I think it hit 70°F yesterday here in Lakewood, Colorado. While February and March are the snowiest months in Colorado, spring is right around the corner. And with that comes the time to start thinking about Senior Pictures for the class of 2010. If you like the work I have done, contact me today so we can start thinking about when and where we can get a start on the pictures for your Senior. If you haven’t seen my work yet, take a look at my portrait portfolio. My rates are reasonable, and I will make sure you are happy with the end result.
On 12.02.08, In Gear, By Chester
I have had my Olympus E-510 for over a year now, and I can say it has served me well. From time to time people ask me why I chose to go with Olympus for my DSLR purchase. There were a couple of factors at work. The kit I purchased (E-510 with two lenses) was very competitively priced compared to what Canon and Nikon had to offer. To get comparable equipment from the other two would have cost me a few hundred dollars more. Sensor resolution (10MP) was the same as the other two manufacturers. And then there was the big deciding factor – image stabilization. Olympus was the first with IS for their DSLR cameras. You had to buy the 510 to get it, but it was there. Even better, it is in-camera. That means the lenses don’t cost extra if you want IS (or VR) in them. That really helped frame my opinion up front. But this wasn’t (to me) a small purchase.
Wolf Camera, in conjunction with Olympus, had a special deal going where you could “borrow” a camera (E-400 or E-510) for a weekend to take some pictures and see what you thought. I jumped at that chance. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, they were out of the 510s. I took the 400 home for the weekend and really enjoyed shooting with it. I must admit, I was intimidated by making the jump from my P&S (Canon Powershot G5) to a full on DSLR. But I had a good weekend of shooting, and decided what the heck.
I then started doing my research online. I found the 510 for an even better price from B&H Photo/ Video. Fortunately for me, the manager at Wolf decided to match the prices I found at B&H when I was ready to walk out the door. That willingness to eat the margin a bit also meant I will buy from them in the future – mostly prints and stuff I think.
Now that I have had this camera for roughly a year, I naturally have my list of likes and dislikes about it.
Likes:
- Lightweight (in my camera/ laptop backpack, this hardly adds any weight)
- Great image quality (never had an issue with the image quality)
- Sensor cleaning (the sensor cleaning system seems to work well, don’t see any problems in my images)
- Kit lenses are good quality (I wouldn’t know what ‘great’ glass is, but these do everything I ask)
- Live view (even if I never use it)
Dislikes:
- Limited EV bracketing (3 shots, in one stop increments)
- Unique Olympus USB connector (cables are more expensive and harder to find)
- No tilt/ swivel LCD (was useful on my G5)
- Requirement of Oly xD card for pano mode (I can take panos manually and stitch in something else though)
- “Live capture” software has additional $$ cost
- FL-36 (seriously, why did they even build/ sell this?)
All in all, I can’t say I made a very poor decision in buying this Olympus. It continues to serve me well. That said, Olympus as a whole doesn’t seem to be very innovative at the moment. This worries me. I don’t have a huge investment in Olympus glass and gear, but it would be nice if they had an upgrade path that looked enticing. Compared to what I am seeing from Canon and Nikon, Olympus has a lot of catch up to do. I am not ready to upgrade just yet, so this isn’t of immediate concern. Who knows, maybe they do have something impressive in the works. They need to. The E-3 is outdated now, and the E-30 is not even close to being an evolution.
On 11.05.08, In Commentary, By Chester
Last week I said that I felt like I was ready to start offering my services. Today I am announcing that I am officially in business. I am now offering my services for both portrait (senior pictures, group events, family portraits and corporate headshots) photography as well as real estate photography.
Why both?
Well, because I like both. And I have time for both, at least right now while my business is new. I decided to pursue portraits because of two things:
1) Megan’s Senior Pictures for Lakewood High School came out so well.
2) One of Megan’s cheerleading friends told me, in no uncertain terms, that she wants me to do her Senior Pictures when it’s her time. That made me feel pretty confident about what I am doing, and confidence is often the last hurdle when undertaking a new endeavor.
I also decided to pursue the real estate photography business because I think I have an eye for it. I know what sold me on my house, and I think I can help a realtor project the image of a house that will speak to people. With how badly the credit market is tightening up, I think it will be more important than ever to have the highest quality imagery for a property that is for sale.
I am not limiting it to real estate for sale though. I also intend to do resort and hotel photography too. Based on the photos I have taken at the Westin Kierland Resort and the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, I want to offer my services to those types of properties as well.
