Reply To: Here Goes Nothing… Critique (+ Intro)

[Jones]

Oh, sorry I didn’t see your post before, Nesgran. I didn’t mean it as badmouthing my friends; they are great people and I enjoy spending time with both, but I get upset when they pull the “I could do that for lots less than [professional in area] and I’ll give you a disc, too.”

Sorry if I seemed as badmouthing them. That wasn’t what I meant at all.

I will narrow down what I do someday, but since I’m still in high school as apart of our yearbook staff, it means I am pretty much forced to do lots of everything. I know that I will never touch a landscape, though. 😛

I was lots too close to those cheerleaders. I admit that entirely, and there’s no way to defend it other than I was up against the wall.

For the graduation, I wish I would have had some different equipment to use, too, something in the 24-70 range because the 70-200 was just not cutting it for keeping things in focus. That’ll be next on my list. Something wider than a 50. I am looking at some local college classes and that sort of thing, as well as some types of workshops around the area… I live in a pretty bad place for anything related to photography (nearest camera shop is about 50 miles.)

Agreed on the sports lighting too, but I wouldn’t know how to solve that, so if anyone has suggestions please chime in. For that gym, there are varying temperatures of lights (for the bulbs that do work) that are seriously awful. I measured, and one end of the gym is a 2000K difference in color than the other end. I used my expodisc and gave it my best shot, but I still wasn’t happy with it. Flash isn’t allowed, otherwise I would set up remotes. 🙁 If there’s any way to get around the white balance issues, I’m happy to take any advice. 🙂
Thanks everyone for your critiques… it’s been really helpful.

 

—

 

Didn’t see the edit button til after this post. 🙁

After Jenny’s passing, I am looking for a professional or … something around to apprentice under, but it is proving difficult. Many around aren’t willing to share.

Here are some links to various images by local professionals.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/943379_535789256462498_1084752850_n.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/400689_535788073129283_1185033183_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/297139_3251147976755_57214831_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/12716_3251149056782_102068645_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/559586_519248368103965_1732074937_n.jpg

Now, it’s not to say that any of those photos are necessarily BAD, because they are by local photogs who are being handsomely paid for what they do, but they are just not the kind of style that I LIKE or want to create, so any kind of apprenticeship under them may simply be a waste of energy for both parties.

 

Now comparing that to some of Jenny’s past work:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/577547_465568203459053_101533585_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/521327_465567850125755_519026356_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/556758_465567276792479_366230205_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/27108_101072386602036_6639261_n.jpg — her own self-portrait. She is, literally, the ONLY person I know that could pull off that backdrop for ANYTHING, photographer or subject-wise.

That is the kind of style I am trying to lean towards. I find the other two photographers’ work too oversaturated/bright, and then too … “instagram.” Each to their own, of course, but it is not the direction I want to go someday. It is easy enough to self-teach technical things, but I’m finding it much harder to learn “styles” without any sort of direction. It is tough to lose your teacher when there was still so much to learn, but I am thankful for the things I did gain. Keep learning and pressing, I suppose.

Thank you all so much for the advice so far. 🙂