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• Dishcloths vs. Brushes vs. Sponges: Keeping Your Cleaning Tools Bacteria Free
• Cleaning Secret Weapons
When it comes to photo sharing, Flickr is without a doubt, the ten ton gorilla in the room. Millions of photos are uploaded to the site on a daily basis from all around the world and of every subject you could possibly think to photograph. For millions of budding photographers, it’s a place to freely share their photos with friends, family and categorized communities of other camera wielders around the world.
Flickr is a great digital tool that has been responsible for the curation of images from the ultra mundane to the graphic masterpiece, the pornographic to the iconic and the out of focus to the nationally archived. It’s likely where a lot of you share your images on the web. But if you have aspirations of growing in your photographic career, you may want to consider your continued use of this or any other photo sharing behemoth.
I’ll caveat the remainder of this post with the reminder that this is an opinion. Take it with a grain of salt, but also carefully think on it before either following my advice or disregarding it. So agree or disagree, here are my personal thoughts on why you should (or shouldn’t) abandon your Flickr account.
In terms of its ability to share images across the web, Flickr takes the cake. In fact, many of you use Flickr to then repost your images right here on Digital Photography School. We love that you share with us too! Flickr allows its millions of users to link a single image, or group of images, almost anywhere across the web with imported metadata and other subject identifying tags. Individual images can be neatly grouped into categories such as landscapes, animals, people, still life or even My Summer Trip 2010.
If the primary purpose of your photography is to share nearly each and every snap out of your camera, then you definitely shouldn’t abandon your Flickr account (or perhaps you should even go sign up for one). No where else will allow you to so easily group, store and share with different photographic groups.
As you become a better photographer, you realize that photos you once thought were great are actually not that good at all. Even photographers who have been professionally shooting for over ten years are progressing and growing their eye every day, and finding out some (or much) of their old work is just not up to par. It’s all part of refining your vision as a photographer.
Unfortunately, with Flickr, many of those types of photos remain on your page far past when they should, bringing down the overall impact of your imagery. It’s easy to post everything, because it doesn’t require you to think about why you like a particular image. Trimming down what you show people is an exercise in learning what you want to shoot and why certain photos appeal to you. You’re only as good as your worst image. Eventually you may realize that while you’ve got some good ones, others are pretty bad. You don’t want a potential client to have to wade through the bad ones. All they should see is your best.
Part of refining your vision is also realizing what you want to shoot as a photographer. Do you have aspirations of wedding photography, landscapes, food, macro, portraiture, lifestyle, fashion, etc? The days of the photographer as a generalist are pretty much dead. Very few companies hire the same photographer anymore to shoot their landscape, automobile, fashion editorial, portrait or wildlife photo. Today, it’s all about personal style. While you can and certainly should apply it to everything you shoot, most will specialize in a few distinct fields. What I often see with users on Flickr is posts for anything and everything. That’s ok if you haven’t found your style yet, but recognize at some point it’s time to hone down on what you want to shoot and get rid of the excess fluff.
As an html site that allows you to tag, categorize and keyword each photo, Flickr is fantastic for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In fact, many photographers often post photos with the very intention of grabbing the top image search of specific Google keywords or phrases and then linking their professional website in their Flickr comment section. For a wedding photographer in a small market, being able to have one of your images come up first when someone searches for “Kansas Wedding Photographer” can be a great way your work is found by potential clients. It may even make up the bulk of your marketing efforts and source of clients. SEO is definitely a reason to think about keeping Flickr.
As you refine your vision and begin creating your own unique style, you’ll want to package your work in a website and other branded elements that present your images best. Flickr is not that. In the effort to make images uploaded on the site easy to categorize and user friendly, every photographer is molded into the very same packaging. It’s categorical, not stylistic.
In a global market that demands individualized style you can’t afford to look like just anybody else. Own your space. With Flickr, you’re just another face in the crowd. Only a personal website can deliver you a place to control every element of your brand. Do you really want sparkly dragon fly comments or other group awards/invites influencing someone’s perception of your work?
The last harsh reality is that Flickr is associated with amateurs. While some professional photographers do post to the site, the overwhelming majority of users are amateurs. That’s the perception and no getting around it. If you’re trying to coax a few thousand dollars out of a client while earning their trust that you can deliver the images as requested; the last thing you want to look like is an amateur. If you tell someone to check out your galleries on Flickr, you automatically create the perception of being an amateur, often no matter how good your work really is.
