Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona taken on 4-12-2011
Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, Arizona taken on 4-19-2011
Picket Post Mountain Trail in Arizona taken on 4-23-2011
Loch Vale Snowshoe Hike taken on 2-4-2012
News
There are new galleries of photos from 2010 and 2011 posted to smugmug. I’m still working on labeling the photos and uploading a few more galleries. Check them out: http://justphotographin.smugmug.com/
Gardener’s World Poinsettia Festival 12-10-2010
East Saguaro National Park, Arizona 1-17-2011
Colorado Rockies Spring Training Game at Salt River Fields, Arizona 3-7-2011
San Tan Regional Park, Arizona 3-13-2011
San Tan Regional Park, Arizona 3-27-2011
A new feature that I would like to focus on is a newsletter! I have a form on the contact page that can be submitted to me. When I publish a formal newsletter, I will send a copy to anyone on the list. The newsletter may feature: a story from recent photo opportunity with a few photos, a technical data section about equipment I am using, and an outlook of things to come [calendar of events]. *Content is subject to change.
I would like to make the newsletter a PDF file. This type of file requires Adobe Reader which can be downloaded for free. The tentative publishing schedule will be: January, April, July and October within the first week of the month. However, the first edition will be coming up later this month or the first week in May since this is a new feature. The newsletter will be emailed from justphotographin at gmail dot com. Add this email address to your contact/safe list to make sure it does not get marked as spam. I am working on a template right now. Head on over to the contact page to subscribe!
With three months gone out of 2013, I thought I would report on highlights.
January saw more purchases of equipment – mainly lenses and lens accessories. I also continued my self tutorial on learning the Canon 5D III with treks into the park!
February was what I am going to call – the break through month! I found a friend to discuss photography with and went on a photo trek into the park with them. During the third week of the month, I watched a CreativeLIVE workshop on the fundamentals of photography which refreshed prior learning and added new learning! I really dove into my camera settings after the workshop. This also motivated me to set my standard higher which means that I need to continue to upgrade my hardware and software in an effort to meet industry standards for professional photography.
March was a somewhat slow month for photography, other than a few minor equipment purchases – mainly camera accessories. The main highlight for March was finding a few more local photographers and attempting to shoot Comet PanSTARRS! After about a week long struggle to even spot the comet due to terrain and weather, we finally succeeded to photograph the comet on March 19th!
That brings me to now. You may have noticed a reduction in project life 365 posts over the last month. I decided that I no longer want to participate in the photo-a-day challenge for a few reasons. I want to focus on landscape, wildlife and wildflower photography. Many of the themes [although can be ambiguous] have nothing to do with landscapes, wildlife and wildflowers. The project is geared more toward a different style of photography; that is the best way to put it. The galleries of photos are still up, but they aren’t highlighted on the main header of the gallery page anymore.
On another note, photography is not my only business endeavor. I am also still keeping up with aviation topics and have been able to refer information to a few friends and individuals who have expressed interest! Being that photography is a somewhat new venture [in business], I am also doing a couple of other part time things as a contractor and sub-contractor. My time gets filled surprisingly fast!
A few things that I am looking forward to in the next few months include more opportunities to take pictures. I am also looking to add a few more pieces of equipment – including: a few more lenses, a tripod, tripod mounts and brackets, and a faster computer with more current software. I am also thinking about making some changes to my online store – which may include: price changes, availability of products and possibly a more focused or re-organized set of categories. I am also going to work on marketing and advertising within the local community which can actually lead to a wider audience and more opportunities! As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am intrigued with a longer term goal of purchasing a photo printer to do in house printing.
I have yet to make a photo sale. The feedback continues to be positive, and I am thankful for everyone that has looked at my photos and left comments! I am going to continue to learn my equipment and strive to take better photos. It is fun to find ways to challenge my creativity! Luckily, with all of my endeavors, things are looking good for 2013!
After I posted the last post, I thought I would expand on some areas that I find intriguing. I am not huge into post processing of images. My goal is to get as close to what I want in camera and do minor tweaking on the computer. The main reason for a computer upgrade is to more quickly process raw files and convert them to the necessary output type.
I started shooting and stitching panorama shots with the point and shoot camera. With a new computer and software along with the new camera, panorama stitching is an area that I would like to continue improving.
Along with panorama stitching is what is known as High Dynamic Range Imaging [HDRI]. I was unaware of HDRI until after I upgraded to the Digital Single Lens Reflex [DSLR]. However, now that I am aware, this is something that I would like explore. My camera has an automatic mode, however, with better software I will able to make more of the processing decisions. Also, less data will be lost in the process resulting in a better image.
I have been running ideas around over the past month about business decisions and opportunities. One of the concerns that came up is that when I converted from the point and shoot camera back in November, I was slightly ignorant. I knew that the upgrade would open up more photographing capability. However, I didn’t realize how much – which is a good thing with draw backs. All of the business decisions and opportunities I have been thinking about are in an effort to produce the best possible image that I am capable of getting.
