Any photographers in here?

[NVP5White]

Definitely. I want to start freelance this year so I'm putting up pictures that would serve as a portfolio. You're right..knowing the purpose is where it's at. Any suggestions on the photos there? Any critique?

The album thing is free, and it's easy. It's not too bad. Simple, and not too many functions.

For the pictures, which are nice and show your creative side, I would try and show the kind of work you want to get hired to do. If thats covering travel kids sporting events then volunteer to take some shots free and post them up (with permission, of course). That's just an example, but the idea is to put up stuff your customer we see and say I want THAT for me. Family portaits at the beach; kid's soccer; mother's day potraits of the kids; senior portraits; HS sports and events (dnaces, graduation, etc). Maybe you want to get into the corporate thing. I rarely see a small business webbsite with decent, much less good, pictures (except for Altspace's clients!). Look at local business who have a web presence but crappy pics; offer to take new pics which they can use free, but where you keep limited rights to the picture to use for self promotion.

While we're on the subject of purpose rights, I recommend reading this blog by John Harrington, the guy that literal wrote the book on the business of photography.

http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/

Good luck

 

[tekkie]

picked up some new equipment
canon 85mm 1.8
canon 20D & opteka grip
tamron sp af 1.4 tc

this camera will hold me over until I get the 1DMII or the 5D, btw damn you shasta for posting pictures with the 1D (nuts) that was the final factor to make me want the 1D lol

 

[nate0123]

hmm so what do you think about this for the "spring has sprung" photo contest thread?

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=102241

I suppose I do have two weeks to come up with something better

 

[NVP5White]

hmm so what do you think about this for the "spring has sprung" photo contest thread?

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=102241

I suppose I do have two weeks to come up with something better

Nice snap, but it doesn;t really shout spring. Frankly, I'm not sure a picture of a flower alone embodies "spring has sprung". I'm thinking cherry blossums, leaves beginning to bud on a tree, pollen on the car (JK), etc.

BTW, I think everyone shoudl effort to take a new picture for each contest. Its not only more fun, but really makes the contest more meaningful, more of a challenge rather then a card game of who can slap down the best pic for a given topic. Sh!t, we'd only need two days for each contest round if that was the case...

EDIT: I see someone posted a picture of an insect. Now we'll have 800 insect submissions...the contest is sometime a big groupthink on the topic versus who can get creative with the topic.

 

[nate0123]

You're right. I think I will go out and take some new pictures. Worst case, I have the "flowers" as a fall-back.

The cherry blossom festival is going on right now, and it does make for some very beautiful photography. I'm wondering if that is almost too obvious. I guess it will depend on the shot.

BTW, I don't think I noticed you were from NOVA before. Where do you live?

 

[Kansei]

hmm the annual Lilac Festival is coming up in Rochester but not until the first week of May I think. Spring comes late around these parts, they're saying there's going to be an accumulation of snow at the end of the week (it was 60 yesterday and there hasn't been snow on the ground for a month)

 

[NVP5White]

You're right. I think I will go out and take some new pictures. Worst case, I have the "flowers" as a fall-back.

The cherry blossom festival is going on right now, and it does make for some very beautiful photography. I'm wondering if that is almost too obvious. I guess it will depend on the shot.

BTW, I don't think I noticed you were from NOVA before. Where do you live?

Fairlakes/Fairfax. I might go down to the Tidal basin this evening. I was down on Saturday taking pictures, but the light was flat. Yesterday may have been the best day to take pictures, but today is looking decent enough.

 

[wmbeaver]

 

[cornflaykes]

Took this shot on 4/1 before it was about to rain. C&C ia always welcome
Place is Great Falls in VA seperates the border of VA and South MD.

3sec shutter f 5 w/ 50mm 1.8

 

[altspace]

Nice snap, but it doesn;t really shout spring. Frankly, I'm not sure a picture of a flower alone embodies "spring has sprung". I'm thinking cherry blossums, leaves beginning to bud on a tree, pollen on the car (JK), etc.

Exactly my point. None of that happening in my area for quite awhile.

 

[NVP5White]

Benji, that's an okay shot of great falls. The river is high, which IMO makes the falls a little less interesting. Also, 3 seconds is way too much time for f/5. All of the interest in this picture is going to be in the blurring water but in that picture the water is blown out. I have never had much luck at Great Falls and I suspect its becuase the falls are always exposed to full skylight, whether that be on a clear day or an overcast day. At the very least I would try a high f/stop, but also try a longer lens to make the movement of the water more pronounced. If you're really adventurous you can climb down the rocks a bit and get more on the falls' level...see eye to eye with that powerful water.

A recent pic of me chasing by brother in my folks' minivan. I have the camera bungied in the back on a tripod on the lowest setting. I shot using a IR remote. I'm not really happy with the way the picture turned out, but this was the best of the bunch. I have plans to do this again with a different system for mounting whihc will place the camera lower and closer to the rear of the van so I can go real wide with the lens. I'm may also incorporate at flash with night or at sunset. Stay tuned...

