Nick Gruen

My favorite lens to use is the 1635, as it's great for both underwater and action sports shots. However, it can create a lot of distortion and igniting in corners when used with motion, so I don't usually use it for product or commercial photos. When using this lens with a housing, you'll need a big dome port, like an 8-inch Dome, to help with distortion.
 
Transcript: "I like this question. It's what's your favorite lens to use? Depends on the day, but I really actually, like, using my 1635. I don't call it my money making lens, but it's what I enjoy doing. I like using it. So what I use that lens for would probably be Astro underwater super wide, like diving shots and then some action sports shots as well, but it's not what I'm using necessarily for like the product photo or the commercial. Just because 16 to 35 is pretty wide and its really distorted. So, especially with motion, you kind of get a lot of weird, Distortion and igniting and the corners. But for photo, it's just a super fun lens to use. I really enjoy using it when I have it in a housing though it's pretty freaking big like this is the port for my 16 to 35. So the 1 - 2 it is if you're traveling with a housing and your 1635 and you got to be prepared to bring huge Dome. Like this one. This is an 8-inch Dome used for split. So then obviously, it helps with Distortion underwater as well. You want to make sure that the port is curved. Just like the lenses. Yep, that's my favorite lens. The 1635"

It really depends on the user and what kind of activities you're hoping to do with it. I personally shoot with Sony because of its compact size, ability to fit in pockets, and great low-light capabilities.
 
Transcript: "Wow, what a debatable question. This one is. It's what's your favorite camera brand? Yeah, I don't think you can really go wrong here. I think it really just depends on the user and what kind of activities you're hoping to do with it and just with how advanced all cameras are now, you really can't go wrong. I mean everyone should have an iPhone and you can see just how crazy the quality is on there. Same goes with cameras. I think they're all really Advanced but I personally shoot with Sony. Shot with them for over 10 years, I've chose to shot with them. Not saying this because I work with them or work for them that way before all of that I started shooting. So neither reasons I was shooting with them is because of how compact it was at the time. They were the only ones really doing like small full-frame mirrorless sensors that just for so small. They'd fit in like your pocket and you know I'd be out at Pipeline with the housing. That's like the size of like a Shaka and that's It's insane with the housing to be able to like Freestyle with the camera in your hands. If there is rogue, waves coming in and the low-light capabilities of them are just insane. Now I don't think you can really go wrong. I think Cannon has great colors and icons great for landscape. But yeah, I should Sony and I'll stick to it just because I think that you know they're the best"

Hi, I'm Nick Ruin. I'm an outdoors photographer and drone operator based in Hawaii. I grew up doing ocean rescue and have a lot of respect for the outdoors. Over the past couple of years, I've worked with clients such as Sony, Netflix, and Apple TV. I'm looking forward to chatting and helping where I can.
 
Transcript: "Hello, everyone. My name is Nick ruin. I am a Outdoors photographer and drone, operator based out of beautiful Hawaii, excited to be on this platform and help out. However, I can a little bit about me, I grew up doing ocean rescue have a lot of respect for the ocean and just everything outside. Love my job, I love being outside, love being in the water filming doing what I can. It was until a couple years ago that I got into a pretty serious injury out shooting surf that kind of shifted my career a little bit into flying. More professionally here, we are. Now a couple years later. Clients I've worked with include Sony Netflix, Apple TV W sell a lot of great people. Looking forward to just nerding out with you guys chatting and helping how I can thank you."

I use an app called Do Mechanic to quickly view my images and then save them onto an external SSD. From there I edit using Lightroom, saving the dng files as my primary file type, sometimes deleting the JPEGs.
 
Transcript: "Alrighty this question. How do you edit your photos? There's a couple steps. I'm not going to like talk the specifics of you know use these Lightroom sliders and this and that I'm sure if the question comes up, we'll be able to answer those down the road my way of doing it. Let's just start with shooting, so I'm out shooting film is D cards. I go home. I save everything on those SD cards and I use this super-important app that I love. So do mechanic the reason I like this app is because you're able to quick view, all the photos, everything you took, you can meditate the photos. You can create selects, you can reject photos, whatever. All that is, kept on that file, and it's lightning fast because you're not actually downloading it to Lightroom your computer, you know, whatever it is. So I go through there, I called my images would be what you would call that, and then I throw them on an external SSD. That's important to me. Because I don't like storing locally on a computer, keep them on hard drives. Always, I edit from the hard drives. And then, from there, I have my selects, my open Lightroom edit in Lightroom, and when I'm done editing the photos, I save everything if it's for a client as a dng file and a JPEG. If they need it that way for, you know, they're there, whatever it is social media or, however, they're using the photo. But the dng file is the most important part. And I actually sometimes delete the wrong. Wrong and just keep the dng files on the hard drives."

No, I don't think there is a stigma of having to be a starving artist if you are a photographer. We have all been in starting off situations where we need to take out loans or work multiple jobs to buy gear, but it's not necessary to do that. It's unfair for some artists or people on social media to come across complaining about it.
 
Transcript: "This question is, is there a stigma of having to be a starving artist if you are a photographer? Thanks Massey for the question. I wish you could also answer your own question and want to hear what you have to say, but I put it simply. No, I don't believe that at all actually. I think that that could even be kind of a poor excuse and I see this sort of thing a lot right now, especially with social media, people kind of do the. Why me thing or the poor me bit? You know, like please help a Struggling artist out a starving artist out and to be honest I'm kind of tired of it. We've all been put in that situation where you're starting off, you either got to take out loans, ask friends or family for money or work a bunch of jobs in order to buy gear but that's something that all of us have had to do. I don't think that the stigma of like being a starving artist is accurate. I think that it's very easy to come into this field or work this type of work without ever having to do that. And I know I'm I'm being kind of aggressive with like, how passionate I am about it. But yeah, I really don't think that it's fair for some artists or people on social media to come across complaining about it. I just don't believe it at all. So that's my answer. No, I don't think that there is a stigma or that there should be a stigma about people thinking that they need to be a starving artist or go through some sort of phase in order to make it as a photographer."

My editing process starts with downloading metadata using Photo Mechanic and then I use Lightroom to edit my photos. I start with adjusting the tone curves, highlights and shadows and then move on to color science and messing with vibrance and saturation.
 
Transcript: "This question is, is what is your editing process? Like little to part for you? I think the first half of the editing is The Dumping footage metadata ng4 that I use Photo mechanic. It's a third-party software and app, you can or not app, but a software that you can download to claw your images metadata, mm, and just get through them, to save them in appropriate, folders, super important. But editing process, I obviously love using Lightroom. Some people like other apps but I'm just pretty Adobe knowledgeable. So that's what I stick to and yeah, in Lightroom, you know, I open up the app and I guess the one tip I'll share is that I don't just throw like a preset on it and then it's done. I actually don't think that photography should be shot that way because lighting and our subjects are always changing and they require a little bit more work than that. But yeah, the first thing I go into and Lightroom is probably my tone Curves and I mess with highlights Shadows. I've been one of the last things I do with a color or I mean a photo would be its color changing, the color science, the wheels and maybe messing with Vibrance or saturation a little bit. But yeah there's a very quick out of a very long subject of what my editing process is like"