You can buy glass lens covers. Google the model of your phone and lens protector. You’ll find a plethora of options.

Alex MacLean has several books.

http://www.alexmaclean.com/

www.strobist.com

I just replaced all my SD cards because they were failing randomly. They were all 10 years old, so they were due.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough.

Decide what level of quality your customer will be satisfied with and deliver to that. The picture needs to be good enough for them, not perfect.

Do yourself a test. Process a picture less than you’d normally do and deliver it. Don’t say anything about it, do not call attention to what you’ve done differently. If they say nothing, they likely haven’t noticed. If they do, then you know what they are paying attention to.

Just wondering if there are any tips when working with a model?

Don’t act like a creep and don’t touch the model.

If they bring a friend or escort, don’t get weird about it. If they feel like they need someone with them, it’s going to make them more comfortable. They don’t need to be in the same room as you and the model, but if they aren’t disrupting anything, it’s usually not a big deal.

Hash out before you take any pictures what you both want out of the session, and what each person can do with the pictures afterward.

Sometimes the disconnection is what you are going for. Flattening the perspective is another reason for using a long lens.

According to these calculations, my camera should last for about 300 sessions.

It’s an average life expectancy, not a hard limit where it dies when it reaches 300k actuations. It could fail tomorrow at 20k actuations, or it could last 1m actuations.

This number seems a little low to me? Considering the immense cost of the camera?

And most photographers never reach that amount on a single body. Hell, most photographers don’t shoot that much over the span of their hobby.

If it does fail, the cost of replacing the shutter is about $250. But you’ll have likely upgraded by then.

-Get the group all together, and just before you start shooting say, “OK now pretend like you all like each other.” Usually gets a fairly genuine laugh/smile from everyone.

I do this for group shots at events. People tend to stand shoulder to shoulder, and saying this usually gets them closer together.