Preserving your Work

Preserving your Work.

Preserving your work -- a guide to backing up your photos so you'll still have them when you graduate, and be able to find them for your portfolio

Hello everyone. A very good wednesday morning to you. I have a great topic for you this morning. I am sure many of you have your own way of saving files and may be very organized. That is just fantastic. I am here to show you what has worked for me over the past few years and how I am able to find all my files and images that I need especially when I started with my final year. It your system is great and you can find your files within 30 seconds of opening a location then that is a great method of organization.

You are going to need your information and photographs from previous years so get started now with some really great organization.

Let’s start with the easiest part of organization. Where should you store all your files and images that you use on a daily basis. Well, your Harddrive you would say is your best place to store all of it it correct? I would say yes, but now that I am 3 years into my course I have found that some courses require only a small amount of space, but others required much more space because of all the images that you have to save, edit and export. You never want to delete anything so for me I bought an external Hard Drive, WD 4TB USB drive and that was probably my best investment to-date for all my classes.

It frees up some space on your hard drive and it is just a good place to store files in the event that you have some computer malfunctions. Cloud backup is also recommended so that you always have a duplicate of all your work. I use Crashplan, but you can use anyone of the top rated companies out there. It is just $5 per month for unlimited file storage.

For storing my weekly files I created a filing system that is very easy to follow and I can always add and remove files when I need them. I made a simple weekly structure and a resources folder for all my work. As I create my files I store them under the appropriate week as well as create folders as I require them.

As I export images from Lightroom I also create folders from there and they are stored under the appropriate week as well.

Recently I moved the same structure to Dropbox for each course. I did this because I am always at work or on the road. I can access my work from my laptop or IPad and still be able to do assignments or post work and images to the appropriate folder for later use. You have to do what works for you. The basic structure remains the same but you are able to become mobile and manage your time so much better.

Lastly, I think one of the most important areas that needs to stay organized is your Lightroom catalog. You will be taking hundreds, if not thousands of photographs over the course of your degree. So make sure you have a great structure in place. I used the same naming principle in Lightroom that I use for all my other work. I created collections with course numbers for all my work making it so much easier to find when I did a search. Do not forget your keywords for all your images.

I can always go back and change the wording, just do what works for you best. Again the structure is the same, but the content will always vary.

Well, that is the simple structure that I work with. It has worked well for me in the past and whatever method you use, remember that you will be needing many of these files and photographs again during your final year courses.

Start well now and make your life so much simpler in the future.

As always please let me know if you have any questions and how I may be of assistance. I will answer all your questions and comments. If you have suggestions for post please pass them along.

Have a great wednesday.

Denzil

Monday

Good Monday Morning Everyone,


Just a few things about the resources that are available to you at AI.  Many students don't know that they have tutor's available or even counseling services if you are having personal problems that you need to talk about.  It is important to utilize these if you need them because they will help your grades in the long run.  The tutors are there to assist you academically if you are struggling with a certain class or assignment.  This will be great because you will get assistance and make sure you pass your classes.  If you are having personal problems and the stress is getting to you, this can also affect your grades in a big way.  Sometimes just talking to someone can make you feel so much better and that will alleviate some of your stress while then making school an easier task. 


It's also a great idea to let your classes know about PSPN because this can be another great resource in helping students to understand and be successful in their classes.  We are all here to help each other and we all want the next person to achieve their goals and do well in their classes. 


I hope this was a help and I hope everyone has a great week ahead.


Barbara Ann

Should I Only Buy Name Brand Lenses?

Another one of the questions I myself and many other photographers get from students is this one, “Should I only buy Name Brand lenses”, i.e. Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc.

To be honest there are no straight yes or no answer to this question. Some of it is personal preference, some of it is your budget. I am a Canon shooter and I love my Canon gear, but do I only buy Canon lenses? Absolutely not! Why, well for one thing, I have an I.Q. higher than 10 points and another, I am NOT rich!

In the past you would usually hear the old adage you get what you pay for but this is no longer the case. Over the last few years third party lens builders have gotten better and better at putting out quality equipment. Tamron, is in my humble opinion, the King of third party lenses, outside Carl Zeiss, who’s lenses are priced so ridiculously high, for manual only lenses, I will never own one.

I consider Tamron the King of third party lenses because I have personally never had a bad Tamron lens nor read any bad reviews on any of them. I have had Sigma lenses that threw all kinds of weird errors when I tried to use them and the image quality had been really weak on some of them I have used but I have read that lately Sigma is getter really good as well. Just like Canon or Nikon, both builders have their low end lenses and their high end lenses. For Tamron, their high end ones are the SP series, and many photographers compare Tamron’s SP series as being nearly as good if not sometimes better than Canon “L” series glass. Image quality, build quality, all on par or better than Canon’s “L” glass, the catch is, Tamron’s SP lenses cost WAY less money.

