Spending Money

Being a photographer is not a cheap profession. I can't even focus all of my time on photography, I have a “real” job to cover most my expenses. I just recently came to realize that having illegal software was not something that I wanted to be associated with anymore. So after a long time using the trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom I could finally afford to make my first big software purchase. I would highly recommend giving both of these applications a try, they are very much a huge part of my photography. If you buy the two expensive applications together through Adobe.com you save exactly $125, which i definitely took advantage of.

My goal for the rest of the year is to be completely debt free (minus the student loan), and be able to afford to lease a brand new 2008 VW Jetta SE for 3 years. The main idea behind getting a car, would be the trunk, just so i can keep my gear safe, and out of sight. This is very important to me, especially since I currently have a 1990 Volvo 740 Turbo station wagon. Where you can see what I have from a mile away.

I plan on saving a lot of money by doing less of the things that I don't need to do. Unfortunately, I will occasionally do these things. No more expensive movie theaters, no more buying things that I will use just once. Selling expensive things/toys that I hardly use. This should be no problem, now that I have everything that I will need for my photography for the next few months (besides a really nice zoom lens, but that will come later in the year).

So, what's the plan now? You may ask, but this is about as good as I can answer.

I am planning on spending the next year working on my portrait and stock photography portfolio. I haven't really accomplished anything in the stock photography world. In fact, I have been denied many of times, and have unsuccessfully added no photographs to iStockPhoto to date, but at least this time i have made it past the qualification tests. I haven't gotten a chance to take too many stock photos, and have only submitted one. They are very picky, and the photograph i submitted had some visible sensor dust.

Which is mostly my fault, I should have cloned out the small yet faint black dot.

Stock photography is a trick. Especially when i have a hard time just being able to setup some sort of photo shoot with a friend! But hopefully this week will be a start with that. I am still enjoying my Nikon D300, and will hopefully continue to enjoy it as i get more used to the features that it offers.

I also convinced myself to get a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Wait, whoa! I know i was saying i was trying to save money, but it was only $67 through Amazon. It is a low end writing tablet used by a lot of photographers out there, and i have wanted one for as long as I have ever doodled on a pen and paper!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! And if you don’t know what Thanksgiving is, well, us Americans like to get together with the family once a year, and eat a mandatory huge meal, then sleep for a couple of days. We did not watch any football.

This thanksgiving weekend was fun for me. I got to spend some time with my parents! It was just my parents and I. Both of my sisters and their families could not make it. Fortunately, for my parents, they still have one child that is not occupied by a spouse, children, or live a long ways away. Such a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! I talked my mom into cooking chicken instead of turkey, just because chicken tastes better, and she agreed. It was great! Not to mention that afterward we watched together, the entertaining “Santa Claus 3: The Escape Clause,” and then shortly after the much more exciting, “Live Free or Die Hard.” I know, those movies don’t seem very exciting back to back, but they were a nice blend.

I brought all my camera equipment, and decided to snap some pictures of my pets, because, well, it was my last opportunity to get some decent pictures with my old Nikon D200. I also missed my animals, and wanted to catch them in their prime and hopefully print out some pictures for my parents. We have some really photogenic pets.

Then Friday rolled along, and I casually woke up around 11pm and strolled over to Shutterbug where I received a phone call earlier in the week that the D300 would be available for me to pick up. So, short story shorter, I have now upgraded my gear from a Nikon D200 to the brand spakin’ new Nikon D300. I was able to sell the D200 the next day for $1100 with the battery grip thanks to Craigslist! I was able to sell the camera to a local man who was delighted to venture into photography, and hopefully I will get to see some of the stuff he comes up with using the camera. I utilized the micro studio that I made a few weeks back for the pictures of the items I was selling. I am also trying to sell my GL2 and a MTX Amplifier, but neither has been showing much interest except for a few people in relations with people in Africa. Red flags anyone?

