[Mrs Woo]

@FauxFighters – I was going to say “Oh, look!  Another ‘natural light’ photographer, but the one of the baby looks like it used flash – somehow part of the flash was BLOCKED, but it looks like they at least attempted to use it (rather badly).  SMH

If you’re going to do the ‘natural light’ thing at least buy and learn to use a couple of cheap reflectors?

[Mrs Woo]

I actually have a neck strap and a hand strap on my camera.  The neck strap for times when I’m walking with it but not shooting, the hand strap because I worry that my coordination issues mean that I might drop it – really don’t want to/can’t afford to replace it at this point.

[Mrs Woo]

Good to know.  My current ‘problem’ is getting the frozen lake!  Rural Missouri hasn’t been frozen over well enough on the right days since my new tripod came in (right after Christmas).  🙁

 

[Mrs Woo]

Thank you cameraclicker – I have a tripod (just upgraded actually – what a difference!), remote shutter release, always shoot low ISO with long exposure.   There is one image I am ‘waiting’ to capture – all things need to be in place at the same time:  a frozen lake, sleeping Canadian geese and some good moonlight.  No luck yet.  I had read that the 7D had too much noise vs. the 5DIII, but know I won’t afford a 5DIII for probably at least most of this year (we’ll see after we’re done building the new house).

[Mrs Woo]

Middle of rural Missouri (that’s why my assistant is a guinea fowl – good help is hard to find and she works for, well, chicken feed!).  LOL

[Mrs Woo]

I have 5D envy too (want the Mark III because it really is close to my 7D in control layout and what I have read about its sensor suggests I’ll get superior low-light performance and I want to start doing night landscapes).

I agree on the white balance.  I am old-fashioned – I’m not a big fan of the dutch angles?  I sometimes wonder if part of it is a photographer who is still not completely comfortable with their ability to compose an image well and/or keep the horizon…well, horizontal.  Would love to have your input on that (as an old woman, I have done almost nothing with them, so have a sincere curiosity about why people choose them).

Really, though, marketable images.  Don’t worry about the T2i, has pretty much the same sensor in it as my 7D.  Renting lenses until you can afford to buy them is wise.  You might want to try the 70-200 f/2.8 as another lens for wedding photography?  I’ve heard of wedding photogs using that one, too, and I LOVE mine.

[Mrs Woo]

Oh dear.  I don’t know how you can ‘get out of’ the May shoot where she is someone’s buddy.  On upcoming shoots that are NOT something she would have to come along with, I would probably either do your best to avoid her knowing about them and/or tell her that you do not need a second for those events?  Maybe you can, if necessary, find a ‘less experienced’ shooter to shoot second (one that is willing to be taught).

I didn’t finish.  After twenty images I was pretty sure she doesn’t have a clue.  Really sad.

[Mrs Woo]

@caboodle – since in camera raw all data is recorded even if you have it ‘set’ to monochrome, I didn’t argue that point, because it could be argued those are settings being applied to the captured data, rather than actually recording in monochrome as you are saying.

I am also a minimal/never edit person.  I also agree that getting it right in camera is best.  Who wants to waste a ton of time editing?

I learned photography on a Pentax K1000 and was taught darkroom work by a retired wedding photographer.  I admit that I am saddened that (a) split screen focusing is after market and not available on all cameras – it is so frustrating to not be sure my focus is spot on, especially when doing macro work and (b) that I find myself taking additional images to be sure I got what I wanted.  I realize that digital capture has made me lazy (seriously lazy) – when you don’t have 24 exposures before you swap rolls and don’t have to consider what a waste it is to have an exposure be off you seem to get lazy.  More mindful photography is something I’m hoping for this year.

Strangely, I can’t be a ‘fauxtog’ since I don’t charge for my work.  You’re welcome to label me one if you would like to, though.  I got big shoulders.

