stephen_mcpherson

<p>Dan South, your comments about not responding to the original questions are right on the money! The Grand Canyon is an incredible venue for photographers, but then even your own backyard can be. Forget about all the gear and gadgets. Let the moment sweep you up and put you into the creative zone. <br>

Your comments about print size are also more than correct. The results all depend on the medium: the printer and its software/firmware for the most part and to a lesser degree the paper. <br>

And yes you can make a 6'x4' print from a 6Mp camera! I would defy who would look at it to tell you what it was shot with. </p>

<p>Well here's my 2 cents worth:</p>

<p>A photograph is the result you get when you press the shutter.</p>

<p>An image is what you get after you FUBAR the photograph in post processing, or what I loving refer to as creating "Frankenphoto's". </p>

<p>Bader, so sorry to hear you had a bad experience with a fashion "professional". A very wise man gave me some advise when I was quite young and I still use it to this day: "Always deliver the good news first and then deliver the bad news - if you must." This "professional" didn't behave very professionally on a number of fronts. She apparently had nothing good to say about your work. She missed a huge opportunity to educate. She was in your face rude...etc.</p>

<p>So just put this up on the experience board and move on to the next client.</p>

<p>When shooting equestrian events - especially the jumping events - its always a wise choice to let the action come to you. By that I mean, pick a jump and use it as your focus point. Hold the focus and let the horse and rider come into the frame and shoot. To do this successfully doesn't take a lot of practice, just patience and a little timing. Since you'll be outside try a mid range aperture of f8 or f11. This will give you enough DOF to allow for some leeway as the horse and rider pass through your frame. A few test shots and you'll have your timing down cold.</p>

<p>My wife and I use this technique all the time at equestrian events. We went to one event as spectators and didn't bring our gear (dough heads!). All we had was an older Kodak Point and Shooter with a 2 second shutter lag. To get some shots of the Grand Prix, my wife used the camera while I watched the horse and rider. When they got a certain spot I would tell my wife to "Go!". We got some great shots from our make shift team work and it was fun and challenging too.</p>

 

<p>Joseph - overall your website looks great! I do have a few comments that you might consider:<br>

1. Discover Style - ??? - just ditch this whole section and put the contact information under a new section called "Contact". Ditch the email tab and make the email address in the "Contacts" a hot link.<br>

2. Explore Costs - ??? - again be direct. Call it pricing or packages, but be direct. Your VP days at Citibank are showing - :). Put all your shooting in the gallery.<br>

3. See Weddings - ??? - It's a gallery. Call it that. While your gallery is great, IMHO there's too much stuff here. Maybe do three weddings in a top row and then a shower, a boudoir and an engagement in a lower row. Sometimes less is more. I thought that was a nice touch by the way, not just focusing on the weddings, but also wedding associated events. That's great marketing.<br>

4. Learn About - ??? - How about "About Joseph"? Some of the content from "Discover Style can go in here. <br>

5. Testimonials - ??? - You had a very glowing one from the bridal shower. If you have one or two more, consider putting them here. I really like the way you presented the "thank you" from the bridal shower; very clever and direct. And again clever marketing.<br>

Steve</p>

<p>Dale, your logic - "Logic tells me the image should be clearer with Fstop at its minimum..(wide open)" - is not scientifically valid. If I could make a recommendation to you it would be to get a copy of Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure". This book will open up a whole new world of photographic opportunity for you. I particularly enjoy his perspective of correct exposures versus creatively correct exposures. Be forewarned though, Bryan is a "get it right when you shoot it" kind of guy not a Photo Shop fixer. </p>

<p>Jen, DOF has 3 major variables: aperture, focal length and distance from the subject. In your case you choose to use a large aperture (shooting wide open) which in turn makes the DOF significantly more shallow. You also used a moderate focal length (50mm) that would tend to be DOF neutral. Also your distance to the subject was moderate so that would be DOF neutral. Therefore your aperture setting is causing you to have a very shallow DOF, i.e., almost everything in the frame is fuzzy. In a situation like you were shooting, you might want to try f8 or f11. That would sharpen the image significantly. </p>