Monarch butterfly shot with Canon 70-200mm F/4 L USM

What is the most popular zoom lens in photography? The 70-200mm lens is by far used by more pros than any other zoom lens every made. Why, well it has what is known in the industry as the “sweet” focal lengths. 70-85mm is popular for portraits as is 135mm and having a max of 200mm is good for most all around shooting, sports, events, etc. Now Canon makes four versions of the 70-200mm “L” series lens. There’s the 70-200mm F/4 L with or without IS (Image Stabilizer) and the 70-200mm F/28. with or without IS. These four lenses vary in price from $800-$2,100 for the new F/2.8 IS II. As most people will tell you, if you want the best lens, go with the F/2.8 with or without IS depending on your wallet. The reason is the faster F/2.8 lets in more light so you can use it in lower light shooting, like if you specialize in shooting bands at concerts or bars as those are very low light situations.

Not everyone wants to spend $2,100 for a single lens, enter Tamron. Tamron offers the same 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC (Di means fits full frame as well as crop bodies, VC means Vibration Compensation, same as Canon’s IS) for $999-$1,499 depending on who you buy it from. That is considerable savings for the most popular lens in one of the best apertures. I currently have the Canon 70-200mm F/4 USM but plan to pick up the Tamron 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC as one of my near future purchase.

Hopefully, this article will help you decide where you want to put your money when it comes to lens purchases. Now get out there and make some great images!

Comments/Questions

Here we go! The steps to take to apply for an Internship! Part 1.

Welcome all it is finally Friday so we continue our series on Internship!   Tomorrow is my team's first pre-season game.  I'm hoping we don't get rain and as crazy as it is that we don't get snow! I promise I will start to share some photos of these early days once we get past the internship application process! So let's get back to it.

So you are almost there! This is the exciting part!  You have finally found the perfect internship and you can't wait to get started so how do you get it set up with school.

If you start to ask other students it becomes pretty clear that many of them will never do an internship so they aren't really sure what you do.  Some will start telling you it is a lot of paperwork or that the process takes a long time.

 At this point you are starting to feel like maybe you should just give up! It already took so long to find an internship and then making sure it was the right internship for you.  You may start to loose hope and think about just let the little voices of doubt take over and have a party.  But wait...

Don't give up yet, no matter how bleak the situation looks! Ambassador Friday is here to help!

Here is a secret and you have to promise to not tell a soul!  This is the easy part.  Finding the right internship was the hardest part of process. Really! I promise you that I am not lying. I'll give you all the steps involved so you are prepared for the process of getting that great internship approved.


Step 1 - Contact your Academic Adviser

You can actually contact your adviser before you find an internship! You let them know you have potential interest in getting an internship and they will send you the internship packet before you even start looking for an internship. This is a smart way to handle the situation. Why?  Because not every internship would qualify as an acceptable internship.  I did not personally do it this way because I attended on of our amazing webinars that had taught me what would be an acceptable internship.

Since you have already found what you believe to be an acceptable internship, the first thing you want to do is email or call your adviser to let them know about the internship offer.  Your adviser will send you the Photography Internship Packet along with an email of questions that needs to be filled out and sent over to the Photography Internship Coordinator, Effi Karkaidos.


Step 2 - Initial contact Email sent to the Photography Internship Coordinator

After you have read over the PDF Internship Packet you will copy the template email sent over by your adviser and sent it to Effi.  It first asks for your contact information as well as that of your adviser.  The email has some important questions you must answer about your current status with the school as well as the internship.  Here are a few of those important questions.

• Have you completed 75 credits worth of core Photography courses?

          This one is a biggie! You need to make sure with your adviser at some point that you are on 

           track to do this around the time that doing an internship will work for you. There will be more           discussion about time in another section.

• Have you discussed your eligibility to enroll in the Internship course with your Academic Adviser?

          While Effi is glad to answer questions you do need to work with your adviser to make sure 

           you are fully able to do your internship before submitting this email.

• Why are you interested in an Internship?

          This question actually has 7 different reasons why you want to have an internship you choose 

          between 1 - 7 on what is the most important reason to you.  A few of those topics are as  to  

          earn 3 credits towards my degree, to earn a wage, to build my portfolio.  None of this has a

          wrong or a right answer so be honest!

                              There are three important foot notes on this email as well.

