Go out and Shoot!

leafar

Stop making excuses, just go do it.  One of the requirements of every photo class I have taken to date is that students must take NEW photographs unless specifically allowed to use old work on a particular assignment.  Aside from being a giant inconvenience to you the student, there is a very good reason for it.  It is designed to make you a better photographer.  All the online classes and textbooks can't make up for practice and repetition.  That's what will make you a better photographer in the long run.


I know, you're thinking to yourself, I would never do that.  But believe me, it happens.  I can think 3 examples from my time in school that really stand out.  The first one involved a student that submitted pictures of a school class trip to a pumpkin patch.  While the subject matter met the assignment criteria, the fact that the person was located in the northeast and it was the middle of December led me to believe that the images were not taken during the class.  I grew up in that area of the country and I am well aware of the weather and when schools take kids to pumpkin patches (HINT: it is not in December).

Argles

The second one was a little more obvious and I don't know what the student was thinking when posting the rehashed photo.  On the first day of class we were asked to post one of our favorite images in our introductory thread.  Everyone did as such.  three weeks later we had an assignment that required us to take a portrait outdoors.  When I was looking at the posts of my classmates, I saw a picture that looked very familiar.  I went back to the initial post by the same student and sure enough, there was the same image.  For my own knowledge I checked the metadata on both images and sure enough the picture was taken 3 days prior to the start of class.

In both of these instances I do not know if it was noticed by the instructors and if it was how the student's grades were effected which is OK by me.  I just know I wouldn't do it myself.  A decision that I made during one of my early classes when the following situation occurred. One of our assignments was to shoot a group event.  The instructor defined group event as 2 or more people doing something together.  One of the students in the class turned in pictures from their child's birthday party, the previous year.  When told by the instructor that the shots were unusable (since they were not taken during the class) the student was indignant about having met the requirements for the shoot and that when the pictures were taken shouldn't matter and that there just wasn't any events in their town that they could have taken pictures at.  (What a boring town were there are never 2 or more people doing anything at the same time).  The instructor's response has stuck with me to this day, and I wish more people had been in that class at that time.

"You're a college student now and more is expected from you.  It's not going to be easy all the time"

Garlington

Never had I read truer, more eye-opening words at that point in my educational journey.  I wonder if the other two students in my examples had been in that class if they would have acted they way the did...in upper 200 level classes.

The point is, you are only harming yourself if you are trying to rehash your old work from one class to the next.  Get out there and push that shutter button.  Find the time.  Make the scenario that you need to exist happen.  If you want to be the best in this field you have to work at it, and that means taking new pictures all the time.

Comment below with your thoughts on this topic.  I would love to hear them!

Works Cited

Argles, Martin. Photojournalists. The Guardian. guardian News and Media, 18 Feb. 2009. Web. 21 Aug. 2013. <http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2009/feb/18/press-freedom-newspapers>.

Garlington, Michael. Fish Mongers Daughter. N.d. Photograph. 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco.

Leafar. Panda shooting photo. WixBlog. Wix.com, 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 21 Aug. 2013. <http://www.wix.com/blog/2010/10/why-you-shouldnt-say-yes-to-every-offer-of-photography-work/>.

Who or What is Lynda.com?

Hello and welcome to another Terrific Tuesday!  I am your ambassador for today and would like to talk to you about someone that we have heard about before, but have never paid enough attention to her.  I am talking about Lynda Weinman, co-founder of Lynda.com!  Along with her husband, they started the website that today is one of the premier sites to get information and tutorials in different subject matter.

So, what is so important about this website?  Well, it has everything that you might want to know about dozens of topics that involve photography and other multimedia areas of interest.  If you are part of the AiO community, you might have heard about the site, and let me tell you it has a lot of fun, interesting and cool tutorials that will assist you in virtual any topic you desire.

www.skilledup.com

As you can see by the image above, there are areas of photography that will help you and assist you and it is at your fingertips!  Let’s say that you want to dust off your skills about printing images, you can start at the beginner level to review everything that you might have forgotten and then move up the levels depending your comfort with each level.

www.skilledup.com

If you are wondering if this is going to be one of those sites that you have to read a lot, meaning you feel as if you are doing homework, the answer is no.  A lot of the tutorials are in video form for your convenience.

You feel to be more specific about your interests?  

So, Lynda.com is a great source to learn and review everything that you have studied, and while you are in school you can access it at no cost.  In other words, this is a great source of information that can expand your horizons and excite your nerve endings by showing a plethora of possibilities in the area of your passion!

So, now you know about Lynda, are you going to go ahead and meet her if you haven’t done so yet? 

Drop me a line and tell me what you think of the site, share what excited you about the learning process!

Until later, this is your Tuesday Ambassador wishing you a great and safe Tuesday!

Photographing Children is never an easy task.....