Flickr is a great photo sharing tool and the web “home” of many camera wielders around the world. If your goal with your camera is nothing more than sharing fun snaps you find day to day this is definitely a nice place to share your pictures. However, if you have aspirations of entering the world of professional photography, there will come a point in your photographic journey where it’s time to abandon your Flickr page, present a refined body of work and show yourself as a professional from presentation to product. In today’s competitive market you can’t afford to do any less.
Matthew Dutile is a commercial lifestyle photographer and photographer's assistant. You can view his Web site for more images or ask him questions on Facebook and Twitter anytime.
It’s such an incredible feeling when you really click with an art director or a fashion editor. It’s a rush, in fact. And that’s the way it feels when I work for Sally from Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. I am always excited for another opportunity to work with her again, we just have a mutual love for fashion and we are on the same page, aesthically! So when I got her email back in July about this men’s shoot, I was thrilled! There was about a 3 week lead in before she actually landed in LA so the first thing we started doing was looking for the perfect model and since we were also shooting the cover, the casting was very important!
There was a decent amount of prep work that went into this shoot and I’ll explain this to you now. While we were scouring LA for the perfect model, I set out to search the perfect location for the shoot. Sally wanted something very “LA”, you know, sunny, and glossy and hip! But Harper’s was also doing this story to coincide with the Louis Vuitton Trophy, the sailing race set to take place in Dubai from November 12th through the 27th! And because the shoot was with Louis Vuitton clothing exclusively, their people had some input too and they wanted a nautical theme sort of enter-twined with the story to enhance the Trophy race. So I first reached out to rowing clubs or considered renting an actual rowing boat. We realized that since we had to get 6 pages and a cover in one day, maybe the rowing boat would be too limiting. I reached out to some Yacht clubs too, but there weren’t any that were really aesthetically interesting to shoot in Southern California. That’s when I thought of a pool located in the Hollywood Hills that I had shot at about 2 months before this shoot came up. Situated high above Hollywood Boulevard, this house had all the glamour of Hollywood and then some! It was modern, sleek and bright. But the main star of the house is it’s pool. Beautifully “poised” in the front yard, the pool looks out over the city of Los Angeles with lots of white concrete surrounding it and tons of shooting opportunities. I forwarded Sally some outtakes of the pool from my previous shoot and she approved the location. So the location was nailed down first. The casting took a bit longer. I emailed the top LA modeling agencies and gave them the job break down and started forwarding the packages once I got them to Sally in Dubai. We went back and forth for awhile until her and her staff decided that Dylan Griner from Photogenics Models was our “it” model for this shoot. With his “rugged” but still beautiful looks, he was the perfect model for this kind of shoot.
So we had the location set and we had the model. The last thing we needed were some props to fill out the story. Because Sally picked up the samples in Paris from Louis Vuitton, we could have the model actually get in the pool with the clothing and get them wet. Originally I put together a shot list to include a lot of shots in the pool or just outside of it. But we needed something extra to read “Nautical!” While Sally was actually flying from Dubai to Paris to pick up the clothing from Vuitton, I was at Omega Cinema Props in Hollywood and photographing potential props for our shoot. Omega caters to the movie industry so they have football stadium sized buildings stocked full of everything you can possibly imagine in the way of props! They have them sorted by country or era. Or themes. When I called them to ask if they had a nautical section, the answer was yes, “yeah, sure, they’re all in building C”. It’s really awesome to visit there. SO many possibilities!! I drove down to Omega and took a bunch of pictures of different type of boating rope and buoys, different oars, just anything that looked interesting and Nautical.
When Sally arrived in LA, I met her at her hotel to take a look at the clothing and show her the pictures from Omega. She approved the ones she wanted and the shoot was set! This was 2 days before the shoot!
