How I Shot That - Clouds and a Falling Leaf

How I Shot That - Clouds and a Falling Leaf

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Sony a6000 / Sony 50mm f1.8

When the Fall comes, the weather gives us special opportunities.  One of these opportunities came from a set of trees in La Crosse that are nearly 100 years old.

Every fall, these few tall trees around Riverside Park shed their leaves.  It is the hight that gives me options.  And that day the clouds were spotty and the wind was just enough to rest the light collector away from the branch.  

Since it has so far to fall, the wind really carries it away.  I get enough space away from the tree to take that out of the frame.  And then I need to spend much of a day by this tree, running down leaves.  Sometimes I need to spend multiple days in order to get the photo I want.  This one, I had actually come back to the same place multiple afternoons to get the photo of a single leaf with the clouds in the background.

Something else that helped take this photo, was a new camera (at the time) that had a much better focus system than my old point and shoot bridge camera.  This was from my Sony a6000.  I used the 50mm f1.8 lens.  The a6000 was made as a starting sports camera.  So I was able to get my focus on the leaf pretty well.  I also had to shoot pretty fast.  So 11 frames a second was nice to have.

If you were to purchase this photo, the best way to do it justice would be on a large metal print.  Think 12x18.  That would be gorgeous.

How I Shot That - After Hours near the Bahai Temple

How I Shot That - After Hours near the Bahai Temple

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Sony a6000: https://amzn.to/2GiWa2T
Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS:  https://amzn.to/2E24YEx
Bahai Wilmette Wikipedia Page

When you are in town for a visit with family and you find a little bit of time... go do something.

The other day I was in the Chicago area and after dinner I had a little extra time.  I asked my brother, if we could go see the Bahai Temple in Wilmette, IL. 

If you haven't seen this place, it is huge!  It is the kind of thing that in most cases, a small lens was made fore.  But I really like the 50mm.  I like it so much, I still use it for getting scenic shots.  Could I have had done this with something else... probably. But I'm still very happy with this.

That night was very much spur of the moment.  The night had actually gotten a bit more chilly than I expected, too.  But being the upper Midwest, we are not unfamiliar with this change in weather.  After we found a parking spot it was a small walk up to this location. 

But, since it was cold, my brother and I did a couple of things before leaving the vicinity of his car. We checked our batteries in our Sony cameras.  Changed our lenses, and then started walking. 

As we got closer, it became apparent just how massive this structure is.  But since I had the 50mm lens on my APS-C sized camera, I had to find my first photos be from a ways back.  And that is where I found the location for this photo. 

Where most people would take the photo of the building dead center, I wanted the off-center look.  But when you do that, usually it helps to have something that makes up for the empty space.  That is where a leading line comes into play.  That is why I took this spot to start snapping away.  The lights for the parking area lined up a little to point towards the top of the dome.

Some of the first photos were a little fuzzy, and had too much noise.  I didn't have my tripod with me, so this was going to require me planting my feet in a very steady position.  I held the camera a little extra tightly, and against my head by the eyepiece.  Then I started to lower the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second and then lowered the ISO to 500.  After a few attempts, I got a clean shot. 

If you want to see a clean, enlarged photo, go to my Google Plus Post Here.
 

An interesting thing is hearing out there all of the talk about photography gear.  People look at the new toys out there, but not at what they already have.  Or, they are convinced that this one particular lens will be all they need. But the truth us going to be messy.  That is because as artists, we are usually a little messy. 

And I think that night illustrates some of this point. I sure would like different gear, but the distraction of other gear for me will be a detriment. If I had kept my 70-210 lens with me during this walk, I would have been distracted with other 'options' and couldn't have focused on what was in front of me.  It helps me stay in the moment.

Thanks for letting me vent a little bit!

How I Shot That - Milwaukee Fog and Art

How I Shot That - Milwaukee Museum of Art

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Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2FW83M8
Sony 20mm f8 - http://amzn.to/2pywfJC

They say, always have a Fog Plan.

A couple of years ago, at about 10 am in July on the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, I didn't have the faintest clue that we would be heading into a wall of fog.  But we were in for a treat. 

My brother and I both do photography, and we got a late start to the day.  He and I were driving in from Chicago and thought that we were going to see a lot of hard shadows and sunny skies.  However, nature sent us a gift.  Fog at the shore line that was thick but let us have all the light we needed. 

