Photography for Profit or Fun

Unexpected Dragonfly Omen Bodes well for a Great Season

Wow! Getting there was only half the fun. Using a vintage Johnson 160 Guide Accu-cast spin-cast reel surely enhanced the experience. But seeing the first dragonfly of the season as it stood sideways on a nettle stem just emerged from its spent nymph shell. Wow! Just Wow! It is a great omen for the season to come.

Join the f/22 Club And Transform Your Landscape Photography from Adorama Learning Center

Watch and learn how valuable a leading line is in directing the viewer in your photo, and how a small aperture is key.

Join Bryan Peterson at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia  where he shares a great example of how the use of immediate foreground interest can enhance the composition of your landscape photography. In this episode of You Keep Shooting, prepared exclusively for AdoramaTV you will see how valuable a leading line is in it's ability to lead the eye towards the main subject in your photo. You'll also learn how to maximize your depth of field by choosing a wide-angle lens and a small aperture, such as f/22.

via www.adorama.com

Here is an Easter Picture Opportunity to Make you $$$ Dollars Now!

I have been negligent regarding posts to help make you money lately. But here comes one. I have image software aplenty, but I do occasionally rally to try and review software packages that interest me. I haven't decided if I will buy this one, as my own commercial applications are now passe' when it comes to most people pictures, unless they are newsworthy or have stock photo potential. But this software package--not really new by a long-shot--but it was new to me as I ran across the ad for a trial that popped up on my new laptop.

Here is what I am thinking. This collage-making software will take a folder of digital images and automatically spin them into a cool seamless collage layout in a fairly random fashion. I don't pretend to understand the algroithms used, but if you don't like the first one or first ten or first however many, you've only to spin it again and you'll have a different layout. This can be both good and bad. I see Easter promotional opportunities to advertise and draw in business for those who care to try. But be sure to use the desired resolution images when you do--because the software will not be able to repeat the same collage if you don't. You and I know there is some unwritten law in the cosmos that if you cannot deliver any particular pose of picture or choice because of closed eyes or whatever--it will invariably be the one the end-consumer will want to buy.

So do due diligence and try it out and get your ducks in a row before you make any promises. But here is the link. It is free for thirty days. The images resulting from the free trial will have a software ad emblazoned across the bottom. You can crop that off if you choose your collages carefully before showing them. If one doesn't lend itself to the cropping, just make another, and another until one suits you. Then crop it and show. I think it will be a no-brainer for kids and flowers and Easter pictures. Here is one I did just for grins.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/autocollage/

To market this, you can run an ad in a local newspaper, but if you have a good direct mail piece for previous and/or likely customers, this is where I would concentrate by doing an email blast with an attachment that automatically opens. If you don't have such a list, you should work on getting one now. You may be able to try social media ads for this as well. Narrow by geography and socioeconomic identifiers as such media allows.Narrow it down to a finely targeted audience and feature one collage. Keep the message simple with a link to the details of the offer.

You can make bucks by selling the collage at a low price to cover the ads and other expenses--or build in some profit, but if you work it right, you can even offer the collage for free and take a lot of nice pix and bank or print reorders. Display low-resolution proofs with watermarks over them online using services such as www.dotphoto.com, which will take orders, process credit cards, and deliver the pictures and send you the profit that you build in above their charges.

I recommend something along the lines of what I have posted. Another thought is to make up some stock photos of bunnies and chicks and flowers--but I beg you not to exploit such animals by turning the kids loose on them indiscriminately. Be humane. Were I live, the first spring wildflowers are popping out in abundance. Make up a folder of macro images of these and maybe an Easter Lilly or two and you'll be on your way. Using Autocollage, you can have a folder ready with the Easter motif images and then just copy the folder and label it with the clients name--and then drag and drop client images into the folder.

The software does the rest. It allows you to choose the number of images to use--so a couple of different folders might be good. As always, three choices is a good way to approach the market. One nice but pricey, one basic buy very cheap, and one priced in the middle which is the obvious best value. Allow enough prints for parents and grand parents and maybe a couple more. don't go too big. Dotphoto.com has a lot of aftermarket products including books, calendars, mugs, etc. which can make you a lot of money by making the point of sale purchasing easy. Take time to set up a free web site via dotphoto or someone else if you don't already have one.