Good Morning and Happy Sunday!!  I hope everyone had a great week. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing a friends 3 year old son. This wasn't the first time I have photographed kids before, I have two of my own kids and a niece and nephew and have done several other children’s sessions prior.  So I wasn't as surprised when we got of to a very rocky start.

I went to the session with my business partner, and he had never been to Valley Forge Park before so he met us at around 9:30 AM to start the session. I have met Hunter (my friends son) many times before, but he was never the subject of a photo session, needless to say, what happened next really didn't surprise me or Harry (my business partner).

Since Hunter had never met Harry before so he was a bit stand offish. After about an hour Hunter finally calmed down and crying stopped. Hunter is a very energetic 3 year old, who show tons of love especially to his mom. Finally we were able to get the shots we were looking to get and it did take some time, a lot more time than the scheduled session was planned for. 

By the end of the day, a 1 hour session turned into a 3 hour session. Hunter became Harry’s best friend, and we used that to our advantage to get some amazing photos of him. Photographing children is never easy, it takes patience and someone who has the love for photography to capture the images that are envisioned. I love photographing children in an environmental setting, it allows them to be themselves and allows me to capture those special photos that would never be taken in a studio setting. It also helps create memories of the moment for everyone involved, which I find difficult to achieve in a studio setting.

 Photos by Wayne Salat and Harry Fish of Flash Mob Photography Network

 Photos by Wayne Salat and Harry Fish of Flash Mob Photography Network

 Photos by Wayne Salat and Harry Fish of Flash Mob Photography Network

 Photos by Wayne Salat and Harry Fish of Flash Mob Photography Network

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne

Don't Forget Why You Love Photography

Saturday Ambassador

 

What draws you to the art of photography? Is it the medium, the technical aspects, the legacy of a mentor or, simply, wonderful light? Or, is it something else? Consider this for a moment...

It has been said that once the thing you love becomes work, it is no longer fun. Assignments, projects and shoots for which you have been contracted can certainly generate stress from tight deadlines, uncooperative team members or demanding clients, not to mention the post-processing time required. These things are an inevitable part of conducting business.

However, don't lose sight of what you love about photography; the things that inspire you to create will always be there. If nature is your passion, for example, and your project involves something else, perhaps you might find a way to incorporate nature into the images. Emulate the work of photographers that you admire, as well, and experiment often. Be open to inspiration when it strikes. Utilize the available light, and enhance it with your own:

~Saturday Ambassador

  

Do You Want to Be A Wedding Photographer?

This past weekend I photographed a wedding. It was a storybook setting at a golf course country club, the ceremony was outside under a giant willow tree beside the lake. The bride was beautiful and the groom handsome. Who wouldn’t want to photograph a wedding like that!

Actually photographing weddings can be extremely stressful. You have to take portrait and photojournalistic images. You have a group of strangers (not only to you, but also to each other usually) in a very hectic situation for several hours. Often you have unchurched people in a church situation which can make them more uncomfortable. They are wearing strange new or rented clothes that they’ve spent a lot of money, that often don’t fit perfectly. They are wearing uncomfortable shoes. And they want to look fabulous in your photos, even if they don’t.  And the photographer(s) have to stand all day, be more than patient, be cognizant of everything going on, problem solve, hurry people without them noticing, create organization out of chaos, be technically proficient with all their equipment AND on top of all that, be creative.

All that being said, why do I photograph weddings? I absolutely love it!

I’m a born romantic. I’ve been married to the love of my life for 36 years. (Yeah I know that is longer than many of you have been alive!) I love the way being married makes me feel. All he has to do is look at me with his smile and that twinkle in his eye and I still melt inside. I love looking for that same feeling in others. I love the close relationships I have with my family members. I love seeing those kind of feelings in others and capturing it forever.

I love a good story, be it in a book or movie. A wedding is a chapter in someone’s life story. I love capturing the details and little incidents that fill out the story. A wedding story is so much more than taking pictures of a man and woman standing in front of a church looking at each other, putting a ring on each other’s hand and walking back down the aisle. It is about two moms and dad giving their grown child to someone else to love more than they do. It is about telling someone you can’t live another day without them being a part of you. It is about a group of people who love you so much they come from all over the world to see you on the most important day of your life.

Another reason I love weddings is because it is a picture of God’s love for me. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ...  to present her to himself as a radiant church … holy and blameless…For this reason a man will … be united to his wife … This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5). Wow, what love. Every time I see a bride and groom committing themselves to each other, I am reminded of the love Christ has for me and that He loves me like a groom loves his bride on their wedding day.

Here's a preview from last week's wedding, or the link: http://animoto.com/play/wSDPCGodN0zwLYZzGg2vhA#

Wedding photography is NOT for many, but for those of us that love it, it is exhilarating. If you think you might be interested in photographing weddings, tell me what you like about it.

Ephesians 5. Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. 2011. Biblica, Inc.®

My Top 10 Photo Related Websites

As a photographer, there are a number of websites that I visit on a regular basis.  Some are for inspiration, some are for knowledge, and some are just for dreaming (B&H Photo).  Here is my Top 10 list (in no particular order).