One of the best architectural treats of Milwaukee is their Museum of Art.  Looking like a sailing vessel instead of a structure, it sits on the shores of this Great Lake.  Walking outside it can be misleading when finding a center focal point to photo.  So you get it just right, or make it look like you broke the composition rules on purpose. 

I had to line up the points and check for other matching lines.  The point of this deck that came out towards me was my main setup.  In checking out the lines, I confirmed I could not see the wall of the center rib on that deck.  When lining the photo up to the top, the top of one of the masts also lined up.  I decided that the 'sail' could break the rules of composition.  I know the sides of the photo seem to be clipped a little, but that looked equal to me, so I went with it. 

When I had this photo in color, it felt like I lost contrast a little bit.  But going back to monochrome, gave me back some of the building, while still keeping some of the fog's softness. 

But this also brings up the idea of the 'Fog Plan'.  When I first came to this building, I went to the main entrance.  And then I went inside.  What was I thinking?  I wasted valuable time with the fog!  Remember, fog is your friend in photography!

Also, this was a fun day that day, walking around Milwaukee.  You should try it some time.

Equipment Post - what would make this better?

Equipment - What Would Make This Better?

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I have seen a lot of people drop their jaws over new cameras lately.  It seems that some people are chasing the megapixels of a camera, others just want the latest camera.  And a few, are shrewd enough to realize an improvement can be done, but perhaps not the latest camera, but that you need the right camera.

My test was when posting this photo of a skater at the 2017 National State Games, to ask people what could make this photo better.  This was a group of heavy Sony users and many said the a7Riii or the latest a7iii.  Only one person admitted to getting the camera (that released over a year ago) might be the right path.  That was a suggestion for the a6500 with the Sony 70-200 f2.8 GM.  Sure, this would have been a near $4000 investment, but it didn't take me north of that with suggestions of the other camera's and the same glass. 

But the main thing that would give me the best increase in photo quality would be the lens.  Lens issue would help by this main factor.  The lens I used for this was the Sony 70-200 f4 G.  But the lens I wished I had was the Sony 70-200 f2.8 GM.  And  what that lens does is allow?  More light to hit the sensor.  More light means I can use a smaller ISO value.  Smaller ISO value means smaller grain in the photo.  Smaller grain means that the color and sharpness will be more pronounced. 

One other thing... you get better subject separation between subject and background/foreground.  This is called Bokeh, getting a fuzzy looking out of focus look.  It also makes the subject stand out that much greater from everything else. 

Now, what a better camera body would have given me: other opportunities.  The a6500 still has 11 frames per second, and that is a must.  But something else is that camera has eye auto focus on continuous focus mode.  Additionally, it would give me the option to use 8 fps speed, but give me the slight motion between those shots.  And that would help with tracking the subject.  This photo, while what I wanted, was only in the bottom two thirds of the frame. If I had gotten a much more centered photo, then I would have greater content to work with.

Product Amazon Links
Sony a6500     Sony a6000
Sony 70-200 f4 G     Sony 70-200 f2.8 GM
Sony a7III     Sony a7RIII

How I Shot That - Late Afternoon Marsh Bench

How I Shot That - Late Afternoon Marsh Bench

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Lens: Sony 50mm 1.8 OSS - http://amzn.to/2tT6LvK
Camera Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2FFH6fF

Golden Hour... 

Besides the fall, spring can give you a magnificent glow.  Morning and evening will give different properties so you want to choose your times wisely.  This article will discuss the ending time of light.  

Usually, shooting into the Sun isn't going to be helpful to your photo.  But, like you will find so often in Photography, rules are more like guidelines. And in this case you can find the exception in this: the shadows are not too much.  

Some of this is because many of the latest sensors like the one in my Sony a6000 have great dynamic range.  That means it can bring out the details between shaded and lit areas very well.  I did need to sacrifice one thing, the sky.  

But what happened to me today?  How did I come up onto this place, it could almost be cropped further for different aspects to give a new outcome.  This spot could be used for different types of portraits, nevermind all of the foliage and wildlife that surely must be near this.

By my nature, I'm a very distractible person.  (I try to keep these posts short because of it.)  But this time when I went out with my camera, I used that distraction.  In fact, I had been shooting what I could of wildlife and random people.  This was part of a path that forces you to turn around and head back as it becomes a dead end.  But photography is almost always a matter of perspective.  And walking a path in multiple directions helps me release my distractions and swim in them at the same time.  

So I was heading back from the dead end, and I realized the sun had produced an extra glow due to all of the pollen in the air.  This location was probably one of the richest in pollen thickness in the air... you could smell everything (if it didn't overpower your nose).

