[JanJan]

@photocriticgirl – I said USUALLY high school graduates are around 18. I know there are people who were held back or graduated early. In school, I had classmates who were one year younger and one year older than everyone else.  It’s just a generalization, and generalizations are not 100% true. I’m not sure where you’re from, but where I’m from, I hardly see 21-year-olds attend school with younger students. Usually students who were held back attend continuation school, adult schools, or get their GED’s.

 

[JanJan]

I never seen this TV show, but in American TV shows, especially with high school kids (ages 14-18), they usually cast people who are WAY too old to be high school students. Take Beverly Hills, 90210 (both the old show in the 90’s the remake in the late 2000’s) for example. In the 90’s show, they casted a 29-year-old woman to play a 15-16 year old 2nd-year high school student, and in the late 2000’s show, they casted a 33-year-old man to play a 16-17 year old 3rd-year student.

A high school student starts their 1st year usually at 14 and graduates at 18. The driving age is usually 16 years old (depending on the state). In most states, only patrons ages 21 and over are allowed to drink alcohol at bars.

[JanJan]

It’s just funny in general of how people call things in different areas of the US, let alone the the UK!

Cass335, it’s funny that you mentioned the word “pop” when you’re referring to soda, because I was just thinking about that. I live in Las Vegas, NV (originally from California) and a good majority of the people here were not born and raised in Las Vegas, so I hear different US accents and what they call things. For instance, I had a former co-worker originally from the Detroit area getting angry because someone threw away her “pop cup”. In the back of my head, I was like, “What the f*ck is a pop cup?”, but then I knew she was referring to her soda cup. We worked at a hotel/casino and the deli on the first floor would offer free refills of soda if you kept your cup. Otherwise, you would have to pay $2. I hear A LOT of East Coast accents, especially Boston and New York. I really find Minnesotan accents funny as well! It’s like they were never taught vowels in school based on how they say things, in my opinion!

Whether we’re English-speaking people from the US or UK (or even other places where English is a 2nd language), at least we somewhat understand each other in these forums and all love the universal language that is called Photography, right?

 

 

[JanJan]

What the hell is up with these Photoshop edits?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/428599_572820382748829_1343638832_n.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/913640_567614266602774_574737648_o.jpg

[JanJan]

I don’t really think this thread is like a witch hunt, and in my honest opinion, no different than the Fauxtogs who should end up the main page thread. Just wanted to put that out there.

I gave examples to show that fauxtogs are everywhere, even in Cali, where I was born and raised. I’ve met people from other states who think that Cali is some out-there exception to the rule over every other state. Yes, there is more diversity and a lot more people, but I don’t judge someone’s talent based on where they’re from. The biggest talent could be from an obscure town in the middle of nowhere.

However, I will give someone props for making it out in the big cities because with so many people, it’s much more competitive. And on a side note, this competitiveness in jobs is the reason why I moved to a much smaller city (Vegas).

Jeremy Cowart is a prime example. He’s now a celebrity photographer, but his career started in Nashville, his hometown (obviously a far cry from Hollywood). Here’s his website – http://www.jeremycowart.com. I first heard of him when I attended Photoshop World in Vegas, where he was a speaker.

[JanJan]

Ummm…I found plenty of fauxtographers in California, especially in the Los Angeles area and within about a 100 mile radius outside of it. You would think in the world of Hollywood and glamor, you won’t find fauxtographers. Well guess again!

I have to admit, there are pretty good photographers that I found on Craig’s List under the Los Angeles section, but this guy is terrible, especially his wedding shots. His nature shots are alright: http://www.shoalhphotography.com

These photographers are from the Inland Empire area of California, about 60 miles away from LA.

These pictures on this ad looks like point and shoot snapshots – http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/crs/3832702220.html

This girl is BEGGING for Facebook friends – https://www.facebook.com/pages/GreySky-Photography-by-Danielle-Alongis/249294381777181
Craig’s List Ad – http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/crs/3835279110.html

The cover photo is awful on his Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hugo-Gonzalez-Photography-and-Design/456891194340881

15 years of photography experience and your ad is title “Low Budget Wedding Photography” – http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/crs/3849279897.html

 

[JanJan]

I tried posting something up yesterday, but it didn’t show. If this shows up twice, I apologize.

I work full-time and freelance as a web and graphic designer, so I have more expertise in this area than in photography. (I’m in the same boat as you BTW.)

I’m going to echo what everyone is saying here. Your pictures are too large and will need to be compressed for the web. Especially in the age of smart phones and tablets, the smaller the file size the better.  I rather load a 400KB image file versus a 4MB file. Also, although I’m on a 1080 HD monitor, not everyone view it the same.

This is how your website looks on a 720 HD monitor:

This is how my website looks on the same monitor:

It is best-practice to have all your important content sit on “top of the fold” meaning that you’re not making your customers scroll to see the rest and its in plain view.  According to the screenshot of your website, in order to see the 2 main pictures (which I assume are your best work), I will have to scroll down. On mine, it sits within “the fold”.