Our call time was 12 Noon because I didn’t want to start shooting in the middle of the day when the sun was directly overhead. Why? Because the light isn’t very attractive at that time of day. The morning of the shoot day, Tyler and I headed to Omega to pick up the props that I had put on hold. We then headed over to the house to get our equipment unloaded and set up before the rest of the crew arrived. David picked up Sally from her hotel so she didn’t have to take a cab all the way from Santa Monica, which if you know LA, Santa Monica feels like it’s in a different time zone when you’re up in the Hollywood Hills! By the time they arrived, the lighting was set up and Dylan, our model, was in make up. Sally used a guest room at the house to lay out the clothing and we had Dylan try on the clothing to see what worked best on him. Meanwhile, I was busy with Tyler working out the order of the shots and how the sun was going to move over the pool area we were shooting in. Because of the brightness of that summer sun in LA, I decided to use a neutral density filter. The main purpose of a ND filter is to cut down the amount of light that passes through the lens. So, in other words, I didn’t have to shoot at F16 to get my exposure. I own a ND 2 which has a filter factor of 2 stops. That means I have to open up 2 stops when I put that filter on. So I could shoot with a better aperture AND the ND filter also darkens the sky and helps keep colors saturated. So I knew the blue sky and pool water would really pop with an ND filter as well as being able to control my aperture. Meghan Stoll from AIM Artists was our men’s groomer for the day. She gave Dylan that “perfect” tousled hair look which looks like it wasn’t worked on but actually was. She also evened up his skin with a little foundation. Obviously we’re not going to slap on a ton of make up on a male model, especially for a pool shoot.
The day went really smoothly with zero drama. I want to reach out here and give a warm and sincere big thank you to Adam Press for letting us take over and invade his incredible home in the Hollywood Hills. We had our computers set up in the dining area, his living room became our grip room with all our gear laid out on the floor so we could run and grab an extra C-stand or whatever we needed. His guest bedroom, as mentioned, became the wardrobe room and the kitchen area was Meghan’s grooming domain. And then of course we shot the entire story in and around the pool. We we did indeed take over his house, if only for a few hours, but still. He was very gracious in letting us shoot there and I’m very grateful that he did because the shots turned out so lush and rich! And indeed the location had a lot to do with that.
Also a special thanks to Daniel Castro and his friend for the extra hand in assisting that day. Like I always say, it take a village to produce these shoots. There’s lighting issues to take into consideration and we have to trouble shoot constantly. One thing we decided to do on this particular shoot was to use our strobes as the sun and over power the sun. We were able to do this by positioning the lights at the angle the sun was coming in and then using a strong enough power of watts, we were able to trick the camera and sort of “over-ride” the sun. Slapping on the ND filter gave it some depth and saturation and there it is: our finished product!
All Images ©2010 Melissa Rodwell Photography
And to add one more amazing aspect to an already great day, Matthew Wardenaar and Evan Matthews from EME Productions came out and shot our BTS video. These two are great guys who I met through one of my LA seminars and they’ve become like family! Not only are they some pretty handsome boys, they’re genuinely sweet. Oh and they’re pretty damn talented as well. Although, I think it’s a one sided love between us. I think they just love us because of our famous In and Out Burger’s catering on our shoots! LOL. Just kidding. That’s an inside joke. But Check Out their VIDEO that they did for us, so we can share with you the day of the shoot!
To raise the final portion of funds to transform its Ramillies Street Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery will stage a charity auction at Christie’s South Kensington on Thursday, 17 February 2011. The event will comprise a Live and Silent Auction, offering nearly 70 lots. From Helmut Newton to Rineke Dijkstra, Sebasti?o Salgado to Corinne Day, the works on sale will reflect some of the extraordinary talents who have exhibited at the Gallery during its 40 year history. The works will be on public display at Christie’s South Kensington from Saturday 12th until Thursday 17th February. Christie’s South Kensington saleroom is located at 85 Old Brompton Road, London.
The Photographers’ Gallery Press Release
Charity Auction for New Photographers’ Gallery
To coincide with its 40th anniversary, The Photographers’ Gallery will stage a charity auction at Christie’s South Kensington on Thursday 17 February 2011. Designed to raise the final portion of funds to transform its Ramillies Street Gallery, the event will comprise a Live and Silent Auction, offering nearly 70 lots. With estimates ranging from £600 to £10,000, this will be the perfect opportunity for collectors of photography to add to their collections, while supporting a new state-of-the-art photography gallery in London.