And the glow struck me that the shade never was completely dark.  The glow made me wonder because a portrait would give an air of magic to the subject.  The glow made it possible to break so many 'rules' you could find in photography.  

If I had to come back to one thing, that is to explore... even if you can't travel, explore the same places.  Probably more important when you are new than anything, because it gives you experience.  It gives you ideas for the future.  Explore the same thing at different times of day and of the year.

If that skill was good for Ansel Adams (autobiography, http://amzn.to/2FFC96i), I'm sure it will help me out here and there too.

How I Shot That - Thirsty Robin

How I Shot That - Thirsty Robin

shot with: E. Zuiko 135mm f3.5 - http://amzn.to/2DjNoeZ
Beschoi OM-M43 Adapter - http://amzn.to/2DjMU8F
Camera Olympus OM-D E-M10ii - http://amzn.to/2Fu1wb8

Robins are the bird that herald in the first breath of spring.  This little guy came up on the middle of this park path in front of me.  All I had was my Olympus OM-D E-M10ii with an old film lens of 135 mm lens stuck on it.

I didn't want to scare off the bird.  I backed up slowly a few steps and soon realized I had to get down low. After getting down low, I needed to do two more things on my camera to make sure I was as sharp as I could get.  First, I activated focus peaking.  Doing that gives an outline around everything that is sharp.  Then I used a magnify button to make sure I can see the finer focus points.

The lense I used was an adapted lens.  It wasn't originally designed for my camera.  It was an old Olympus film lens E.Zuiko 135mm f3.5.  The nice thing about it, the lens has a big focus ring on it, and it is so easy to operate when you have any kind of gloves on your hands.

So I got low.  But for a while, I think the bird was trying to figure me out... neither of us moved.  Then the robin moved closer to the water of this puddle.  I just checked my focus one more time and started shooting.  Eventually, many times the bird got down to drink.  This photo was probably the sharpest I got.  But the shot was still cropped in a bit, even with the equivalent full frame focal length of 270mm.  That's what you get when you need to step back a few.

Technical detail of this photo:  f3.5, ISO 200, 1/640 sec.

How I Shot That - Returning the Favor, Guitarist and Drummer

How I Shot That - Returning the Favor, Guitarist and Drummer

Lens is the Sony 50mm f1.8 - http://amzn.to/2F96Kcc
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr
Venue - http://thebrickhouselacrosse.com/
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This was maybe a year ago, I had gone out to a new bar that opened.  This was The Brick House with a great space for bands to play.  They have a ton of can and LED lights around the band platform.

Returning the favor (FB page here) has a lot of their own music that is a range from folk/blues to rock/pop with a little reggae sprinkled in for flavor (Reverbnation page here). They have a rather big cast of musicians.  So while They were playing it was a little hard to find a shot that looked good with all of them in it.  Either equipment would hide one of them, or another person did that.

Here is the lead guitarist (also does some vocals) with drummer.  Just the two, but it was a feeling the guitarist was portraying with drummer that caught my attention.  The shot is a little dark with highlights around them for a reason that made love the Black and White treatment I used with this.  Part of what I liked in monochrome was that I had fewer distractions.

But there was another challenge, in Color, the lights were such pure red or blue or green (or whatever color) that it seemed to easily overpower my camera's sensor.  But re-introducing it as B&W gave me all of the detail I saw that night.  And I actually love it.  Specially since it seems so sharp and full of detail to me.

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That isn't to say I won't find a color option too!  Such as this one of the drummer with the other guitarist.  This photo also required some treatment in post... but to accentuate some colors but then muting it just a little bit on the drummer, so we can see his face.

But putting that aside, the day I shot these, I couldn't get a decent shot of all of this 5 person band.  Sometimes the reward is gained during a lesson in cutting your losses and in not getting greedy for that 'one' shot.  By moving around and keeping my eyes open I was able to find other wonderful positions.  

How I Shot That - The Waiting Skaters

How I Shot That - The Waiting Skaters

Purchase This Photo (suggest metallic)
Amazon SP Teri Skate Search
Amazon Edea Skate Search
Amazon Riedell Skate Search

Figure skating, like in a lot of things, is filled with an atmosphere of 'hurry up and wait'.  I couldn't think of a finer personification of that statement than with this moment.

Every year, the City of La Crosse Park and Recreation and Forestry department puts on an ice show for the people that participated in their winter figure skating program.  Over the years, through my wife, I have gotten to know many of these kids quite well.  At the time, the camera I was using was still new to me (Sony a6000).  But I loved how flexible it is for me in this environment.  Specially since it let me get a shot like this.