                   1. You must find your own internship. It isn't Effi's place to find one for you.

                   2. You can't intern for your own business or that of a spouse or close family member.

                   3. You must gain approval for your internship if you want to receive credit for it!

Not to leave you in suspense but just like I had to wait for my reply email from Effi the rest of the steps to apply for your internship comes next week! (Yes Effi's return email was faster)!

As always I look forward to your questions and comments!!

A very good Wednesday to you all. 

I hope you are all starting to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather in your area. (If you had it for a while then fantastic. We are just starting to get some great weather here in New England.)

Today I want to discuss something that is often neglected and can be very frustrating for your Professor’s and classmates alike. That is, NOT reducing the size of your PDF files. When you upload your photographs for review it can become quite large and especially if you start adding additional files you land up having files in excess of 100MB.

For those students that have slower internet speeds, this just means we don’t download and critique your work. We just do not have the time to sit around and wait for large files to download. So how can you reduce the files, but at the same time make sure you have great detail and clarity in all your photographs?

Well it is very simple. Export your 300ppi, yes I know they sometimes want 150ppi or 72ppi because of the size, but to get around poor resolution export everything at 300ppi. (To do this in Lightroom I will discuss this in a later blog.) Once you have exported your contact sheets or final images for review you will then combine them into a PDF using Acrobat Pro version. The other versions do not have this option. There is a newer version for Acrobat on the market and because I am using Adobe Creative Cloud, that is the version I will discuss here.The principle and method is exactly the same for all the other versions as well.

In the following example I combined a contact sheet and nine images that I needed for my Creative Concepts course. I landed up with 15 files in the document which included my creative proposal, 9 final photographs for review and my contact sheets.  The final PDF size was just over 75MB.

I uploaded full resolution files for the detail and I had a 6 page Word document as well as my 4 contact sheets included. As you can see that is a very large file. So how do we reduce this file size. It is very simple. Under the tools menu in Acrobat, the location has changed for Acrobat CC, it is located on the left in Acrobat CC and on the right hand side in all the other versions. Click on the tools menu and select OPTIMIZE PDF.

Once you do this you then select the reduce file option on the menu bar.

In older version it says reduce file size in the right hand column. Click on the Reduce File Size option. Follow the instructions for saving and renaming your file. Acrobat will process all your photographs and files and make it easier for viewing on a computer screen.

If you check your file properties now you can see the change in file size. I have managed to reduce my file from 75MB down to 4.14MB

This makes it so much easier to upload to the class discussion area and I can vouch for it, your classmates will really appreciate the smaller file size.

I hope you found this tutorial useful. It makes such a difference when you are working late and that deadline is looming. Everybody appreciates it and you do not lose any detail from your photographs.

I am always willing to help so if you need additional help please send me an email or leave a message on the site blog. Where are here to help you.

If you have any suggestions for things you would like to see on the blog then also drop us a note and we will see about putting it into the roster of topics to discuss. As always I look forward to hearing from you and wish you all a great week with your assignments.

Denzil

Wednesday Ambassador.

Shooting with "Creative" Lenses

In this week’s blog post I wanted to write about something more on the creative side of photography, so I am writing about using “creative” lenses. The two that I am talking about today are the Lensbaby 2.0 and the Holga “toy” camera lens.

These two lenses can be fun to play around with and can help you create some interesting shots to say the least but they are not for the faint of heart. Since these are third party lenses and fairly inexpensive, they don’t come with all the “luxury” items you are used to with your standard Canon or Nikon lenses or even third party lenses such as Tamron and Sigma, which are engineered to work with your camera. These lenses have no aperture blades and no auto focus so you need to be fairly comfortable using your camera in full manual mode to play with them.

Looking at the Lensbaby, this lens is all manual and is designed to create blur effects. There is no focus ring and instead you squeeze the lens to get your focus. You literally grab both sides of the front ring plate on the lens and pull back towards your camera body to create your focus. At the same time, the lens will create neat looking blur effect to everything else that is not in focus. As you can see in my sample image, I didn’t get the focus totally spot on, but to be honest, I wasn’t trying to. The Lensbaby also comes with removable aperture discs, and each one is for a fixed aperture, depending on the size of the hole in the center of the disc. The discs are inserted into the front of the lens using a special tool that comes with the Lensbaby and mine is called the Lensbaby 2.0 as that is my widest aperture if I leave the disc out. Lensbaby has become fairly popular with people that like to create the “effects” that it can give you and Lensbaby makes a few different model lenses with different focal lengths, from 35mm to 50mm to 80mm. The Lensbaby also varies in price depending on which model and focal length you want. I bought mine used on Craig’s List for $30 but they can run as much as $500 new.

