sam_ellis

<p>I'm surprised people are telling you to do this against a doctor's suggestion! If you suffered a heart attack and the doctor told you to take a year off from weddings due to physical stress, would you take their advice or do them anyway?<br>

My advice is to follow the doctor's suggestion. Find a replacement for half the weddings that are closest in date. Work with some other photographer friends as a second photographer for a time and see how you feel and if you can do your job effectively. If you can, keep your commitment to the other couples. If not, find a replacement. <br>

Simply explain to the couples that due to health reasons, you are unable to fulfill your contract and offer referrals to other photographers who you know are not booked. Do the work of finding who is available before recommending them, but let them choose who they want to replace you. All you have to say is that you are doing this for personal reasons, no need to elaborate. I believe doing it this way is better than trying to push through and not meeting the client's expectations. I think it would be far worse for your business to do a poor job working against a doctor's orders than to help your clients find a suitable replacement.<br>

How many times do we stress to our clients that their wedding is one of the most important days of their lives? We tell newbie photographers that this isn't a job you can half-ass, you don't get a do-over. A professional knows when they can perform their job and when they can't. You said yourself that you couldn't even handle shooting smaller events, it would be a disservice to your clients to try to shoot their wedding if you are not capable.<br>

Do what is best for YOU! You need to get yourself healthy. Best wishes.<br />Sam</p>

<p>Impressive for a first wedding, but it sounds like you've got some photography experience already.</p>

 

<p>Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions! To be clear, I don't think he's looking to get closeups of the artists, but is more interested in showing the lighting setups and effects. The tour is called Fresh Music Festival 2012 and features Keith Sweat, Guy, SWV, K-Ci and JoJo. I'm sure he will be at the lighting control panel which I am guessing is near where the sound board usually is in the center of the arena.<br>

From what I understand, he's just looking for something that he can use to take photos to put in his lighting portfolio. What isn't acceptable noise to us would probably not matter too much to him considering his use for the images. He's just starting out and this is his first big break and he wants to document it. <br>

I forwarded the link to this forum to him so he can read the recommendations. I still think getting a photographer to shoot it for him would be best. Jeff, will the tour be coming to a city near you? Since this is your type of thing, how can he get in touch with photographers in the cities along the tour route?<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>I'm posting this for a friend of mine (a former student). He works for a concert lighting company and was asked to take the lead on a national tour. He would like to get some photos at each city to use for his portfolio but he's not a photographer. Can you give some recommendations? His budget is not very big, so it doesn't have to be a new camera (the D4 is not in his budget). I don't know if a Canon G12 would be good enough. I have a Nikon P7000 and I don't think that would be good enough. I thought about a used Nikon D300 or I could let him use my old D200 and a 50mm 1.4 lens. <br>

I suggested trying to contact concert photographers in each city to see if they would trade photo passes for photos on a disc. The tour won't be in my area until the end, but I offered to shoot it when it's nearby. </p>

<p>Any suggestions?<br>

Thanks,<br />Sam </p>

<p>I only offer albums in my top package that also includes the disc of the images. I used to have the same issue of couples taking forever to make their album selections UNTIL I made it so that the disc would not be delivered until the album was made and the print credit was used. I now have couples complete everything within a few months of their wedding, sometimes within weeks of the images going online for proofing.</p>

<p>Very helpful, thanks for your inspriation. All I'm doing is trying to experiment with different studio setups to see what I can play around with in my down time. I'm not looking to fill an art gallery, I'm shooting for myself.</p>

<p>Experimenting with the technical side pushes you to be creative in ways you never thought about before.</p>

<p>Thanks for the links, Lex. My goal is to expand my creative side and experiment with lighting setups beyond the basics. I want to challenge myself to try a new technique each month to break out from the standard portrait lighting. Hopefully, I'll be able to transfer some of that to my business.<br>

