SoFoBoMo: Excitement building

 Photography, SoFoBoMo 08  5 Responses »
Mar 062008
 

sofobomo_cover-copy.jpg
An idea

Well, the clock is ticking and we are getting close to being able to start on our projects. I have solidified my theme, Around The House, and have even come up with a subtitle of “Dance of the shadows.”.

This morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, I noticed some beautiful shadow patterns underneath one of the chairs in the sunroom. I went to grab my camera, sat on the floor, and took a few pictures. Then, I came to my computer to create a cover for the book. Naturally, this will not be the cover, but is only a practice run. I just want to carve out a few ideas. I still need to tweak fonts, placement, colors, etc.

Some weeks ago, I had already decided on format. Oddly enough, I picked a square format. I shoot lots of verticals and a few horizontal images; however, the square format, you can see, offers no advantages to either and offers advantages to both. The challenge is in defining the borders to make things look nice. :-) Sometimes, the borders will be on the top and bottom, other times, at the sides.

I waffled a bit on my theme thinking that I may not find enough interesting pictures, but then I thought, interesting to whom? Everyday that I walk around the house in the evening or morning there are really cool shadows and patterns dancing about everywhere, so getting 35 shots should not prove to be a hardship, unless it’s cloudy for my entire 35 days, then I might have to switch themes! :-)

As for the font, I have decided to use Garamond. In the book about designing books, this font is suggested as one of the more pleasing and easy to read fonts, having not so formal a look as other fonts. It makes for easy reading and seems ideal for a coffee table book, a book that you’d like to sit, relax, and enjoy.

I guess that I’ll start, in earnest, sometime in April … perhaps after I file my taxes and get rid of that nastiness! It will give my mind a chance to clear!

 Posted by at 08:49  Tagged with: , ,

Business Decisions: Selling photos online II

 Photography  3 Responses »
Mar 052008
 

pdl_20080301_5268.jpg
In a previous post . I wrote about selling photos online and about a few of the places that I had taken a swing at their free trial. So, now it’s been slightly more than 30 days since that last post, all free trials are finished, and there isn’t a clear winner … yet.

I must say that two of the services were very responsive, indeed
SmugMug:
The first was SmugMug. Not only do that have extensive online information, forums, and help, they are very quick to answer any question that you have via e-mail and they answer it quickly. The cost: $149/year + 15%. See the previous post for the write up.
ImageQuix:
The other, which was suggested by P.J., was ImageQuix. Here, you get your own personal account manager who will actually call you and talk to you on the phone. ImageQuix’s fee schedule is a bit different from the others. Here, you buy upload credits. You can upload about 3,000 images for $12. When I saw this I thought that was a fantastic deal. No monthly fees and only charges for uploads, which seemed very reasonable. If you wish to have ImageQuix collect money for you and you use their lab (full service), there are additional fees. You pay 12% commission + 3% credit card fee. Nothing unusual here. This is right in line with SmugMug, which charges $150/year + 15%, so you’re still coming out a bit ahead. The downside to this is that if you use their service, they don’t do refunds. This struck me as odd, so I checked in with my representative. Here is the actual excerpt from the email:

Regarding your no refund policy, does this just have to do with
credit card processing, or full service processing? I’d like to think
that if my customers don’t like the prints, due to the way the lab
printed them, that they could get a refund, or at a minimum, reprints so
that they are satisfied.

Ans. The refunding process is final for full service and credit card processing.

Well, I guess that I did read it right! There is the option of doing self-fulfillment. If you do so, by providing a link to PayPal, there are no commissions and the only fee that you pay is 3%, to PayPal, if someone is using a credit card; however, you will have to print, proof, and mail your own order.

Although I loved SmugMug, I’m not at the point where I can justify spending $150/year to sell a few pictures. Perhaps when I start selling more, that will be an option. I like the easy customization provided by SmugMug as well as their fantastically responsive customer service.

PhotoReflect:
Oh, speaking of customer service, before I said that I sent a request to PhotoReflect, but never got a response. Well, that’s not true any more, some 22 days after I sent the request, I got a response!!! Now, how’s that for customer service!!! Yeah!

So, as it is nearly basketball season AGAIN (does it ever end?) and I’ve got prints to sell, I think that I’ll go with ImageQuix and the self-fulfillment option. If the load gets too heavy, I’ll have to figure out something else.

 Posted by at 18:28  Tagged with: , , , ,

Thinking outside of the bag

 Photography  6 Responses »
Mar 042008
 

stylizer-small.jpg
Click for larger image
When I run across great products, I like to mention them when I remember. So, now that I remember, here goes:

There are some items that I use that make life easier, or perhaps speedier. They reside outside of the bag and so, sometimes, get overlooked quite easily.

  • Lexar Professional UDMA Dual Slot Reader: Without a doubt, this is the fastest card reader that I have used. I saw it mentioned on Paul Butzi’s site a month or so ago. When I put my cards into the slot, I’m just amazed at how fast they download into Lightroom. I can download 200, 5-15 MB JPEG files in a matter of minutes, usually about 2 or less minutes! At $39.95, it’s a heck of a deal and it saves a lot of time!
  • CSS Stylizer: One day, after going through CSS hell and not enjoying it, I looked for something that would make changing my website a bit easier. Quite frankly, this piece of software is indispensable. It will allow you to open up a website, see the stylesheets, and make changes to them to see what effects they would have on the web page. You can then save style sheet locally and make it your own. Or, you can start from scratch and build your own style sheet. The cost is only $49.97 for the license, which includes 3 months of free upgrades. There is a free download available, which grants you use for 30 days. If you want to make changes to a site using CSS, I highly recommend using this tool
  • Magellan eXplorist 210: This is sometimes in the bag and sometimes out, but I thought that I’d give it a good mention. I bought this at Wal-mart for about $30 because it is a discontinued model. It’s great for marking locations that you wish to return to. It has a convenient display that will show you where the sun and moon are located on the horizon, and is an all around good GPS. No, it doesn’t connect to the camera … I’m not that geeky just yet. Although I do do Geocaching with my son on some weekends and this little guy comes in handy for playing high-tech hide and seek!

