Mrs. Ohio America Photo Session

I had the good fortune last weekend to be able to photography Stephanie Gooden, Mrs. Ohio America. She was a lot of fun to work with!

Rocked a Showcase Image at One Model Place

I got a nice surprise today. One of my images from last week's shoot with the oh-so-cute Stacy was picked as a Showcase Image on One Model Place. How fun!

The Chaos of Stock Photography

I've been a participant in the stock photo industry for years and it's hard to get a grasp of who the stars are. Participating in any activity and not knowing where the pinnacle is or what it looks like is problematic. We're all tossing darts, not knowing where the dartboard is. I suppose the true problem is that there isn't a single dartboard, and each one blinks on and off as a photo need arises. The trick would be how to anticipate the need and have the photo already on sale. Be ready for anything.

The nature of stock = chaos.

How to learn photography

Last night at dinner, a friend asked me "So, how did you learn photography?"

I told him a long answer about the one photography class I had in college, about how I used an SLR to photograph my paintings. I told him how I started using digital cameras around '96 and got my first digital camera, a 0.5 MP Kodak DC50, in '97 and started feeling that digital was a lot more like painting than film was--it clicked with my brain. I started my first web site. In 2000, I bought a Nikon CP800. By 2003, I bought a Nikon CP5700. I was an internet forum junkie. In 2004, I started entering contests and won over 93 "Picture of the Day" or "Picture of the Month" awards in 18 months. I bought my first digital SLR camera. I showed my photography alongside my paintings in exhibitions. I sold my photography through galleries. I started selling them as stock images. I started shooting photos for a few local and regional newspapers and magazines. In 2005, I joined the National Press Photographer's Association. In 2007, I started shooting models, which led me to photographing paying clients. I joined the American Society of Media Photographers. I've shot corporate work, Archbishops, Presidential candidates. I've had my photos licensed in over 20 different countries. I'm happy to say that I've left my teaching position now to focus on my photography exclusively, and to develop it further.

That was a long answer, and I know it wasn't what he really wanted. The real answer goes something like this: You learn through asking the right questions--and making friends with people who are willing to answer those questions.

Protect your cameras this summer

If you are taking your dslr to the beach, you should plan to protect it from sea water and sea spray.

I went to Wal Mart and bought a roll of vanilla scented (bonus!) small garbage bags, like for bathrooms or the like.


Make a hole in one corner of the bottom of the bag. about 2" (4-5 cm) around.

Push your lens (lens cap on, hood off), through this opening.

Use gaffer tape to seal the bag to either your lens hood and/or the end of the lens.

I use Op/Tech straps that have quick release clips. I take the neck piece off and push the camera ends of the strap through the top of the bag, thus extending the bag falloff area to behind the top of the camera, so gravity keeps it in place. Tape around these holes to seal them and your done.

With this, you have the body and lens encased in plastic, except for the back, but you need access to the controls and LCD, so you don't want that covered anyway. The bag is long enough to hang over your hands, so the back of the camera isn't going to get too wet.

I've used this setup in rain, at the beach, on boats, etc. What you want to watch out for more than anything is salt water. Salt water kills cameras.

Time for a new external HD

Ah, my current RAW hard drive is just about full, so I'll go out today and get a new one. I thought I'd take a minute to talk about these little monsters while I was thinking about them.

I'd like to begin by thanking the manufacturers for selling them cheaper. About a year ago, I was paying 25 cents/GB for them on sale. Today, the one I'm looking at will be 12 cents/GB. Thanks!

I currently have 14 external hard drives. My workflow goes like this:

Shoot photos.
Download to HD RAW 1
Backup images to HD RAW 2
Process images from RAW and transfer them to HD PROC 1
Every night HD PROC 1 gets automatically backed up to HD PROC 2

So, I have four hard drives for current work. I used to backup everything on DVD, but with the file sizes of the images getting bigger, I now only backup processed jpegs to DVD. I can easily shoot between 10 and 20 GB of RAW photos in a single session, and backing these up with DVDs is a pain.

I've only had one external HD fail. For those of you who care, it was a Western Digital. It had lots of important stuff that I think was backed up, but I used to put the CDs on a spindle for storage, and it's such a pain to go back through the spindles, that I just let all that go (for now). Backing up to HD is much better because your work is organized and easy to access.

Very funny

This video hits home on so many levels!