Whether you are looking for the right path for your budding student photographer in your family or looking on how to jump-start your own photography career, the right school can make all the difference.  There is no question that photography is an outstanding career path with many different directions that someone skilled with a camera might go.

The diversity of careers in photography is truly amazing.  From the base talent in photography and a solid understanding of new and emerging technologies, the sky is the limit for a talented photographer with a solid education under his or her belt.  That is because photography is both an art form and a solid technical skill.  So the same school might produce an award-winning artist, a successful wedding photographer, a fashion photographer, a police investigator taking pictures of crime scenes, or a crack newspaper photographer.

So the question emerges as to what kind of photography school to pick for yourself or the student in your family that wants the best education possible.  How you pick any school is very much influenced by both how you approach education in general and what your objectives are.

Some would advocate that you look to get into the finest artistic photography schools in the country.  If you wish to go down that path, then for sure the Brooks Institute of photography or one of the elite east coast schools of artistic photography is a noble ambition.  But there are three drawbacks to trying to attend such schools.  First is, of course, the potential cost.  Any elite school is going to charge elite prices.  And if you are like most of us, you want to get the most education for your money.  So doing some caparison shopping for a school is in order.

The second drawback is getting admitted.  Most of the top-flight schools have waiting lists and tough entry requirements that may make that ambition more demanding than is necessary.  But the most meaningful drawback is that these schools may not be the right choice for the career you or the photography student in your life may wish to pursue.  So a good general set of guidelines on how to evaluate a wide variety of photography schools is in order.  The guidelines might include…

What kind of photography is right for the student?  A program geared toward artistic photography that will result in pieces hanging in a modern art museum will have a very different approach than a program to train forensic photographers.  Your student may not know right away what field they want to go into.  If so, getting started at a generic school such as a photography emphasis at the local junior college may be the right choice until the career path becomes clearer.

Is it a legitimate school?  You want to avoid schools that are run from the internet or that you read about on the back of a matchbook.  A legitimate school will produce a recognized degree that will be well respected in the industry and will help the student get jobs.

What is available locally?  Why go out of town or out of state if you have good local schools?  Many state universities, junior colleges and local tech schools have find programs.

How diverse and up to date is the program?  Will your student get exposed to the newest of technology in the field of photography?  Will they get trained in how to service many different types of photography assignments?

How does the program’s job placement rating look?  What percentage of graduates from this program get jobs?  How well respected is this school by businesses who employ photographers?

These are solid evaluation criteria.  And if you apply these standards to a couple dozen of the finest schools both locally and nationally, before long a short list of good schools will emerge.  From there, some site visits and interviews with teachers and graduates will narrow things down.  And you will be glad you “did your homework” to find the kind of photography school that will take you or the student in your life to the next level of success in their love of photography.

Your wedding album will be one of the most precious memories of this big day that you will have.  But have you ever noticed how so many of those “professional” pictures are all the same from wedding album to wedding album?  In fact, one thing that jumps out about the wedding photographer is that for a little while on the wedding day, everything halts and it’s all about him.

You know the drill.  The ceremony is exciting and fun and full of joy, some tears and plenty of meaning as the bride and groom kiss and become one family.  Then it’s all over and everybody files out to go to the reception to dance, have cake and celebrate this union.  But wait, the whole proceeding has to grind to a halt while the photographer stages the wedding party for as long as an hour or more to “recreate” the ceremony and make those perfect wedding photos.  Meanwhile the reception may be getting underway and many of the guests that the bride or the groom or others in the family want to hug and share the joy with may have to go because they just can’t wait out a fussy photographer.

Somehow this complete disruption to the day has become accepted as just part of what the wedding day is all about.  And the worst part about it is that the photographs, while nice and well staged, look like a bunch of mannequins being arranged for a store window.  The joy and fun of the ceremony is over.  For decades to come everybody will say they are beautiful and meaningful but if you look closely the wedding party looks nervous, uncomfortable, bored and like they wish they were somewhere else.

Well maybe its time to throw that tradition out and put some creativity into how the wedding photos and the wedding photographer works in your wedding.  By finding a photographer who will put together some wedding pictures that have some style, some creativity and some sense of inventiveness, you will have that wedding album that really is full of memories worth remembering.

To get that kind of photographer, you are going to have to start early.  You have to find that maverick photographer that “gets it” that the wedding is about the people, not the gowns and the hall and that his photographs must shout out “this was a wonderful day and we celebrated this union.”

