richard_king2

<p>I think the florist is out of order. If you are going anywhere near a wedding, then it is reasonable to expect a photographer to be about. I have a model release form in my contract, and such issues get refered back to the bride and groom<br /><br />Here is another scenario - the mother of a bridesmaid demands all images of her daughter are taken down... the bridesmaid that is in every other shot containing the bride<br>

<br />The bride is your customer</p>

<p>You need to re-look at your contract. mine says that<br>

1. all payments are non-refundable<br>

2. payments are staggered<br>

3. in the event of a cancellation, no fees will be returned<br>

The reasoning behind this is that the closer you are to the date, the harder it is to get a booking for the date<br /><br />I have had one cancellation, and they tried to get the money back, and failed</p>

<p>there are several reasons for a cancelation<br>

- they split up<br>

- they screwed up the finances<br>

- someone died somewhere, and the wedding got postponed<br>

My view is that if the client has made all the moves themselves (they booked you, they are cancelling on a whim, or have screwed their own finances, then they dont get the money back. If soem reasonable mitigating circumstance (father died, venue burnt down for example) shifts the wedidng date, then I do my best to accomodate the move<br>

Wedding insurance companies have a similar approach</p>

<p> </p>

<p>to be frank it makes more difference to you than anyone else. In 18 months time, when you come to edit a page and you cant remember what file relates to what page, spaggetti code and structure will just cause you headaches<br>

<br /> FWIW, I usually have a "core css" AND "core JS" file, and then any extras, specific for a page or function, land in the same folder and get very specifically named - i.e. with the page name. This means in 18 months time, when I come back and look at it, it is immediatally obvious that that JS and CSS file belong to the portrait gallery page, and that one over there belongs to the modal light boox etc..</p>

<p>We are professional photographers and website designers. As much as it grates, it may be worth paying a professional, and getting the job done right</p>

<p>there are lots of methods<br>

you can<br>

1. embed the email address in an image (human can read it, bot cant)<br>

2. use a php based form with CAPTCHA or Are you a human tyoe question<br>

3. send hidden fields to the server (the bot will fill the field in, a human wont be able to - in essence, the server trashes the mail if the field is filled in)</p>

<p>Don't have an about me page then</p>

<p>This is a great question. Choice of host also depends a lot where you live. For example I am in the UK and happen to host sites. So I have my servers attached to a hub that is serviced by to 3 major networks - the one that links to most of the UK, the one that links to the rest of Europe, and the one that links to the USA<br>

Example - If I were to host an international site, I would consider say popping a copy on a server in the states, one in Europe and one in Asia<br>

So locally (to where your customers reside), you need to look at the network infrastucture and choose the smart option. On top of that it is often things like cryptic control panels, bandwidth and data restrictions, and good old customer service that will make a massive difference to the "overall service" you get<br /> <br /></p>

<p>To be honest, with EXIF, Vista tags, Lightroom - the concept is pretty covered. so unless you have some recognition software (i.e. it recognises katy with a big dog on a sunny day - just by looking at the images), there cant be a lot more to contribute</p>

<p>I think the point is missed somewhat.. originally it was said:<br>

"being true to your self and your art" <strong>AND</strong> and not "worrying about anything" <strong>AND</strong> "because if you follow your passion success and riches will follow you"<br /> <br /> Trust me this is not true. You can be commercial and tue to your self. You can strike a work life balance. You can strike a art / work balance. You can NOT garuntee that success and riches will follow you... you can only hope this happens, as it requires interaction of 3rd parties. Magazine articals like this are reckless and fanciful really. The majority of artists are very finacially poor or earn a living doing something else</p>

<p>To be fair<br /> <br /> Pops on SW expert hat<br /> <br /> When I have looked at clients freezing up machines. More often then not it is the interaction between different bits of software. For example. If you look at the FPNLicencing service (running on your machine if you use CS4) if you told your firewall to lock it or block it, Photoshop may stop working "at the moment the licence is checked".. if it starts at all<br /> <br /> Main culprits are: Firewalls, Antivirus software, anti-spyware software, viruses and spyware. The next main culprit is poor user setup of the software. I.E. use of the scratch disk, memory allocation etc.. The next issues is often a "remnant" process running from a unrelated package. I.E. why do you need the office application launcher running in the background when you are not typing invoices today. Same applies to: acrobat, Winzip, messenger, Outlook..</p>

<p>"If it's a cloudy day, who cares, just bracket 15 shots and you get cloud detail beyond what the eye can see."<br>

Now "pops on Optician hat" the eye is a funny thing<br /> What can the eye see? - very little. you look at a brick wall and see loads of bricks - wrong - you see a few, you remember a lot, and you make up the rest. you have 2 blind spots - your brain maps them out, even when you close one eye<br /> ~<br /> Your eye has a dynamic entrance pupil, so actually you build up a bicture of the dynamic range and take what you need from a scene over a period of a few seconds<br /> <br /> Damm strange them eyes, superficially like a camera, but nothing like one at all<br /> Do we see in RAW or JPEG?</p>