[Mrs Woo]

I think that it is because he doesn’t want me to have the stress of having obligations scheduled ahead of time and having worse symptoms make me have to reschedule or cancel (I am the church’s main musician and they have to sing a capella at least once a month).  On the not charging thing – he volunteers me for shoots for people who can’t afford a photographer.  He is a snapshot photographer and doesn’t understand the fuss I make over composition and light.  It drives me crazy.  He likes to go on photo safaris… at noon.  On a really sunny day.  Then he will only take pictures of whatever he can see from the passenger side of the car.  SMH

So he isn’t much of a judge of pictures.  He does like some of my better stuff, yes, but is someone who would find many fauxtographer images to be more than acceptable as long as they were in focus and the exposure wasn’t too far off.

It isn’t his lack of value for me, though, it is more his heart for everyone else.  I seem to give away at least one graduation shoot a year.  That certainly isn’t a whole lot of work to commit to, at least.

My whole hope is actually to get submissions approved for microstock and make some extra money that way.  That way it doesn’t matter if I only take pictures on my good days (hard to find models that flexible though).  🙂

[Mrs Woo]

Well, a lot of photographers start out with a camera and a belief that they are better photographers than they are (or that they are ‘good enough’ and ‘will keep working’) – some start charging earlier in their experience than others.

Today I posted on my FB (it isn’t really a joke, actually), that I apparently am allowed to do portrait photography (have been talking to hubby repeatedly about doing some part-time photography to help support my equipment habit, and he tells me I am not healthy enough for that), but I am only allowed to do it for special reasons, and am never allowed to charge for it (when we find people who are in desperate straits, we often do many things to help them; a family friend is disabled and poor and every graduation photography package he has been quoted is over $400; people who are paid to help him at his house actually showed up one night to pay for his son’s cap and gown for him).  Though hubby will not let me do photography to earn money, he has no problem volunteering my services or having me volunteer them for someone who cannot get portraiture done otherwise.

Of course, that’s a once or twice a year commitment vs. trying to maybe do photography a few times a week.

Back to the awards – we could even organize and give each other awards and advertising you are an ‘award-winning photographer’ is not a lie.  It’s misleading, but it’s not a lie.  It’s sad the way people do that, you know?  The whole “if it’s legal, who cares if it isn’t ethical?” thing… 🙁

[Mrs Woo]

I have read that there’s one website that if you pay for a membership you get to be an “award winning photographer” for that year.  They could have done something like that?  🙁

 

[Mrs Woo]

A friend of mine announced her photography studio after going to BestBuy with her budget and being sold a Canon ELPH and being told it was an amazing camera, etc. etc.  I think she was editing with Picmonkey?

I have been so torn.  Worse, it was an eye-opener – people gush about her photography (then again, she also posts pictures of places she has never been and raves over the place without telling anyone it isn’t her picture) and even ask about buying prints.  It makes me think that I probably should hang things up – maybe the reactions to my photography are equally … friendly.

You can get great images with a point and shoot camera, even without being able to deal with too many settings, if you get to know it well enough.  However, I could never stand my inability to pick my own focus point with my point and shoot cameras – it would drive me crazy for close-up work (couldn’t really call that real macro).  I used SLR cameras in the 80s but didn’t ever want to spend the money to get a DSLR when I was a single mom.  After I remarried my husband got me a DSLR one year for Christmas.

One of these days I might even be good enough to try to become a fauxtographer…  Or not.

[Mrs Woo]

That comment was too snarky – possibly TRUE, but too snarky, so I’ll just get rid of it.

No one gets a DSLR for Christmas and immediately becomes a pro photographer.  That would be just silly.

[Mrs Woo]

You know it’s a bad thing when they keep resorting to black and white to get rid of the magenta-tinged faces.  Why does it seem so common, though?

[Mrs Woo]

Good to know, Browneyedgirl – I don’t have the willingness to be that confrontational.  A beginning photographer who opened their own studio recently came onto my radar and I suggested we could help each other with opinions about each other’s work.  Hopefully I can get her to tone down Barbie faces with glittering blue eyes a bit.  🙁

I can’t figure out why someone wouldn’t use their own images – do they think the customer isn’t going to say, “Hey, why didn’t you do the black velvet and rose petals for me?  How come the lighting from your window didn’t do as good a job as this picture here?” etc.?

 

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