Sad news came early today as UK-based Triggertrap announced they will be going out of business. They company rose to fame through their Triggertrap Mobile camera remotes, which allowed users to interact with their DSLR via smartphone app. Creatives could utilize the technology to activate the camera's shutter through the touch of their screen, allowing for some unique timelapse images, amoung other uses. Since 2011, the company had been popular with photographers, and the corporate culture just seemed to be trendy and cool. 
However, ther next big idea proved to be their downfall. In 2013, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign for their latest product: Triggertrap Ada. It was billed to be the next big thing in high-speed photography triggers. The company's CEO - Haje Jan Kamps - explained what went wrong with the Ada project here. 
So is this the death of Triggertrap? Well, for the short-term.....yes. But, Kamps hints that they'll be back.
"In short, the failure of Triggertrap Ada is not the end of innovation at Triggertrap — not by a long chalk," he said in a post to the popular site Medium.com. "We’ll be licking our wounds for a while, for sure, but we’re also taking this opportunity to intensify our focus on what we do better than anyone else. As sad as we are to see our high-speed trigger fail to take flight, we’re not about to stop aiming high."
For now, the company has announced a one-day sale to blow out their existing product (much of which was already sold out this morning), and their shuttering the doors. Kamps made the announcement here, with some information as to the ongoing tech support for the Triggertrap app....more precisely, that there's currently no plan to keep up with it. 
Hopefully, this is just a large bump in the road for the company. Having used the app myself, it's a fine product. They were really onto something, and the advancements made in Ada were just about to send the company skyrocketing. Let's hope Kamps et al rise above the ashes and return with renewed vigour to continue creating innovate products.
We'll miss you, Triggertrap. 

Newcomers to Brooks over the past year were celebrated this weekend. The Brooks Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) held their first welcoming event on Jan. 28 at the Flex Hall in the Lakeside Leisure Centre. Those in attendance were treated to dance performances, food, and friendship. Local service providers were also on hand to let newcomers know how they can assist in navigating their new home.
Dignitaries were on hand to meet with the newcomers and offer greetings on behalf of the City of Brooks, County of Newell and Government of Canada. Popular with the kids were the face-painting table and balloon twister - not to mention BMO the Bear dancing with the kids!
RyKie Images & Events was proud to be part of this inaugural Brooks LIP event. Check out the YouTube link below for a taste of all the fun!

Turning your love of photography into a successful business takes a lot of skill, time and tact. The vast majority of new businesses I've noticed simply build a Facebook page, maybe a website, and leave it at that - waiting for all the work to come in. In terms of advertising, these new photographers post on their local Facebook Buy and Sell page and hope for the best. While this seems like an easy, cost-effective way to launch a business, you may not be attracting the right customers.
So how and where can you learn the skills it takes to increase the right traffic? This is where the Rich Photographer Univeristy comes in.
Based on the work of Dane Bergen - a Gold Coast, Australia marketing guru - RPU is the culmination of his years of work targetted at photographers. I was fortunate enough to be part of an elite group that had a sneak peek at Bergen's masterpiece, and I asked him a few things about the content and how he became interested in marketing strategies specifically directed toward photographers.
"I was in marketing from 2008 to 2011 working basically in lead generation and optimizing businesses so they converted prospects into clients more easily," Bergen told me. He found teaching marketing to small businesses was more attractive than larger companies.
"The decision to work exclusively with photographers was something that happened gradually," he said. "I worked with a few photographers, then more and more until it was all I was doing."
"I found that photographers were great to work with because in general, they have a massive passion for photography and amazing experience with it, but they don't have the same enthusiasm for marketing which is the reason their businesses often struggle. I just help to point them in the direction of what they can do to have the biggest impact on their profits in business."
He's right - what photographer really wants to sit down and figure out their next ad campaign or marketing strategy in general. We just want to shoot and sell, right? Therein lies the difference between a mediocre business and a great one.
The content on RPU is largely based on a manual chock full of excellent tips and marketing strategies that are easy to implement, but powerful traffic-getters. He's also included videos unveiling the proper use of building Facebook ads that work, how to get referrals and make them work for you, plus a unique take on business cards (just to name a few). 
The important thing about RPU (and what sets this program apart from the majority of promotions I've seen) is that the information Bergen presents WORKS! It's simple, easy to understand, and you will see increased activity - which translates into more work and increased sales.
RPU also isn't something that was dreamt up overnight, Bergen has put a lot of hours into this program, and it shows.
"It's hard to say how long I've put into making the course," he said. "I've been working on it gradually since 2012 - it started out as a PDF and grew from there as more and more strategies got added."
"If I had to put a time limit down I'd say it would be around four to six months of full time work - which includes coming up with each idea, tweaking it, testing it, and finally teaching it through the manual or video lessons."
It's also an ever-evolving beast, as Bergen noted there is more to come.
"There will certainly be more content, and updates to current content as things change," he said. "Members will have access to all the updates though."

I've been itching to use my ever-expanding collection of vintage lenses in a session for some time now. Recently, the fog and frost in the area made for some foreboding and ominous scenes. However, when I finally did arrange for a model, the frost was mostly gone, and the sun dominated again.
Good thing, too - the happy, sunny skies matched the model's demeanour!
Ashley is a talented fellow photographer in Brooks and is always so cheerful. I messaged her last minute for this session to test out the old gear, and she was more than willing. She was great to work with, and I hope she forgives me for shooting on such a cold day (next time will be summer - I promise! lol).

As I've pointed out before, working with vintage gear sometimes presents it's own challenges. First off, all the lenses are manual focus, and it's sometimes difficult to get an accurate idea of how sharp an image will turn out. 
A few standbys I used were an old Minolta 50mm f/2; a third party 28mm f/2.8 macro lens, and another off-brand 135mm f/3.5. 
Some of the results were great! Others....well....they might need some more practice to master. One lens in particular (think it was the 50mm) was super soft when shooting wide open. The weird little 28mm emerged as the star of the day; giving nice bokeh, fairly crisp results, and a good colour range.

The main sticking point was the body I chose to shoot with. My dear old Nikon D300 is entering old age. She's ancient. Far outlived her expected life. A common issue with this particular model is having the mirror lock up. The only remedy I've found was to turn on Live mode, hit the back-button focus a half dozen times to activate the shutter, and switch back to the mode I usually shoot in to hopefully resolve the problem. About half the time (and this is being generous), the solution works. 
That, and I only had two bars left on my battery (after discovering the second battery in the grip was also dead), so the challenge to create decent images was real!

Our quick session resulted in some great images, despite the equipment challenges, and was a learning experience. It seems vintage glass has really become the next great trend, and I can certainly see the appeal. A lot of the old glass is dirt cheap and built to withstand anything. 

Want to 'wow' your special someone this year? Are you a procrastinator that waits until the last minute to plan Valentine's Day? Well, let's get on it early this year and make you the hero!
Our Elegant Images session is available in our Duchess studio, or on location. It's very flexible and can be used these ways:

• Surprise them with archival prints from a session with you looking absolutely fabulous!
• Purchase as a gift certificate to present during a romantic dinner on Feb. 14 where you both can participate.
• Treat them with their own session, one that makes them feel amazing.

These special sessions will be available until Feb. 13 and you can get more information on booking here.

We're pleased to announce that RyKie Images & Events will be a reseller of easyCover products! Most popular of the products offered are silicone skins for DSLR bodies (currently Canon and Nikon mainly) that protect your camera. Check out the press release below for further details.