[kbee]

I see what people mean when they say watermarking is tacky or won’t prevent theft. In my years as a recreational web designer, though, I’ve learned one thing: if people can right-click and save it, you bet your buttons they’ll take it. And in the caliber of the fauxs featured here at YANAP, they either won’t care enough to remove the mark or they’ll do such a botched job of it it’s laughable. (Mmm, clone stamp!) So while a watermark doesn’t prevent the theft, I do feel vindicated and bemused to see my marked work on other sites. It just makes them look like asses to be “Uncle Bob’s Photography” with “kbee’s art” branded on it, for example.

And more importantly, as the others have said: it’s marketing. Just to have your name out there, with the photo, so people know someone took a photo, and that this is their name.

As a somewhat related example, my sister in law gave me a print of a photo of my nephew. I was wondering who the photographer was, though there was no watermark (clearly). I was pleased to turn it over and find the tog’s name on the back. So I’m always looking for and grateful for a name to a piece of work.

But that said, big nasty neon colored Comic Sans/Papyrus/Cowboy watermarks are the devil. Something clean, simple, relatively discreet is always nice. I have a 60% transparency overlay watermark with sans serif text and my initials stylized. I have yet to use it, but I’m certain to keep it discreet and not eye-poppingly bad.

[kbee]

The others have fully covered all the boring, frightening nitty gritty of what it takes to start a real, honest photography business. I second all of their posts. They don’t bring it up to scare you off, but to really give you an idea of how much it costs to run a legitimate, profitable photography business. And any tog who charges $25, $50 a shoot is underselling themselves.

On a side note, a great resource that I’ve recently gotten into is Rachel Brenke’s The Law Tog site and newsletter: http://www.thelawtog.com/ She gives you straightforward, nitty gritty on business aspects of photography. I never sign up for newsletters but in the last few weeks she’s been invaluable for info. Gives you a lot to think about and digest.

Now, to answer what you came here for (keeping in mind this is my amateur opinion): I do like your photos. They are much better than many of the fauxs on this site by far. They show you’re experimenting, you have various models and shooting locations, and you’re playing with certain styles.

That said, what the others pointed out is important. Focusing issues, composition, white  balance, crooked horizons etc. My favorite shot is on the girl lying down. It’s clear, focused, the color is nice and not overly warm. In comparison, you have a vintage sort of washed-out greenish/yellow tone on your other photos, with rather heavy vignetting. That might me what you’re aiming for but overall it feels heavy and dated.

My suggestion: watch your color balance. When you shoot and in post. Have you done a calibration on your computer monitor lately? I do mine every month or so and it’s invaluable. I would also watch the vignetting. I do it myself from time to time, but it’s very low transparency, like 10%. Very subtle, not quite as noticeable as  yours, and not on every photo. And it’s my personal preference but I would brighten them up by 1/3 stop at least.

As a potential customer: would I pay you $50 for a shoot? Maybe so. But if I got photos like your examples, I’d be sorely tempted to crop out the vignette, correct the colors and tilt the photo to straighten the horizon.

That said, you have a nice portfolio for a beginner, and I would love to have your opportunities to shoot and practice. Yet, I wouldn’t, if these were my pics, charge just yet. I hope that gives you a little insight. Don’t at all be discouraged, though. As mentioned previously, the fact that you’re here and asking – particularly this firing squad here at YANAP, who can be brutally honest – shows you care. You’re starting out great, I’m sure you’ll continue to improve to be the kind of profitable photographer you’d like to be.

[kbee]

Hobbyist =/= professional. If you’re advertising (meaning on your FB page) that you’re taking money for a service, you are in business. If you are in business, you are subject to criticism. Think Yelp – just here at YANAP. And if you read back, the regulars here don’t stand for picking apart amateurs and hobbyists if they’re clear that they’re actually learning and not profiting from their photography.

Here’s two points of advice, assuming you are Cynthianna:

a.) There will always be someone better (and worse) than you.

b.) There will always be a naysayer for every compliment you get.

In photography, there’s no degree to earn, no school to attend, no proof that you’ve learned your craft. Anybody can pick up a camera and call themselves a photog. You, me, my neighbor, my friend who posts to Instagram with her iPhone on a daily basis is a photographer. Yet, when you pay someone for a service, you entrust them to give you what you expect for your money. I know I do – because I assume they’re a professional. The same for a professional photographer. $3000, $300, $30, it’s still my hard earned cash, so I rely upon you to exchange goods for it.

As a tog, you must show your skill and art in your photos. You don’t need that degree or course, but you must deliver some sort of standard and consistency. First impressions are important, so you have to understand, there’s still an expectation when you deliver your goods to your clients, especially if you charge money.