Shot with Lensbaby 2.0 at F/2 using Canon 5D Classic

The second lens I am writing about is the Holga “toy” camera lens. This lens you can buy new from around $20-$30 on Amazon and various other sites and it’s designed to give you the “old camera” look to your photos. The Holga only comes in a 60mm focal length and a fixed aperture of F/8 so you will need plenty of sunlight or very high ISO to get your images to come out at all. The Holga does have a slight focus ring but it only has three positions, portrait, small group and landscape and they are marked with little white icons. The Holga does have decent focus in the center so that is where you want your subject, but because it’s plastic, there is quite a bit of distortion and purple color fringing but you can remove that in post processing.

Shot with the Holga "toy" camera lens at F/8

 Both of these lenses are for more creative, “artsy” photography and you can take some really amazing photos with both lenses but as I mentioned earlier, you have to do EVERYTHING manually. There are actually groups and clubs out there where all the members shoot with a Lensbaby all the time. I personally think it’s silly to go to that extreme and I refer to those photographers as “One trick ponies”. It’s also sad as I have seen some Lensbaby photos that would have been a million times better with a regular 50mm lens. The silly distortion that you get with the Lensbaby is in my humble opinion cool at times, but not something I would use everyday. I love to shoot landscapes and it saddens me to see something shoot a beautiful lake scene with a cabin, etc and ruin the whole shot because they used the Lensbaby.

So, what do you the readers think? Is the Lensbaby or Holga “toy” camera lens something you’d like to play around with? If you want a Lensbaby, you can head over to http://www.lensbaby.com.au but as I mentioned at the beginning of my post, I would pick one up off Craig’s List for way under the $300-$500 they cost new. A lot of people buy them, then hate them and dump them on-line cheap. The Holga lens you can easily buy on http://www.amazon.com.

Comments/Questions

So you've been offered an internship but how do you know if it is the right internship for you?

                                 Congratulations! You've been offered an internship which is very exciting.

The question is how do you know if it is the right internship for you?

That might seem like a very silly question. After all getting one internship offer was hard work why would you ever consider turning it down? There are several very good reasons for not accepting an internship if it isn't the right fit for you.  To understand what those reasons are it helps to look at how you tell if it is the right internship for you.

Will you be working with someone you can learn from or who can inspire you to be a better photographer?

• Not every person you work with can teach.  You want to make sure you are doing an internship with someone who will be a good mentor and teacher for you. 
• There is little point in doing an internship if you aren't going to come out a better photographer.  If you just want 3 credits, you could just take a general elective course.  
• Being an intern is a large time commitment.

             Does the person you are interning with have a bad history with his or her interns?

• I wish that I could say every person you have the chance to intern with will be amazing! Many of them really will which I am glad to say, however there are some who may not be.
• Check to see if the person has a history of only using interns as assistants.  It can be ok if that is how they do things but you may want to know up front if you will have any hands on training as their intern or if you will just be given tasks to complete.
• If you have hopes of working with this particular company or photographer you may want to know up front if he or she ever hires his interns.
• Ask around in photography forums if anyone has ever interned with this company or person.
• Do a little research and ask the person up front his or her expectations of an intern. Find out what types of jobs you will be doing so you are prepared for how the internship will go.

                    Does the idea of this particular internship get you exited to learn more?

• This is a class that will last 11 weeks and you be dedicating at least 10 hours a week to doing.
• You should feel excited at the chance to do THIS internship.
• It shouldn't feel like you are doing it for credit or for an easy 11 weeks.
• I got involved with setting up my internship not realizing I would get credit at all.  I just really wanted to learn more than I would learn as just the team photographer.

At the end of the internship can you see yourself continuing on in that field?

• It really doesn't matter if you will or won't continue on in this type of photography.  During the process of being an intern you might learn that this field is not to your liking at all.
• The important part is at the start of your internship you should really feel like it is a possibility that you could love that type of photography.
• You should feel like no matter what happens you know you will leave that internship with knowledge that you can apply to any other field of photography that you choose to pursue.

The reality is this is a great opportunity and learning experience for you. It is something you can put on your resume.  Even if you don't find your dream job doing it you may make many new connections that can lead to your dream job. 

You can only do one internship at school through the school and some mentors will only uses interns.  So you want to make sure that you have really done your research to make sure this is a good choice for you before you accept the internship and start the process of getting your internship approved.

Next Friday will be the internship approval process start to finish!

As always please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments! I look forward to them!

Jessi

How to Add Images to a Discussion thread?

A very special hello from a not so snowy New England anymore. Yippee!!

This week I wanted to spend some time on something that has always been of particular interest to me and I am sure, so many more of you out there. This is applicable to almost every single class that I have taken here at The Art Institute.