For the home page, since this is the page that will initially attract your customers into viewing more of your portfolio, I suggest using your best shots that has a landscape orientation (horizontal) instead of portrait (verticle). Perhaps you can find a picture that is the width of both of the pictures, but a height shorter enough so people won’t have to scroll down.

Web designers are still using a 1024×768 screen resolution standard, meaning that the content is going to fit within these dimensions. This is why you see more empty space on some websites if viewed on a larger screen resolution. To see what your screen resolution is, go to your Mac or Windows machine and check the display settings.

I agree with JimC that you should look into WordPress because it can categorize your photos with ease, and it will be easier to add pictures. I would look into getting your own hosting. It’s affordable. Through GoDaddy (who is my hosting provider), I’m only paying $8 per month for the mid-range hosting plan. The cheapest hosting plan is as little as $4. If you’re looking to set up a WordPress site, you can just download WordPress from wordpress.org, unzip the file, and upload it into your web server. There are other components you will need to set up in order to get WordPress running (like a database), but it’s pretty easy. You can get GoDaddy’s customer service to help you out. They’re really helpful.

Here is my website:
http://www.photosbyanjanette.com

I hope this helps!

[JanJan]

I fell in love with photography back in 2003. I was in college in Southern California and under an exchange program that my school offered, I attended the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Croix for one semester. Prior to my trip, my mom gave me a 2.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot for my birthday. I knew this trip would be the trip of a lifetime, and I wanted to capture that memory but I didn’t like the idea of waiting to develop film.

During my time in St. Croix, I visited other Caribbean islands like St. Thomas and St. John USVI, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Antigua, and Martinique. The Caribbean, especially St. Croix and St. John, are just beautiful places with its clear turquoise water and practically white sandy beaches. The landscape pictures I took of all the beaches I’ve been to were absolutely gorgeous. I remember after visiting a new beach, I would take my favorite picture from my camera and use it as my new wallpaper for my computer. To this day, I still take scenic pictures and use them as my wallpaper.

When the semester was over, I came back to my hometown. I showed the pictures to my friends and one told me I should sell them as postcards. Even though I took landscape pictures from a point-and-shoot, they are by far, still my favorite pictures 10 years later.

Here are my favorite Caribbean pictures taken from my 2.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot and slightly edited in Photoshop:

This one below is still my favorite picture. I remember taking this picture in St. Maarten as I was boarding the cruise ship. I was surprised how the picture turned out.

My St. Croix experience sparked an interest in landscape photography. I would want to visit national parks just to take awesome landscape pictures.

Here are more landscape pictures I took years later:

I purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D50, in 2006 and continued to take more landscape pictures. For a couple of years, I was just taking pictures in auto mode, and then later fiddled around with the shutter speed and aperture.

Even when I was either shooting with a point-and-shoot or auto mode on my DSLR, many people told me I have a good eye for photography. I think it’s because the way I frame my shots.

I took an online photography class from my local community college just last Spring. I already had prior knowledge in shutter speed and aperture, but it pushed me to take more and more pictures, as well as thinking about my shots. The teacher seemed to be impressed with my shots and I received an A in the class.

Here are a couple shots from my final project:

I took the shot below by setting my camera on a tripod and putting it on a timer.

This sparked an interest in take pictures of people. After doing my first trade for print shoot for a calendar last September, I’ve been really hooked on photography to the point where I think about it and talk about it all day and night. It’s starting to get to the point where I’m getting bored of my full-time job and freelance job (web/graphic design). Maybe I’m more excited about photography because it’s a new thing of mine,  and I’ve been getting mostly positive feedback about my pictures. I would love to focus on my photography full-time, but I know it’s a hard career to get into. Considering that I’m primarily bringing in income between my husband and I, along with the fact that I have so much more to learn, I know I can’t jump right into being a full-time photographer.

 

[JanJan]

The lady who is getting sued in this Judge Joe Brown video is a prime example of a fauxtographer. She was charging $1300 for a wedding and was not able to answer the question about what f-stop her lens was. She held herself out there as a professional photographer, but if you don’t know your equipment, you shouldn’t be in the business.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lz-07D5KoE

 

[JanJan]

@iliketag…it seems like he spends more time marketing his services than updating his portfolio. He posted a very vague video on both YouTube and Vimeo back in 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auyVYDcz3dg

His Blockbuster “portrait” was hilarious!

 

[JanJan]

I’ve stumbled upon this person. He says he’s been a professional photographer for 39 years

http://www.apeonline.biz

I don’t know what to say about this one:
http://apeonline.biz/gallery/portraiture/1.jpg

This is from his Craig’s List Ad
http://images.craigslist.org/3K23Me3Jc5N75G95M2d554141af3928b91f52.jpg

He is the 2nd person I’ve ran into from my area who claims they have been doing this for many years, but their work clearly says otherwise.

I’m thinking that this person really has been a photographer for 39 years because much of his work posted looks like they were from the 80’s, but then was scanned and edited in Photoshop. It looks like he was much comfortable working with film in the past and failed to make the transition to digital. I think he just needs to lay off the Photoshop and just focus on the composition. It’s not horrible, but the editing makes it look horrible!