From Helmut Newton to Rineke Dijkstra, Sebasti?o Salgado to Corinne Day, the works on sale will reflect some of the extraordinary talents who have exhibited at the Gallery during its 40 year history. Many of the included artists, such as Lee Miller and Sally Mann, exhibited for the first time in the UK at The Photographers’ Gallery. Eighteen past winners and nominees of the prestigious annual Photography Prize have also donated works in recognition of the Gallery’s support of their work at pivotal times in their careers.
The works will be on public display at Christie’s South Kensington from Saturday 12 until Thursday 17 February 2011, culminating in the Live Auction of over 30 lots at 20.00, Thursday 17 February 2011. A series of free public talks by featured artists Simon Roberts, Rut Blees Luxemburg and Karen Knorr, as well as Gallery Curator Stefanie Braun, will be programmed during the viewing days.
There will also be a Silent Auction of more than 30 lots, with bidding available throughout the viewing period, enabling photography collectors at every level to show their support to The Photographers’ Gallery.
Brett Rogers, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery said, ‘This is an exciting opportunity for us to raise the final funds needed for our new building. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the photographers and gallerists, as well as private individuals, who have chosen to donate works to the Auction. Their support demonstates their enthusiasm to help us realise our vision to create a new home for photography in London. Photography is one of the most universal and democratic mediums of our time. At no other point in our history has photography proven to be so popular with artists and audiences. I look forward to welcoming all our supporters to the new Photographers’ Gallery later this year.’
All proceeds from the Auction will go towards the Gallery’s ongoing capital campaign to build a new photography gallery at Ramillies Street, just off Oxford Street, in the heart of London’s West End. The transformed Photographers’ Gallery will comprise three dedicated gallery floors, an education floor, improved Bookshop and Print Sales, and a street level Café/Bar area. Construction has already started on this impressive project with the Gallery due to open in Autumn 2011.
As a public gallery and charity The Photographers’ Gallery raises all its income from its Enterprises which go back into supporting the public programme, and through the generous support of individuals, trusts and foundations. Further information on the Gallery and its activities can be found at http://www.photonet.org.uk
Viewing Dates: 12 – 17 February 2011
Auction: 20.00, Thursday 17 February 2011
Location: Christie’s South Kensington
85 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD
Nearest Tube: South Kensington
Admission free
Illustration taken from http://www.photonet.org.uk/
The Canon XF305 and XF300 (pictured) Full HD camcorders have now been added to the BBC list of approved HD cameras.
Sony demoed a 5-inch external monitor for its latest Alpha DSLRs and SLTs at CES. The CLM-V55 display, which connects to the camera via the HDMI port and sits in the flash hot shoe, provides a better LiveView experience than the onboard rear screen. A forthcoming firmware update will enable the Sony Alpha A33, A55, A560 and A580 camera models to output the live view feed through their HDMI ports in order for full compatibility with this display (and any HDTV). The Sony CLM-V55 external monitor also has a headphone jack for monitoring audio while recording a movie clip. The display will be available in March for $399.
Via Amateur Photographer, Pocket-Lint and Photography Bay
Cypress Innovations has released piRAWnha 1.1, an iPad app that enables raw image file processing.
By Mike Panic on 23 Dec 2010 in Guides[ 5 Comments ]
Aside from being a once a year holiday, Christmas is a time of year when friends and family from out of town get together, exchange stories of what transpired in their lives for the year and eat some good food. It doesn’t matter if you’re the one from out of town or hosting the dinner, capturing these moments shared over dinner, especially with those who you don’t see on a regular basis should be captured, and well. Here’s how to get some great results.
Setting up your gear properly
For the most part, I’m suggesting you treat this event as you were a photojournalist. Save the staged photos on the couch or in front of the fireplace for later in the evening. Posed shots are fun but it’s the candid moments that are often most cherished. Because of this, don’t use a flash. Rather, choose a fast lens (one with a low f/stop number) and shoot at a higher ISO.
Alternatively, you could setup a tripod in the corner with a speedlight on it and trigger it with a radio transmitter / receiver, which is a little more complicated but our friends at Strobist wrote up a great how-to a few years ago in a similar situation. Either no flash or off camera flash is acceptable but for best results, avoid on-camera or built-in flash.
For ease of mind, shoot in aperture priority mode as wide open as you can and just watch the shutter speed the camera picks. As long as it’s faster than the focal length of your lens, your photos should be blur-free. Example: shooting on a 50mm f/1.8 lens (commonly called a thrifty fifty and an essential part to any photographers tool bag) should have a shutter speed no slower than 1/60th of a second. If you’re seeing anything slower, raise the ISO and try again.