You may have to look outside of the conventional “wedding photographers” listing in the phone book.  An artistic photographer may be more appropriate.  But be patient and find one that is just as professional as any photographer in that yellow pages but can bring some creativity and investment of getting to know this wedding party to the job of taking your important wedding pictures.

That wedding photographer should become as much a part of the wedding party as the groomsmen.  After all, if he is going to capture the personality of this couple, he will have to get to know you.  Spend some informal time with him and share those fun memories of when you met, those special times while you dated and certainly those very special places where important moments in your relationship took place.

Armed with that kind of creative individual in charge of your wedding photographs, you will look forward with great anticipation to what he comes up with.  Many of the best shots will be created before the wedding, at some of those special places and he can Photoshop them to blend them with wedding day moments.

Above all that wedding photographer will understand that he is there to serve this wedding and capture those special moments as they occur.  Sure, you may “pose” for a picture from time to time but this whole business of bringing the wedding day to a grinding halt to take stilted pictures of bored wedding party members will go out with the trash.  The outcome will be wedding pictures with style, with life and a lot of love in them to reflect the love that was exchanged in those vows and the love of family and friends as they enjoyed this magical day with you.

Making videos or “videography” is a different animal from photography.  When you are trying to capture great pictures for a portrait or an event, you think in terms of still shots.  In your mind the objective is “what will make a great picture.”

Video opens up whole scenes to be captured on film, for better and for worse.  But it also opens up a lot of opportunity for mistakes, unexpected results or interruptions and surprises.  Not only do you have to continue to think about what makes a great shot, you now have sound and movement issues to factor in.  So while videography is much more fun, it also can be a lot more work.

You are trying to find a middle ground when you start offering video as part of your services.  You know that anybody can bring a camcorder and capture video streams.  These days they can even do it with their phone.  But you want to create a more professional shot than the high school kid with a camcorder.  Then again, you are not trying to win an academy award here.  So the level of professionalism has to be better than amateur so you can justify charging for it but it doesn’t have to be great art to be a good video that the customer will be happy with.

To accomplish this mix of perfectionism and compromise, a few tips from the pros who have already set up a video business can help a lot.  Here are what many of the old pros tell us to focus on especially as we are getting our video business up and running…

The cornerstone advice that the pros give about making great video is plan ahead.  The more you know about your shoot, the better equipped you are when you show up.  If you are shooting a wedding, visit the chapel, perhaps the reception hall and plan where you will set up to capture the best images.  Plan your routes as you move around so you can create a smooth flow that works with the wedding procession rather than interrupts it.

The same is true of any event.  Even a sporting event, as spontaneous as that is, will offer some less traveled areas where you can position yourself to catch the action.  If the best location for capturing video is above or a distance from the activity, then you know you will need to use zoom and focus differently than if you can be in the middle of the action.  This helps you plan how to prepare your equipment and your crew who will be supporting the shoot.

Lighting is something that must be part of your preplanning so you have sufficient light so the action and facial reactions are easy to pick out on the video.  Outdoors, keep the sun behind you if at all possible.  Indoors, scout out how the existing lighting will look on video during the hours that you will be shooting.  If they are not sufficient, you should get in there and set your lights in place well in advance of the event and work with the event organizers so they know your lights will be on during the event.  The people who hired you want a great video so they will work with you.  But you have to let them know what is going on.

A good video is a combination of stability of the camera and constant movement.  So use a tripod to stabilize the shots when the video is being actively shot.  But you have to be able to move the set up quickly to a new location.  So make sure that your equipment is well maintained and that cameras, tripods and that all supplies are quickly accessible for field changes or repairs.

One of the most valuable insider tips is to shoot with the intention of editing.  In that way, you will shoot more footage than you need, knowing you are going to edit it together later.  You can go back and capture connecting video shots to smooth out the action and you don’t have to get upset if you get some bad footage.  These and many other talents you will develop will take you to that level of professionalism you want to reach.  And your customers will notice it too and come back for more of your talented videography.

It’s interesting how sometimes older technologies or art forms take on an even greater value when they are made obsolete by the new and modern.  This is certainly true of black and white photography.  When color photography came on the scene, it seemed the days of black and white in both video and photography were over forever.

But that was certainly not the case.  Over the years we have seen black and white take on a new artistic value in both genres.  In fact, it is not at all unusual any more to see a very modern movie filmed entirely in black and white.  It is also common to visit a fine art museum and find a photographic art display that uses black and white extensively.  Black and white has some artistic and emotional qualities that are just not possible to achieve in color photography.

