 EXii has the master setting that mounts directly to the camera and can be angles, whichever you way you prefer. It also has the wireless TTL “slave” flash that can honestly serve as an affordable way to add studio lighting surrounding the focus of your shot. This is useful when shooting headshots or portraits in non-ideal lighting, even at night. 

Overall, we recommend this flash for Canon users because it has a very lightweight and durable. This flash has capabilities to turn poorly lighted decent pictures into flawless “wow” photos. 

Find it here at Amazon.com

Most all DSLR cameras come with a built in flash, but this flash is permanently faced directly at your focus and can cause them to be washed out and have red eye. Having a separate flash seems like just an extra for photography, but it truly takes your photos to an incredible level and also gives you the ability to take amazing pictures no matter the time of day or lighting available. The Right Light Photography and San Diego Photography Classes (also an option in Vancouver and Dallas) offer a Flash Photography Class [Taking place as soon as October 29th] that can get you more comfortable and teach you amazing techniques using your flash.

Check out the schedule and how to sign up at http://www.sandiegophotographyclass.com/

By: Lauren Lopez
San Diego Photographer 

Congratulations to The Right Light Photography! 

The Right Light Photography is celebrating its 4 year anniversary today (10.17.2011)! 

Four years ago today, Jason Kirby put his dream and passion of photography on paper and legitimized the company that now brings amazing photos of headshots, corporate events and brings education to aspiring photographers in classes all over San Diego, Dallas, and Vancouver. When thinking of what to call his company Jason came across the Greek translation of Photography meaning to write (graphy) light (photo). With that inspiration of writing light, which translated so well to actual photography that plays with light and writes a story through each shot, he carefully selected The Right Light Photography. The Right Light Photography prides itself on being exceptional in business photo shoots and creating a trust with every client and job. Jason Kirby, most importantly, wanted to create a community of photographers that had an opportunity to take a large range of classes that had a balance of thorough instruction and tons of hands on experience. He always wanted a place to share photos, have a community to critique, and enjoy photography, which is why he ends every class with that simple mantra to: Share. Critique. Enjoy. 

Thanks The Right Light Photography and Jason Kirby for 4 years of amazing photos, incredible classes and a trusted community.




By: Lauren Lopez
San Diego Photographer