Well, that wraps up all that I can think of for right now.

 Posted by at 20:03

But it’s not the best way!

 Photography  Comments Off
Mar 032008
 

pdl_20080302_4432-edit.jpg

I wrote a post a couple of days ago entitled, Avoiding First Impressions. The premise of the post was to continue working the shot until you get what you came for, or at least until you are satisfied. That post, interestingly, seems to have drawn a couple of dissenting opinions, which is great! The opinions focus not on the end result, but on the approach, or the means. One of them by Paul Butzi, which you can read here, and the other by Paul Maxim, which you can read here.

So, the question then arises: Is there one approach that is better than another? Should I visit a place over and over and over again, waiting to get the light just right? Yes. Should I ‘play’ a bit taking 10, 20, 30, or 50 shots of the same subject, sometimes jiggling my camera up and down, trying different shutter speeds, etc? Yes. Should I sit on a rock, contemplate my subject for 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 38 seconds before I take the picture? Yes. Well, OK, what if I try it with different lenses on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday (only Sunday’s that have an even date)? Yes!

OK, so I took it to the extreme. The point being that it doesn’t matter one bit what your approach is, the object of this game is getting a photo that is satisfying to you, not to me or anyone else and, if you care to share your methodology, perhaps it will work for someone else or perhaps even get them out of a rut, but your approach is no better, nor worse than mine.
pdl_20080302_4404.jpg

Often, I’ve read about other photographers, professionals in particular, who say that the best lens for the job is the one that captures the shot that you wanted. Perfect. Using that same thought, wouldn’t you think that whatever method you used to get the photography that you wanted was the perfect method for the job? Guess what? It’s acceptable to have more than one approach, too! :-)

In art, more specifically photography, the ends justify the means.

Speak on it!

About the photos: Well, I couldn’t approach these cows from every different angle; they were on the other side of a fence. In this case, patience wins out. I just stood there admiring them while they enjoyed the sunshine and some tender blades of new grass. It was just a different, not better, way of getting the shot.

 Posted by at 07:24

Being the change …

 Photography  1 Response »
Mar 022008
 

pdl_20080302_4377.jpg
Is it really that hard?

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
– Mahatma Gandhi

My wife has the above quote as her e-mail signature. This morning, when I was at the park doing my usual early morning picture taking, I noticed the all around the basketball court there were empty bottles, candy wrappers, etc. All within very easy walking distance to the trash can.

My first response, was: “Damn, people!!! How hard can it be to put the trash into the can?!!!” The next thing that came into my head was the above quote. So, remembering that I’m no stranger to picking up trash, I simply picked it up, put it in the trash, and continued my shooting. It took all of one minute to clean up the area, perhaps two minutes. However, when I left, I certainly felt good about doing my small part to cause a change in the world that I’d like to see.
pdl_20080302_4394.jpg
Now! That’s more like it

After picking up the trash, I continued my shooting, took a few moments to relax on the bench in my nice clean environment, and then went home. All in all, a great morning!

I write this, not for recognition, but in the hopes that you will become the change that you want to see in the world. Want peace? Be about peace. Want love? Be about love. Want clean parks, rivers, and streams? Take a trash bag with you when you go shooting. You never know, someone might accidentally see you and become inspired to do the same thing. It’s the beginning of change.

Most of the nature photographers that I have met already tend to do this. Kate and I did it in New Mexico. Unfortunately, there were several opportunities to pick up trash.

 Posted by at 16:43

Why wait?! Carpe Diem!!!

 Photography  4 Responses »
Mar 012008
 

side-by-side.jpg
(Click for larger image)

Carpe Diem! – Seize the day! I’m starting to love this flash stuff, especially now that I can go off camera and get some cool effects. The gardens at UNCC are starting to bloom again as spring continues to edge out winter. The is rising more towards the east now, rather than south/southeast. Naturally, this changes the light patterns in the garden in the early morning and evening, giving some shots that beautiful light and taking it away from others.

There are parts of the garden, those facing due north and south that only ever get indirect light. As I wanted to get some shots in those areas for the express purpose of playing with off-camera flash, I decided that that would be my destination. One of my favorite springtime plants is the Pygmy Japanese Pieris. There’s something very lovely about those delicate white bells. As the sun never directly touches this part of the garden, I had to give the sun a bit of help.

I took an SB-600 flash, added a yellow gel to simulate evening sunlight, placed my camera on a tripod, and started taking pictures. I tried some without flash, some by moving the flash high overhead and pointing down at about a 45 degree angle as well as about 45 degrees out to camera left. I did the same thing to camera-right. One way, simulating evening light, the other, morning. The results, IMHO, were fantastic and where just a small taste of what could be done.

Now, there is no need to wait for the sun to get into right position … place it! :-)

I guess that the other title of this blog could have been: Flash:Old dog learns new tricks!

Technical Data:
Camera: Nikon D300
Flash: Nikon SB-600 @ TTL -1, yellow gel
Lens: Tamron 90mm macro
Exposure: 1/125@f/5.6

 Posted by at 00:00
Page 4 of 41234
© 2011 Paul Lester Photo Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha

Bad Behavior has blocked 228 access attempts in the last 7 days.