[Nightrose]

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am highly possessive of my cameras and I loathe letting people who aren’t me use them!

[Nightrose]

Thomas and cameraclicker have some great advice!

Also, try to capture these things:

The groom’s face when he sees his bride for the first time. It’s easiest if you are positioned near him up the top of the aisle to one side, so you can snap a shot of bride coming up the aisle, then swing around to get his reaction.

Obviously, their first kiss. Be at the top of the aisle, and hunker down so that you aren’t in the way of all the guests.  If the kiss is long enough, you might have a chance to quickly stand and snap off a shot as well. Take multiple photos if you can, but really try to ensure you have your focal point correctly on them. Push up your ISO to give you faster shutter speed, and don’t make aperature too shallow.

Photograph everyone else taking photographs with their phones! You can’t avoid them, so do some wide shots of all the guests crowded around the couple with their cameras.

Details are important, so photograph them!

Best of luck to you 🙂

 

[Nightrose]

Then there are we Aussies and Kiwis who nobody in the Northern Hemisphere seems to understand.  Strewth!

P.S: To Americans, the double r’s in “mirror” and “horror” are not silent!

[Nightrose]

I love the frog photos! You did well 🙂

[Nightrose]

I also use Zenfolio and really like it.  They are linked with the printing company I use here in Australia so it works well with being able to order prints online.  My page is at http://www.nightrosephoto.com.au

[Nightrose]

Changing perspective is helpful. With animals, being on the same level as them (which usually means laying on the ground, haha!) will give you a much better angle for photographing them, rather than shooting from above.  I have loads of photos of my cats – like a ridiculous amount…..

 

[Nightrose]

I’m voting for the second option Loke!

Aside from anything else, the poster of the ad sounds like they would be a completely nightmare to work with, which in itself is not worth all the money in the world, let alone a paltry $150.

[Nightrose]

I really like the concept of the photo “birdwatching” – the pose of the cat is really cute! The photo itself looks pretty dark on my screen (which is a 27 inch monster) and could do with a fair bit of post-production brightening up.  The black and white of the cat contrasting with the green grass is really cool though.

I’d say that you are young and have loads of potential – with time, study and practise you will improve immensely.  By no means are your photos terrible, they just haven’t reached the WOW factor yet!  Best of luck to you and keep honing your skills 🙂

Oh to be 17 again!

[Nightrose]

I see you have a Zenfolio account (as do I!). Might I suggest that you create a number of drop-down pages within your portfolio in order to place groups of photos into different categories, rather than having a mish-mash of everything  in one page. For example: studio portraits, location portraits, flowers and landscapes (for the ones that aren’t of people ).   I’m currently trying to organise my own website as I do a range of studio portraits, and grouping those together is proving to be a real challenge!

Also, I doubt people will buy prints if you have your watermark on the pics – unless you have watermarked your portfolio and have a separate page for unmarked photos to purchase as prints.

I’m not going to call you a fauxtog but some of the photos do look a little blurry to me….curious to know if it is my eyes or if others see this too? Particularly the one of the little girl!

Your portfolio reminds me of mine when I was just starting out – a random collection of too many different subjects, often with amateurish angles (like the flowers). Your strongest photos overall are the studio shots, and I’d go so far as to suggest you dump everything else off (or at least do as I suggested earlier and create multiple galleries)  and just concentrate on building a great portfolio based around this. I know it is a huge temptation to want to post up everything you do, but it doesn’t do any favours in the long run, as a niched photographer will almost always be more successful than a jack-of-all-trades.

 

[Nightrose]

I suspect you’re fishing for compliments because you have some nice work there!

Having a Facebook Fan Page doesn’t make someone a fauxtographer, it’s what they choose to display there that does!

I have a Facebook Fan Page…..

……*waits for accusations of fauxtoggery*…….

 

[Nightrose]

I include metadata and a watermark on my Facebook and other online images. Not because I think this will stop people pinching my photos (and removing said information), but  more for advertising purposes. I also only upload reduced images which could be printed out as a 6×4 but nothing much bigger than that (without it completely pixellating). Basically if you put something up on the internet, it is fair game so if you don’t want it nicked, don’t upload it!

[Nightrose]

Thanks for sharing, you have some amazing work!

[Nightrose]

Cass335, that’s a gorgeous shot of your dog!

I can’t work out how to post a photo either – someone share your wisdom!

 

 

[Nightrose]

The short of it is: you got burned! I’ve had this happen as well when I was first starting out. Got paid half in advance, then assurances the rest would come when the photos were received. Of course no money was forthcoming and I didn’t have a contract or invoice or anything to prove it. A hard lesson to learn!

Now for weddings or other paid events, I take advance payment in full. Clients are protected by a signed contract which states how much money is to be paid, along with invoices and receipts. So far people have been happy to pay before the event 🙂

Next lesson: never photograph weddings for your own family for money, it’s more trouble than it’s worth, especially with the potential of things like this happening, and falling out with people you see all the time.

Your photos are good, it isn’t your fault he didn’t pay.

[Nightrose]

Melbourne, Australia.

[Author]

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