Matter of taste, I guess. I have black borders on all my framed prints.

Go to a legit modeling agency! Worth every dime. Cover your ass and always, always have an assistant, preferably a dude. Don’t ever get caught alone with your subject! Don’t forget to have a viable liability insurance package.

Old dude here.

I can understand the young shooter’s situations because almost all of them have only used autofocus gear. It’s something you have to practice at. Some lenses don’t even have imprinted scales. Switch to using your camera to all manual.

The young shooters who are into film photography are the ones that are getting that experience. When they apply that knowledge and experience to their digital, those are the ones that excel the most.

I started back in the late 60’s when film was the sensor and manual focus was the norm. I rarely, rarely use autofocus and auto settings on my digital gear. I don’t even pixel-peep. In fact, I have gaffer’s tape covering the rear screens.

After 4 decades of shooting transparency film, I still pretty much get what I want in two, maybe three, exposures. One learned exposure mighty well due to the unforgiving latitude of slide film. There was no “fix it in Post”, you did that in-camera.

I still shoot digital photography like I’ve always shot film-based photography. Haven’t the need to ‘machinegun’ exposures to get what I need or rely on autofocus as long as my vision hangs in there.

For video, I use my lens scales and maintain the distance from the subject as I record. After two seasons at NFL Films as a sideline Arri SR2 camera operator, I can still nail manual focus.

Set your camera to manual focus and practice, practice and practice.

UPI sending me to cover Beirut in the mid 80s.

24-70 f2.8 gets the most use.

I won’t reuse any card that’s been corrupted. I also don’t use large cards either. Max I use is a 32 gb card on my still cameras. I usually won’t put more than 40 images either. I come from film-based photography back in the early 70s. I have no problem loading another card.

I’ve known too many colleagues committing hundreds of images on a card only to get fucked with a corrupted card. A 24-70 on one camera and a 70-200 on the second camera works fine for me.

On my video no more than a 32gb card which gives me about 30 minutes at 4:2:2 1080 24P. I use 8 and 16gb cards the most for my video.

Workshops. Workshops are your best friends, dude.