 

[tekkie]

thats an awesome picture guy, I love it

 

[ipleadthe5th]

A recent pic of me chasing by brother in my folks' minivan. I have the camera bungied in the back on a tripod on the lowest setting. I shot using a IR remote. I'm not really happy with the way the picture turned out, but this was the best of the bunch. I have plans to do this again with a different system for mounting whihc will place the camera lower and closer to the rear of the van so I can go real wide with the lens. I'm may also incorporate at flash with night or at sunset. Stay tuned...

Was the camera in the minivan, shooting thru the rear window?

 

[jersey_emt]

Benji, that's an okay shot of great falls. The river is high, which IMO makes the falls a little less interesting. Also, 3 seconds is way too much time for f/5. All of the interest in this picture is going to be in the blurring water but in that picture the water is blown out. I have never had much luck at Great Falls and I suspect its becuase the falls are always exposed to full skylight, whether that be on a clear day or an overcast day. At the very least I would try a high f/stop, but also try a longer lens to make the movement of the water more pronounced. If you're really adventurous you can climb down the rocks a bit and get more on the falls' level...see eye to eye with that powerful water.
A recent pic of me chasing by brother in my folks' minivan. I have the camera bungied in the back on a tripod on the lowest setting. I shot using a IR remote. I'm not really happy with the way the picture turned out, but this was the best of the bunch. I have plans to do this again with a different system for mounting whihc will place the camera lower and closer to the rear of the van so I can go real wide with the lens. I'm may also incorporate at flash with night or at sunset. Stay tuned...

http://www.stickypod.com

^^^^ I think this will do what you are trying to do. It's an excellent product, I love mine.

 

[NVP5White]

Was the camera in the minivan, shooting thru the rear window?

No, the rear door was open. It looked odd I'm sure. It also probably was strange to see a car folowing so close AND using a flash. After the first set of pics I realized the fash was not of use in the conditions I was shooting. I could have used full power but the recycle times would have really hampered the shoot. I ended-up depowering the flash to 1/64th so I could know exactly when the shutter was triggered. Without the flash I wouldn't know if I had taken a picture or not since there no aural or mechanical feedback when I'm sitting in another vehicle away from the camera.

I'll have to check out that sticky pod...although you won't believe the lengths I'll go to to avoid having to buy accessory camera equipment.

 

[NVP5White]

http://www.stickypod.com

^^^^ I think this will do what you are trying to do. It's an excellent product, I love mine.

Wow, I did not realize how inexpensive this product is. $59 for the basic camera mount is a steal. Now, if I just had $59...

Jersey, or anyone really, I'm going to Italy in May (why I don't have $59) but the plan is to leave the laptop behind. I need some way to store pictures that I take during the trip. The difficulty is I like to shoot RAW and I can really take a lot of pictures...like maybe thousands in the 10 days I'll be there. Options I've considered:

1. Portable HDD/Media Card reader ~$130 - $250
2. Many (many) 2 GB SD Cards. I could probably get away with a gig a day...thats 4 cards in addition to the 2 1GB cards I have now. ~$80 - $100
3. Online file storage service $??, probably free, but how long to upload to a US server whne I'm in Italy? Highspeed? Free to access? Probably not...

I'm leaning towards an investment in SD cards by I'm rarely ever going to need that many again. Suggestions?

 

[mp5smuggler]

if you have an ipod you can dl your photos onto that for storage.

 

[tekkie]

Go with the cards its the safest route and probably the cheapest. look around on slickdeals.net SD cards are crazy cheap, and when you come back sell them on ebay and you will probably break close to even or make money

The storage devices would be best but if you lost that you would be in a world of hurt, however I guess you could say the same for the SD cards.

uploading over the internet would be slow so you would need to be there for a long time.

Wow, I did not realize how inexpensive this product is. $59 for the basic camera mount is a steal. Now, if I just had $59...

Jersey, or anyone really, I'm going to Italy in May (why I don't have $59) but the plan is to leave the laptop behind. I need some way to store pictures that I take during the trip. The difficulty is I like to shoot RAW and I can really take a lot of pictures...like maybe thousands in the 10 days I'll be there. Options I've considered:

1. Portable HDD/Media Card reader ~$130 - $250
2. Many (many) 2 GB SD Cards. I could probably get away with a gig a day...thats 4 cards in addition to the 2 1GB cards I have now. ~$80 - $100
3. Online file storage service $??, probably free, but how long to upload to a US server whne I'm in Italy? Highspeed? Free to access? Probably not...

I'm leaning towards an investment in SD cards by I'm rarely ever going to need that many again. Suggestions?

 

[terbow]

yea id vote for sd, unless u have a pc then u can use a usb hd enclosure (20$) and just load them onto a formatted hd

 

[tekkie]

or get something like this https://www.amazon.com (commissions earned)