<p>Stacy Reeves guide to pricing is Golden - http://www.stacyreeves.com/photographers-pricing-guide/</p>

<p>Samuel, you should be proud of your efforts for Nathan and Tanya. While I did not give all your shots a close look, the one thing that did stand out for me were the shots taken on and near the railway tracks. The standout thing for me was that some of the shots would have been better served with a deeper depth of field - putting all the groomsmen in focus. The other issue I had was with the poses on the tracks - given that the light source was from camera left perhaps a different set of poses would have taken better advantage of the light. I really liked several of your shots of the bride and groom after the ceremony, especially the one of them sitting on the grass with the sun light filtering through the trees - a keeper for sure! Good shooting!<br>

Steve</p>

<p>Check out Adorama's web site. They have back drops up to 16x30.</p>

<p>Hey Justin ... You need to get a better piping teacher. There are nine (9) notes on the bagpipe aka the great highland war horn; an instrument so frequently played poorly. Perhaps that's why its so reviled by some. In my household the pipes are revered. I compete and have been playing for over 40 years - a burden that only the robust would even consider shouldering. Keep practicing!</p>

<p>Just a few random thoughts:</p>

<p>- I never do business with people who buy solely on price.</p>

<p>- I apologize to all the "gadget freaks" , but 80% of photography is about the eye behind the "gadget", 18% is in the glass in front of the "gadget" and 2% is about the "gadget" a.ka. the camera body. So who said shooting a wedding with a Rebel was a bad idea? Why not an Argus C3? It's just a "gadget".</p>

<p>- Who are we to judge?</p>

<p>I too have felt the pain of purchasing items in the US for shipment into Canada. While my purchases have offered me substantial savings over buying in the Toronto area, I'm not terribly happy with the brokerage fees charged by UPS - they are definitely gouging the customer - I used to be in the cross border freight business. In future, I'll use Bilsi or more preferably Purolator.<br>

It would be most helpful to Canadian customers if companies like Adorama advised up front on what to expect from UPS Ground and were a little smarter about packaging up their shipments. I ended up paying 3 separate brokerage fees from UPS because the product was shipped in 3 boxes under 3 separate shipping orders. If the shipper had used one shipping order for a shipment of 3 boxes it would have saved me some money.<br>

I've found that my local Henry's store is happy to price match on a lot of purchases I make, so I still buy local as much as possible but for some items they are so much less in the US, e.g., lighting.</p>

 

<p>James, let me clarify - as I too am self employed and work out of a home office. For me "no bricks and mortar" means that as a business entity you must provide a valid physical mailing address - a PO Box isn't acceptable for me. My reasoning is quite simple, the internet has provided a completely unregulated environment for scammers, grifters or fraudsters to ply there trade. If I'm going to do business with you, I want to know where your place of business is. If your not prepared to reveal that publicly it begs the question "What have you got to hide?"</p>

<p>Against my better judgement I worked on contract for a company that went out of its way to hide its place of business from its customers. Given that customer service was a large component of the business, this made for periodic difficulties, etc. A few years back I also ran my own agribusiness, so all my customers knew exactly where I conducted my business. A business that won't provide a physical address raises a big red flag for me. </p>

 

<p>Kimberly,<br>

I'm glad to read that you finally got something out this guy, although it wasn't everything you expected. But I have to ask - didn't you see some big red flags in the early going with this so called professional? Regardless of the services being purchased I have a few things that prevent me from doing business with others:<br>

1. No bricks and mortar = no business from me<br>

2. Poor performance on early deliverable (e.g. engagement photos) = your FIRED!<br>

3. No written contract = no business<br>

4. Poor communications skills - especially written = no business<br>

In a business I owned previously in another industry I was the only one out of my 65 other local competitors that had written contracts reviewed by my lawyer for my customers. No signed contract; no business. I actually gained a number of customers from my competitors just because I actually had a written contract. Curiously most of those folks were in the law enforcement business and appreciated the contract. Due to the high physical risk nature of the business it shocked me that none of my competitors didn't any written contracts - or liability insurance - but that's a whole other discussion. <br>