Probably the strongest quality that grabs the viewer with a black and white photo is its emotional power.  Even if the photo is just of an old barn or an antique car, there is an emotional appeal that is difficult to analyze in words but universal to all of us as we look at a black and white shot.  That is why black and white photos almost instantly take on an artistic look.  So if you are evolving your artistic photography style and portfolio, including some experimentation with black and white will do a lot to improve your work.

Black and white also focuses the eye on the emotional center of the piece.  Probably the best subject for black and white photography is the human face.  In even a tranquil expression, the viewer can see such a vast range of expression in the eyes, the tilt of the head, the subtle wrinkles or peculiarities of the face and the focus of the gaze.

Black and white almost always invites the viewer to want to know about the story behind the picture.  If it’s a landscape, “What happened here?” is the question that often springs to the mind of the viewer and the longer they gaze at the photo, the more their imagination fills in the details.  If you are viewing the face of a serene or melancholy girl, it is almost impossible not to wonder what she is dreaming about or what of life’s issues is weighing on her mind.

Along with the emotional power and the way black and white compels the viewer to search for meaning, black and white carries with it a tremendous romantic power that touches the heart in a powerful way.  That romance can easily translate over to the sensual or even the erotic without having to become pornographic to achieve that effect.  Shots that are trying to evoke the power of sensuality and romance do well when they involve moisture or a water scene such as the beach.  Despite the lack of color, these colors appeal to the five senses in ways that color can never hope to achieve.

You can experiment with black and white and gather the responses of friends and family to learn how to utilize the subtle but powerful artistic nuances that seem to come with black and white photography almost unconsciously.  The digital camera has ushered in a whole new era of black and white photography.  You see the form used even in otherwise non artistic settings like wedding portfolios or anniversary pictures.  That is because of that emotional and romantic power that black and white conveys.

If you have not started to experiment with black and white shots, it’s worth the time to learn how to capture the powerful images this type of photography can make possible.  Along with the creative use of light and framing, black and white gives itself well to editing that you can do with Photoshop to bring out the emotional center of each shot.  Before long, you may actually find your self seeing black and white shots in a color world.  Your awareness of what will make a great moment in this format will become acute and you will be ready to capture those moments spontaneously, which is always the best kind of photography.

Taking your love of photography on the road is one of the really exciting assignments a photographer can get.  Whether you are going out into nature to photograph a great sunrise, a phenomenal river or to capture some other wonder of nature or if you are going to an urban area to get photos that tell the story of a people, the safari nature of the trip is the same.

Safari is a good name for such a trip because like that hunter going into the deep jungle to bag big game, you are going to the unknown to get that perfect photograph.  Your preparations have to be expert.  Your discipline on the road must be focused.  But above all, your determination to get what you came for must be relentless as you hunt the prize you want to bag, not with a gun but with your camera.

One mistake to avoid is over packing for your adventure.  It’s easy to do because you may have the urge to bring everything in your studio “just in case”.  First of all, if you have every piece of photography equipment you own with you, the likelihood that something will get broken or stolen is pretty good.  So you have to know how to strip down your travel gear to just what you have to have to get the job done.

But how do you know that if this experience is new to you?  One way is to do a few “dry runs”.  Just as you went out and did practice photographs when you were learning your craft, take one or two test trips to the next town.  Do these without the pressure of a deadline or a deliverable that you have to complete.  An overnighter to take pictures at the zoo in the nearest big city will surface what is needed and what is not.  Then repeat the exercise to take photographs out in the country where you may have to backpack your equipment in.  You will find out pretty fast what “stuff” is worth the extra weight and what needs to stay home.

Your photography safari is a business trip to you and you have a mission.  But your mission is about more than just going somewhere to get a snapshot.  Just as every picture has personality and soul, the more you become part of the environment where you are traveling, the better your “eye” will be to capture the perfect photo.

Yes, you must stay focused on the purpose of the trip and stay on schedule.  But don’t forget to enjoy the trip.  If you are going to take a picture of a natural wonder, like Mount Rushmore, for example, spending time visiting with others going to that sight or talking to locals may surface some locations and secrets about the site that other photographers would not get if they just came, snapped a photo and left.  Use the “down time” to charm the other travelers and let them charm you.  Not only will your picture be a hundred times better, you will have a lot more fun.

