Day 5 (late) first/last 10am

This was the first piece of mail I saw when leaving for work at 10am and the last thing you ever want to get. Ever.

Day 4 Still/Strangers

I have been sick with a head cold that hit me like a Mack truck today so I wasn’t able to venture out for the strangers aspect, so I took a photo of a movie I was watching that I rather enjoy since I’ve never met the actors they are strangers and the photo counts as a movie still

Day 3 photo challenge

Day 3, motion/hands

More photo challenges

So in addition to my friends photo-a-day challenge there is the wide spread random one that is also going on, I have decided that I am going to COMBINE the two and see what happens! Here is todays, Day 2 image Color and Words

Day 1 Full/Empty

Day 1 photo is full/empty I could have been all poetic about it….but decided to do this instead.

February Photo A Day Challenge.

*Update – 02/02/11 I have added a second generic challenge to this post that I will also be partaking in!

My friend Adrian of Adrian Loves Owls wanted to do a photo a day challenge for Feb and since I missed the one in January I decided to partake. If you happen to read this silly blog thing I am trying to do and like the idea of a daily challenge, then join in!

p is for professional

so i recently came across a youtube channel that does satirical photographer vlogs. It was amusing and aggravating at the same time because, it really showed what people think about photography and how ‘easy’ it is…

Lesson one, if you think a photograph and a picture are the same thing, you are NOT a photographer, and there is a website just for you. www.youarenotaphotographer.com it makes me laugh.

Lesson two if you think that anything the lady in the first link says is true or you have done that…. refer to the link in lesson one.

photography is a CRAFT that you have to hone much like a sculptor or an electrician, you cannot buy a thrift store camera and call yourself a professional photographer and have it mean something, all you are doing is degrading the good name of my profession.

When you show up at my best friend’s outside night-time wedding with a camera that has a pop up flash….you are degrading the good name of my profession, but that is another blog…

take the camera you just bought so you can become a professional and do us all a favor, GO LEARN HOW TO BE A PROFESSIONAL!

Contact professionals in the area who take photographs that you still refer to as pictures, that you are IN LOVE WITH and ask if you can assist them for FREE! YES, I SAID FOR FREE, you are not worth anything to them, you have no experience you need to learn, so assisting a professional for free, getting experience with their equipment and learning what it does, learning the tricks of the trade you want to get into with your cheap camera that you will realize you need to upgrade, or the professional camera you just didn’t need because it’s too much camera for the everyday things you d,o and learn how they work, learn what an F Stop is, Learn how shutter speed and F stops relate to each other and how throwing on that thing called ISO affects those as well. Learn how to use a strobe for night-time outside weddings, how a diffused light makes the photos so much nicer to look at than the tiny glaring bulb from your pop up flash. Learn what diffused means. the point is TO LEARN!

Take that FREE knowledge you got and then apply it, do free or relatively cheap photo sessions with your friends and family and apply what you have learned. Make a portfolio from that and use it as your passport show people that you have equipment and some knowledge and then you can expect to be paid, maybe not much because hey, you just started, but at least it will be something and more experience; more knowledge. LEARN YOUR CRAFT don’t just say you are a professional because you charge people money and wing it. ACTUALLY BE A PROFESSIONAL.

Don’t tarnish the good name of my profession. Go learn. in the words of Bill Jay, ‘Always leave a photographic situation the same or better than when you found it.’ Meaning, don’t call yourself a professional and take crappy photos for $400 then call it a day while you are leaving people with your crap, know what you are doing and take the best possible photos you can because you are charging for them, people have expectations when money is involved. Don’t let them down.

Society of Photographic Education

Some people have heard of the Society of Photographic Education (SPE) and some haven’t, when I first heard of it I got this mental image of a bunch of snooty old men in tweed jackets sitting in leather wing back chairs with their various view camera’s and wet plate exposures propped around them.
After flying to Atlanta for the National Conference March 10-13 of 2011 I found that I couldn’t have been farther off if I tried.
The SPE conference was amazing. It brought photographers together from all over the country and in some cases the world to share stories and ideas, get Portfolio reviews to get validation and an outsiders opinion on things, attend seminars and stay up all night talking to people you would have never had the chance to meet.
It was AMAZING! and absolutely something that every photography student should have the opportunity to attend at least once.

This years SPE conference will be held in the land of Rice-a-Roni, in San Francisco. March 22-25. This year will be a big year for me I have a FINAL PORTFOLIO for grad school and I can test it out there before I send it out on the 31st of March.

https://www.spenational.org/

hope to see you there!

Tardy for the party

So I know I said I was going to try to do this blog-a-day thing…well that kind of went to hell day 17 of January and I have one blog up and it was a day late (but never a dollar short).

So I will be writing a series of small blogs on various subjects I was meaning to touch on and was too busy to do.

First…

The generalization that I automatically know EVERYTHING there is to know about camera’s/equipment regardless of age or brand because I am a photographer…
I might have vast knowledge, and know essentially what things do but when I tell you to look on youtube for a tutorial or God-forbid suggest you actually read the owners manual that came with your new DSLR that I told you you didn’t need in the first place don’t get pissy with me. I didn’t spend the last 7 years of my life working on getting a degree so that I could be your personal camera guru. I did it so I could pursue my passion and have a degree in a field I love. If I CHOOSE to help you then yes be grateful, buy me a latte, whatever, but when I am working on my projects and busy with my life and I can’t take the 45 minutes you need to explain why the P mode is different from auto…don’t hold that against me. Realize that I am a WORKING artist. I have 2 jobs, and student loans and am trying to continue to make work and be an artist because I was told in EVERY art class I took in college that only 5% of the people I graduated with would still be art makers within the 5 years following graduation. I WILL NOT BE A STATISTIC.

Plus, if you figure it out on your own you can brag to me about it and how awesome you are because you have “Teh Smartz”. Bonus.

Renew

So I am going to be one of those people who jumps on the 365 project thing at the beginning of the year, one day late. I was involved with family yesterday and my family is definitely an involvement. I love them but having to gather EVERYONE for EVERY major holiday makes you appreciate your immediate family and your own home that much more.

Besides the Family i was also working on last-minute projects for my Roller Derby Exhibition “Hot Pants and Helmets: Featuring the Arizona Derby Dames.” It’s going to be one BAD ASS photo exhibition. I am stupid broke and verging on insanity but it’s going to be worth it once that last light is set.

I am ridiculously stressed and anxious to see it come together this week!!!

If you are in the Phoenix Area please come down and see the show at Night Gallery at Tempe Marketplace off the 202 and McKlintock.