phoenixphotography

simply that (like you say) things have been this way a while..

While 99% of websites ar econstantly updated and kept fresh & modern.

i'm not implying that photo.net should undertake a massive change or even become anything like my own example.

certainly not, a Gaming clan site is aimed at a certain target audience, and so will undertake a certain "Style"

my whole point was, Photo.net forums, look lazy, unprofessional and just plain boring.

Personally I dont care if they do or dont change( I'm here for the words, not the font)

But I would recommend maybe a slightly more "Visually professional system"

as appose to the sort of thing, people have been seing on the bottom of amazon item descriptions for 10 years.

Hi Liz.

I have recently started my own business too, but having a few qualifications in retail & advertisement from my teens its been a big help.

The hardest thing is getting yourself known and your work established,

from a customers point of view, you may be cheaper, but inexperience to some people can come across as unreliable, (something nobody wants when choosing a photographer)

My best advise is this..........

Like mentioned earlier, cover a wider field, I was initially starting out in Portraits, but I am now concentrating on portraits & portfolios over a much wider field (including pet portraits), on top of that I am also doing weddings (especially with this time of year, Weddings is a great way to get yourself known, I've been lucky enough to pick up 3 weddings in August. Eventually I will be shooting some stock, and have worked lined up with a local amateur football team.

The next thing you need to worry about is advertisement.

The more people hear about you the more likely they are to become your client,

However sojme advertisement can prove quite costly when starting up (sometime sinto the hundreds simply for a small advert in a local paper)

My advise is start at the bottom and work up.

If your confident on a PC, then create a few leaflets, or flyers. and visit vistaprint and get some business cards.

anywhere you can put your advert up is worth a shot, many places are free, your average papershop[ might charge 50p a week, but at that rate you could put it in 200-300 shop windows for the price of a much smaller box in your local paper.

with flyers/leaflets, even photocopies will work, and black and white can be as small as 100 prints for about £6 (more of color) then hand these out at fairs, markets, etc, etc,etc....

Fianlyl another great way of advertising is doing the work yourself.,

nip down to the police station and get a pedlars license, (about £17 i think) this will allow you to sell your photographs on the street.

Station yourself at a busy location with either a portable printer or an instant printing kiosk/store nearby,,

Then simply offer a street-portrait to anyone who might be vaguely interested, and only charge for the price of the picture (and card if you decide to mount into a cheap display card etc) and only aim to sell for about £1 profit.

selling these shots at £3, or even £2 is a great way of demanding notice, and you'll find when you mention those prices people will be asking you or more than happy to take one of your business cards.

In all you need to spend around £100 / $200 on advertisement, shop windows, 2000+ business cards, and photocopying..

Most of all though, have confidence in your work,,

I appreciate your honesty, but never EVER let a potential client know that you ar enot happy with your work.

always show entusiasm for every photo you take, and make sure that everyone you speak to knowns that your pride and reputation goes into every single photo you take.

believe me it does take some time and work, I went a month without much, But in the last few weeks I have got offers from gallery's, publicity work with a large national company at there local establishment near me.

and the pre-mentioned 3 weddings, and thats before I got to hand out 100's of leaflets to the gen publ.

Trying to get some follow on work seems to be the easiest way of keeping in touch as well, and as long as you dont come across to her as "I'm only after the money" she will hopefully trust you and be more inclined to pay both ammounts,

although suggesting a "good will - payment plan" might be the way to go.

My only other advice is to ask for a small deposit before the day, and then ask for further payment before you need to meet any further costs.

seeming flexible to clients is great, but some will take the P...

But asking for small ammounts at booking, pre-big day, pre-printing etc, will cover you for costs, and with the right ammount still make it so its not a complete waste of time if things do turn for the worst.

I purchased a d80 a few months ago and was never "truly" satisfied with it,

I soon relegated the d80 to my back-up camera, and now use a Nikon d300 as well.

With the 180200 vr, it's a fantastic combination which I feel will suit me for a while to come.

Maybe in time, I may move up to the D3 (or equivalent) and I'm tempted to get a Cannon and build a nice kit for both systems.

But for as far as my mind can see, I'm also very happy with the d300, and cant see any major purchases anytime soon.

I'm pretty new to photo.net, And I have to say,

I dont like the forums at all.

Flame me if you wish, But I've created a few web-sites myself and being totally honest, These forums are visually boring (not what you'd expect from a big photographic site which I'm sure has tons of budding photographers willing to freely submit some stock photography to help the forums and themes.

Even using a system like Phpbb would be far more user friendly, and navigation would be far easier.

below is a link to the last website I created, (for a gaming clan) but it is now barely used due to myself leaving them and the others not being able to work the admin side of the site.

http://thefallenonesclan.com/tfo/

I see why some are quite defensive.