But be careful when you use a third-party site as their ads will reveal your base pricing and savvy customers may cut you out of the picture--so to speak. Just use commonsense when you offer the links to your clients.

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Creating Beautiful Collages with CollageFactory Pro

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HOME-SPIRATION: Collage

Collage Discovery Workshop

Google Glass: The opposition grows | Internet & Media - CNET News

A shot in the dark?

(Credit: Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

The opposition will congregate in dark corners.

They will whisper with their mouths, while their eyes will scan the room for spies wearing strange spectacles.

The spies will likely be men. How many women would really like to waft down the street wearing Google Glass?

It won't be easy. Once you've been cybernated, there's no turning back. Which is why the refuseniks are already meeting in shaded corners of the Web.

One site is called "Stop The Cyborgs." It claims to be "fighting the algorithmic future one bit at a time."

A sticker being offered on the "Stop The Cyborgs" Web site.

It's going to take a lot of bitty fighting, but the people behind this site -- they're naturally anonymous, in an attempt to stop Google spying on them -- say they're fighting Google Glass in particular.

They say that it will herald a world in which "privacy is impossible and corporate control total."

Some would say that, thanks to Googlies and other bright, deluded sparks, we're there already. The Lord and Master Zuckerberg explained to us a long time ago that he knows us better than we do and that we don't actually want privacy at all.

Still, the people behind this anti-cyborg movement claim that there's no way you'll ever know that someone wearing Google Glass is recording your every word and movement.

There's no way of even knowing if someone else is recording you through their glasses from somewhere in the cloud.

And how are we, whose egos are already more fragile than a porcelain potty, supposed to feel when we know that a glasses-wearer has one eye on us and another on our Klout score or teenage sexting pictures?

The site explains: "Gradually people will stop acting as autonomous individuals, when making decisions and interacting with others, and instead become mere sensor/effector nodes of a global network."

Well, yes. But isn't that the precise dream of those who want their engineering to finally prove that humanity is a deeply inferior species?

via news.cnet.com

The world is changing and things are heating up. What's new?

Top 10 Gardens - Travel - National Geographic

The gardens at Versailles are riddled with paths that lead to flower beds, quiet corners, ornamental lakes, and a canal that King Louis used for gondola rides.

via travel.nationalgeographic.com

No Google Glasses allowed, declares Seattle dive bar - GeekWire

No Google Glasses allowed, declares Seattle dive bar

March 8, 2013 at 1:27 pm by Todd Bishop 21 Comments

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via www.geekwire.com

Yes, the possibilities are enormous!

Art and Not Art. When it Matters and to Whom.

Please note that due to the narrow template columns (and my lack of ability in laying out these posts correctly) that you must click the images to see the entire view in some cases.

One of my trademarks of style was developed long ago. I often have something blurred (or not) showing prominently in the foreground--such as these dried weeds, which I like for adding color and depth perception. I usually will vary the degree of blur from very clear to out of focus and then do the same using the subject as the blurred element. Sometimes it works better than others. Once years ago, I did an outdoor family portrait during the peak of the autumn leaf colors. I used a bough of a brightly plumed sweet-gum with several colorful pointy leaf sets to frame the family of two adults and a little girl they were holding in several frames. The expressions in one shot was magical. The leaves were blurred enough to prevent the eye from being distracted from this very nice-looking family. I was quite please with the result and was expectantly awaiting the delighted response from the couple when I showed the proofs.

As with most things, there is an art as to how you make your initial presentation and how it is perceived. I had been so enamored with my art that I had even blown said pose up larger than usual on speculation. To me this was a prize-winning shot. Talk about not seeing the forest for the tree--I was not ready when the husband said, "Wow I love this one, but you CAN get rid of that stuff all over the picture in the finished print can't you?" He was referring to the carefully blurred leaf frame. In his mind, it was some defect in the processing that I had merely neglected to correct in the proof. So much for art. Since then I have always felt a need to explain that the foreground objects are SUPPOSED to be there.

You can insist on artistic liberties when you, the artist, are the only one who has to be satisfied. Not so when your subjects or clients must sign off before paying the bill. As I recall, the wife got it and they did indeed order that one enlargement, but their other picture choices for Christmas gifts were ones without the leaf frame. To each his own.