I have added pages to this site outlining my portrait services as well as my resort/ real estate photography services. You will find sample portfolios for each service. If you are interested in either, please contact me so we can get some dates on the calendar.
On 10.02.08, In Gear, By Chester
As I look forward to when I actually have my senior picture and real estate photogrpahy/ videography businesses up and running, I know that I will need to deliver images and videos on CD or DVD.
As I continue to work on my business plans for this, I remembered a posting from Jeffrey Zeldman way back in 2003. In it he made some quick comments about the Jewelboxing System from Coudal Partners. For Zeldman to link to something, well, that means it must be pretty darned good. And Coudal is well known as a creative powerhouse. But I had no need for their system in 2003. I wasn’t doing video. I wasn’t doing photography.
All of that, of course, is changing.
So I went back to their site the other day and ordered their sample kit. You get one DVD case (big rectangle, called a “King”) and one CD case (normal square thing, called “Standard”), and the enclosed discs have some additional information on them. They aren’t terribly inexpensive (Kings run at roughly $3 each, Standards at $2, when ordered in small quantities), but they are pretty cases. If such a thing could be considered pretty. But I do like them better than the standard bulk cases with the black backing. I am pretty confident that these are going to be part of my “system” once I get everything in place. You should check them out if you give CDs or DVDs to clients. You just might like them too.
On 10.01.08, In Photos, By Chester
All in all I have taken somewhere around 200 pictures of Megan in the last couple of months. We did it mostly in 2 location, Golden Gate Canyon State Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Of those photos, Megan and my wife narrowed it down to 24 that they really liked. Using the guidelines set forth by the Lakewood High School yearbook staff, I narrowed the field down to 6 images I thought would be suitable for a headshot for the yearbook. I then exported these 6 from Lightroom 2 into their own slideshow online (the first time I had used this feature, and it worked pretty well).
Of the 6, the image above is the one she wants to use in the yearbook. After adjusting some of the lighting levels in Lightroom, I took it into Photoshop to apply some effects with Portraiture. The end result is pretty good, and I am sure will look great when printed at 2″ x 2″, or whatever yearbooks are printing at these days.
In the coming months we will be taking more photos. Why? Well, since the bulk of Senior Pictures are sent out in the spring with graduation announcements, party invitations and so forth, we have some time yet to get more pictures in more surroundings at different times of the year. Besides, she is going off to college next year. As her parents, we can never have enough pictures when she is out on her own.
On 09.30.08, In Commentary, By Chester
A few months ago I took some photos of a very corporate restroom, thinking (for some crazy reason) that they might make good stock photos. I put them up on iStockphoto and pretty much forgot about them. In fact , over the last several weeks, I pretty much forgot about stock photography altogether. I have been travelling for work, trying to figure out how I want to do the real estate photography thing, taking senior pictures of my daughter, taking pictures of the Lakewood High School cheerleaders, and still trying to have a family life. Yep, pretty busy, just like you.
Then I came across a blog post about fotoLibra. I checked it out. I liked what I saw. I made some uploads and then wrote about it briefly yesterday. And in that writing, I made a mistake.
I said I hadn’t made any money off of my stock photo endeavors so far. After I wrote that, I checked in at iStockphoto (haven’t done that for a very long time). Sure enough, I have had some sales. 3 to be exact, garnering me total commissions of $3.92. For the bathroom photos. That’s right – the bathroom photos. Not the pretty picture of golf carts all lined up in the morning, not the pretty cactus or the corporate biz jet. The bathrooms.
It’s kind of funny really. Some friends of mine thought I was crazy taking a photo of a bathroom, much less a few of them. But you never really know what people want (which is why I like fotoLibra), but apparently I must have at least a little bit of an eye for it. To the tune of almost $4 right now. Woohoo. I might go buy a Chai at Starbucks. That’s only enough to pay for a small though.
Hopefully this is the start of something wonderful. Hopefully fotoLibra is more successful. I really want them to succeed. But as long as my photos are selling somewhere, I guess I am happy.
On 09.04.08, In Commentary, By Chester
Sunday I am flying to Phoenix for 4 days to attend an IT Conference for work (conference is in Scottsdale). I get in to PHX around 9:30am local time, at which time I will head to Tucson. I lived in Prescott, AZ for 5 years in college (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) and never went to Tucson. So this time I am going to. Not sure what exactly I am going to do down there yet, but I am hoping to be at Kitt Peak at dusk and into the evening to get some pics of the observatories. I’ll try to get out to shoot every day, and hope to get my images posted here every evening. Keep an eye out, should be some good stuff. Anyone got recommendations on what to see in Tucson?
