Charles_Webster

Exactly what I do!

Hmmm, 42 posts later and not another word from the OP. Scared him off I guess!

I use 1-, 2-, and 3-stop neutral density gel to get those low light levels when needed.

As for "protecting" your images, there is nothing you can do that totally prevents someone from stealing your images, other than not posting them anywhere. When you view an image on your computer, it is copied from the web server to your computer. From there stealing it is easy. I agree with mikemorrell above about Wordpress as a good vehicle for a photography website. But once you have a domain and host, there are lots of options for putting up a website.

My "learning camera" was a Ciro-Flex model F TLR. I shot and developed lots of rolls of 120 Tri-X, enlarging and printing in my darkened garage.

I too am experiencing age-related issues with walking/hiking and I've found that my Canon G7x gives me almost all the benefits of my Canon 7D without the weight and bulk. The zoom range is limited on the G7x, but the high ISO performance is much better then the 7D. I carry a sling-type day pack with glasses, water, etc, and the G7x fits in well.

Assuming that you can continue to get supplies for them.

Sorry, I missed the memo! :) <Chas>

Doctors, dentists, and attorneys are regulated and must be licensed before they can ply their trade. Calling it "practice" is an entirely different use and meaning of the word. If photographers were so licensed, there'd be lots fewer fools calling themselves "professional" regardless of the definition of the word.

Well, my perennial advice here is: "Don't practice on paying customers. If you don't know what you are doing, do it for free for the experience" Take that as you wish, but you got lots of valuable experience. Maybe a good compromise would to refund all but your hard costs, so you aren't out of pocket.

Correct! Professional has nothing to do with what proportion of your income derives from photography, it has to do with your business and technical practices. If you are unclear on this, I suggest reading "ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography" It describes how a professional operates his/her business and how he/she delivers and supports the work. It doesn't mention how much money you make from the practice.

"You either ARE a professional photographer or you shouldn't be taking from money people in exchange for photographing their weddings." I agree with Ed Farmer 200% on this. Never, never practice on paying customers. You become a "professional" the minute you start charging. There is no such thing as "semi-pro" just because it's not a full time job.

If you haven't signed anything, and haven't shot anything, just politely tell the client that you can't/won't work under those conditions, and walk away.

As I have posted here many times "Don't practice on paying clients" If you have never done this work before, do it for free for the experience and portfolio material. Doing a job for pay, where you have no experience of knowledge is cheating the customer.

Canon G7x I love it! My other cameras are Canon 7D and Canon 50D, but both are bulky, heavy, and not pocketable. I bought the G7x for a trip to Cuba and have used it for most of my photography ever since.

Do you have a web site? Do you have a portfolio of pictures that we can see? As Ed Farmer said, the ability to take good pictures is perhaps the least important skill in becoming a money-earning photographer. Do you have any business skill, training, or experience? Do you realize that every person who owns a digital camera, especially a full frame "professional" camera, thinks he/she is a professional photographer and is looking for exactly the same thing, a way to make money from their photography. What do you have that sets you apart from everyone else with a camera?

How long does it take to restore say 2TB from a cloud backup system? I have about 6TB of data that is backed up to external disk drives (most USB2) and it still take quite a while (hours) to restore any lost data.

Totally an ad for Backblaze's cloud service. No real info here.

You didn't mention that in your original post. I'm sorry, I'm not good at reading minds.

You need to worry about more than the edge fringe, there are straight-line artifacts around her hair in 2 or 3 places. They stand out more than the fringing.

Another vote for Lightroom

So back to the OP's request, in addition to a printer capable of printing 11X17 pages, he's going to need a $500 machine to crease, fold, and staple the booklets. A big investment unless he's going into business making and selling booklets. Yet another motivation to outsource to Blurb or the like ;-)

I didn't say that the paper had to be fed long side in. I said the grain normally runs long ways and that keeps the fold from being clean and sharp. Everything else you said was right on and correct. The big issue with trying to print saddle stitch booklets yourself is the paper. It has to be thicker than normal 20lb paper to not bleed through, but thicker papers don't necessarily fold well.