That is; How to admires to a discussion thread?  How often are we asked to please post images to the discussion post showing something we captured or in reference to a photograph that we need to discuss. It is definitely part of the first assignment W1A1 autobiography.

Well today I am going to show you a very easy way to ensure that all the photographs that you find and place into your document can be copied and pasted into your discussion post without any problems. No, we will not be copying and pasting from Word.

Here are the steps that you need to follow to make sure you have no problems going forward.

Step 1:

Make sure that you have a google account. It is very easy to get. Just go to google where you can sign-up for a new account.Once you have registered and updated your profile and security settings you are ready to get going. Once you have signed in you now have your account active, you have access to a host of different Google products.

Step 2:

To create a Google doc all you have to do is click on the grid in the top right hand corner of your web browser.

If you click the more button you can locate the Docs app. and this will take you to the Google doc application. You will also be able to create a shortcut to this application by adding it this grid button for easier access at a later stage. Here I located the Docs app and clicked on it to take me to the create a document page.

I m now ready to create my first document. On this page you can click on the + (plus) sign in the bottom right hand corner of the page to create your document. A Google document allows you to compose and write your assignments here just like any other word processor. The Microsoft Word processor is the required application so many of us start there. You can create your document in Word and copy the entire document and paste it into the Google doc area. I normally use this method because I like the spelling and Grammar checking capabilities of Word. (Why would I want to copy and paste into Google docs if I can just create it in Word, you may ask?)

Well, the downside to this using the copy and paste from Microsoft Word method and pasting it into into your discussion thread; it will not carry the images over.

By copying the assignment from Word into Google Docs. all you have to do is reconnect the locations of the images. Google will ask you to reconnect the locations of the photographs. That is easily done by clicking on the placement holder for the image located on your page and then selecting the insert menu option at the top of the document and clicking insert image option, finding the photograph located on your computer.

This will add the photograph to the document and you can continue with your work.

If you do decide to use only Google then you can add your images directly your post. The best thing about using Google Docs as your word processor is that you can now make a select all option and then copy and paste the entire document directly into your discussion post.

You will not lose any of the images and everything will be pasted there. Now you can make some style adjustments if it appears incorrect. It does not copy any heading settings, special fonts or customizations to the discussion post.

Finally, if you still need to save your document, you can do this by selecting download as option and making the appropriate selection. You can download them to your computer as Word.docx, PDF, Txt and a few other options which makes it a really great tool to use.

So, now you have no excuse for not being able to post images to your discussion posts. There are some great tools out there and they make your life so much easier. Next week I will show you how to reduce the size of your PDF files so that they are not too large, (no more 100MB files) especially when they ask you to create a slideshow from Lightroom. I can reduce a 100MB file down to approximately 3.2MB if you know which options to use and you can keep the resolution and detail to all your images.

Have a great week everyone. I am preparing to shoot a photo story later today with a new musician that I found so I am looking forward to that. 

If you have any questions or would like further information about the processes that I discussed here today then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Have a super week.

Kind regards,

Denzil

Happy Monday All,


Today I want to talk about helping a struggling classmate.  I'm sure we have all been there where we can't figure out how to do something and it's the day the assignment is due.  We begin to panic and get frustrated because we don't want to be late.  We want the assignment to be on time but we just can't get the program we are working with to do what we want it to.  I've been there and it's not fun.


There have been a couple of times when I have seen classmates post questions for the teacher and they didn't yet get a reply.  Teachers are of course busy and they have set times when they log on just as we do.  I would then reach out to that classmate and try to help them.  One classmate in my last class emailed me after I posted my assignment.  She sounded so upset and desperate to understand what she was doing wrong.  I emailed her back with my phone number and told her to just call me.  It was late at night and I was exhausted but I felt really bad because I have been where she was.  She eventually solved the problem and her project turned out great.  I also told her she could try a tutor but I wasn't sure what time they were there until. 


If you see someone struggling, please reach out and help them.  You know you would want the same respect from someone else.  We are all here as a team and we should reach out to support our fellow classmates.  It is a great feeling in the end. 


If you have any other suggestions on this topic or any other please comment or question. 


Thanks,
Barbara Ann 

Carry Less, Shoot More

Back when I started in photography, I bought lots of gear and started out carrying most of it with me when I went out all day shooting. Many photographers do this and soon learn that it’s not fun carrying all that gear all day long out in the field. Most of the components of your DSLR system weigh mere ounces to a couple pounds and it may not sound like a lot of weight but when you have ALL of it in a bag or backpack, it’s amazing how heavy it all becomes as the day wears on.