I haven’t gotten to do too many photo shoots with my new Nikon D300, just a few messing around pictures, and a shoot at my church of a couple dancing, and a ballerina. I had one senior photo shoot lined up for the weekend, but the father felt it was too expensive and cancelled the shoot. I am still baffled by this, because I feel like I am way too inexpensive. To each their own!

So far I am extremely satisfied with the Nikon D300, the image noise has been reduced a lot, and I can shoot in RAW with much higher ISO, and not worry about such nasty color noise and quality decrease. Of course, shooting with lower ISO will always increase the image quality! I try to shoot at ISO 200, but for the dance pictures, I shot at ISO 1000, and the pictures are definitely usable, and one of them will be in next weeks bulletin.

I am still looking forward to my first actual photo shoot with the camera. I will keep everyone posted when I have an opportunity and finish a photo shoot. Here is just a couple random pictures.

Blogs and Google Reader

Do you read a lot of blogs?

I do! It is what keeps me in shape with my photography, especially during down time here and there. I would like to spend more time reading, and finding blogs, but keeping track of them was so difficult.

Now that I have been using Google’s “Reader” web application, I am able to keep track of the blogs that I am interested in, and even include blogs that I feel would be important down the road! I can even share only specific feeds that you find interesting! This can be helpful for bloggers like me to share with you how I have been inspired to improve in different techniques. I am currently keeping track of 24 blogs, and the list is constantly growing! The majority of the blogs are related with photography. Others include technology, teaching, humor, Photoshop, friends, finances, and more!

So, what is the reason behind this post? You may be asking that since Google Reader isn’t about photography. Honestly it does! Blogs brings dynamic information straight from the source!

Have you ever went up to a local photographer that works in a certain demographic and asked for advice? I have, it was quite a humbling experience. The whole, “I don’t want to teach my competition,” is the only response that I received, and a link to a web page created by photographers that like doing things, “the old ways.” More power to them, they are great photographers! Which is why I contacted them. But in this day and age, if you just sit comfortably in your studio doing senior photos and family shots, you’ll still make money, but doing the same pictures day after day, years after years, will eventually leave you thinking what else you could be doing.

If you are interested in becoming a better photographer, even if you feel comfortable with your photography, if you haven’t jumped on the blogging bandwagon, you are definitely missing out! There are so many excellent and VERY successful photographers out there that are willing to teach their “competition” to help build them as better photographers always thinking one-step ahead. Many that keep my attention are those who produce professional results with minimal equipment and less production costs!

So, if you are interested in blogs, then their feeds should be your new best friend! I had not used them until recently when I began reading blogs on photography, and it just kind of spread from there. Now I use them every day! Any web site that has content that can be updated like a newspaper or blog should have an RSS or ATOM feed available to help capture, and manage the content of the blog. You can look for the little orange feed icon, and go from there!

So, if you are interested in blogging, let me know, and we’ll get you setup! Here is a link to Google Reader, and my feed for this blog, and my Google Reader shared items feed! You can right click my feed links, and go to "Copy Link Location" to add to your Google Reader account.

Side note: Yes, the picture is my roommate Shaphan wearing a tiny denim jacket for a video we were shooting that we still have not completed making fun of Enrique Iglesias. Someday, that video will be completed!

Dennis Dixon

Inspiration in photography is around every corner, knowing people who know people, little photo shoots turn into big opportunities.

I got the chance this weekend to have a photo shoot with my friends Haley and Jessica, and they just happened to get Dennis Dixon to come along. Dennis is not only of the greatest football players to come through University of Oregon, but he is one of the most down to earth, and kind people I have ever met. I was able to get in a few personal shots of just him at the end of the photo shoot and captured this moment, which really lets his personality shine. No athletic equipment besides a football, wearing his casual clothes, Dennis is just happy to be in the spotlight. I will look forward to seeing his career in either baseball or football, and seeing him shine continually as a star. Heisman Trophy? He deserves it!

Maybe there is a future out there for me in journalistic photography? Photo shoot like these are what keep me going! Feel free to take a look at some other shots from the photo shoot here, which include some of the group pictures of Dennis and the girls. Enjoy!

Senior Photos!