Take the time to do a quick custom white balance too. It will make a world of difference, and we’ve taught you how several times already.
Start in the kitchen
Christmas Dinner starts several hours before dinner, and if the opportunity is there to start earlier in the day with the preparation work, do so. Many families split the duty of cooking as it’s a great time to bond, and likewise an excellent opportunity to start telling the story. Think of shooting the whole day more like telling a story, as if you were going to put together a photo book (which is a great idea for family members). Food is an integral part of our culture these days and a little extra work will yield some great results.
Don’t neglect the others
Step out from the kitchen and interact with everyone else, chances are you’ll see some beautiful moments and you want to be there to capture them. From the guys out back trading stories to the children running around and playing, these events all contribute to the actual dinner-day and celebration.
Attention to details
The details can help further tell your story, like this photo of the Turkey, which is now at the proper temperature. Likewise, the place settings, which often take a lot of time to setup should be shown too, and it’s a great opportunity to get a macro lens out.
Yes, a little more on the artsy side, but still a great addition to telling the story.
Time to eat
Get a picture of the room (with or without your family, or both!), your plate of food, then enjoy. Just because you’re the family shutterbug doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the time with your family and friends. Put the camera down, eat some food and relax.
Get the last few shots
Usually at the end of dinner everyone is stuffed, not feeling photogenic and are looking for an after dinner drink. That’s when shots like the above one will appear, capture them then join everyone with your feet up on the couch and enjoy the company of everyone else.
Treating the day like a photojournalist would, rather than pushing for the cheesy posed shots will, in the end, probably give you more fun with everyone and capture everyone how they really are. Don’t forget the best part of Christmas dinner, next day leftovers!
Tags: christmas
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Sony Ericsson has launched a Facebook competition to find “the most creative, cutest or crazy photos of all things miniature”.
This is the first of this type of book I’ve come across: a guide to a thoroughbred strain of cameras, the models in the lineup, a feature list of each as well as a rundown on the lenses and accessories to suit.
For Canon the release of the first EOS, the D30 in May 2000, represented a significant step forward as the “first all-Canon digital SLR… ”
When this camera was released it was helpfully bundled with a 16MB memory card, sufficient to store three full res RAW files. Wow!
The listing for this camera is an indication of the styles to follow: eight pages of descriptive and detailed text, plus two pages of specs and some images.
They’re all there: EOS-1D, D60; 1Ds; 10D; 300D/Digital Rebel; 1Ds Mk II; 20D; 350D/Rebel XT; 5D; 1D Mk II N; 30D; 400D/Rebel XTi; 1D Mk III; 40D; 1DS Mk III; 450D/Rebel XSi; 1000D/Rebel XS; 5D Mk II; 500D/Rebel T1i; 7D; 1D Mk IV; 550D/Rebel T2i.
Useful chapters include a full list of EF, EF-L land IS Lenses, tilt and shift lenses, spelling out the construction data (elements/groups), aperture, filter size, size etc. Accessories such as wireless flash, controllers, battery grips etc are also described.
But it’s not all techy: tucked away between the camera outlines are helpful chapters on the art of photography itself: composition, white balance, spot metering and so on.
Thankfully, the model numbers given are in dual form, as Canon seems to have an enormous problem with grey marketting of its product in the US, demanding, for example, that such cameras as the EOS 550D be labeled as the Rebel T2i for that market.
A useful book if you are a Canon follower. My only caution is of course that, with the continuing cascade of new models, the list will be out of date in six months’ time. Perhaps the book would be better published as a subscription PDF on the Net.
Author: A Stansfield.
Publisher: Ammonite Press.
Distributor: Capricorn Link.
Length: 272 pages.
ISBN 978 1 906672 70 6.
Price: Get a price on the Canon DSLR System at Amazon where it is presently 22% off.
Barrie Smith is an experienced writer/photographer currently published in Australian Macworld, Auscam and other magazines in Australia and overseas.
Q: Any recommendations on a modern tall dresser/chest of drawers around 70"? Everywhere I look they're about 48" tops. I prefer not to spend more than $600. Ideally they would be like these (shown above, from CB2 and IKEA), but double the height.