I've been a professional wedding and portrait photographer since 2005, so I'm just trying to find things I haven't done before for inspiration. I'm always trying to learn more!</p>

<p>Thanks,<br />Sam</p>

 

<p>I wasn't sure where to post this, but I thought it might get the most attention here.<br>

I thought I would challenge myself to do a different studio assignment every month and I'm looking for suggestions.<br>

For January, I will be doing some extended exposures and using flashlights and glow sticks to create light trails. Not very challenging, but it's something I've wanted to play with for a while.<br>

Other ideas I've had are strobe light effects, still lifes, window light (real and faked), food photography, and I think I have some others written down somewhere.<br>

I'd like to get some ideas from people on the forum, so what have you got for me? I do family portraits, babies, kids, and seniors in the studio, so I'm looking for something different. Please note, I don't do nudes or budoir photography. I have a 24x24 studio with White Lightning strobes with umbrellas and softboxes and several Nikon speedlights.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Sam</p>

<p>Talk to an accountant, but I would doubt that you would need to pay estimated taxes at that income level. If memory serves me correct, there's a point in the tens of thousands where you need to pay estimated taxes.<br>

Welcome to the neighborhood! I'm in Bethany Beach.</p>

<p>What Nikon are you shooting with? You should be able to shoot tethered into LR unless you're using an older camera. Off the top of my head, I don't know what the cutoff is, but my D200 isn't supported, but I think the D300 is and I've used my D700, D3s, and D7000 successfully. I used the D7000 for a photobooth.<br>

I don't do much with borders or logos, but I do use a LR plugin called Mogrify to add a logo for my FB selections. It's free, but the limit is ten images on export unless you buy the full version. That's the only free/paid difference I've noticed.<br>

It took ME a bit to get it set up right and it seems like I have to redo it every time I upgrade LR versions, but it's pretty simple to run once it's in. You can add several borders, graphical watermarks, resize, etc. No templates though.</p>

<p>I rent, but usually only when I break something and need a temporary replacement. In the past two years, I've had to rent a D700, a D3s, and a 70-200. I haven't run into any situations where I needed any special equipment, but I've thought about renting a crane, helicopter, or a plane :)</p>

<p>In my professional opinion...I think the design is very amateur looking. If you want to portray a professional image, you need to have a professional looking card, professional website, professional email address. <br>

This card design looks like something my high school graphic design class would do on their first business card design project before they know what they are doing. Who uses film as a graphic element anymore, is this 2005?</p>

<p>Sorry, I have to be honest.</p>

<p>I honestly didn't see a <em>huge </em>difference between my D200 and D300, I think I could go a little higher ISO, but image quality overall wasn't that different. I have to say that the D7000 <strong>really</strong> impresses me though. I won't give up my D3s though!<br>

It doesn't sound like you're in a hurry. My assumption is that D300 prices will drop with the next camera release, so if you can wait, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Prices, even for used equipment, jumped after the earthquake and tsunami and should adjust back down if they haven't already. I'm sure a lot of people are waiting for the next bodies to come out to upgrade and sell their old stuff.<br>

That being said, I had thought about selling my D200 for $500. It's got some paint splatters on it from one project, but is in perfect working order. I was going to loan it to a friend, but let me know if you're interested. Not trying to hijack the thread, but wanted to throw this out there since he's looking for something that's just sitting in my bag.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input. This is generally for weddings as that's my main business. I appreciate the tip about people using the backdrop, good to know. Maybe I'll set my strobe on optical slave so it blows out everyone else's pictures ha ha ha!<br>

I definitely like the ProShow idea and having guests sign up for an email alert.<br>

I'm looking forward to bringing this into the business more, if not for print sales, then as a marketing tool.</p>