This is a little bit before the ice show started.  I had previously determined that this location is where I would shoot the entire show from, because the door there would open up to the ice.  At this moment, many of the higher level skaters were lining up at this door for the show's opening number.

One of the  challenges about figure skating and photographing kids is a lot of people don't always like their kids faces online.  So I'm always looking for a photo that will be universal of sorts.  When we were waiting for the show to start, I'm seeing all of these kids with all of their skates.  For me what I think worked best, very few of the skaters had the same skate as someone else.  What got me excited was, everyone skating with whatever they had... an incredible cross-section of skaters.

So I got low with my camera (from Amazon: Sony a6000) and I kept on my 50mm f1.8(from Amazon) lens.  By focusing on some of the middle skaters more of the skates could stay in relative focus (I didn't need bokeh balls in the background).  I could get the shot down to 1/60th of a second but still needing my ISO up to 1000.

And I must say, the best reward of this photo was printing it on metallic paper.  This is a shot that needs to show the shine of the blades while making the skates shimmer a little bit.  I liked it cropped or like this.  So it can be taken down to 16x9 and it still looks great!  Honestly, I think ice rinks all over could have this photo to decorate with.

How I Shot That - Figure Skating Bullfighter

How I Shot That - Figure Skating Bullfighter

Sony 70-200 f4 OSS G: http://amzn.to/2F3YYR2
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

Back in the late summer of 2017, I was at an event called State Games of America (SGA).  This is an Olympic style of athletic competition open to competitors in all 50 states.  I found that SGA had a photography competition, and that they would give you all access to the sporting events.  You then get introduced to all sort of people all across the nation.

One of the most attended sports is figure skating.  I've been around this sport for a long time, nearly as long as I've known my wife (the coach in this sport).  She had 5 kids participating in various levels and events.  This kid, Daren, started with her and now lives on the east coast.  

But back to what I had to do in figuring out the event and getting the best possible photos of these participants.  I knew that my current lense wasn't going to be enough.  The lense I had been using for skating up till now was a 50mm f 1.8 OSS.  It is great for when the kids are pretty close.  But it makes for a lot of work down the line.  I needed to rent something nice.

I went to Lens Rentals .com and was able to reserve the 70-200mm f4 OSS G (probably should have gotten the f2.8 GM, but that was too much money for what I wanted at the time).  This along with my crop sensor a6000 would give me an effective focal length of 300mm at the farthest reach.  In other words, If I had to shoot photos all the way down at one corner of the rink, I could still fill most of the frame with the skater all the way down at the other end of the ice.  

When I first got to the rink, I had to get my media packet and find my places.  I wasn't going to photo 'everything' so I needed to get situated for when I was going to be there.  I quickly found one of the nicest things at this event, where these rinks usually have glass set up for hockey, they had places in the corners with the glass removed.  These were photographer hot spots!  But I needed to make sure I had access, it wasn't a reserved place.  There is a lot to be said for having presence in any job you are performing.  And that is what I did, didn't take up too much space, but when I moved, I made my moves seem precise and required. This way, other parents, or unauthorized Photographers wouldn't get in the way.  I must say, the other event authorized photogs knew how to find a close spot, but not get in the way.
 

The day I shot Darren (pictured above) was the 2nd day of competition.  These skaters at these levels were much faster.  To get the motion blur as reduced as possible, I had to get the shutter speed up to 1/800 a second.  The lighting was pretty good, but I still needed to go as high as ISO 2000 and my f-stop was as wide as it could be at f-4. 

Another way to prepare is to get some shots off during the warm up session.  I was able to get the group of skaters before their program in a few practice shots.  Thankfully, this let me know Darren jumps high.  I was able to keep the camera steady, and maybe move a little bit to account for the jump, but still get everything.  Thankfully, my camera can go as high as 11 frames a second, so getting him in front wasn't so hard.  I have many other photos of the man and my favorites from that event.  https://lifeexposure.smugmug.com/State-Games-of-America-2017/Favorite-of-SGA2017/

It really makes me want that lens.  I was, however, happy with renting it for now.