On 08.14.08, In Commentary, By Chester
Yesterday I talked about part of a conversation I observed recently. This is how the second part of it went.
The altruistic one starting to talk about stock photography and what it takes to get accepted, etc. as she is having problems getting accepted. The veteran then started on about how microstock is killing the industry, and that, by taking part in it, submitters to microstock sites are thereby killing the industry.
Being someone who has photos available on microstock sites, I cannot say that I agree with him.
I saw part of an interview with Moby the other day. He said several things I agreed with (bear with me, I am getting to the point). One was a response to a question about commercializing music (putting it out there in the equivalent of stock photography for anyone to use as they see fit). The response was one that I have thought in regards to my own attempts at microstock – it is far easier for new artists (and photographers are artists) to get noticed on sites like this than for the traditional methods.
I don’t know any art directors, I barely even know anyone at an ad agency. I also know that a lot of businesses out there don’t use an ad agency, and microstock sites are an effective means for them to get images for advertising, websites, brochures, etc. Heck, we use art from microstock sites where I work for my day job. My microstock budget for the whole year would be destroyed if I paid for one or two pictures the traditional way. That just isn’t going to work.
I am happy to go the microstock route for images that fit into the “stock” category. That said, I have other images that I consider to not be stock. These would be more in the vein of “fine art” types of images. These are the ones I will put into my “Prints for Sale” category and hope that someone buys one. Or perhaps I’ll print a collection of them and see about having them put on display in a local coffee shop. They are my images, and I can market them as I see fit. I have never been one to follow the norm anyway.
One last thought from that Moby interview. Someone asked how he feels about non-Vegans. His answer might sound PC, but I think it was genuine. He essentially said that being Vegan works for him, but he recognizes it doesn’t work for everyone. I think this debate about microstock really is the same. Can’t we all get along?
On 08.13.08, In Commentary, By Chester
Was mostly an observer to an interesting conversation the other day. It centered around what your time is worth and then evolved into a quick discussion about microstock. In this case, it related to photography, but I can see how it applies to most anything we do. On one end was an altruistic sort who wanted to work for cheap. On the other was a seasoned veteran. Neither is a full time photographer at the moment.
The altruistic one was lamenting how to bring a quality product to the less fortunate, and yet still make a profit. It’s a noble thought, and one I have had where senior pictures are concerned. I think the real, underlying concern though was how do you cater to this market, and still get called for the high end shoots. If you put your pricing out there online, it’s pretty static, and one or the other demographic isn’t going to find it acceptable for their needs.
The veteran was pretty straightforward. Charge what you think your time is worth, and also charge for the demo you are targeting. You can’t target both and be respected by either was the gist of it I think. I tend to agree. Of course, I have my web consulting experience to fall back on. Charge low, and you get low-end customers who don’t have as big of aspirations (or budgets). Charge high, and the clients may be fewer and farther in between. Certainly a fine line to walk.
Come back tomorrow for the discussion about microstock.
Big Man
It’s been interesting to see this guy grow up. When I first met Garrett he was 9 years old, sitting in his mother’s garage, trying to put a bike back together. He is 15 now, and will be 16 this spring. He is as tall as me now (6′2″), and a very charismatic person. People enjoy being around him. He is also a naturally gifted athlete that could do well at anything he set his mind too. Currently that is skateboarding. He is a big person, both in height and presence. I think shooting from this perspective (down on the ground) really captured that about him.
What is the point of all this? When you are taking a portrait of someone, you are trying to get the essence of who they are. Garrett, just like other teens these days, spends a lot of time in front of the computer. But his passion has always been outside. Riding a bike, shooting baskets, riding rollerblades and now skateboards. This is who he is. It’s easier for me to interpret this about him, since he is my son (well, step-son). But as a budding portrait photographer (thanks to his sister’s need for senior pictures this year), I want to know these things about my clients so that I can capture who they are. They won’t be the same person in 5 years as they are right now. That’s why I think it is so important to achieve this. And that is probably why I have been moving into the senior picture business so slowly. But I am ready, and have a couple of kids who I will be doing pictures for in the coming months. And of course, I have the big guy lined up for next year (Garrett is currently a sophomore at Lakewood High School here in Colorado).