Santa shots at the mall

Well that time of year again. Looked like a rebel with a 15-85 lens (I think) on a tripod. There was a small non canon flash on a bracket about 1 foot above the camera. All that was fine and dandy by me but you think they could have splurged for a $25 umbrella. I guess most people would not notice or care with the final results. As long as the their kids are happy. Not sure why that bugged me but it did.

digital paradise wrote in post #15314027
Not sure why that bugged me but it did.

...don't let it bug you. There are a million things more important in life to worry about. A $25.00 umbrella won't help them make any more money: it will only mean they will have $25.00 less at the end of the day.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Well I'm not going to lose any sleep over it but good point

good choice for the lens, and double good plus that had a tripod

All those wedding photo booths use just a rebel and 18-55 kit lens. Whatever works right?

To some extent this sounds like gear snobbery to me.
If you think about it, today's base entry Rebel is probably a much more advanced and better camera than the original 1D that was the flagship pro body when it was released.

Every mall santa photog I've seen has sample prints on display so people know what they're buying.

I say that's fair enough. They can shoot with a cell phone for all I care. Caveat emptor and let capitalism do its thing.

philwillmedia wrote in post #15314988
To some extent this sounds like gear snobbery to me.
If you think about it, today's base entry Rebel is probably a much more advanced and better camera than the original 1D that was the flagship pro body when it was released.

Well I said there was nothing wrong with the gear. Rebels create very good images. I was talking about an umbrella. I probably would have used one but that is because I'm programmed that way for portraits. The person running the show might have used one at one time and realized it made no difference to this type of business.

Also just like previous years there was a very young girl taking the pictures. My guess is the photog set everything up and she just presses the release cable - see you in 5 hours. Not a bad gig when you think about it.

digital paradise wrote in post #15315499
Not a bad gig when you think about it.

Well we don't know what he's paying the mall to rent the space. And it's probably not cheap.

True. Might not be a a lot coming in at the end of the day. Probably saving up for the umbrella

The set-up at one of the malls here is the same but they also have a softbox. They've been doing photos for 2 weeks now, the closer it gets to Christmas the longer the line gets - it's unreal how much traffic just this one location gets. They also allow you to take a picture with your own camera.

Bilderknipser wrote in post #15315734
The set-up at one of the malls here is the same but they also have a softbox. They've been doing photos for 2 weeks now, the closer it gets to Christmas the longer the line gets - it's unreal how much traffic just this one location gets. They also allow you to take a picture with your own camera.

from what I've seen most mall Santa's use a softbox

Curtis N wrote in post #15315188
Caveat emptor and let capitalism do its thing.

Damn, I may have to plagiarizer this and use it in my signature.

Being as how they used to use polaroids for the santa pics, I'd say this is a vast improvement from then to now.

Digital, film or Polaroid, nice light helps a lot.