But from a few posts it does come across that some people expect others to post pictures to prove they can do what they say.

Personally I've been in the photography industry for 11 years (which isnt too bad at the age of 27) and having always been a bit of a computer nerd, I've been using computers for digital image enhancements from the age of 11.

Some may not believe me, and no, I haven't posted any pictures yet,

But what many need to understand is a photographer may not choose to post work done for his clients, and so things that are liekly to be uploaded will b more part-time shots, which are taken more for fun than anything.

Yes I will be uploading some photo's possibly tonight when I sort out subscription,

But I can fully understand why many people may not want to upload.,

simply because they may not upload there best possible work, and many people judge a person's knowledge on there work.

When starting up my business, I did the simple scoping system.

Google, call or look around locally (as thats where most of your work will be)

Find out there prices, and what your competition is.

then undercut where needed.

Remember, you can always put your price's up once established or with a little more a little with experience, and

you can always get away with "opening offers" or possibly even use "advancements in stock & equipment, etc...

If you set your prices, too high, then 1 it may slow down your startingup, and should you then drop your prices,

you run the risk of people returning saying "I paid this that much, and you did my friend there for this much and

there shots are far better....)

However as mentioned above, dont undersell yourself,

low enough that you can provide a better value than any local competitors, but high enough that if required you

can still earn a living

I'm a fairly new user here at photo.net

and will soon be registering, setting up album, etc, etc.

I'm a pro photographer, usually specialising portraits and events, although I'm happy shooting pretty much anything.

In the next day or wo I'll put up a few starter shots, and hopefully like any album it will grow effectively over time

as for others, the option is there, top pro photographers may not choose to share too much, (more due to copywrites.

And some of the less pro users may feel a little "scared" because of the gih quality of some of the albums here.

Personally, (to put it short) my only interest is that my clients like there shots, So I'm happy sharing some for you guys, and maybe getting some constructive critisism on wher eI can improve, or what I can try,

Some people might not want that critisism, and so again that may stop many from wanting to share there pictures.

Sounds like your photographer friend is scared of a little competition.

you could always tell him to get off your back or you will put him in the newspaper, (let his mind work the rest out)

or personally, I'd have a quiet chat with your boss, explain the situation, and hopefully he will understand that people often try to cause problems for others and in the modern day, threats of court action is the most common & annoying

Interesting............

Nowadays, many many "digital enhancements" are far too noticable, especially if you knwo what your looking for.

The real art today is being able to enhance or alter your photo's the the extent where the original isnt recognised, but very (very) few people can actually see (before a comparison) what changes you have made

Welcome Steve.

I'm also pretty new to Photo.net, and Will soon be subscribing, as in short, I've already realised that this is a

great place to be.

For me it's been a long time coming and Finely I have only this year started up a photography business,

I began working as YTS (ﾣ60 a week for 58 hours work) in a photo-development store, ((just after obtaining a nvq

in retail & customer services))

Having more customer knowledge than both the manager and owner, I was fairly highly regarded, and was helping

with pretty much everything, over the year, I learnt alot about cameras (something which I'd always had an

interest in since I could remember)

Sadly the ﾣ60 a week was getting real tough to live, on , even living with my parents at the time, and I moved

on, created a few websites, and got further experience in retail and customer services, and got myself, married,

devorced, and now married to my beautiful wife, who has just over a year ago become the mother of our beautiful

twin boys.

But through the good and bad, I've spent alot of time learning, home courses, from friends, family,

photographers, and was "spooted" vy a local photographer who has helped me start-up

as the digital world evolved, my two favourate pastimes, collided, 1992 I got my 1st Pc, at the age of 12, (ive

always been a bit of a computer nerd)

and free with that Pc was a copy of what was, Corel Photopaint,

Like Paint on the commodore 64 (eons ago) I again loved doing anything related with pictures, and started to

spend an unhealthy ammount of my free time, tweaking pictures of people, places, pets, anything I could get my

hands on.

then with programs like Kais powergoo, and Bryce, I learnt a very wide range of skills, which I still use today,

and while software has evolved, many techniques are very similar, although now I used Adobe Photoshop lightroom

1.4/2.0 beta, and adobe photoshop cs3, & elements, portrait proffessional..