I am a hobbyist, an enthusiast. I’ve been told to charge, and I laugh because I am not at the place yet where I can deliver consistent results. I posted a few test shots this evening and got a slew of compliments for the pictures from my FB friends. Yet, even now, I can spot the flaws. I take their compliments as encouragement but not as an incentive to go into business, because here at YANAP, I am sure someone with an objective eye would have advice for me. I come here for a dose of (sometimes harsh) reality. It’s helped me far more than the compliments I get.

Sorry if it hurts your feelings, but what I am getting at is: your photos drew criticism, and they were well deserved. Take what you want from it. Keep doing what you’re doing, or put aside your personal feelings (hard, I know) and try to learn from this page. It’s all on you. Good luck.

[kbee]

Fair enough! I figured it was windy, and I just was curious with what you were working with. I’m not familiar with that model, but my older camera is a Fuji. First serious camera I, as a poor college student, dropped some serious money on.

Sorry about the great big wall of text I posted earlier, too. I get ‘chatty’ from time to time. 😡

I definitely agree with you on the working on individual skills at a time, then combining them. (Recently I’ve started to use metering for exposure to help take the guess work out of my shots. That and using the histogram made my impromptu photo shoot this weekend a challenge and yet so much fun. 😀 And the result is awesome!) And definitely, a X Day challenge would help with that. 😀 I would consider it myself, but I’m terribly lazy. Oops.

[kbee]

You’re lucky as you have some victims to test your photography on – your kids! I wish I had a couple around just so I could torture them with my camera. 🙁

Reiterating what some of the others said: the angle on your daughter in the first photo you posted isn’t very flattering. To be blunt, she looks quite scary like she’s about to jump up and bite my face. :O The overall tone also reminds me of an old Polaroid. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought this was a scan of a photo taken from the 70s. Maybe that was the intention, because I know the retro/vintage look is in, but it sticks out from your other photos and seems to be an anomaly instead. As dont.care said, a little too reddish for me.

Are you shooting with manual or auto zoom? Some photos are a little blurred, or the focus is on other things instead of her (http://www.flickr.com/photos/93828462@N02/8537306231/in/photostream/ like that one).

Then there’s a photo like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93828462@N02/8538414474/in/photostream/ Was it a windy day or was she moving the grass? The foliage in the foreground is conspicuously blurry. A faster shutter speed would help to minimize those motion blurs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93828462@N02/8537308121/in/photostream/ I actually quite like this photo, though I would have lightened it up just a little. Has some thirds going on, though the grass in front of her is a little distracting. I also like http://www.flickr.com/photos/93828462@N02/8538408038/in/photostream/ . With sharper focus, maybe a 1/3 stop brighter, these would be nice shots.

Definitely keep up the practice. I’m guilty of shooting some really blurry photos because I thought I had good control of the manual focus and would come to realise I didn’t – especially when using a large aperture with shallow depth of field, slower shutter speed or trying to track a moving subject, like a toddler. I also need to seriously get an eye examination as my eyes are getting awful and untrustworthy. I lost a lot of potentially good photos because of it, so either I go auto for on the fly, chasing-the-toddlers-around photos (thankfully my lens has fast AF), or I use manual when I have more time to set up the shot to make sure I’ve got it quite how I want it e.g. close-up portraits where I want to define the eyes/lips what have you from the rest of the face or macro shots.

What you’re doing is good, though – keeping a running track of your progress is always a great way to watch yourself learn and grow. It’s the best way to see that you are improving, and encouraging to know your efforts are paying off. I’ve locked away my previous photos from view on my FB page, but they’re still there for me to go back over from time to time, just to see the difference in what I’ve learned.

It is also a great way to remind me that my family and friends are full of rubbish, because they loved each and every one of those horribly out of focus, poorly composed, bad white balanced pics. 😀

As you’ve said, you’ve got a lot to learn, and it’s obvious you’re doing that with your practice shots. So keep on going! 😀 What camera do you use, by the way?

[kbee]

Anjanette, I’m repeating what the others here say. You have nothing to learn from this photographer; if you ever collaborated with her, she would be the one benefiting from your expertise and skill. And while I can understand that networking is always good to do, I don’t know why you’d network with someone of such a lower caliber than you. Would you refer clients to her if you cannot fulfill their needs? Would she to you? This is just me trying to work out what benefit you’d get from it.

I think you are under-charging yourself. As folks have said, there’s some things they’d tweak, but you are by and far a much better photog than many here. I would be happy to pay you more than your asking price for a shoot.

