Kim Schmidt Photography LLC Princeton, NJ Photographer

Another round of Five on Friday.

1. This past week I’ve been ultra busy with PTS’ alumni/ae reunion week. I’ve been photographing most of the events which have been taking up most of my evenings. I am ready to reclaim them! I think tonight is going to be date night!

2. As you may have seen in this blog post, I am partnering up with Lawrence OB/GYN. Very soon you will be seeing, oh, between 25-30 of my images HUGE on their walls. We are talking 20×30 or larger. It will be very surreal to see my stuff that large. I will definitely be taking photos once we get them up.

3. If you haven’t noticed, I recently added a “Support Local Businesses” page under Information. If you know of a local company that I should include, please send me an email and I will add them.

4. Do you need organizational help? Are you constantly making lists and not sure where they are? There is this awesome program Evernote that will help you out. I’ve been using it for a month now and I can’t get over how awesome it is. There are many different forms, online, applications for the desktop, iphone, etc. I use all three and it rocks my socks off. I have different “notebooks” (photography business, PTS photography, Anthony, personal, recipes, etc.) set up to keep myself just a little more organized. You can browse, search, link to URLs, etc. Here is a screen shot of the desktop application w/one of the many recipes I’ve added. This will help me when we travel or when I’m at the grocery store and I can’t recall every ingredient. Definitely check it out and let me know how you like it.

5. Last Sunday I photographed a fun family that won a session from the St. Paul Catholic School Shamrock Auction back in March. There are three beautiful young ladies and I am so excited to share their photos with you. Be on the lookout within the next day or so for their own blog post. I would have gotten it up sooner but being away all week has been a challenge!

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Sweet Charlotte is going to be spoiled. She is the baby girl with two older brothers. I know exactly how she feels and she will definitely be princess of the household! Her brothers adore her as you can see by the photo of the three of them. Calen, I’m bummed that we didn’t get any individual photos of you. Next time!

Her nursery is simple yet elegant.

Can you guess what Miss Charlotte is going to be for Halloween?

I snapped a few shots of Matthew (2) while mom was nursing. For some reason he was all about the color black that day. He was going to a black birthday, black cars, etc. He loves cars and was explaining the sounds they make – adorable I tell ya!

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Last week I did some commercial work for Lawrence OB/GYN (please note they are getting a new website which looks incredible!). Here is a small sampling of the practitioners from their office. If you are a patient there you will soon be seeing my work on the walls throughout the office! I am beyond exciting to have a partnership with them.

kim schmidt photography llc

A wonderfully talented, beautiful and extremely smart photographer way on the other coast Susan of Whimsical Photo Design wrote up this awesome post on camera recommendations. I felt it was appropriate to post as the holidays are drawing near and people are thinking of camera equipment. Please read on for her thoughts.

Susan shoots using the Nikon system. Her camera is a Nikon D3 and she has a full variety of lenses that she can use – approximately 9 different ones. Her bias, especially for the higher end DSLR cameras does lean towards Nikon, simply because she’s familiar and she really feel like the system is more intuitive. On the other hand I’m a Canon girl.

So with a little help from the newest issue of Consumer Reports, Shutterbug Magazine, and Popular Photography, here is my list of recommendations.

Point-and-Shoot
Point-and-shoot cameras are the most popular out there, because essentially, the user just “points and shoots.” Pretty self-explanatory there. Pros of these types of cameras: Small and lightweight, easy to put into a pocket, easy to use with little to no photographic knowledge needed, take pretty dang good pictures. Cons of these types of cameras: Limited photographic abilities, takes poor action and night shots, delay in pressing the shutter and the camera actually taking the picture, sensor is smaller and therefore blowing up pictures can be difficult.

My picks: I like the Canon PowerShot series in this particular category. I think the image quality is great for these little point and shoots and the price is reasonable. There is one Nikon I think is great as well.
Canon PowerShot AS1000IS
Nikon Cool Pix L20
Canon PowerShot SD1100IS (Kim’s Personal Favorite)

Bridge Cameras
Bridge cameras essentially gap the bridge between a point and shoot camera and a more advanced DSLR camera. These cameras typically have more functionality, more control to the exposure and essentially are the first step into a DSLR camera. In this category, there is one powerful Canon that I think it a wonderful little camera!
Canon PowerShot G11

Entry-level DSLR Cameras
This is the first step into the Digital SLR category. The pros to these types of cameras are: More control over exposures, fully manual modes, the ability to pick and choose different lenses, and better image quality. The cons are: Heavier and bulkier to lug around, more expensive, have to purchase lenses, can be more difficult to use.

The Canon Rebel T1i has gotten superior reviews in everything I’ve read. But in this category, you are buying into a system, not just a brand. Since I really believe in the Nikon system, I have to recommend the Nikon D5000 as well. Regardless of which you choose, plan on spending ~$1,000-$1,200 on this entry level system.

Mid-Range DSLR
In this category, I only have one recommendation. The Nikon D90 which also has HD Video capabilities. Expect to spend about $1,200-$1,500 depending the kit and accessories you need.

As for retailers, I prefer B&H Photo Video, Adorama, and Amazon.com. If you are buying a point-and-shoot, places like Best Buy work just fine.

kim schmidt photography llc

1. It’s definitely fall in New Jersey. I was fighting it for a long time, but now I’ve come to embrace it. Even though its October, the ice cream truck drives by daily between 4-5pm – weird. The leaves are finally starting to change. Here are a few photos I took on PTS’s campus.

2. Trader Joe’s opened up on Route 1 in Princeton a few weeks ago. I didn’t understand the love people had for TJ’s until it opened up. I’ve been too many times (its bad that its in walking distance) but I discovered something amazing this week. TJ’s Cornbread. I have never had cornbread this amazing before in my life. I’ve been dreaming of it and thinking about when the next time I can make it will be.

3. After I got home from work Wednesday, I was sitting at our dining room table checking my email. I looked up to see a praying mantas on our screen door (at the time the back door was open and he was on the inside of the screen – aka could have come into our apartment). There was also a bee inside. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the bee out (because I didn’t really want to kill it). I proceeded to close the door almost all the way, hoping the bee would try to get out. Not but a few minutes later did I look up to see the mantas CAUGHT the bee and was eating it. He finished it in less than 20 minutes. GROSS! I had to take some photos!

4. Next Friday Anthony and I are flying down to Dallas for the annual Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas. We are meeting up with my parents and are going to have a blast. We met down there our sophomore year in college 7 years ago (it was actually this weekend, but we call OU/TX weekend our anniversary no matter when it is!)

5. Tonight we are hosting game night at our house! I am beyond excited to drink and play Guesstures with fellow “childless” seminarian couples.

Have a wonderful weekend!

kim schmidt photography llc