Q&A WEDNESDAY

Is it Wednesday already? Where oh where does the time go? As always, thank you for your questions, keep them coming! Here are a few from this week...

What is Bokeh?

Bokeh is the Japanese term meaning blur or haze. It is the blurry or out of focus part of a photograph.

There is good and bad bokeh so to speak. Good bokeh is when the blur of the photograph is silky and pleasing and makes your subject that much more attractive. Bad bokeh is when the blur is harsh and might take away from your subject. And if your whole photograph is in focus and has no blur then you have no bokeh.

How much does a second shooter hire for?

Well it all depends. First if you are going to hire someone you have to make sure they can take sellable photographs. Can they edit and do color correction by themselves? If the answer is yes and if that's something you want them to do, anywhere from $300 - $600 for the entire day or $25-$35 an hour. There are a lot of green photographers out there that would love to second shoot just for the experience. If you are looking for free - cheap this might be your only choice. A nice idea, if you're trying the free - cheap route is to let your second shooter get to use some of their photos to build their portfolio. Just be careful because in a lot of cases you get what you pay for but remember we all have/had to start somewhere. I lucked out and had an incredible first time 2nd for my first time wedding but I would say most are probably not so lucky!

What do you, the photographer, wear to a shoot?

It completely depends on the type of shoot as to what I'm going to wear but I do always want to look well put together. For a typical family shoot I wear what ever I want. Uusally slacks and a nice light weight top. The stress is on light weight or at least layers because I get so hot chasing after kids or when the heat is cranked for a newborn so I try to make sure I'm not going to be sweat'n! The 2 things I never wear... skirts or loose cut tops. I'm up. I'm down. I'm laying on the ground... And the last thing I want is to make Mrs "Smith" feel uncomfortable while Mr. "Smith" is getting a free show!

For weddings it's a bit different. For my wedding in November I'm planning to wear black slacks, FLATS and a stylish black top (have not found the top yet). Oh and at EVERY shoot my hair is up in a ponytail so as not to be in the way even if I hate my hair up cause of big ears. The ears loose because I need to see my clients not my hair in front of my lens! ;)

Just always dress so that people take you seriously. I just figure that if you push what your clients wear (and I do), you should practice what you preach if you know what I mean. If you want to be considered a professional, dress the part!

Do you use a UV filter or any other filters for that matter?

Yes. I have UV-Haze filters on all my lenses! First to protect from finger prints. Have you ever noticed that when you get them it's SO hard to get em back off? And second is in hopes that the colors will have more vibrancy. In all honesty thought, I have not noticed much difference from when they are off to on. I think I need to invest in some polarizing filters. Here is an article I found if you want to know more.

What do you think about matching outfits like where everyone wears a white shirt and khaki pants?

Can I be totally and completely honest here? I despise when everyone matches and I can't stand when they all wear white! The idea of it seriously makes me cringe. Is that terrible of me? I just feel like you can add so much to family dynamics with great clothing choices, why ruin that by doing a bad 80's flash back where everyone has on a neon-green over sized t-shirt. I ask clients to stay away from white (besides it captures terrible) and pastels. I encourage bright color, great texture and layers.

As always email or post in the comment box your thoughts or questions.

We want to know what you're thinking about!

What is a composition? Newborn Photography & Babies Safety.

Recently I wrote a post about newborn photography, you can read it here. I wanted to talk about another part of newborn photography that's even more important than getting the most adorable shot ever... And thats the babies safety!

Babies safety must always be the MOST important thing on our minds when shooting a newborn session. From washing your hands as soon as you get in the door (I always wash my hands in the house where mom and dad can see me so they will feel reassured when I start holding baby) to the art of posing.