Senior Photos? The pinnacle of youth, the 12th grade, on the edge of becoming an adult, eight teen years in the making, you are just about to end your K-12 experience, and you need pictures to prove it!

This is quite possibly the silliest reason for anyone to have a professional photograph taken of him or her. Now don't get me wrong, I love photography, but most senior photos are a joke. Now, I have looked around at some senior photography here and there to kind of get a grasp what everyone out there is doing, maybe pick up an idea or two. But the more I look at it, the more I realize how boring these pictures are! People, you are so much more creative than this! Not all of these pictures are boring, but most! They don't usually impact me as an exciting photograph expressing the full potential of the model (the senior student). It bothers me more than anything.

I guess this is more directed toward the portrait studios that have the fancy signs out front, that hardly leave the comfort of their own studio.

Typical, standard, and boring are all terms I would use for the general senior photo category. Unfortunately, I don't think any yearbook team has really gotten the point. But then again, they are just looking for a way to streamline the process when they have 200-300 graduating seniors. What’s the deal with the requirements for senior photos? It has to be a certain height, with only a certain amount gap between the face and the edge of the photo, and such. Oh my goodness, this is ridiculous! Why even get a senior photo taken? Let the kids submit a picture into their yearbook that actually expresses their personality! Okay, so yeah, then again, if there were 200-300 students with senior pictures, it would be a little aggravating to have a bunch of “personality” pictures. If someone submits a bad picture, then nobody will never able to recognize him or her for the rest of their live. Wait, that doesn’t make sense.

Okay, I guess this is where we look back on my life, a little retrospect if you may. Maybe because of a little bit of a soar thumb from my senior year, let us look back to… the year 2000.

I suddenly feel like I am in a Conan O’Brien skit.

Okay, so here we are in the year 2000. Okay, so it is still now, but you can just pretend we are in the year 2000. Wow, almost years ago? You know you are getting old when you have to start thinking about your ten-year high school reunion. Should I start working out? Come up with a dramatic business plan to make millions so I can arrive in a Ferrari (maybe I could just rent one for a day?). I have two more years to lead myself to perfection! Actually, I will probably just show up with my brand new 1990 Volvo station wagon claiming I am a photographer, and people will look at me funny. Okay, so the car is not specifically new, but it saves me money because it is old, it runs, and it is 100% paid for!

Wow, I am easily distracted! Are you still there? Oh, hello!

Anyway, back to the point! Okay, so this was well before my photography years, in fact, I have not even discovered the ways of photography at this age. I was still trying to make web pages, and do computer programming as a hopeful living. I was the classic nerd, without the classic nerd glasses. I had 20/20 vision. I didn't really know much about anything besides computers. What does this have to do with anything? Well, I got my senior photos taken, they were not too fantastic, and my mother only bought one. It wasn’t even accepted by the yearbook team, and they instead, with out any warning, put up my student body picture. I wish I could find my yearbook, so I could share you the humility. It was horrific!

I decided to add my senior photo to the mix, just to show you how NOT to do a senior photo. I have nothing wrong with backdrops, but the one that was selected for me, was just terrible. I should have been in a wedding with the light haze and the faded edges.

Of course, I figured it was only appropriate to paste a hand on my face for cheap mild entertainment. I should have submitted the picture with the hand as my face to yearbook.

I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone! How humiliating? I get my yearbook, and it is the worst picture of the century! This is the picture that all my classmates will have to look back and reference me when my name comes up in the news, or something.

Anyway, point is, why does a senior photo shoot have to be so generalized, streamlined, and generic? My goal as a photographer is to keep away from the generic, and produce something fantastic. I want to treat each individual senior as a model, and make him or her feel special during the photo shoot, no matter how long the photo shoot. I understand this isn’t for everyone! Maybe someone might want to be generically placed in a picture, that’s fine, we can do that! Senior photography is a trick, and I feel I am already on the path of starting something interesting!

Here is a look at some examples from my recent senior photos from the last few months, please enjoy, and be sure to click on the ones you enjoy most and leave a comment on my Flickr gallery!