<p>I say no. I think it's too out of focus, no distinct subject, the people look like blobs, and the shutter speed was too slow. I think anything you are going to use for advertising has to be technically and aesthetically perfect since the people looking at it will have no emotional attachment. When I looked at it, I saw a poor snapshot that looked like it was caught without any thought or planning. Plus, if it doesn't match the rest of your portfolio (that's good), then it will look even more out of place and would stick out like a sore thumb. </p>

<p>Mike,<br>

William makes a good suggestion, one that I give to my high school students or young photographers who ask me about photography as a career. A degree in business or journalism would be the best thing to do, in my opinion. You can learn a lot of photography on your own, in workshops, or by working with someone, but running a business is hard work.<br>

A friend of mine went to the Hallmark Institute of Photography and is doing quite well for himself as a wedding/portrait/commercial photographer. I also met a young lady while I was on vacation who went there and was taking pictures of tourists as they boarded a sailboat.<br>

I also have a friend who worked for National Geographic for ten years. He started out as journalism major, worked for a newspaper, then managed to work for National Geographic. He now is a nature photographer, writes books, and has his own publishing company.<br>

Photography is a harder and harder field to make money in for the average photographer. Everyone with a camera is a photographer, even a recent graduate of mine is doing portraits and has a nifty Facebook page.<br>

Your best bet at this point is to shoot for your school yearbook or newspaper and try to find a local photographer to let you assist (carry bags). Shoot as much as you can, build a portfolio, and learn as much as you can.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>In <em>my </em>experience, the photographers who offer a disc at the end of the night are on the low end of the spectrum of talent and price. It seems that it's the preferred business practice of the "I got a nice camera and now I'm a wedding photographer" crowd.<br>

Once you give them the disc, it's nearly impossible to gain any print sales. They are either happy looking at them on the computer or they go to a local lab or drugstore to have prints made.</p>

 

<p>Here's a camping trip photo taken at 12,800 1/50th at 2.8 taken with a D3s</p><div></div>

<p>There's a reason professionals don't use point and shoot cameras, you can't get the same results that you can with a professional camera. That's one of the reasons something like a D3s is $5000 and lenses are $2,000. The image quality is dramatically better due to the glass, the sensor quality, and the processing inside the camera.<br>

Lighting, makeup, stylist, etc. of course play a huge factor in it as well. You also have to realize that every image you see in a magazine has had extensive retouching...down to the pore level, before it goes to print.</p>

<p>The main problem I see is that the glass blocks the bride's face. It's like the glasses are in the way. A better way to incorporate all three elements might be to have the couple hold the glasses out while they kiss, but more needs to be in focus. Maybe have the couple in focus and the glasses and cathedral slightly out of focus.</p>

<p>Matt, that's funny!<br>

John, I'm leaning towards one of your suggestions. What's your address so I can send you a Christmas card? :)</p>

<p>The Mini is nice because of its size, but you COULD use a Flex on the camera. I think it's too bulky though. <br>

You need one Mini, and one Flex for the flashes you want to control. You could use the ABs set to fire optically, but then you would have it going off whenever someone uses a point and shoot in the same room (nice if you want to ruin all their photos). You can also use the original Pocketwizards on the slaves and set the flashes/ABs in manual mode. There's an adapter to connect the Flex to an AB and be able to control the output. </p>

 

<p>I've had a few clients ask about them and been noticing the growing popularity in my area. I was asked to shoot a Sweet 16 party and thought it would be a good opportunity to test it all out. Things went great, so I'm looking to do more with it. I'd rather not print on-site without a bigger upsell, so I'm wondering if I should put them on Facebook where people can tag themselves (marketing) or on my website (sales). I just can't see people buying the prints after the fact.</p>

<p>So I've added a "photobooth" to my business and I'm wondering what others do with the pictures. Bear in mind that this isn't a small booth, but more of a mini studio with a backdrop, light, and props. My initial thought was to put them on Facebook. My first client requested on-site printing...and then wanted doubles. We tackled it and realized we need to charge more for printing, but I'd rather just post them online.<br>

What do YOU do?</p>