How I shot that - Baby Owls with a Beginners Camera

How I shot that - Baby Owls with a Beginners Camera

I used the Nikon Coolpix p510 http://amzn.to/2GQZXR8
Current version of this camera: Coolpix p900 http://amzn.to/2F132gM



When I was starting out with my photography, I had what people called a Bridge Camera.  There was one lens that had an effective focal length ranging all the way from 24 mm all the way out to 1000mm equivalent of a 35mm sensor.  Just starting out, I didn't know what to photograph.  That meant I was taking pictures of everything. 

Maybe that was a little much for a starting new photographer, but it was fun.  Some of that fun came from living in an area of western Wisconsin that had easy access to some great wildlife and birding areas.  So many times, it is as simple as walking around.  But for this shot, I had to talk to some people before I knew where to look.

Specifically, I was walking in this city park that is a part of a marsh to the La Crosse River that feeds into the Mississippi River. The city park system has taken ownership of a wetlands area that keeps people in appreciation of the Great River wild life, and has made it mostly enjoyable (minus the summer and fall mosquitos). 

That day, I had my camera on shutter priority.  I wanted to control the speed of the shutter and let this thing think about the ISO and aperture.  I was still relatively new back in September 2015.  For fun, I was walking around this park called Myrick Park Marsh.

It just so happened, that the area Audubon Society was meeting at the shelter here.  I popped in for a little bit and realized every one was way more serious than I was.  I just wasn't prepared and I was here for fun.  But walking outside, I realized most people in the park (even though they weren't at the meeting in the shelter) were birders.  I had to talk to some of them and got a couple of ideas for the day.

But then there was the prize, baby owls.  This marsh was a fantastic place for the owls, because no one was able to get in their face or walk up to the tree they were in.  The tree was surrounded by water.  But I just sat there for a good 20 minutes and found them inside this broken trunk of a tree. 

What a reward.

Talk to people, find a spot, sit there.

Using a point and shoot Nikon P510 bridge camera.

I still feel great about that shot.

How I shot that - LAX WI Blue Bridges over the Mississippi

How I shot that - LAX WI Blue Bridges over the Mississippi

Shot with Sony 50mm f/1.8 - http://amzn.to/2FmZ82E
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr
Similar aluminum Camera Tripod - http://amzn.to/2opfBw3
Purchase this photo

La Crosse, WI (#laxwi in my tags) sits on the shores of the Mississippi River running between western Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota.  Between the two states (and in the middle of the river) sits Pettibon Park.  Pettibone Park was an island originally governed by Minnesota but was given to Wisconsin at the start of the 20th century.  

Originally, this island was mostly owned by a sole investor who's idea was to make a magnificent city on the river.  To say the least, that idea didn't pan out.  The river flooded so high and so often, that any structures would have to withstand such high water levels that would never allow for year round living.  But eventually it was realized that open structures open to a surrounding of water from the river would work out nicely as a park.

Given that the island would be part of La Crosse, WI that meant building a bridge over this mighty river wouldn't be a problem as you have one less jurisdiction to worry about (one less state).  

Fast forward almost 100 years, LAXWI is a thriving city with good river traffic sitting between the bluffs of WI and MN.  As it happens, I found that it was almost the time of a 'super moon', but the Upper Midwest has a lot of weather.  So, sometimes weather looks good in the afternoon, but clouds all up at night... and then there is the reverse.  July 19, 2016 was a long day on top of that, as my wife and I were driving all over the area.

But driving home, this park was on the way.  The river had relaxed to an almost normal stage. And not only did I have my a6000, but also my tripod too.  On my camera, I had the 50mm f1.8 lens and I took nearly 28 photos to stitch this together.  I was thinking, everything is farther away, but I didn't want to leave it at 1.8, and so I changed the aperture to 5.6.  I had a 1/45 shutter speed and 1000 iso.  

I came away with the tops of the bridges and the buildings on the other side of the river being a little distorted, but to me that was fine.  The river is larger than life.  Oh, heck, this river IS life to most of the country.  So if you need to make buildings to challenge it, they too need to behave this way.

Business of My Photography

New focus on my business of my photography.

Something I have had people inform me about is that my photography reminds them of product photography.  Not the original thought I had when pressing the shutter.

Youth Football Cleats
Shot with Sony 20mm F2.8 wide-angle http://amzn.to/2GFfmn9
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

But after time, I thought it over.  It wasn't easy, because I have dreams that take me far beyond product shots.  But dreams don't pay the bills.  And people that you want as clients (People with a huge sum of money) may want to see that what you do actually can pull some weight.