Let me tell you the behind the scenes of this pumpkin shot (see below). The night before the session I was at the grocery store, saw the pumpkin and knew I really wanted to use it with the 2 month old baby I would be photographing the next day. I got the pumpkin squeaky clean before the shoot but did not make any cuts (outside of the top) until I saw the babies size. When the family arrived I told them various ideas that I had and we shared things we had each been thinking about. Before ever mentioning the pumpkin idea I felt the parent out first. First time parents are often very nervous about making the baby lay naked alone, let alone sticking her in a pumpkin. (Give em' a couple more and they will gladly hand one upside down for you! ;)

This new family seemed very relaxed so I ran the pumpkin idea by them and they liked it. When we were ready to try it, I ran hot water inside the shell and dried it out to keep her from getting startled by the cold. We originally had the idea of laying the pumpkin on it's side with her in but she kept herself stick straight so I quickly improvised and did the shot this way. I got TWO shots and that was it. The below (was really a test shot) and the one after was centered but she is screaming. So this was really it, with the magic of photoshop I copied the wall on the right, flipped it and transformed it on the left as well as the very edge of the pumpkin, and of course I edited out the arms.

Arms are being edited out a lot more than you might think.

I remember when I first was looking at newborn photographers, seeing some baby poses and being in awe as to how they were doing it. A thread went around a forum asking if anybody had tried and what they thought the photographer was doing to make it happen. Some people were going to try some not very safe things to make it happen and finally someone reported that she'd read it was a composition. But the questions continued to to circulate and people didn't seem to understand what that meant. Yes we talk about rules of composition but in this case they meant 'a fake'.

Here is a great example by Heather Ward (thanks Heaher!) for a very fun and intriguing composition shot!

So next time you are marveling at an incredible newborn image, marvel away but remember a few things... There may be arms protecting that you can't see and I can guarantee that mom or dad is always only one breath out of the shot protecting babies safety. And it should never be any other way!

Want to read more? Here is a great post by Jodie Otte that I recently read. It's the inspiration behind this one!

Macro aka The Finer Details

When shooting objects, people, and nature we have a tendency to step as far back as possible or zoom out to get the whole subject in the frame. While this is great so we can capture the whole idea and get the whole picture, sometimes I feel like I'm missing the finer details. For example when shooting a newborn. Are the majority of your pictures of the whole baby? Do you get closer and get a shot of just the head? Now have you ever considered to take another step closer and capture babies ear? Yes it may sound weird the babies EAR but have you ever noticed how precious a babies ear could be? The babies mouth, nose, or even the roll that might be forming underneath the chin. These are the things as a mother I will most likely forget but these are also the things I don't want to forget. Let's say you're photographing a teapot. From far away you can see the whole thing. GREAT! But have you noticed the stroke marks in the paint. Maybe the cracks that are starting to form from age. Could these finer details make you stop and think that maybe this teapot might be an antique? Something you might not have thought of or seen when you took a picture of the whole thing. One more example, I promise, now you're taking a picture of a tree. Awesome you have the whole tree! Now take a step closer and notice the leaves, the bark and how much texture they have. Did you see that cool looking bug crawling up the tree? My little tip for today is to take a step closer to your subject. Try a macro lens or your macro setting on your point and shoot if you don't have an SLR. Your macro setting has a tulip icon for your point and shoot. Read your manuals people! Work with your depth of field. Do you want to show how tall a tree is? Focus on the bark closes to you and have the tree top in the background. Or a shallow depth of field with your cool bug as big as the frame. There are no rules with photography only opinions. I would love to make this a homework assignment if you'd like to participate. Email me your macro photos to goforprophoto@gmail.com and next Monday we'll post your photos. We're not here to critique you but to help you expand your knowledge and photography.

And to leave you with some ideas

The VALUE of your WORK

Growing up I lived several years on a boat. Me, my little sister and my dad. By profession my dad was a stockbroker but by personality, he's a perfectionist. Owning a boat means a lot of maintenance and when things are not properly maintained on boats it always costs more money in the future but this was never why he was such a stickler with who cared for our floating home. My dad unequivocally believes that pride should always be taken in your work from the most mundane task of cleaning a toilet to the honors of saving a life. To him, each job should always be done to the best of your ability the first time. Remember that I didn't end that sentence with 'the right way' but I'll get back to that later.