There will always be those who get it, and those who do not. But my salient point is that sometimes it matters, and sometimes it does not. It should always matter at least somewhat. Art is a lot of things to different people. Sometimes it is not art at all--if art is not what is desired by the intended viewer--especially if the viewer is a paying consumer. Art is your own self-expression, but if no one gets it at all, what good is it? Maybe even then it can satisfy some deeply intrinsic purpose for the producer of the art. But if art is expression in the sense of communication, then someone has to get it or you have not expressed or communicated at all.

There are different levels of expectation and sophistication in the consumers of art. I suppose ultimately, it depends upon whether or not your work satisfies the consumer, if it is to be enjoyed by them. Sometimes the consumer merely wants a clear picture that is finely focused and shows ultimate details. Sometimes the consumer does not want to see things the way they really are; they'd rather see an illusion. A successful photographer has to second-guess and/or try to determine whether to be an artist or a craftsman or both. He also must reckon with who is paying the bill. If it is merely himself--and if he has no hopes or expectations of ever making any money or becoming well-known or selling his photographs--then I suppose it may not matter who else besides himself likes his pictures .I have never been that arrogant.

This old thing about not selling out or not doing this or not doing that for money or public recognition has never completely flown with me--whether it was being proposed by musician or painters or photographers. Although it displays something of my own Capitalistic inclinations, it seems to me that the ultimate vote for your work is whether anyone is willing to pay money for it. So what's wrong with that?

Thomas Kinkeade never gained the adoration of the critics or the snooty artists--but he gained the adoration for his work of the common people who liked the way his pictures looked enough to buy them. By the droves. If I was a critical person, I could find a lot to criticize about Thomas Kinkeade--whom I never respected much personally--but it would not be with either the beauty of his paintings, nor his marketing abilities (which really means, his good understanding of what people want and how to provide it).

Thomas was a least a good artist--but he was a genius of telling his story, sticking to it, and presenting it well. He was a genius of marketing his work and himself. Thomas was as much a theatrical magician as he was an artist. He brought a lot of relatively inexpensive art to peoples homes, which brightened their lives and presumably made them feel better for having it. His stories as to why he became the painter of light, became indelibly linked to the characteristic golden glow from within the homes and buildings in his paintings. And guess who gave himself that title. I don't know how many paintings and prints of his painting Kinkeade sold during his liftime (and by-the-way) they are still selling steadily through the privately owned franchise stores and now gaining in value since his death. But it is way more than any other painter has every sold--exponetially I am guessing. He made a lot of money in the process. Everybody wins, and that's a lot of self-expression. Don't tell me Thomas Kinkeade was not a real artist.

I wish that I could become the Thomas Kinkeade of photography. In fact, now that I have articulated it just so, maybe I will set out to do that. It would be a worthy goal as far as I am concerned. It would mean that droves of the masses would first see my photographs, and that they would like them enough to pay a reasonable amount for each of them, AND that they would tell others who would do the same. There is genius in that. I admire genius.

Yes, I experienced the burdens of making pictures to suit other people day in and day out for years on end while seldom making the kinds of pictures that suited me. Shame on me. It was no one's fault but my own. It is the same old story of the woodsman nat taking the time to sharpen the axe, or the woodworker the saw. Ultimately it killed the initial enjoyment that I had found in photography. Balance must be kept. If it is not, the golden goose dies. This does NO ONE any service. I got out of photography and it was years before I even could pick up a camera without a sense of dread.

I have found it pertinent to refer to Benjamin Franklin in two separate web-logs regarding two very separate topics within the same day. Moderation in all things, is one of many of his maxims. It is a good one. While one must pay heed to the desires of those paying the bills while making photographs for them, one must also interlace enough fun and experimentation and private art pictures just for art sake--to please the artist as well.While you don't have to get snooty about it, you can be deliberate about the art prints that you display, and to an extent, if you are careful, you can even show only the proofs that you choose to show.And you can pursue a particular style in your own genre gallery of artistic photographs.

You can and should develop your own identifiable style. Even if it sometimes raises eyebrows and questions as to why you do things the way you do them. Back to the foreground thing that I do as a matter of style. Look at the different photos that I took yesterday on my walk. By this late date in my artistic/photographic evolution I have a method. I don't even consciously think much about it. I find myself grabbing the fleeting shots that are available as quickly as I can to the technical degree that I can given the tools available at the moment.

