norrellphotography

<p>Nice series Paul, particularly the fox shots.</p>

<p>Google Ronnie Gaubert if you'd like to see an incredible portfolio of egrets, herons, etc.</p>

<p>One reason people often have blogs elsewhere is simply ease of use. Blogspot (and others) makes it very simple to maintain a blog. I maintain my own business website and don't want to tackle hosting the blog. But there are SEO advantages both ways. While hosting your blog on your regular site you may increase keyword density, having a separate blog increases external links to your site (which may be more valuable than the modest increase in keyword density).<br>

- Greg<br>

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<p>I did a little of this work last year. In my experience, a company may want a shot of, for example, a salesman. They want the background to match the backgrounds of all the other salesman photos already on their website, and they don't much care for artistic flare. And most importantly, they don't want to pay much. The sessions I did along these lines last year were billed as "short sessions" at a slightly reduced rate (websites, ID cards, etc). Typically only a few shots were taken and they want a lower resolution file on a disk.<br>

Perhaps in some professions there is more gratifying work. I did get one inquiry for a musician wanting a shot for a brochure. I haven't heard back yet. Good luck.<br>

- Greg<br>

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<p>Starvy - that's an intriguing idea that I'll consider. <br>

Jeff - I will ask the rep for information regarding the relationship between response rate and customer conversions. The price for the service includes everything, including demographic targeting, printing, and mailing.<br>

Thanks.</p>

<p>After some prodding from my yellowbook rep, I've been considering a modest direct mail campaign for my portrait studio. I've asked around on various websites and the general response that I've received is that it can be successful if the campaign is well targeted, provides an appealing draw (e.g., 20% print packages), and the business has some name recognition. I have not -as yet- heard other photographs tell success stories regarding this approach. I have heard one photographer state he got no responses from a direct mail campaign.<br>

I searched this forum and saw some quite old posts, one suggesting around 2% response, one suggesting a 0.1% response. The service provider claims a national average of 1-3% response, locally averaging a 2% response. But their claims for phone book usage have never been reliable, so I don't trust their numbers here either. A 1% response on a 500 item campaign would be profitable (5 new customers when I'd be in the black on the second or third).<br>

The mailer would be a postcard on quality stock paper, color printed on both sides, targeted toward households with children, incomes in a specific range (not too low but not so high that they aren't interested in discounts), and within a specific zipcode.<br>

Has anyone done this and what kind of results did you experience?</p>

<p>Thanks<br>

- Greg </p>

 

<p>Thanks Miles. Nice map and good info.</p>

<p>The leaves are just starting to change, so you won't see dramatic fall foliage. As Bob F. mentioned, the elk rut is this month. Sometimes you can see bulls fighting. Grizzlies aren't usually seen as much after early August, but I was still seeing some between Canyon Village and Tower Junction as of a couple weeks ago. On cool, still September mornings the thermal areas in the western part of the park are impressive. The steam is more dramatic then and if the wind isn't present to disperse it there will be numerous great steam columns. For moose sitings, the little road between Teton Village and Moose Junction commonly has moose present in the mornings before 10:00. This was a record year for park attendance, but the visitor numbers drop off in September. </p>

<p>Karen - As you mentioned, late last year the road was closed between Madison Junction and Norris while a bridge was being replaced. I'm in Idaho Falls and spend most weekends in Yellowstone, and elk are almost always around in the western part of the park. I don't see them around Mammoth as much as I used to. With the road open, however, elk will almost certainly be present along the Gibbon River, the Madison River, the Firehole River, and generally around Yellowstone Lake. Good luck and have fun.</p>

