A fascination with things small

My poor photography blog has been sadly neglected…..too much going on with the day job of keeping teeth and gums healthy.  Ah well, that’s the way it goes.

Since I have had NO opportunities to go out and shoot anything, really, I’ve been limited to my family and things around the house.  As things around the house are usually kind of boring, I’ve found that the subjects get a lot more interesting when you go macro, so that’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s been a lot of fun.  It’s all about texture, shape, and depth……color is part of it, but B&W makes for starker contrasts.  In that vein, I’m adding a few recent shots; I’ve been particularly interested in bubbles.  The infinite variety found in them offers such creativity…….

NEW DENTAL STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY SOURCE NOW ONLINE

For dentists looking for a source for dental-specific stock photography, such as large wall posters to promote cosmetic dentistry in your office, there is now a new place to get it:

CDPayet Photography – Stock Photography for Dentists

The selection is currently somewhat limited, but stay tuned, as more images will become available within the next few weeks and months.

You will be prompted to enter a password, which I’m sure none of you will have difficulty managing. 

********If anyone would like to submit photos to be included for sale, please contact me privately to discuss terms. Photos can be of virtually anything that might be of interest to your colleagues — portraits, before/after smiles, before/after of different kinds of procedures.*******

In the not-too-distant future, you will also be able to purchase CDs/DVDs Movie Loops that can be used in Reception areas or operatory computers, as well as Coffee Table books that will help promote various aspects of dentistry.

I am interested in hearing from colleagues on what materials would be of greatest use/interest to you so that I can add those materials.

Sometimes it’s just fun to shoot small

The Macro Forum on FredMiranda is one of the most amazing forums for “different” photography that there is, IMHO.  Of course, ALL of the forums there area really good; that one has just intrigued me recently.  I haven’t had the chance or funds, unfortunately, to create the ideal macro set-up that some of the gurus have, but by adding some simple extension tubes (mine are by Kenko, purchased in a set of 3 from B&H Photo Video in NYC), you can take normal lenses and turn them into macro lenses.  And if you already have a macro lens, and THEN you add the tubes……you’re really getting into the SMALL.  With a little time on my hands this afternoon, I decided to play a little.   Hope you enjoy!

Digital photography in dentistry in 2009 – IMO a necessity!

Digital photography has exploded into dentistry in the last 6-7 years with the advent of more affordable digital SLR cameras, and even more importantly with the increase in the number of dentists teaching how to use it.  For years, many dentists never chose to use photography in their practice for the simple reason that it was a serious hassle — had to buy film, often didn’t need to use up an entire roll on 1 patient, had to wait for the film to be developed to know if the pictures turned out well, the cost of developing, and the incredible hassle of storing all those pictures, whether prints or slides.  I still remember seeing the room where my good friend, mentor, and colleague, Dr. Ross Nash, kept his massive collection of slides the first time I attended the Nash Institute here in Charlotte, NC.  At the time, which was probably about 2000, I recall him mentioning that he had about 750,000 slides stored in that room. Three-quarters of a million slides!!!! Sure, that was over a career that had already spanned 20 years, but still……..that was mind-boggling to me at the time!  He had already started switching to digital at the time with a Fuji S2, though, and in the intervening 10 years, I occasionally wonder how many more digital pictures he’s taken.

In my office, I made the switch to digital from a Yashica Dental Eye III; there are still a few books of slides languishing in some cabinets in my office, but they just collect dust.  At first, I used an Olympus C2500, I think — maybe 2-3 megapixels?  Not the greatest, but I still have all those images.  In 2004, however, I finally switched to the Canon Digital Rebel, one of the first “pro-sumer” DSLRs.  About 2006, I purchased a Canon 30D for my personal use, and at the beginning of 2008, when my venerable Rebel finally died, I switched to the Canon XTi body.  I expect the XTi bodies will last another couple years (hopefully), but my hope is to upgrade to the new Canon 5D Mark II at some point later in 2009.  I’ve been adding Canon lenses since then, slowly upgrading to better quality glass.

In my own office catalog of images, there are now about 38,000 images, the large majority of which were taken since 2005, when I started photographing almost all of my dentistry, not just my cosmetic work.   I’m currently averaging about 12-14,000 images per year.  I’ve actually slowed down a bit since incorporating a Zeiss PICO surgical microscope in August 2008; previously I would often take pictures to immediately load to the computer and blow up so I could see greater detail than my Designs for Vision 4.5x EF loupes and Sheervision headlight could provide.  Now that I can see at even greater detail than that through the scope, I don’t need as many.  However, once I upgrade to a Xenon light source and a HD video camera for documentation, that number will probably skyrocket!  It’s only money, right?  LOL

In the 21st century, I am still constantly amazed by a couple things in dentistry:

1) There are still dentists who haven’t computerized their offices,

2) The majority of dentists still don’t use magnification (loupes) or only use 2.5-3.5x magnification, and of those, most don’t use a headlight, and

3) The vast majority of dentists still have no clue how powerful digital photography can be in gaining patient trust, in protecting themselves against frivolous lawsuits through documentation, in speeding up insurance approvals through easy-to-understand (even for insurance clerks) pictures of teeth with big holes in them, and more.

