Alpha Universe May 2016

Most Likely
to Succeed
After launching a thriving high-school photography business, Sony Artisan
of Imagery Joe Brady went looking for a new camera system. Sony stood at
the top of the class. BY DAVID SCHONAUER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE BRADY
The high-school senior portrait
has come a long way.
“Today, they’re practically
full-blown fashion shoots in
the studio, and in some cases
outside on location,” says Sony
Artisan of Imagery Joe Brady. With his wife,
Diane Bollen, Brady has run a successful
portrait photography studio in Warwick,
New York, for the past 25 years. During that
time, he has also become well known for his
instructional videos on portrait photography—which,
he notes, have received some
2.5 million views on YouTube—and for his
series of popular landscape photography
workshops.
It was three years ago that he and Bollen
expanded their business into the nowthriving
high-school photography business.
The school superintendent in his town had
become dissatisfied with the mass-market
photo service that had been doing the job,
and he wanted to hire a local photographer
who could offer better-quality images. “We
started off doing a couple of schools, and
now we work with about 15,” Brady says.
Just as the static senior portrait of old has
evolved into something far more sophisticated,
Brady’s business evolved along with the
gear he uses.
“I wasn’t happy with the camera system I
had,” he says. “I was looking for something
more versatile. I’m a big fan of the live-view
feature on mirrorless cameras. That’s an
important feature for school photography,
because you don’t have to sit with your face
hidden behind the camera—we find that
there’s a much better connection with the
kids that way. You can talk to them, and you
get that instant response.”
Brady found what he was looking for when
he tried out two Sony cameras, the 77 and
99. “I was amazed at their performance—
they produced DSLR-quality images but
had mirrorless capabilities,” he says. “From
there we’ve gone on to the current crop of
full-frame Sony mirrorless cameras: First the
7, then the 7R, and now the 7R II,
which we use for all the senior portraits. The
dynamic range of that camera is unmatched,
and the low-light focusing is so impressive.
The color it produces is the best we’ve seen
from any camera on the market.”
Brady’s entire business has now been
converted to Sony gear. For other types of
high-school work—including photographing
700 kids in a day—he and his team use the
20-megapixel Sony 58. “It’s a fast and easy
camera to use, and we get consistently great
images,” he says. “We’ve compared files from
the 58 to files from the Canon 7D, and
they blew them away,” he says.
Learn more at joebradyphotography.com.
High-school senior
portraits have practically
become full-blown fashion
shoots, says Sony Artisan
Joe Brady. Top: A seaside
portrait shot with the Sony
7R II and FE 24-70mm
f/4 ZA OSS lens set at
50mm. Exposure: 1/500
sec. at f/8, ISO 250.
Bottom, far right: Another
of Brady’s senior portraits
shot on location. Bottom
right: A classic portrait
shot with the Sony 7
and FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA
OSS lens set at 42mm.
Exposure: 1/125 sec. at
f/8, ISO 125.
22 Universe