After hiring and firing many a man to varnish, wash, wax, and a plethora of other tasks either for lack of pride or lack of soberness sometimes, my dad made up his mind that he would start his own detail business and do it correctly! I was fourteen when he opened the doors of Felix Marie Industries, his first purchase was this humungous old utility truck, and when I say truck I mean what the baggens drove on 101 Dalmatians only bigger. He had it painted the brightest yellow imaginable and after having the lettering placed, he insisted that he drive me to school in it - the point is he took pride in each detail, even his truck. So instead of our normal, very nice family SUV, the bright yellow service truck, (complete with lift and siren in which he would blast upon dropping me off just to give my friends a laugh) delivered me to school. I may not have always realized it than but I know now that he's the greatest! When dad decides to start something, he goes 100% and he secretly taught me the same lesson with out me even knowing it!

Now this story is not all about success, rather it's about the opposite and it's predecessor at the same time! The first job Felix ever brought in was for the personal yacht of the owner of one of the largest trucking companies on the west coast. My dad brought the crew to the boat, gave direction and the guys went to work. The job was a complete failure. They did terrible work. But it's my dad's response that teaches the lesson. When confronting the problem and talking with Mr. "Smith". He apologized, reimbursed all of his money and said, 'in a few years when we get this together, hopefully you will try us again.' FMI has been running for 13 years and Mr. "Smith" is a client. The point is that we are new at this, and still learning and we are not going to get it right every time. We may botch a session so badly we offer a reshoot or perhaps it's realizing that poor business skills are pulling you down. No matter what "it" may be, we all have them and it's how we handle our failures that will truly distinguish what we are.

At Felix Marine they are not the cheapest, (opposite actually) they are the best. They have built a slow and steady name for being the very best in the business. They are who the elite go to because every client is catered to and treated as if they are the only client. It is what it is and just like you know the quality is going to be greatly different between a real Fendi and the knock-offs, so to can people see the difference in any other trade or service.

I have learned a lot from my dad and we talk often about my business and his and how many parallels there really are. I use the 4 years that I ran operation for his company constantly in my business and I am always determined to have that same attitude of giving the very best even when I falter.

My last though is this... It is critical that we (the photographers) see the value in our selves and our work! We are going to make mistakes, we will have failures but what we offer is a gift! If we don't see it how can we expect anyone else to? My dad has asked me multiple times, 'but what is it breaking down to hourly?' I recently read a fabulous article on MCPAction by Jodie Otte that really drove the question home. I strongly encourage everyone to go read it!! Let's stop selling ourselves short! What I do has greater value than my dad's mechanics (and it lasts longer too) and they charge $150 an hour. Are you selling yourself short? I know I have and I've given it a hundred titles and excuses as to why, but what is my time and even more so my family worth? I challenge myself and you to be a little better and expect a little more!

Something to think about.

Q&A WEDNESDAY just a tad late

Sorry I'm late with this! I was out of town the last few days, got home yesterday with every intention of posting but my husband had a surprise for me and suddenly the last thing I was thinking about was Q&A Wednesday. ;) But better late then never....

I'm pretty short. How can I not let this effect my shooting?

Hey me too! I think I may qualify as really short! I'm 5'2 and a HALF! I run into short problems all the time! So I do a few things to help even out the playing field. With adults I'm on my tiptoes ALL the time. I've brought a ladder with me for group shoots and 2 step foldable stool and this handy little light stool from Ikea ($6).

It really is critical that you are not shooting below your subjects unless it's on purpose. So having a small step stool that's easy to transport is a great idea. This one from Ikea does a little double duty as I can flip it over to help me carry props and such up to the location before hand.

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Do you use a lens hood and do I really need one?