<p>I use rechargeables with as a high a mAh rating as possible. In my experience Duracell's rated at 2650 mAh worked well but they only last a few months holding a full charge. I have some Energizer 2500 mAh and Kodak 2500 mAh batteries that still hold their charges and the flash doesn't overheat after many months of use. The batteries I used when my flash quickly overheated were RayOvacs without a listed mAh rating. I've seen elsewhere on the web some specialty batteries recommended for photographers, but I didn't recognize the brands. I know two other photographers in my area that swear by quality disposables, but the recycle rate on the flash is faster with rechargeables.</p>

<p>The thermal cut off feature of the SB900 can be turned off in the custom functions menu (page c24 of the English manual). Press 'OK' and hold for two seconds, then scroll down. But in my opinion, at least from my personal experience, this problem seems related to quality of batteries. I used my SB900 one day without a cut off doing lots of family portraits at a large family reunion. The next day I was taking a few nature shots in Yellowstone, and after having put in some lower quality batteries, the flash shut down after 7 or 8 shots. I'd done hundreds without a problem with the higher quality batteries. Others have told me similar stories. </p>

<p>It's hard enough to promote one business and one business name. Why double your trouble, and potentially your overhead. I see no disconnect between event photography and portait work (I do both). IMO, you're better off building a single, quality brand and reputation.</p>

<p>I live close to the parks and spend lots of time there each summer. Bison wander through any given area largely oblivious to people. Just don't approach them. I've seen plenty of black bears near campgrounds, but not grizzlies. They are most frequently seen in the valleys between Canyon and Tower and along the Lamar River. There is a small campground at Tower, and I would walk carefully at night there, but certainly not limit activities because of fear of bears. Bears can smell you long before you are close unless the wind is really strong and blowing from them toward you. They want to avoid confrontations too. Enjoy the parks. You're welcome to post pics at <a href="http://www.norrellphotography.blogspot.com">www.norrellphotography.blogspot.com</a>. It's a new blog, so there's not much there yet. But soon.</p>

<p>When under the tent you can angle the flash upwards bouncing it off the tent ceiling. You can also use a diffusion dome on the SB600. And if the flash is "harsh", turn it down some. I'm not sure about the "white tint". Make sure you've got the white balance set correctly, shoot it RAW and tweek the image in ViewNX.</p>

<p>Pardon my infatuation with my new lens. I was simply refering to the speed. I agree the 70-300 VR is a good choice.</p>

<p>I also have the Nikon 70-300mm VR G ED and have had great success with it during the last year. It's not as fast, but as you mentioned will work well at higher ISO, and the D90 ISO performance is often considered superior to the D300s. </p>

<p>I just got the Nikon AF-S 24-70 mm f/2.8 G ED lens. It costs a fortune but is fast, amazingly accurate, and produces great photos.<br>

Greg<br>

<a href="http://www.norrellphotography.com">www.norrellphotography.com</a></p>

 

<p>Very odd indeed. I've put in a request for an explanation from a Nikon technical representative.</p>

<p>I modified two versions of the same photo in ViewNX to test the file change. I did a "color boost" of 15 Nature on both the tiff file and the jpeg file. For the tiff file, the size went from 32.9 Mb to 33.1 Mb, a modest increase. For the jpeg file, the size went from 6.85 Mb to 2.68 Mb, an alarming decrease. I think Richard is right and the ViewNX compression goes for "good quality" as opposed to "excellent quality". I try and avoid shooting jpegs anyhow, but I certainly won't use ViewNX to save jpegs now. Thanks.</p>

<p>That must be it. Thanks.</p>

<p>Thanks. I ended up using the tiff file and didn't convert back to jpeg. I realized jpeg compromised quality for smaller file size, but I didn't realize it did it more than once, as in every time the file was modified and saved. Photoshop doesn't reduce file size/quality after the first conversion. Odd that ViewNX does.</p>

<p>When I open a jpeg in Nikon ViewNX and make an adjustment, say color boost, and subsequently save the file, the modified jpeg file size is significantly reduced. This does not happen when a tiff is modified, but seems to invariably happen when adjusting jpegs. Anyone know why and what is happening to the file?</p>