<p>Im a web designer and phhotographer. so have a slightly different POV..</p>

<p>Measurement tools<br>

Speed of loading<br>

Speed and integration between packages<br>

Live brush is excelent for cloning<br>

<br /> Besides that, they are all much of a muchness</p>

 

<p>"no"<br>

or if having a pang...<br>

"No I am allready booked that weekend"<br>

If you shoot for free, you are actually turning away paid work. Its a double blow. If your neibour works for walmart, then if they help fix a fence on their day off, then it costs them nothing. Ask them to take a days holiday for it... to do it when it is convient for you.. different story<br /> <br /> Essentially, they are asking you to take a days unpaid holoday, whilst you are essentailly going to work..</p>

<p>polariser<br /> ND</p>

<p>TBH I filter the flash more than the camera, to match ambient</p>

<p>Way off topic<br>

Hey Jeff - when you are next in Nottingham, come and have a beer<br>

<br /> Richard King</p>

<p>"I have recently read in many professional photography magazines about "being true to your self and your art", and not worrying about anything because if you follow your passion success and riches will follow you. Forge your own path, create your own niche', blah blah blah."<br>

Well if you are rich, you can be "true to your art". As I am not rich, I shoot what pays. When I am richer, I will be true to my art, and maybe sell a print or two<br>

<br /> I shoot professionally, I shoot for pleasure - two completly differnent sorts of photography. Yep over the years, I sold some of my art, but if i carried on like that, I would be flipping burgers at Burger King<br>

<br /> The most important thing is that I can experement in my "free time" and if i screw up, so what. the valuable thing is that ocassionally, I can hone a technique, and move it into my normal stable of paid work. In that sense "following your art" pays</p>

<p>I aint holding my beath on the riches thing though!</p>

<p>Admits to being a website designer<br>

And in my opinion, SmugMug, BluDomain or Big Black Bag sites all look the same. They are boringly templated, and a LOT of photographers use them. You however are a creative professional, and must have "some idea of your own" about what you would really like<br>

<br /> Some of the best sites out there are when a creative professional, starts with a blank bit of paper and designs it from scratch. Clearly a web professional will have a bunch of ideas too, and often the combination of the two will produce an outstanding result<br>

So to re-phrase what I meant... Do you shoot "average same as everyone else" photography, and do you wnat it displayed on a " average same as everyone else" website? and are you happy if your customers percieve you like this?<br>

This isn't a personal dig at you, this is an observation about a so called creative community that more than often really is happy to just be stamped by someone elses mould</p>

 

<p>I ty to keep "the list" to a minimum<br>

I do however ask the B&G to supply a mamber of the family "who knows everyone, and is responsible" to work with us in the formals. This has 2 effects... We shoot everyone we are supposed to. If anyone is left out, we are hardly to blame. We cover off family dynamic in the pre-wedding meet. This is partialy about managing expectations, and partly about crowd management on the day<br>

<br /> We are not mind readers, or magicians, and can only do the best possible..</p>

<p>Any lens you would care to choose, so long as it is attached to a tripod via a camera<br /> <br /> If your budget is more than a good tripod / monopod, then choose the fastest lens you can afford. With a tripod, you will have more creative freedom.. you really dont wnat to shoot at F2.8 o 1.8 all the way through the service, the DOF is very limiting<br /> <br /> I shoot a lot in dark churches, and have found that having a "system" e.g a monopod, tripod +another tripod or two in strategic places in the building, all with the same fitting, or even better with separate cameras on is really helpeful. If you know exactly where the ceremony is happening (with in a few feet) you could also remotly trigger the camera on the other side of the chuch, whilst you are working your side....</p>

<p>Often these gallery software packages do a poor job of resizing. We usually action the job in PS, and replace the folder full of images on the server</p>

<p>why not have a bespoke one done and get the design you really want, rather then the one everyone else has?</p>

I need to charge more for website design - lol

depends what artistically you are looking fro - you wouldnt want the "blank" forensic style photography at a wedding. lots of photographers deiberatally shoot at say f2, to throw a background out. Lots shoot a sharp picture and then soften it later in PP - We are both a technical and artistic dicipline

Trust me - go with a web developer - as a developer I do things in hours "because i know how" that take most people weeks.

 

Dont go down the template route - it is like saying "im like everyone else"

 

Because a web-dev "knows how" they will probrably have an array of tricks and ideas that you will never have considered - as they are to tricky for the average learner to implement. Yesterday in one day, I created 1 gallery with a shopping cart, 45 web pages for a large site, templated another small site and jumped into a database and edited it to make a (new to me) client's site work again. Web-dev jump about al lthese technologies day in day out, and in a similar vein - you wont be wanting Uncle George to shoot the wedding photographs!

Yep -all of the above - you can make an image in photoshop - and slice it up in photoshop, or image ready - ready to drop into dreamweaver.. It is the way to go.. good luck