Yes I do! No it's not a necessity, but it is a really good idea. My Canon L Series Lens came with the hood making it very easy for me - if your lens did not it still might be a good investment. Here's why... First of all to protect your lens. I spent a lot of money on my lenses and I want to keep them protected and away from finger prints. Working with little kids - they often reach for my camera/lens. The hood has saved my lens several times. Another reason to use a lens hood is for richer color and deeper saturation you can read more about that here.

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I am wondering if you shoot in JPEG or RAW. I've heard that RAW is the professional way to go, but I am afraid of how difficult it is. Just wondering if you have any input on the transition.

I shoot in JPEG. I have heard all the same arguments as to why you should/shouldn't shoot in RAW. Bottom line - You do have more post editing control with RAW! It does take up a ton more space on your cards and your hard drive. If you want full control in post processing RAW might be right for you. You will get 2 to 3x less images on your card if you shoot in RAW so thats important to think about with card space.

My own little personal idea is that I would rather shoot as close to a perfect exposure as I can from the get go and not spend even more time in post editing than I already do. I'm happy shooting in JPEG, I still feel like I have plenty of control and my harddrive in filling up faster then I can keep up as it is. I was wondering if I was the only pro shooting in raw, did some research and found than a ton of pros agree, and of course some do not. Here is a great article to give a much better understanding about RAW vs JPEG.

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The WORST part of a photography business for me is weather. I hate that my body is constantly stressing about what the weather is going to be like over the weekend. How do you handle this? Do you reschedule often, work in the rain, etc. Do you have a stress-free protocol you do? I am praying that there is a way that I can not be so stressed--about weather!

I completely understand. It use to stress me out a ton too, but as time has gone I've just stopped worrying about it. I'm not even sure when and why? But thinking about it now, here are maybe a few of the reasons why. I've only been rained out once and I would have been HAPPY to do the shoot but the clients asked for a reschedule. I guess I realized that all that worrying was often for no reason. If rain is in the forecast, I plan at parks that have nice coverings (like a gazebo) and suggest fun rain boots and cute umbrellas. Another easy fix is using the doorway. The light is usually great and so I often pile the family in the doorway and I stand outside and shoot inward. I also keep the time tentative and this is just one more reason. It may rain in the morning but be fine in the afternoon or vise versa. Of course you do not want to be in a torrential downpour but there are a lot of things you can do to prepare yourself for rain so I'll devote an entire post to that soon!

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Do you need contracts for just a newborn shoot?

You always need a contract! I firmly feel thats it's important to always have a contract and model release!! I have never had to pull one out and I really think that part of the reason is that I have it all spelled out clear as can be so that there are no questions. Also if you are using the images on your blog, website or anything else you need to have a model release to protect yourself. You may find out you have a client that does not want their children on your blog, I had one that did not want their sons name on the posting. You will know about any such conditions with a model release and contract. I send over my packet before the shoot and make it clear that contracts and payment must be received before the shoot can start. I got all my contracts from Photographic Foundations.

Keep sending your questions and we will keep answering them!

A Canon Review Website

When I was first starting to research Canon gear and equipment I felt like my best allies were reviews. I would spend hours reading all the reviews on B&H's products and would get discouraged if there weren't any reviews on a specific item. Sometimes I would stumble on forums and lets just say people were a little too candid for me, if you know what I'm saying. I wanted more of a professional approach with facts rather than opinions without any good reasoning behind their choices. One day I came across the most refreshing site. The-Digital-Picture.com. Bryan, the author, reviews Canon cameras, lenses, flashes, accessories, tripods, and much more. He includes photo galleries, mouse overs to compare things like lengths of lenses and ISO quality. The reviews are very easy to understand and very straight forward. He'll let you know when barrel distortion or vignetting starts to appear. Let me just say it's like renting equipment without paying out. When it all comes down to it we all know that lenses and equipment decisions are personal choices and this is just one mans reviews but check out his website. He makes good points that may just finalize your decision if you were trying to compare two products. The-Digital-Picture.com is just for Canon camera's and Canon compatible equipment if you have a Canon, Nikon, Sony or (insert your brand here) review website you would like to share with the Goforpro community please, PLEASE leave a comment. We love sharing any information we cherish with our followers and hope that you would love to do the same.