Then I start changing things up, adding elements here and deleting elements there, composing on the fly, observing all the things I have to work with and incorporating them as I can. I want to make art from my pictures. I want to capture and document, but I also want to do it through my own prism. I have worked as a news photographer before, but I am not a news photographer now in the conventional sense. I have experience in both photography and in life. It effects the way I see things and it effects the way that I want to portray things that I see. I am making art. It is both challenging and it is fun.

If it was neither challenging nor fun--I would not take pictures anymore.

 

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Replacing my Sony Digital SLR, Gearing up for Dragonfly Big Game.

Retrevo Deals

Posted 03/07/13 11:10AMSuperb image quality, modern convenience and plenty of fun pack the elegantly designed ELPH 320 HS. Built-in WiFi lets you share images and beautiful 1080p Full HD videos anywhere. The 3.2" wide PureColor System LCD responds to your touch for an interactive shooting experience. 

via shop.retrevo.com

Hotmail - [email protected]

Documentaries aren't easy to make. You have to have be a great storyteller with an idea that will capture the audience's interest. You have to be a skilled director who understands the ins and outs of shooting movie footage. You have to be a gung-ho reporter who knows how to interview people and get them to spill their guts. Finally, you have to be a meticulous fact-checker to make sure you get all your information right. No wonder so many people think that documentaries should be left for professional filmmakers, TV journalists, and PBS hosts.

There's no skill needed to make a documentary that you can't learn. A documentary is a challenge, not an impossibility, and anyone with the drive and the dedication can rise to the occasion. Videomaker's Documentary Production Series gives you everything you need to pursue your documentary dreams from start to finish.

The Documentary Production Series includes:

• Documentary Production: Storytelling - The truth is that great documentaries don't just happen by luck; they're meticulously crafted. At the heart of every good documentary, there's a story aching to be told. Find yours and your documentary will fall into place.
• Documentary Production: Funding - Finding funding for a documentary is no fun; it's tedious and who knows where to start? Fund raising doesn't need to be a chore; we'll break it down, so you'll know exactly where to go for funds, what to say, and how to get them.
• Documentary Production: Equipment and Crew - You might have an idea for the best documentary ever, but you can still be sabotaged by an unqualified crew or inadequate equipment. Avoid that with a few simple guidelines for selecting the best crews and equipment.
• Documentary Production: The Shoot - This is the most fun part of the process, but it's also the most demanding. From setting up your microphone to conducting an interview, this DVD will help you master it all.

To learn more, visit the Documentary Production Series.

via du112w.dub112.mail.live.com

In y opinion, documentaries are among the most important and will prove to be the most enduring types of videos. I'd love to make a documentary--and I just might.

AV Micro Camera System

The Most Convenient and Versatile Underwater Camera Ever!

The new AV Micro is a complete underwater camera system that is the same size as a smart phone! This means you can take it anywhere and do a lot of different things with it. It works great for ice fishing, on the boat, or off the dock. It can also be used for a variety of above underwater uses like looking into tight spaces, or even as a back-up camera in your vehicle!

The Aqua-Vu Micro has a full color camera with 50-feet of 22lb test cable attached. The camera is about the size of a quarter. You can rig the camera to look straight up and down or sideways when its underwater. It features a built in light sensor that automatically turns two invisible infrared lights on and off depending on light conditions. Compared to traditional underwater cameras, this camera is much smaller and stealthier underwater.

The handheld monitor has a 3 1/2" diagonal display that's housed in a water resistant case. On the back of the monitor case is a cable spool that neatly stores the camera cable. The monitor has a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery that powers the camera and display for up six hours.

via www.aquavu.com

This one may be more affordable--although as one might expect, not as good.

Aqua-Vu 760cz Camera

The First and Only Color HD Underwater Video Camera with Zoom!

The new Aqua-Vu 760cz features 3X digital zoom and the only 1/3” CCD
color camera in the industry. All other underwater video cameras on the
market use 1/4” CCD or CMOS sensors. The 1/3″ CCD sensor is able to
reproduce a wider and larger area coverage due to the larger sensor. In
addition to a great picture, you also get camera depth and direction and
water temperature, right on the screen. The AV760cz has 7” sunlight
viewable LCD display that has a back-light heater for cold-weather
performance, and is IP67 rated (waterproof to 3-feet.) This
top-of-the-line underwater camera system lets you see fish, structure
and your lure like never before, with unmatched clarity, low-light
visibility and field-of-view.

via www.aquavu.com

This looks pretty cool. I hope to review it soon. If they would loan me one, it would make this happen a lot faster. Just sayin. LOL.