I am currently in the process of looking at computer upgrades that I did not realize I would need to make. The reason for the computer upgrades, which include both hardware and software, is because I found out that my current system does not handle the version of raw that my camera shoots in [very well]. I am limited when I shoot raw, which is the highest quality and most versatile file type to work with. Raw is also the industry standard for professional photographers. Therefore, in order to be competitive, it makes sense to strive for the industry standards. I can shoot raw files and process them in camera or with the proprietary software, but it is somewhat limiting.
Another reason for the computer upgrades is that eventually I would like to do some in house printing. I have been learning more about image processing over the last month and am intrigued. One of the things that I am still learning about is getting the photo to look as close to what I saw/shot. The first step is obviously the camera [settings, preparation, and taking the photo]. The second step is processing and formatting the file to the proper output. The third is printing, if that is a desired output. It may take a little while, but printing in house has intrigued my interested.
The current online gallery works well for a lot of reasons. It reduces my workload to shooting and processing the photos. Once I upload the photos to the online gallery, sales and shipping is handled out of house. This is definitely a good option for me right now because I can focus more on what I need to do to shoot and process the files. However, there are some drawbacks to my current store setup. I am limited to pricing photos at the same value. There may be some post processing by the print lab. Between the photo I see on my screen to the photo that makes it to the consumer, there may be some discrepancies. The print lab is going to make changes for the type of paper the photo is printed on and make color adjustments based on the printer and ink they use. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I am striving to produce the best photo possible and the less discrepancy the better!
A few other ideas that I have been going over include marketing. Obviously, three months is a short time to be in business. It has been great to have positive feedback! Since January: I started the online gallery as a place for customers to make purchases; I created this blog as a way to share behind the scenes stories and other information; I also created a facebook page. Technology is a great marketing tool. However, I am also looking at other ways to market to consumers. Printing business cards to hand out while I am out taking pictures is on my list. I have been looking at entering into some art shows so that I can display my work and talk with people. There have been some photo contests that I have looked at entering.
I have already been approached by a few people about doing some presentations about some of the photos that I have taken. I also submitted a few photos for a local Christmas ornament fundraiser! The results have not been posted for the photo for the Christmas ornament yet, but it was a neat experience to be asked for a submission! All of these are great opportunities! The main thing that I need to do is continue to get out there and continue to improve!
I didn’t close the polls for the photos until about 30 minutes ago so there was an extra 2 hours and 45 minutes! Any way, now that the polls are closed, the votes have been counted. The results from 44 total votes [from Facebook, blog and email] are:
Most popular photo goes to number 10 [Sprague Lake at sunset].
Second place goes to number 6 [Loch Vale].
Third place goes to number 4 [Dwarf Columbine].
Thank you for all the votes! Hopefully one of those three will be selected for the ornament.
There was a four way tie for 4th between numbers 1,7,9 and 12; a two way tie for 5th between numbers 2 and 5; photo 2 came in 6th; and a two way tie for 7th between numbers 8 and 11.
My neighbor tipped me off about creativeLIVE, which is a resource of free online workshops or webinars [web seminars]. The workshops are streamed live, and then also re-broadcast. They are free, however, they also have the option to purchase in case there is something that was just awe inspiring and worth watching over and over!
This week’s topic is Fundamentals of Digital Photography. So far, I have only been able to catch snippets, but I am planning to watch as much as I can. Some of it is refresher; some of it is new. It looks like a fairly major snow storm is headed this way for the middle of the week, so I may as well spend the time inside catching up with the workshop!
I am also looking forward to next week’s topic – Photoshop Week. I consider myself a novice when it comes to the capabilities of photo editing. So, I will probably be glued to the computer next week learning as much as I can!
At any rate, creativeLIVE is a great resource for learning new things as well as refreshing old things! Thanks to my neighbor for sharing and getting me hooked on it! 🙂
This week has been busy. The Tenth Avenue North song “Worn” has been going through my head most of today. “I’m tired, I’m worn.” But, it is all good. I am enjoying what I am doing!
With that said, I did not have time to work on the weekly Project Life 365 recap collage. So, hopefully tomorrow afternoon I will have some free time to edit that and post it.
I am looking forward to tomorrow’s theme – outside! I think I will head into the park, again, to see what I can find in the great outdoors. 🙂 If I do not make it into the park, I may just take a stroll around part of Lake Estes.
Back when I started the online gallery, I was going through photos from 2008 through 2012. I guess I lost steam, motivation, or just got busy doing other things. So, I looked at the calendar and tomorrow is blank.
I decided that I am going to make it my priority to go through 2010 photos and upload galleries. If I get through 2010, I will move onto 2011 and so on.
I am going to have to dig around a little bit more for the 2008 and 2009 photos. That is a project for a different time.
FYI – every gallery prior to November 2012 was taken on the Canon Powershot SD600.
JUST PhotographIN' 