[kbee]

I need to get off my backside and start charging for my photos. If these folks can do it, I sure as hell can.

Ah Jiminy Crickets! I have a conscience.

[kbee]

I completely get where the tog is coming from. That said, I would personally refrain from snark like the one posted. Make no mistake, that tog has a completely valid point (this whole site agrees with him/her), but to point it out comes off to me as petty and snarky. It’s not professional to point at The Other Guy and bitch about them while trying to win popularity votes for yourself. Not good salesmanship or politics.

As for the comment “very little more”, I disagree. Many of the fauxs we’ve had featured here are asking for $$$. Pros start at $$$$, a difference between them of anywhere from $800 up into the many thousands. While we all hope for the best with whatever photographer we go for, the difference in price for someone like me in this day and this economy is far from “very little”. I paid $$$$ for my wedding, so I value a good tog; I just don’t underestimate the budgets of some people by dismissing the value of a good photographer as being small potatoes when a naive client might think $200 for a wedding is a bargain (and it is… just not when it comes to quality).

I’m with cameraclicker. Rather than down on the fauxs, positive spins help more than pointing out the flaws in the market and the competition. If I were a prospective client, I’d hate to think the tog I’m booking is a grumpy ass stomping around and grumbing about ‘amateurs with their Rebels thinking they’re all that’ while I’m doing a session with them. Just for their post alone, I’d probably give them a pass. I don’t want a tog on a soapbox.

By all means, a photographer helping to educate the public about the value of good photography is a good thing. But snark while trying to sell yourself as a professional isn’t the way to go about it, I feel. 🙂 /jumps off soapbox (I’ve had some

[kbee]

Egg, you got a point there. Even for someone with the glass half empty view, however, that seems a stretch. So while the photog might be doing that – it’s possible – I’d like to think (hope) it’s just a compliment being paid.

The photo in question is blurry, but it’s “pretty” and appealing to many people. I say pretty in the same way that I have a ton of flower photos in my gallery that people have said “Oo, pretty!” even though it was out of focus, white balance was off, highlights were blown and they were taken on auto. 😉 I’m leaning towards thinking this photog just commented on something as a viewer, and not as a pro critiquing another’s work. Even though a casual comment can be misconstrued as coming from a professional point of view.

For me, if I were a pro, I wouldn’t be putting my name to anything that could call my professional judgement and skills into question. Even if it was done outside of my professional sphere. That’s just me. But I’m a scrooge when it comes to compliments.

(P.S. Egg, I love your work! I have your site bookmarked.)

[kbee]

Your gallery reminds me of my personal Facebook photo gallery. A little bit of everything and anything you can get your hands on. That’s not a bad thing, but it says to me, that like me, you’re practicing on what is available. There’s no real focus happening to show you’re interested in one particular subject eg. portraits, nature, maternity. To me, you just appear to be an enthusiast with a camera on hand to capture a lot of things you come across. It could be anybody’s gallery.

Don’t let it discourage you, though. Definitely keep working on it. Work on your skills, think about what type of photography you want to focus on, and then work on that to hone your skills.

[kbee]

I like. Your photos are clear and sharp with good white balance. You have a good grasp of what you are doing and you are miles away from many of the fauxs featured here.

I’m not a pet fan but I love the four chihuahuas in a basket. I think you’re on to a good thing, so keep it up! Definitely, see if you can get more subjects to practice on, like other breeds of dogs or animals. I think you’d do great with exotic birds, for example.

[kbee]

I’m no pro, but I love your photos and would be happy to pay you for a shoot any day. And I mean pay a good, honest price for your time. Lovely portfolio.

[kbee]

Australian expat living in Lousiana.

[kbee]

I agree with everybody here. While there are some things about your composition or exposure in some shots to be worked on, you took some really nice photos for someone starting out and for only $100.

I paid 3 times as much as your agreed upon price for my wedding photographer, and I wish she had gotten the types of shots you had. She was good, don’t misunderstand me, but she wasn’t a wedding photog; rather, she was a commercial product photographer and a friend, so she did my husband and I a favor. It just didn’t have a lot of flair as a wedding photog would have for their chosen line of work. But I did pay her the agreed price – and even tipped her extra for her troubles. It’s just the right thing to do.

You did good. Keep working on it and chalk up your loss as an experience to learn from. And definitely: be wary of working for family or friends, because they’ll expect, nay demand, you give them your time for cheap.

In the meantime, you could soothe your pains by enjoying a site like Clients from Hell or the like. You’re not alone.

[kbee]

Oh sweet lord, I went to AP’s website and the music. I frantically searched for the mute button but ended up closing the window. Saw it on my way out, ah well. My head.

[Author]

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