Find the Right SD Memory Card - SD Association

Find the Right SD Memory Card

What Card Works Best with Your Device?

	Full SD	miniSD	microSD	SD Card Capacity
SD				up to 2GB
SDHC				High Capacity 4GB to 32GB
SDXC				Extended Capacity Over 32GB up to 2TB

Hundreds of manufacturers market thousands of memory cards and devices built to SD standards in a variety of storage capacities, speed classes and three different physical sizes: SD, miniSD, and microSD. SD memory cards are typically used in personal computers, video cameras, digital cameras and other large consumer electronics devices. The microSD and miniSD cards are commonly used in smaller electronic devices like mobile phones and tablet computers. Some memory card manufacturers offer adapters allowing microSD cards to fit a traditional SD card slot. This gives you even greater versatility and flexibility to use the card in a mobile phone as well as a computer or video camera.

To determine the right card to match your device, always consult the device's user manual or contact the manufacturer. All memory card options are readily available in the marketplace, produced and distributed by a wide range of manufacturers, in retail outlets around the world including drug stores, electronics and computer shops and Internet sites.

Note: SD memory card and SD host device are the generic terms for any memory card or device built to SD standards. SD Association does not produce, market or sell any product; it creates standards and then promotes the adoption, advancement and use of SD standards used by competing product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. For questions related to products, please contact the product manufacturer. 

Choosing the Best Card - What Memory Capacity Do I Need?

Manufacturers produce SD memory cards in a range of memory capacities designed to fit your needs and budget. Today, products using the SDXC standard will have the greatest memory capacity and fastest performance when using Ultra High Speed (UHS) standards. Products using the SDHC and UHS standards will also enjoy the fastest performance. Your device's users manual should help you select the memory card standards that are right for your device.

You should consider how you will use a memory card to determine the right memory capacity and speed choice. For cameras, consider the quality of the picture resolution of every photo, and for your MP3 player, the bit-rate required for smooth playback. Take a look at our reference chart that illustrates the various stora

via www.sdcard.org

This article may help you understand the memory capacity, speeds, and other aspects of SD memory. I was surprised to learn from a Walgreen's guy that there are now at least five types of SD memory.

The White Balance Lens Cap - The Photojojo Store!

The White Balance Lens Cap leaves you no excuse for not properly white-balancing every situation you encounter.

Simply flip your camera into custom White Balance mode, snap a photo with your White Balance Lens Cap on, and your camera creates a perfect profile of the actual lighting in front of you.

Best of all, unlike a gray card, the White Balance Cap takes no extra room in your gear bag. Just replace your existing lens cap with this one and you'll always be able to white balance with no additional equipment.

via photojojo.com

I have not tried this accessory, but I like the idea. I do plan to get one and try it out.

The iPhone SLR Mount. Yes, it's really real. - The Photojojo Store!

Ever since the iPhone camera was invented, it's aspired to be what it simply never quite could be: a DSLR. Sure, apps have helped your camera phone inch forward with simulated focusing and faux filters.

Faux no more. The iPhone SLR Mount gives you the real thing. It'll set your phone photos apart from everyone else's on Instagram in an unprecedented way (#nofilter)!

This case-adapter combo lets you mount your Canon EOS or Nikon SLR lenses to your iPhone 4/4S giving your phone powerful depth of field and manual focus.

Telephoto, wide angle, macro, or your fixed-fifty lenses all attach to this mount giving you a full range of lenses at your iPhone lovin' fingertips. Heck, you could even throw on a Diana adapter!

Plus, you'll be putting the SLR lenses you already have to use with the camera you always have with you -- your phone.

Two loopholes on each end of the case let you tie on a camera strap, so you can hang it around your neck just like your real DSLR.

Now that your favorite camera has it all, what're you going to do with your DSLR?

via photojojo.com

This may be of interest to some of you. I have not tried it. I only recently even justified getting an IPhone.