Golf ball in my flower bed shot with 50mm

I now try to minimize what I carry when out in the field all day long so I can carry less weight and shoot more. Another advantage of carrying less aside from going on a camera diet is it is a great way to challenge yourself to be more creative with what you have on you. When carrying all your gear, you tens to spend less time shooting and more time fiddling with lenses and it becomes difficult to focus on shooting as you have a hard time visualizing on what you want to shoot and how to frame it.

If I am going out to just shoot all day I want a good, light weight set up that I can shoot a variety of scenes with and I often find myself grabbing my Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 USM also known as the Nifty Fifty. For me the body doesn’t really matter as all my bodies but one are Canon and I can even use my Canon lenses on my Sony NEX 6 as I have the Canon to Sony adapter.

Atlanta diner owner shot with 50mm

I like the Nifty Fifty set up as 50mm focal length is one of the most popular and most versatile lens out there. It’s great for street photography, portraits, and even landscapes, although it’s not as wide as my EF 17-40mm or my Sony 16-50mm.

Another reason I love the Nifty Fifty is it’s low weight of only 10.23 ounces. My Canon EOS 5 & 6Ds weight close to the same at around 27 ounces, so I keep my total weight to around 3 pounds total. Couple this with my new PeakDesign CapturePRO camera clip mounting system and I can be on my feet all day long with no issues.

Street photography downtown ATL shot with 50mm

 The next reason I recommend carrying less is so that you can become better with one set up. You don’t want to be out in the field worrying about changing lenses, risking getting dust on your sensor and trying to make up your mind what lens will give you the shot you want and then you miss the shot totally. By carrying a simple set up, you perfect your skills using what you have with you. You don’t need to have that zoom lens with you, get closer to what you want to shoot. This not only makes you more creative and builds your skills but you will find that you will enjoy your photography more and do less thinking or over thinking and as a result, less missing the shot. It’s also great when using a lens like the 50mm as you move around more and get more exercise. Who would have thought you could do something you love like photography all day and lose weight and become more fit at the same time. Now get out there and make some great pictures.

Comments/Questions

The Journey to Internship

                                                  The flyer the Silverhawks made for me.

As the Semi-Pro Football Season is about to start here in Ohio so is my internship as the Photographer for the Jackson Silverhawks.  Officially my internship starts on May 14th and ends July 29th however I will already be doing some work with the team starting this weekend.  It struck me that the journey to my internship as well as the time I spend as an intern could be an interesting series for the Friday blogs.

So the first part of the process is how did I end up with this really cool internship. It is a process that I started as soon as I started at AI in 2013.  I knew I wanted an internship.  Before starting at AI I had taken a photograph class at our local zoo and met a wonderful photographer who pointed out to me how many great groups we have in Ohio for photographers.    I took another class at our local library where I met another photographer who pointed me to a few more groups. Both introduced me to some wonderful people who were willing to help me on my photographic journey.

The one thing that I started to see is how important connections can be when you start looking for an internship.  I didn't just have one internship offer I had several. So my work at networking gave me the chance to pick the internship that was right for me.

I actually met the Jackson Silverhawks last year.  I had seen an ad from a photographer on Craigslist that was looking to network with other photographers.  I contacted him and we talked a bit online. He mentioned to me that he shot Semi-Pro football and he was looking for a second shooter.

Here is a secret. I didn't love sports. Hilariously I was captain of my own school's Pep Club and I had to make all the hoops for our football team to run through but I was clueless. I held the hoop and I went home.  However, I never turn down the chance to shoot something new.  I always say you will never know what you truly love to shoot if you haven't learned what you hate to shoot. So I told that photographer I'd love to be his second shooter.  He offered me a small amount of money but I mostly cared about the experience.

I met the other photographer in person at the first game.  He gave me a few tips about shooting but pretty much just let me shoot and learn by shooting.  He then quit and I suddenly became the first and only shooter for the team.  I told the Owner I would stand by him for this season.  I shoot through the summer.  It was definitely a learning process where sometimes I did great and other times I wish I had done better.  I shot not only my team but the other teams we played.  I gave the other players access to tag themselves in my pictures.

At the end of the season the team owner mentioned me considering doing an internship for him the next year. I told him I would think about it because I knew his current coach was leaving with most of the team so I didn't know what the teams status would be next year.

With in a week of the season ending, I had 4 different teams ask me to be their photographer for the next year.  I ended up accepting the paid internship offered to me to stay with the Jackson Silverhawks.  I was grateful to the team for giving me the chance.  Had I not been given the chance I never would have learned I love sports photography. The team owner and I have a lot of great ideas for this season and I can't wait to slowly share them all with you guys.  I will also show how he is helping to promote my website and Facebook page as well.