I also don’t get his “Evidence Photography” pricing at $199 for 6 images. His “Evidence Photography” are just pictures of wrecked cars that seemed to be no different than an appraiser taking pictures.

http://apeonline.biz/gallery/evidence.html

[JanJan]

@Cameraclicker….Thanks for the feedback, but I didn’t do a background replacement. That was an actual background inside a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

[JanJan]

So I did my first bride and groom photo session. They did a low-key, tiny wedding at a chapel in Vegas. I wouldn’t necessarily call this an elopement because it looked like it was planned and her parents and some family and friends were present.

At first I was going to turn them down, being that I’m terrified of shooting weddings at my level of experience (been only shooting people for less than a year, and landscape since 2006), but I decided to accept because I realized that many chapels in Vegas do not allow 3rd party photographers during the ceremony. So the pictures I took of the bride and groom were after the ceremony, but before dinner. This was much more manageable for me.

I recently stumbled upon their chapel’s photography portfolio and they look awful, but their customers are forced to buy them because they are part of a package deal.

Here is the chapel’s photography portfolio:
http://weekirk.com/Professional_Photography.cfm

Selective coloring, they must love:
http://weekirk.com/images/gallery_photos/24.jpg
http://weekirk.com/images/gallery_photos/2.jpg

Of course they love vignetting:
http://weekirk.com/images/gallery_photos/8.jpg

The bride posted her proofs and one of them had major vignetting, like the one above.

Here’s one of the shots I took of the bride. I’m still in the process of doing editing the rest. I was nervous about not doing a good job, being that they were my first bride and groom, but if the bride seems excited about the bad proofs she received from the chapel, I’m sure she’ll love mine. I showed her this picture and she loved it!
http://anjanette365project.tumblr.com/image/50012238231

[JanJan]

I am in the same boat as you iliketag. I am still learning and I still call myself an aspiring photographer, but judging from the feedback of some experienced photographers, family and friends who have followed my work, as well some people on these forums, I feel that I’m at the point of receiving some compensation for my photography work. I also forgot to mention that I’ve had about 8 years of professional experience with Photoshop, thanks to my full-time job as a web/graphic designer, so there is the retouching aspect.

For the most part, most of my shoots have been trade for print (TFP) shoots with aspiring models or a couple of family and friends willing to model for me. I’ve had some paid work, but that’s mostly with people who I don’t really know. I do have an ad on Craig’s List offering my photography services for a small fee, but it’s mainly to expand my portfolio. It does get tiresome to take pictures of the same circle of people, you know!

I tell people that the reason why my rates are so low is because I am a new photographer that has only been doing this for less than a year. I also let them know that my equipment is limited and that I work best in natural lighting in the early mornings or late afternoons (“golden hours”). If they want a shoot in mid-afternoon when lighting is harsh, I do ask, and even plead, that we find areas with lots of shade. For example, I recently did a shoot for a pageant mom and her daughter and convinced her to push back the shooting time a couple hours because the lighting was harsh.

I’ve been charging a fee mainly to make sure that my time isn’t abused based on previous experiences. My first photo shoot ever was a TFP with a woman who was voted to appear on a calendar (the cover and the month of January) targeted towards the LGBT community. It was for an start-up clothing company targeted towards “tomboys.” (Here’s the chosen picture that was featured on the cover – http://www.photosbyanjanette.com/nik-behind-fence/). She really took advantage of my time. I think I spent about 10 hours of shooting time within a span of 3 non-consecutive days. On top of that, I spent hours retouching photos by slimming her down, tucking in bumps, and removing logos that ended up in the shot. To give any more evidence that she was abusing my time, she wanted to shoot at the gay festival in town and didn’t even offer to pay for admission (which was $10). I had to convince her to pay half of my admission, telling her that my husband took my ATM card and I only had $5. When the calendar was finished, she didn’t even bother to buy me a copy to keep as a portfolio!

In short, it IS okay to tell people no, but like what dont.care said, explain to them why. I’ve been asked to shoot weddings and events like surprise parties or engagement proposals and I’ve turned them ALL down. Living in Las Vegas, I’ve even turned down shooting at small weddings and elopements. (I’ve only recently done a bride and groom shoot, but that was done AFTER the ceremony because many chapels do not allow 3rd party photographers.) I explained to them that I don’t have the proper equipment or knowledge to capture a moment on the fly. Because these types of shoots do not allow any room for error, I know I can’t handle them.

 

 

[JanJan]

Jeremy, thanks for the compliments! Your work is great too! I’m down to collaborate. I would love to do photography full force, but my current job keeps the income flowing between my husband and I.

iliketag, thanks for the compliments as well. I don’t mind giving away where the locations are at. I don’t understand why they would be a secret if the places I’ve been shooting are mostly popular photography spots in my area anyway. To me, keeping secrets about where you shoot is a bit selfish. I think one should worry about doing a great job with their photography and composition,  and let that speak for itself. Only time I will not disclose a location if it’s at the person’s private home…for obvious reasons!

[Author]

Posts