10. B&H Photo Video - I am always looking for new gear and not necessarily lenses either.  Modifiers, gobos, etc all make the cut on the website that has everything (including a 5% student discount)

9.  Flickr - Yahoo! Inc's photo sharing site.  In addition to giving you a terabyte of free storage it is a cool place to find all kinds of inspirational images.

8.  500px - another Photo sharing site.  500px allows you to upload 20 images a week with their free account and you have the option to sell the image in their marketplace.  It is also another good place to find some really great images

7.  365project.org - A site dedicated to photo-a-day projects.  I know it sounds easy, but it isn't.

6.  Amazon - I have a Prime membership so Amazon is always my go-to website for shopping, especially for printer inks, fine art papers, and other photography related stuff (and everything else)

5.  Dropbox - Cloud storage site that gives you 2.5 GB of storage for free and it is all synced to any device you have the dropbox software installed on.  Personally I use it as an easy link to send full size copies to models after photo shoots.

4. Copy - Another cloud storage site that gives you 15GB of storage space.  I just found out about this site yesterday.  15GB is ALOT of space and you can get even more free space by referring friends (The link at the bottom of this post is my referral, by using it you get an extra 5GB of space when you sign up.  You don't have to use it, but it would be cool if you did).

3. F-Stoppers - The blog that I read about copy.com on.  Lots of photography and video related articles on this very active website.

2.  Strobist - All about lighting.  If you want to stand out from the masses with DSLRs and high end camera phones, then learn to love light, especially the kind that you can control.

1. POTN Forums - The photography-on-the-net forums have been almost a daily visit for me for the past 3 years.  It is a Canon centric forum, but they don't razz you too bad if you're a Nikon shooter.  There a variety of image forums where you can get critique from amateurs and professionals alike as well as forums on gear, business, and lighting.


Well there you have it.  These are the sites I visit on a regular basis that help keep me plugged into the world of photography.


Links:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
http://500px.com/
http://365project.org/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.dropbox.com/
https://copy.com - (With my referral ID so we each get an extra 5GB)
http://fstoppers.com/
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

Brainstorming is Useful!

Hello everyone and welcome to another Terrific Tuesday!

So, here is the situation: you have started class and during the first week you are asked to submit a proposal on a final project for the class, the parameters and the requirements are set, however, you have no idea what to do.  Hurry, you have to post that proposal for review before the end of the week!  What do you do, what topic you choose, how are you going to develop it?

Answer: start brainstorming as soon as possible!

https://blogs.montclair.edu/cwe/2013/07/03/cooking-up-ideas-cleaning-up-thoughts-brainstorming-techniques-to-get-you-started-on-a-paper/

We all have brainstormed at one time or another, trying to make decisions of where to go, what movie to watch, where to go to eat, how to manage the budget, etc…  Brainstorming for photography is not too different, you have the knowledge and you have studied hard, it is just a matter to put it all together in a way that you do what you like, meet the requirements and learn about the concepts that you are expressing or photographing.

By the way, brainstorming and research are not the same, you brainstorm before you research, otherwise you might be going in circles with no goal in sight (or mind)!

So when do you perform a brainstorming session? For me, it is almost a daily thing, when I am driving I see something that gives me an idea and instantly try to fit it to my upcoming project.  I am at work and someone says something interesting, I instantly find an angle to use with photography.  For you, it might have happened in any place, sleeping, eating, playing, watching TV or just while you take pictures.

One of my professors gave us some tips about brainstorming, I will share them with you all.  This is what she wrote to the students in our current class of Photo Essay:

“Having trouble coming up with the perfect idea?
Why not take a bit of time to brainstorm some ideas before you begin your research?

Take 20 minutes or so grab a cup of good coffee or a nice cold beer or class or wine and just have fun with it. 

Often I don’t think we spend enough time on the creative process of our work.

Choosing the right story for you is imperative for your success.

Think about what you are curious about. What are you passionate about?

On the practical side- what do you have time for? What do you have access for?”

It sounds simple ah?  It is simple, the best thing you can do before jumping in the water is to see how deep it is, how cold it might be, and then figure out what are you going to do when you are in the deep end (the analogy sounded better in my head)!

Want to read some more about brainstorming and photography?  Take a look at this link that provides some information about brainstorming with Lightroom.

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/journal/brainstorming-in-photography/

Writing a paper instead?  Then check out this page:

https://blogs.montclair.edu/cwe/2013/07/03/cooking-up-ideas-cleaning-up-thoughts-brainstorming-techniques-to-get-you-started-on-a-paper/

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-efficient-israel-in-our-dreams/

Hope you all have fun brainstorming and let me tell you, once you start it will almost become second nature.

Drop me a line if you have different brainstorming techniques, lets share with everyone else out there!

Until later, this is your Tuesday Ambassador!