Call me old fashioned, but I just hate being taken advantage off, and I hate seeing it happen to others.</p>

<p>So photography is all about light right? Well so is the auto focus mechanism in all modern cameras. The auto focus isn't fool proof: witness the results of the OP. The auto focus is focusing on the glass and not the document behind the glass. But that's what it's supposed to do - it picks up the IR reflections of the nearest surface and uses that to focus on. Us folks in the Great White North experience this problem a lot when shooting in hockey arenas and the like. The quick solution is to go to manual focus. The alternative that the pros use is to have small holes cut in the glass. Check out your next pro hockey game. <br>

Cutting holes in the glass would be akin to taking the document out of the framing. Since you don't want to do that, consider the following:<br>

- use manual focus<br>

- use a tripod<br>

- get some diffused/indirect lighting<br>

- use a small aperture like F16 - the smaller the aperture the more defined the image<br>

- use an off camera trigger to avoid camera shake</p>

<p>OK...so here's what I would do if I were in your situation. Instead of going out to pursue academic credentials, I would find myself a business school that specialized in self employment and ran 3-6 week/month courses in business start up 101. Why? A good, competent school will guide you though the process of what you need to do to start your own photography business. During the process you would get some realistic feedback and made to do some real world analysis of the business. Hopefully you'd do some market analysis - who are your customer; how will you find them; how much will they pay you.<br>

At the end of the course you want to have a thorough and complete business plan including financial projections for the first 5 years. <br>

My own experience - having successfully started and grown businesses in other sectors - is that you'll find making a profit large enough to live on and also to keep your equipment up to date will be nearly impossible.<br>

My best advice to you is to go find a trade - plumber, electrician, general contractor, etc. - that's where the real money is buried. Give yourself an income that will allow you support your passion for photography. Don't let your passion for photography keep you in your parents basement for the rest of your life.</p>

 

<p>Patrick, Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) offers a BFA in Photography. I don't know about their photography program but OCAD is a well recognized school.</p>

<p>One of the most ignored factors by most businesses is the concept of the ideal customer, i.e., who are they? More specifically:<br>

- how old are they?<br>

- where do they live?<br>

- how much money do they make?<br>

- what do they look like?<br>

- what type of business are they in?<br>

- what makes them tick?<br>

====> in a nut shell what is their demographic and psychographic profile<br>

While it is always difficult, when presented with a business opportunity, if the client doesn't fit your ideal customer model - WALK AWAY! Otherwise do business at your own peril; plan to fail and plan to loose money.<br>

The use of "luxury", "high profile", "international" in combination with "low/no budget" and/or denigrating a previously engaged photographer should be keywords for every photographer to pull a Monty Python - RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!</p>

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<p>I couldn't help but notice that no one has brought up ISO speeds in this discussion. Using your DSLR in full auto mode allows the camera to pick and choose the ISO (film speed in the olden days) and the constantly changing ISO will have a big impact in colour saturation. A lower ISO - like ISO 100 - will give more colour saturation, while a higher ISO - like ISO 800 - will give less colour saturation - all other variables being equal. </p>

<p>Danny, back in the olden days, you know back when all we had was film (and my hair wasn't grey!) many of us had a few tried and true rules of thumb:<br>

0. SEAT BELTS ARE IN CARS FOR A REASON!<br>

1. ISO 100 for shooting indoors and colour saturation; ISO 400 outside<br>

2. 1/60th for flash work; 1/125th to 1/500th for action shooting (the faster the action the shorter the exposure time)<br>

3. Don't hand hold anything slower than 1/60th.<br>

Call me old fashioned.</p>

<p>Christoffer, the best advise is to go to reputable camera store in your area. Look at the cameras, pick them up, look through them, shoot a few frames. Buy what feels comfortable in your hands with controls that seem intuitive to you. Forget about buying into a particular brand. Buy into what feels right in your hands. </p>

<p>Joline, when was the last time the batteries were changed? Just asking, wink, wink. Old camera, maybe old batteries for the metering.</p>