December 30, 2011

Aperature, Shutter Speed, and ISO tutorial

There is an excellent video tutorial on Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO at the bottom of an article on Basic Composition for Photography at Photography.com.  The young man's physical appearance is not one that would spark the confidence of an old lady like me, but I try to be open minded about such things so I watched it.  In my opinion, despite the way he does his hair and the casual clothes he wears for a presentation, Evan's tutorial is one of the best I've seen or read on these topics and if you're confused about any of these 3 fundamental photography elements, just watch this short video from Evan and http://photoextremist.com/.

December 10, 2011

Photo Business Bootcamp Week 2

I just got the email for the second week of PhotoShelter's Photo Business Bootcamp. I haven't had time to finish week one's week one's  lessons as I've been working at my "day job" for about 10 hours a day this week.  But here's what's available for week 2. 

Week 2 - Growing Your Photography Business
  1. The Typical Business Mistakes Made by Photographers - a 15 minutes Skype interview with John Harrington, author of the popular book Best Business Practices for Photographers
  2. Photographer's Cost of Doing Business - a 5 minute audio interview with Greg Smith; this lesson includes a link to the NPPA's  Cost of Doing Business Calculator which Smith helped develop
  3. 8 Ways To Get More Work From Existing Clients - a list of suggestions any photographer can use to market and promote their business, based on an interview with corporate/industrial photographer Martin Vargas
  4. The 7 Ironic Truths About Successful Wedding Photographers -  a comprehensive and very interesting 10 page article by Missy Lamb, a very successful wedding and portrait photographer in North Carolina.    
  5. 10 Ways a Photographer Can Improve Business By Trusting Their Clients -  an article on using the PhotoShelter's Trusted Client feature as a benefit to the client and photographer
  6. Steal These Marketing Ideas - an article on using marketing ideas from other industries to promote your photography business
  7. Negotiating with Clients Doesn’t Have to Be Scary - a one hour video presentation with Blake Discher about The Right Way to Negotiate with Clients. 
Next week's bootcamp theme is Your Website: Your Most Important Business Tool.

December 3, 2011

PhotoShelter and Your Photographpy Business

Yesterday I told you about a free magazine from PhotographyBB and that November's issue included a link to PhotoShelter's free photo business bootcamp.

I signed up for the bootcamp.  I got more than I bargained for.  The bootcamp lasts 5 weeks and consists of an email each week.  I thought each weekly email would probably consist of one or two articles, possible a pdf file, and some pictures.  Boy, was I wrong! 

I got my first week's email today - it looks like it is going to be a knuckle-down, buckle-up, set-aside-some-real-time-to-do-some-work bootcamp.  Here's what I got:

Week 1 - Inspiration: the Secret to Success
  1. Brian Smith's Tips on Breaking Through  - an hour long Webinar
  2. Ami Vitale on Finding & Pitching New Ideas - a 20 minute Webinar
  3. Staying Focused on Your Passion Projects - a one and a half hour webinar with portrait photographer Tim Mantoani
  4. Why Passion Matters - a 12 minute interview with sports photographer Ed Mulholland
  5. Innovator's Bag: Up Close - a 20 minute interview with David Burnett, a photojournalist
  6. 11 Things Photographers Wish They Learned in School - an article featuring answers from 11 well known photographers and some Twitterers answering the question "What do you wish you'd learned earlier in your career?"
  7. Why Attitude Matters - an article on the 5 positive traits of successful photographers
  8. Reinventing Yourself - a 7 minute interview (and article) with Robert Seale about changing your career direction.  Robert left his safe newspaper staff job to (successfully) pursue a freelance career in editorial and corporate photographer.  (This included a link to PhotoShelter's free 2011 Inspiration Handbook,)
Not to mention access to other free guides and webinars on the PhotoShelter Blog.

Even though I haven't seen all the webinars yet, in my opinion, this one week is worth as much as the "business kit" I recently purchased for $30. 

December 2, 2011

Free On-line Photography Magazine

PhotographyBB has just published the 46th edition of the PhotographpyBB On-line magazine.  This is, without a doubt, one of the best photography bargains of the season.

This edition includes:
  1. instructions on downloading a free eBook from Craft & Vision.  11 Ways You Can Improve Your Photography is a 69 page "compilation of articles from world-renowned photographer, David duChemin, and other proven Craft & Vision authors."
  2. a contest to win a Drobo
  3. an opportunity to submit two Christmas photos for possible publication in the annual "Christmas Around the World" feature
  4. a link to PHOTOSHELTER's free photo business bootcamp
  5. five photography articles with full color photos

You get all this for the amazing low price of $0.00 and your email address.  But that's not all! (as the salespitch goes) you can download the other 45 issues for the same low, low price of $0.00.