I’m not really sure which of these boggles my mind most.  Honestly and truly, I believe that SOME type of photographic documentation is an absolute no-brainer today.  The camera equipment is affordable, there is plenty of training available (and yes, I provide that — see my website CDPayet Photography), software makes it easy to track and annotate, it’s easy-to-use, and the benefits are simply undeniable.

If you’re in dentistry and you want to learn how to incorporate this awesome technology into your practice, give me a call or email, and we’ll talk about what you need, how to integrate it, how to get your staff onboard, and how to make it work for you!

A Fun Pastime

With the responsibilities of fatherhood, being a husband, and running both a dental practice and a photography business, it is quite a challenge to find time to go out and find new vistas or subjects to photograph.  However, with all the pictures stored on my HD from years past, and with the improved post-processing skills from recent study, it can be a lot of fun to dig through the archives and find “new” old images with which to work.    Here’s one from a trip to the Sorrentino Peninsula on the western coast of Italy, as my Dad and I were climbing to the top of Mt. Vesuvius.  It was a cold day in March, and the winds were whipping in, bringing clouds, fog, rain, and bitter cold, but there’s no doubt that the trip was worth it, although we certainly wondered if we should continue several times on that ascent.  The sun was moving towards setting as the clouds blew in from the west:

You can see a much larger version on my website: CDPayet Photography

Updates to CDPayet Photography website

If you haven’t visited my photography website quite yet, please check it out!  New galleries have been added, more details about the services we offer to our dental colleagues are available on the For Dentists page, our Guestbook is open for comments, and more.

Fine Art Prints also available

On my website, CDPayetPhotography.smugmug.com, I do also offer Fine Art Prints of the flowers posted earlier, as well as Landscapes.  Here are a few samples from the last few years:

A favorite subject

During the summer of 2008, when my wife and I were traveling to Alaska for the second part of our honeymoon cruise, I was re-reading Bryan Peterson’s book Understanding Exposure and reading for the first time another of his books, Learning to See Creatively.  In both, Peterson recommends the best advice any photographer can take to heart — shoot a lot, and shoot a lot of different things whenever you want to learn to “see” things differently through the lens.  So I decided to shoot just about everything I possibly could (until my wife reminded me the honeymoon was with her, not the camera, of course LOL).  Of all the subjects I shot, flowers became one of my favorites, and in developing a number of them once we returned, the addiction grew.  Now I can’t wait until spring arrives again to experiment some more; in the meantime, a few reminders of the beauty of flowers:

Using portraiture to promote dentistry

Ever since Dr. Tony Soileau’s portrait course back in 2004, I have had a growing fascination with portraiture in general, but I have learned truly how wonderful it can be as a marketing strategy.  Most dentists don’t have the knowlege to do this, though, and there are frequent questions on where they can purchase posters or photobooks of Before/After pictures to help educate their patients on “The Art of the Possible.”  So CDPayet Photography is stepping into that niche and will soon be offering stock photography to dentists.  They will be available at first only as Wall Posters, but Photobooks and Reception Area movie loops will be coming soon.  Check out http://cdpayetphotography.com for more, but here are a few examples that are already available as wall posters:

Portraiture – from pics of my family to Portraits of yours

Since taking a portrait photography course with Dr. Tony Soileau at the Nash Institute for Dentistry, and since I went digital with an original Canon Digital Rebel in early 2004, and ESPECIALLY since I got married in March 2006, it’s become more and more fun shooting pictures of family.  These days I get the most pictures of our 2yo daughter, but occasionally my wife and 13yo daughter will allow me to take some of them, too.  They usually request at least an hour to get ready first, of course, and then they hate all of the pictures regardless of how beautiful and stunning they are (not that I’m biased, of course), but I take what they’ll let me.    And of course I love any chance to show them off, so here are a few:

It’s easy to see why these 3 lovely ladies are my favorite subjects of all!  However, out of this drive to document my family growing up (the girls just keep growing up way too fast!) has come the impetus to offer you the opportunity to have portraits done in your home, your garden, or other favorite places.  I come to you to capture you where you live or work or play, just as with my own family.