A Preview

I remember when I first started my business thinking I really wish I could see other photogs galleries. I was just remembering the other day how curious I was about what others included. I include around 20 images for each client. The images often come in color, B&W and some in with textures or vintage or some kind of something. I like giving choices and it only take a couple seconds to switch is to a vintage or B&W. I would like to start offering 30 images per session, but not with my current pricing. That will happen in January. I thought I would let you take a look at a recent Senior session that I posted for a client...

Go to my site, the password is: cassyrocks

Let me know if this helps and I can give some other examples with different session types.

FREE Professional Photography Blog - Thats Right!!

I just launched my new blog today and I'm so excited about it! As photographers it's crucial that we have great blogs. Thats where potential clients look the most, why? It's always being updated where as our websites don't get attention quite as much.

I was with blogger. Started out happy (loved that it was free) but soon started having two BIG issuess. 1. The Image size. I wanted clients and potential clients to see a large crisp image. 2. I was not happy with the color quality! Below is a screen shot (remember this is blogger again so it's adding the green cast to the left image but look how bad the right side is). To better see the contrast here is the old blog and the new blog.

I knew I wanted a new blog (badly) but as I started looking into pricing I was not happy. It seemed that my blog was going to cost more (a lot more) than my website did. But one day as I clicked around from blog to blog I found my answer!

Tofurious. Lawrence Chan of Tofurious has created a blog theme specifically for photographers that is completely customizable. Here is the demo.

Now I had a plan! Implementing the plan was a little more in depth. "I am NOT computer savvy" is a vast understatement. But I saw the video tutorials and figured I would give it a go! Lawrence recommend Blue Host and has video tutorials on how to get it up and going. Knowing that I had no chance without the most basic step by step, I did exactly what he recommended every step of the way (or so I thought). At 3am - 7 hours after starting this little project I called BlueHost for support (so awesome to be open 24/7!) and with a lot of work on their end they finally figured out what I'd managed to screw up and got me up and running. There is was the TOFU web blog... Only problem, I'm not Tofurious. After the time I put into getting it up and going I made a VERY WISE choice!!

I contacted Danella ( djmiller@interbel.net ), recommended by Lawrence Chan to help me with my customization. {Insert choirs singing}. Danella got RIGHT back to me, I sent her a little mock up (see mock up below) that I'd created while I was trying to decide what I wanted to do along with the digital elements (don't forget you MUST have the commercial rights) and she worked her uber fab magic and had my blog up and going the NEXT DAY!

Can you imagine how long it would have taken me? And mine certainly wouldn't have come out as great as what Danella ( djmiller@interbel.net ) created for me! It could have been months maybe even years of frustration and tears over my illiteracy with electronics! I just wish I'd had her set it up from the start and save me from a long night of no sleep!

So there it is, my NEW BLOG! Up and going for under $150 dollars!

A few things to note. The Tofurious Blog Them has two options the FREE download and the more advanced version for only $30 (has flash banner, here is the DEMO for the $30 version). The only reason I did not go with the $30 version is that I already have flash on my website making it so iPhones and other devices can not view it. I wanted to make sure that one of my sites was viewable from anything so I opted for no flash. If I did not have my website and this was going to be my website - I would have definitely opted for the $30 version!

The Blog Theme has step by step video instructions for installation however if you are lacking computer smarts or just don't feel like investing the time into getting it all up and going. I highly recommend that you email Danella ( djmiller@interbel.net ). Her prices are a steal and the aspirin you avoid popping do to the immense headache you now have is worth every penny!

Last thought. The theme is free or $30 bucks. Word Press is free. So all you are paying for is hosting and blog installation if you need it. This is a great deal!

HAPPY BLOGGING!