Tired of the similarity of the digital age, Ian Ruhter tried to make something completely new. Ian travels the US with a track sized camera that shoot on 1.5 meters wet plates. Both the camera and the photography are amazing. And I find his story and storytelling amazingly inspiring.
This is not a DIY kinda post, it is more related to my career as a photographer. If you here for the nuts and bolts, move along, nothing to see. If you are starting out as a photographer, I think this will be super relevant and valuable for you.
Having walked the path of "What's that black button for?" to "Chin down, eyes to me" over the last three years, one of the things that I had to struggle with is how to handle friends and family who ask for discounts (some will ask for a 100% discount :).
The next video by the awesome Jasmine Star pretty much sums up what I think is the best approach to handling this awkward situation.
Jasmine's advice breaks into two parts, one that fits the "I'll shoot anything that will stand in front of my lens" phase where you are benefited from sharpening your skills and spreading the word about your talent. And one that fits the phase where you move on to establishing a business where you need to be more aware of your time.
As Jasmine explains it may be hard, but it is best to have "the conversation". To me this makes perfect sense in the way that you will probably not ask your carpenter friend for a free table.
How do you handle friends discounts? Share with us in the comments
[Photo Discounts + Booking Policy via slr lounge] Click to continue ›
If you are not familiar with photograms and cyanotypes, here are two new words for you: A Photogram is a photograph made without a camera by placing objects directly onto a photographic paper. A Cyanotype is the developing process used to make blue prints.
You can have lots of fun and interesting results by creating Cyanotype Photograms. Photographer Paul Eliasberg is going to show us how.
One of the ways to understand how light works in photographs is to do basic exercises. We did one way by creating the portrait lighting cheat sheet that shows how positioning a single light effect a portrait, others have done similar stuff with an egg.
Photographer Pat David had another idea. Using a CC-BY 3D scan by Infinite Realities and an open source 3D modeling software called Blender 3D (Blender is darn near real rendering engine, it can even mimic shaped bokeh), he started to play with positioning various light sourced around the scanned head.
Benjamin Von Wong is no stranger to this blog. In his latest installment Ben shares how he lit his model on fire.
For me it was very interesting to watch this BTS as it is a second run of shoot that did not go well for Ben, which at least for me, sends out a clear message about pushing yourself and not giving up. It was also interesting to see that Ben did not fled the windy conditions that interfered with his first shoot but embraced that in the second one.
Watch both this man on fire BTS and the previous one after the jump. (New one first, older second). Click to continue ›
With Valentines evening fast approaching I thought I would do a small shameless plug for the bokeh masters kit and showcase 5 romantic pictures taken with the device and the hearts filter.
Of course, if you are more of the romantican and wanna make a romantic hearts bokeh yourself, you can follow the instructions here.
Having the opportunity to visit the industry at PMA and CES this year was rad, but what was even radder was the chance to meet and have fun with a few of my personal industry heroes, Zeke of Nice Photo Mag, Matt of Nasty Clamps and James of Orbis. We spent some time talking gear and the industry but having spent too much time confined in the show rooms, Zeke and I need some venting. We took a Nasty Clamp a Canon s100 and an strobe and roamed the strip. Having limited gear, we wanted to see what we can come up with.
What started as a fun (yet cold) evening ended with security kicking us out of the boardwalk for taking professional photographs, but I am getting ahead of myself. Click to continue ›
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've almost certainly heard that the ancient Maya long-count calendar rolls over in December this year. Along with spurring the release of a frenzy of apocalyptic books, this event is also helping spawn renewed tourist interest in Maya ruins. Not to miss out on the opportunity (and free publicity), Mesoamerican communities are hosting a number of special events to celebrate the historic occasion. And governments in what was once the Maya realm have funded a new wave of restoration projects at ruin sites.
So regardless of whether your driving interest is culture or history, art or archaeology, you may well be considering (if not yet planning) a photography trip to the Maya realm. If this is the case for you, please allow me to pass along a few pointers based on my experiences in the area. Click to continue ›
It is not often that I see a picture and get my eye wet with nostalgia. However this one from David Sittig hit a soft spot for me (click here for lightbox view). Having a Kiev 88, a Seagull 4A and a Minolta SRT 101 in the same shot should be good enough on any given day, but David made the extra step of making it a TTV (Through The Viewfinder) photograph featuring the Minolta and Seagull in the Kiev's viewfinder.(Final image, just in case you care for this kind of thing, was taken with a D90)
I asked David to share the process of taking this image with DIYP readers and much to my delight he said yes:
One environment that I never tire of photographing is the deserts of the southwest United States. While the desert may look drab and gray during daylight hours during the golden and blue hour the desert transforms into a colorful and often surreal landscape. Mix in a little bad weather and you can capture some amazing landscape photos. Since the desert is an extreme environment I prepare for my shoots there with more scrutiny. Over the years my approach to desert photography preparations have bled into my general landscape photo shoot prep.
Here are 10 tips to prepare for your next adventure in the desert including 4 very important steps to ensure your safety: Click to continue ›