Then a few months ago (at the ripe age of 27) I was finally able to make the leap thanks to a small windfall. and

some help, motivation & assistance from a local photographer

Within a matter of weeks I was able to get a D300, d80m a nice selection of lens's, (my preference being the

nikon 18-200 which is my "everyday lens"

as well as getting a full studio setup, some advertisement,

((it makes a big differance to the old, fuji dslr I was using for "fun"

I used vista print for my business cards, and got alot of extras where I simply paid postage.

postcards, return address labels, a customisable rubber ink-stamp (mine simply says, company name, motto & contact number)

As for quality, my ordered of 2000 cards was mostly perfect, but a bundle of about 200 cards where slightly damaged,

I emailed vista print and the next day got a reply saying they where making me another 2000 cards which where then sent to me free of charge, (so for 200 dodgy cards, i got the full order again

So I cant recommend them enough, I dont mind problems, or mistakes, when they are rectified as quickly and proffessionally as vistaprint

I have two bags,

1. LowePro Slinghot 100.

2. Kata dr - 467

The slinghot is for quick trips, going down to town, nipping round a friends... anything where I wouldnt be planning to shoot anything, But obviously theres always a chance.

With it being such a small bag, I usually take my d300, and a good all round lens, used to be a sigma 28-200, but more recently a Nikon 18-200.

And if i'm going to be out long, I can then fit in a decent top-flash, spare battery for cam & flash, mabye a longer 300mm lens, and obviously a few memory cards.

With the Kata 467, This is much more my work bag, If i'm intentionally going somewhere for a shoot, then The 467 is great due to the shear ammount of stuff I can get into it comfortably,

tomorrow I have a publicity shoot at a local bowling alley, and my bag set-up is pretty much the usual..........

- Nikon d300, with nikon 18-200 lens attached.

- Sigma 28-200 & 70-300 Lens's.

- Compact spotting scope with T attachments

- Laptop with charger, cf card reader, bluetooth mouse

- mini Portable printer, with spare ink cartridge and a few packs of 6x4 paper

- Topflash with spare batt's

- charger & spare batt for d300

- 3x 2gb cf & 1x 4gb CF (memory cards)

- pens, notebook, a ton of business cards

- manfrodo monopod

It all fits in well leaving just enough space for a can of coke or something,

Usually I wouldnt always have the printer & scope which gives me lots of space for lunch, a jacket, or any other extras I need to have on location

Personally I use a Nikon 18-200 lens on my D300 and that deals with 99% of the work,

except for my 50mm (which is currently on my d80)

With the superior Nikon Lens your more than half way to compensating for a narrower vocal length,

And using a setup like above with an occasion like a wedding will mean you have a more than wide enough shot for the ceremony and surroundings, but a long enough zoom to take some close shots of the exchanging of rings, and the first kiss.

Many photographers wont be too keen on a single lens, But from experience, with a good camera (d300) and a quality lens (nikon vr2 etc...) I find my shots can easily match everything except for a few primes.

and theres no risky need to quickly swap lenses or switch cameras, if I want to get a shot of the bride & from, and immediately afterwards a shot of the guests throwing up confetti.

----

For yourself John,

It depends where the majority of your photography will be taking place. and what your targets are.

this is possibly why views can vary so much,

If the setup is for a special event, then id suggest the longer lens on the d300, as this would be the lens your more likely to use indoors, (for say a wedding)

and the d300 handles shots in poor light far better (just crank up the dynamic lighting) especially if (like for many weddings) flash photography is a no-go,

For standard use..........

With the longer bottom end on the sigma,, I'm presuming your use more of the the tamron lens, so maybe start with that on the d300 and see how it goes.

Finally, with regards to which shoulder.........

I would have to say right hand side.

if you have one on your neck, then reaching across to the left could cause problems, or having it cross shoulde r(left shoulde,r hanging right side) could cause discomfort,

My other suggestion would be to bag the d200, maybe a lowepro slinghot, just to keep the lesser used camera free, but still easy to access. with that strap close to chest, it would be easier for you to wear the d300 cross shoulder,

I know the threads a few months old, But if you havnt already then here's my two cents.

d300 body - (A must, the best camera in its price range, with the sony a700 not matching clarity & the cannon e40d struggling under lower lighting and higher iso settings.

12-24mm - Perfect for your architectural shots., I dont use lower focal lens's myself, But I could lst more than enough recommendations

50mm - a great portrait lens. I use a nikon 50mm myself, and on both d80 & d300 its a brilliant portrait lens, although at times, (especially for more active sittings) i will often use a nikon 18-200 (see below)

18-200mm/18-250mm - For $200-$300 its worth getting a half-decent "all-in-one" lens, more for general use, holidays, etc.

I say it to everyone, but I feel every photographer amateur or more needs a good all-in-one lens, and sometimes, through any specialisation (portraits, architecture, etc, etc) there will always be a time when you could do with that extra focal length.

I'm in England, so cant be 100% sure on prices, But From UK conversions and some US prices i've seen, I think you should be able to get most of the above,

even if you opt for the slightly cheaper Tamron/Sigma lens over my preferred choice of Nikon Lens's.