Next week I'll talk about the actual process of applying for an internship once you have someone who offers you one.  I look forward to hearing your questions!

New Wednesday Ambassador Introduction

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to use this first post as an introduction. My name is Denzil Ernstzen and I am going to be the your new Ambassador Wednesday for the next year. I appreciate the opportunity and I hope you get some really great information from these blogs.

My background is as a financial controller. I got my first two degrees in South Africa. My first was in education, a bachelors in Physical Education. I really did not want to teach at that early stage of my life, so I decided to go into the retail industry. While working in a grocery store as a shelf packer I got my Quantitative Management degree. Basically a degree working with numbers. I then spent the next 10 years working for a large hotel chain in South Africa installing inventory control systems for all their food and beverage outlets. I got to travel the country and the world before I met my wife and decided to emigrate to the United States.

I have being here for about 9 years now and we have lived in Fort Worth Texas,  Charlottesville Virginia and now we are back to New England from where we started. I have two beautiful, active, energetic and inquisitive boys who keep me busy as my full-time day job. I also work part-time, three nights a week and recently, “about 2 years ago”, I also started my own Wedding and Portrait business. You can find my listing at http://ernstzenphotography.com

As you can see I am a busy person and I still have to make sure I get all my course work done as well.

I know what it feels like when we get started and having being new once, I know what it feels like trying to navigate through all the different requirements for class postings,lighting, shooting, finding models and believe it or not, thinking about what your final portfolio is going to look like towards the end of your degree. And you have to all of this while still making sure life happens around you.

So if you are just starting your Associates or Bachelors, one thing I can give you right now is to you start thinking about what your genre would eventually be. I just finished Portfolio Exploration PH341, and I thought I had enough photographs and that I knew which direction I wanted to go;  I was not even in the same ballpark. We will get into more of that much later.

Well don’t let me scare you because I want you to come back and I want you to recommend me to everybody in your class. This is a great place to get information and share your photographs. Let me know if you want feedback or what we can help with?  I love communicating with students and to those who know me from my interaction in class they can vouch for me when I say that I will respond to any comment or question you might have. I am here to help. If I do not know the answer I will find it for you and you will get a response. So feel free to ask me anything.

Here are two photographs that I took in my first few months after starting my course. They were both from my first portrait class. The first is me having fun with my son as I was trying to figure out how to work a remote control for my camera and the the second is a self portrait. It is a rather serious portrait because I tried to mimic the front cover of the Times magazine.

It had a portrait of the late Steve Jobs on the front cover. I know it is a very serious portrait, but the fun story is that I had to figure out how to operate my remote for the camera, position the lens so I was not chopped off at the head and then when I readjusted, at the neck. I had to get my lighting correct with my strobes (as I am sure many of you can vouch) it is not easy when you are working on your own. Oh, I almost forgot, the strobe reflection in the glass lens. How do you cut that out? I will let you know in another blog post.

I like these because you remember the first photographs and the stories behind them about when you took them and what you were doing  when you get started with your course. I was excited and enthusiastic and these are the same images that drive me today. I want to make them better. I want to become a better photographer.  Everyday I want to learn something new. So don't delete your bad photographs. Use them as your inspiration and I guarantee you will get better every single day, if you just keep on shooting.

Father and son.

(© Photographs by Denzil Ernstzen)

So keep on shooting.

Denzil

Good Monday Morning Everyone,


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.  For todays blog I wanted to tell you about the class I just finished which was Lighting.  First of all, I really enjoyed this class and learning about all the new lighting techniques that you can add to photography.  I captured some images that I would have never even thought to capture on my own.  I wanted to give you some pointers on this class from my point of view. 


1.  If you have this class coming up on your schedule, be sure to have some extra money set aside for the things you are going to need.  My lighting kit that came with the voucher did not include a light meter.  I'm not sure if that has been changed but something to look into.  My light meter alone was $195.00.  The scrim sets with the tripod that I had to purchase was another $105.00.  Then I purchased a backdrop for my studio area which was another $130.00.  You will also need extension cord, A clamps, and a room with dark colored walls to shoot in.  All these details will pay off in the end and you will do great in this class if you're prepared.


2.  Make sure you have a few models lined up for this class.  You will need to photograph at least five different people during this class.  One of the assignments in which you will need both a male and female.  They won't have to be in the same images.  Just make sure you talk to people and have models lined up so you are not stuck at the last minute with nobody. 


3.  I would highly recommend that if you live in an area where it is cold in the winter, to take this class in the spring or summer.  There are times when you have to shoot outdoors and it can be difficult when the temperatures are in the teens.  We had an especially brutal winter here in NJ this year.  It's just so much easier to get your best shots when you're not rushing because your fingers are numb and your face is about to freeze off.  LOL.