Charmant Hotel, Hotel .com gift card - http://amzn.to/2BMnAe0
Shot with Minolta 70-210 F4 Lens - http://amzn.to/2sNQSGy
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

So if much of what I have is like product photography, I will get some use of it somehow.  A friend at work mentioned Amazon and their affiliate program.  I read it over, and it seems good.  Descent returns, and rewards you get even beyond the initial item you linked to.

Similar Edea Skates - http://amzn.to/2GFvllt
Shot with Sony 70-200 F4 OSS G - http://amzn.to/2sRzSPM
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

So here is to a growing economy that they say is booming.  You know all I need are a few sheckles.  I want the photos to speak for themselves, but if there is something about the photo that can drive a persons to Amazon and pick something up, all the better!

GGOOLLD Band http://amzn.to/2CCw2cM
Shot with Sony 50mm f/1.8 - http://amzn.to/2FmZ82E
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr

Can I live off of Photography?

Can I live off of Photography?

As I feel my photography skills growing I'm realizing that I am truly outgrowing my equipment.  However, this is equipment that was given to me because I couldn't afford it to start with.  So I'm looking for my next step in photography... Monetizing.  Cash.  Income.

I've been looking for inspiration from many different sources.  Photographers that are way up there, such as JaredPolin.com, JasonLanier.com, Tony and Chelsea Northrup of NorthrupPhotography.com, and Lauri Novak of LauriNovakPhotography.com (whom I've had the pleasure of meeting).  Additionally, 2 other people I look to in this adventure to monetizing my art: my wife, Nicole and my twin brother, Adam

First, about the inspiration that I live with every day, my wife.  No, this isn't a sappy post for me telling Nicole how much I love her (and I do).  But it is because she has made the transition from doing something that is a part of her into doing it for love... and doing it for income.  Nicole is a Figure Skating Coach.  She loves figure skating.  But to feed this love, she started coaching.  She is a constant voice in my life advising me how something is worth in an economy.

And I have my brother, Adam.  I blame him.  I blame him for the camera he gave me.  I blame him for showing it is possible to make even a little bit of money at this thing.  I also thank him for the conversations we have bouncing ideas off each other.

And now I will go back to the order I started with.  Most of whom are on my youtube list...

Jared Polin.  This is what I love about Jared, even though he is a Nikon guy, he could care less what camera you are using.  When he is going through critiques or answering questions during 'flying solo' bits he is showing his passion but also channeling what he went through.  He started young (he is only a couple of years younger than me) and has since made a great name for himself.  He is also a team photographer for the Philadelphia Flyers, so he understands an environment I have been shooting in... Ice Rinks.

Jason Lanier.  Jason is a cool guy.  Sure, he is a 'Sony Artisan' but he too could care less what you are shooting with.  Some of what I love about him is that he makes photos that look like they could be HDR from a single shot.  He does this by bringing a flash and knowing how to use it.  But, he doesn't get crazy with his equipment.  Jason Lanier makes amazing work with usually one flash and a remote.  Sometimes he has 2 flashes or the rotolight neo.  But it represents that slightly next step that I want to get to.  Additionally, he shoots in abandoned properties.

Tony and Chelsea Northrup.  This husband and wife team are idyllic. Their weekly youtube live videos are a mishmash of photo news and people entering their photos and web sites for critiques.  They are always instructional.  Also fun when you have an adult beverage!  Probably the greatest strength I get out of them is the display of pros vs cons.  I also get some opposing viewpoints on things that Jared Polin has said about showing what your pricing points are going to be. And I still have to weigh that opinion as well.

Lauri Novak.  Folks, check her out.  I've met her during a photography trip out to Chicago.  You might say she has arrived as a photographer.  But she is very gracious individual and is also a student of this thing called The Arcanum.  During the brief encounter I've had she talked about some of the ways she is marketing her photos.  And, I dare say it was the nicest kick in the ass I ever experienced.

I've found that there are people out there that really make use of 3 major things. Google Search, FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram.  This means making sure I have my blogsite here updated, and that it is some how in sync with what I have on the other three services.  Since I do not have my own online store, I'm using a suggestion from Lauri Novak and my brother, FineArtAmerica.com (FAA for the rest of this posting).

What this means is there are 4services out there that I now have as a way to direct people to purchasing my photos as a print or other merchandise. Twitter is going to be tricky, however.  Since you only have so many characters in each twitter post I'm trying to see if Bitly.com will be a good way to shorten my links between my blog and FAA.  But I think this will mean more posts to twitter to show people my photos... specially the photos that are available at FAA.

Next up (in some future post), finding an hourly rate.