WOW...don't you feel stupid now!

Thank you Henry Poster for your input. If there was any reason that I would have even considered Squaretrade it was because B&H and your company's reputation over the decades that I've been a customer.

What concerns me is that without you stepping in customers may not have gotten satisfaction. Granted I realize this is a 2 way street and dealing with equipment failure due to customers' fault is a reality.

In my case Drone insurance for the 3DR SOLO that inclued crashes was too good to be true without a deductible. Mark my words "Crash Coverage" will not be available this time next year without a deductible.

As always, a faithfully B&H customer, you guys earn it.

LOL... on the level, now we're talking about LEVEL photographs. If that's important to you you can take his photograph in PS and straighten it out :-)

How anal is this dicussion going to go?

Bye Bye guys, my short stint at UHH is over.

One of the good things about the Internet is the ability to benefit from someone else's experience and save you from their bad luck using a certain business.

As to Squaretrade I highly suggest doing your own Google search. I recently bought a 3DR Solo (Drone) from B&H. I've been a customer of B&H for almost 30 yrs and trust them.

When they offered me a 2 year Squaretrade warranty for $199 or 3 years for $279. Initially I purchased the 2 year coverage. Fortunately since the Solo was on back order I had time to think about this coverage that supposedly protected against crashes!

This falls into the category of too good to be true to cover crashes with no Deductible!

We all have car insurance and realize that a successful company has to protect itself against pety claims. Our cars can't fall out of the sky and this outfit thinks for $199 it will guarantee a $1,300 drone again a crash!

After doing my research on Google, I know now how Squaretrade can offer such a warranty...they don't plan to honor it!

I canceled my Squaretrade order and got an extra battery...something I can actually use!

I hope B&H doesn't soil their reputation with their affiliation with Squaretrade. Oh sure, Squaretrade will refund what you paid them and technically they're off the hook and you're on the hook for your repair. The crooked thing is the % of folks who never needed a repair and that's how Squaretrade makes their money.

LOL...the OP made me flash back to my first meeting in the Army with my Senior Photographer for the Special Forces magazine at Ft. Brag, NC. I wanted to impress him with my portfolio.

He didn't want to see it. He said it wasn't meant to insult me but in 1 day of watching me shoot and seeing my typical results he'd know enough how good a photog I was.

What I'm saying is that over a life time of shooting we all an come up with a few good pix.

In this day and age of the Internet I've had more than one person try to pass someone else's work as their own.

Please...not saying anyone here has misrepresented themselves.

Anyone who cares could Google me has I don others when I want more background info.

Sorry for your loss and the family and friends of the Garden Lady.if you have enough pix of her you could produce a Tribute slide show and post to You Tube as a memorial.

As to the comment, "First get a better camera "...this makes me want to vomit! You take the pix not the camera!

Granted a full frame would be nice but not necessary.

As to pricing yourself, $100 for 3 hrs shooting and post production is very low but not if for charity I'd invoice them with a more pro level fee but show it discounted.

Folks like to brag how much they paid for something and/or the good deal.

You won't be the $30 an hour photog. If it's a charity you could benefit from a tax break.

Bottom line don't follow the idea that buying equipment bring you business. You already mentioned folks love your work. Have a Facebook page any other on-line presence that will bring you up if a potential customer does a Google search on you.

Good luck

This is what event (Wedding Photogs) face today...Glad I left this 20 years ago!

Want to save money for your wedding? Fire the Photographer!
Can't post the link but if Interested Google the title.

Whatever floats your boat, no justification needed.

From my first SLR, a Pentax Spotmatic to getting the 1st generation Canon F1 back in 1971, against my Dad's recommendation that "Pros" only used Nikon. I now used a Panasonic GH4 4K micro 4/3rds (have two) and have NEVER looked back. :-)

Many Photographers are doing a Hybrid coverage shooting video and even grabbing stills from video. When a flash goes off it causes "Banding" when only part of the frame is exposed by a flash.

Over the decades any respect has gone out the window and any individual with a camera believes this is their event to exploit to play with their camera.

It's one thing to have to tolerate this in a Paparazzi setting but not a paid assignment.

To many DJs screw things up by inviting everyone to takes pictures of the cake cutting. Frankly if this was a Philippino Wedding they're worse than Hollywood Paparazzi, but this is a cultural thing for this group. They jump into the aisle as the Bride comes down and even go up to the alter during the ceremony!!!

I'm 100% sure in the spirit of working together and possibly getting referals the photog would have given you a few photographs for your website.

OK..let's be relistic! If this was a CIA drone...I believe the return fire would out gun anything you have.:-)

Also there is a reason shooting a firearm within city limits is usually illegal.

What goes ups up comes down, including your bullets. With the 4th of July around the corner this bit of info will be repeated in the news. They warns folks not to celebrate with shooting off their guns.

Rest assured if the small drone is 100' in the air it it very unlikely getting a detailed shot of your personal property, with the typical junky toy drone camera.

On the other hand if it's outside your window...grab your baseball bat:-)

Agree that sometimes having a human in the shot gives scale to "whatever".

Once while shooting the Very Large Aray (VLA) in the NM, I had to wait almost an hour before a guy and gal walked through my shot to give scale to these giant satellite antennas.

LOL...Adobe has had this for a few years now both for removing objects from stills and video.

One of the most interesting uses was a video of a skateboarder on the Freeway all by himself. In fact it was a dangerous shoot to video but it did look awesome.The video called "Urban Isolation" was shot with a Red Camera but you don't need one to do this;

http://www.networka.com/stories/40107/urban-isolation-skate-video-by-russell-houghten

Did anyone notice these shots were NOT GoPro but looked like a Sony? The new ones have Zeiss lenses. Saw them at NAB in April including the 4K. GoPro now has competition. ..which is good for us.

Ironically even on a Tripod VR can come in handy and you can go against the general rule to turn it off.

I was shooting a distance scene on telephoto trying to get a steady shoot in 30 mph wind. VR steadied the shot that was shakey even on a tripod.

If it's OK to go slightly off topic but still dealing with steady shots...use a bean bag. Often you'll have a railing of something to rest against.
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