This class really taught me a lot in terms of lighting in photography.  I'm sure there is so much more for me to learn and experiment with.  If you have any questions about it or need any other advice, please feel free to ask.  Have a great week everyone.


Barbara Ann

Freezing Motion

One of the coolest things you can do with your photography is to freeze motion of a moving object so that you can capture all the details. There are two ways to freeze motion, the first is to increase your shutter speed and the second is to use a strobe light.

Freezing motion using the shutter is an easy way to stop motion for objects such as cars, planes, humming birds or even water. To stop motion just turn your shutter speed up to at least 1/1000th of a second, but the thing to keep in mind is you need sufficient light to pull this off. When shooting outdoors, it’s easy especially if it’s a nice sunny day but when the light is weak you may need to turn your ISO up higher or use a fast lens such as a F/2 or F/1.4 if you have one. In my example here I used my Canon EF 100mm F/2 Macro lens so freeze the water in my kitchen sink the image is a bit dark but I also shot this at night so all I had were the kitchen lights.

Water frozen using 1/1000th sec shutter

The second method I mentioned for stopping motion or freezing objects is to use a strobe light. Now if you are testing as I am by shooting running water in your house it might not be fun dragging out your studio strobes but you don’t need to. Lest we forget, Speedlites are also strobes, just smaller and they run on double A batteries. Now, grab your Speedlite and set your ISO to as low as possible (I used ISO 50) and then set your shutter speed to the same or slightly faster than your focal length (I used 1/125th of a second since I used a 100mm lens). Aim your Speedlite at the water and snap your image, when the playback shows on your LCD you will see that the water is perfectly frozen in time like my example below.

Water frozen using Canon 580 EX II Speedlite

Now how fast you set your shutter depends on what you are trying to stop. 1/1000th of a second is plenty for a car or plane or water but let’s say you want to freeze the flap of a humming bird’s wings and get the best possible detail. I would recommend 1/2000th of a second as it will give you better results. Now, just as in my example you can use a strobe, but how often can you catch a humming bird with a strobe? The ones around my house are too flighty for that, they often won’t stick around if I am even holding my camera, but it has been done. I saw an article on a photography blog where a person used four Speedlites posted around a flower that humming birds were really drawn to and he got a fantastic capture that way so it can be done.

Well now you know how to freeze time or stop motion with your camera. Now get out there and put this new information to use and please, post your results on PSPN.

Comments/Questions

How do you make sure you always have a model when you need one?

Over the last few weeks I've been asked often by several students how to find models when you need them.  Like many of our students I do live in small town in the country and getting out to meet new people isn't always easy but I rarely have a problem locating models.  This is how I find and keep good models.

1. I'm always talent scouting. I don't go anywhere that I don't keep my eye out for someone who might have a good look that I like.  I don't wait until I have an assignment to start looking for models. Sometimes a great model inspires my shoots.

• Carry business cards you can give out when you see someone with a great look.
• If you have your camera offer to take a few "test shots" and email them so you have their contact information.
• Show them a few of your shots so they want to shoot with you.

2.  Be very vocal on your local media sites when you are looking for models.  Don't wait til the last minute to find your model.  One of you might need to reschedule.

•  Keep track of everyone who offers to model for you so that you can call on them later.
• People offer me not only their family but they recommend others to me as well.
• If you see a friend who posts a photograph of someone you would like to shoot speak up and say so.

3. When you find a good model - don't stop shooting them.

I met Issabella Greathouse when I was contacted by a friend when Issy had an emergency. She unexpectedly won a State Beauty Pageant and she had to have some new photographs right away but had a small budget. I was asked if I needed a model and I could do something for her.   As a former model with the same agency Issy used to be with I wanted to help her out.

We did a couple hour shoot.  We connected on Facebook but really didn't talk to often.  Issy was 16 at the time.

When Issy was 17, I contacted her when I was doing a modeling contest with another photographer. I told her the prize was a new photo shoot.   She took first place and her boyfriend took 2nd place so I suggested a fun relationship shoot which I knew Issy needed in her book.

Issy is now 18 graduates this year and for the first time she will be in Ohio this summer so we have already planned a fun shoot for July. I was also able to introduce her to someone who I work for who has offered her some modeling work if I am shooting her.

Models are everywhere it is just a matter of opening your eyes and letting people know that you would love to shoot them!  I can't wait to start my internship in May as I have about 54 new models on my football team to start using too!

Good luck and happy scouting!

Jessi

Comments/Questions