Finally, as you reach your destination, your preparations need to pay off and you need to let them pay off.  Here is where focus and the eye on the prize is crucial.  It is so easy, especially when traveling, to become obsessed with the equipment, with the set up and with your settings.

Do all of that before you leave, or in the hotel room the night before.  On location, the session is about your subject, not your equipment.  Your equipment is there to serve you.  Don’t worry about it.  Trust yourself that you did a good job getting ready.  You have quality equipment and you have prepared the lenses, checked the batteries and done all the right things.  It all will work when it needs to work.

Now you keep your eye on the prize.  Your expert eyes are needed to judge the lighting, the angle and every aspect of the shot to determine if it tells the story that you know this photograph has to tell.  Here is where the artist in you works beautifully with the photographer to produce a photo that you will genuinely be proud of.  And if you obey your disciplines and get that shot, it will be a photography safari that comes home having “bagged the big one” to add to your trophy room for sure.

Fashion photography and becoming a model in this glamorous industry is the dream of many a beautiful young woman and more than one great looking guy as well.  But because the allure of making it to the top level in the modeling world is so alluring, there is a lot of competition for those few top slots that produce the world’s “super models”.

If you are just starting out, the challenge is how to pick the perfect photographer who can do a top-notch portfolio for you.  You want a portfolio that cuts through the pack and gets your portfolio noticed by those elite agencies who can get you the big jobs modeling for fashion magazines and commercials.  So what are the qualifications for such a photographer?

Your first consideration is location.  If you live in Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago of one of the other major metropolitan centers, there are elite photographers who already have the contacts they need to get your portfolio to the key decision makers in the business.  If you don’t live in these cities, you have two ways to resolve the problem your “remote” location might cause.

The first one is to learn the ropes of the fashion industry so you know who the key players are.  Then you can interview the photographers you do know to see if they are aware of the networking they need to do to get your portfolio noticed.  This can be a tall order if you don’t have insider information but networking with models you may know who have “made it” to at ;least some success is a good start.

If there are no photographers in your area that understand the fashion industry to your satisfaction, you may have to travel to a major city to find the right photographer.  But above all, don’t compromise your values on this.  Just being well networked is not enough for a photographer to be qualified to handle your portfolio.  There are some other critical tests for you to apply.

The agency has to be legitimate.  They don’t ask you to pay for the portfolio and they don’t advertise to get models.  A good agency is making plenty of money selling their work and they can find good models without stooping to such measures.

The photographer has to be well equipped and know his equipment.  Interview him or her and discuss the effects you want to see achieved for your portfolio.  They should be able to discuss with ease how they will achieve that effect and show you examples of how they have done so in the past.

The photographer should have a good eye for color, lighting, framing and staging your shots.  Look at other portfolios of theirs so you can see that they know how to get what you want from a shoot.  Also, get references from other models who have worked with them.  You want to be confidence that once the shoot gets underway, you are in top-notch hands.

Above all, you have to “click”  with your photographer.  Having your picture taken is a very personal event.  These photo shoots may get long and difficult.  Perfection is hard work.  Listen to how the photographer talks about his work.  The most important thing to come from these shots is personality.  That is what is going to break you through the pack and get you noticed.  If your photographer can get that from you, they can take you a long way toward your goals of success in the modeling world.

Sometimes we associate stock photography with some negative concepts such as the photos you see in frames that are on sale at a department store or the photo that comes in a new wallet.  Sure, those images did come from a stock photography library but there is so much more to stock photography than that.

You can put a lot of creative energy into building a solid stock photography library that will draw customers who need these images and like your creative eye.  Really, if you think about it, stock photography is no different from doing a shoot for a customer.  It’s just that you are taking the photos in advance of finding the customer and you can sell the same stock photo a multitude of times.  And that last part is what makes running a stock photography service a lucrative business to operate.

The demand for stock photography is ongoing and increasing.  But in the economic “model” of any marketplace, supply is as important as demand.  So to compete for business you need a good, diverse supply.  That means your first step in building your stock photography business is to build the “stock”.  In this situation, quantity counts.

When you start entertaining customers, you want to be able to show them a strong catalog not only of many genres of stock photos but of a good variety of photos for each genre.  So if the buyer is looking for floral shots, you don’t just have three or four stock photos in that category.  You should have dozens for them to pick from.  By building a large collection, you vastly increase your chances of making a sale with each customer you entertain.

Don’t think that taking stock photos takes the creativity out of the process.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Really great stock photography screams personality, even if it’s just an assortment of floral scenes you are taking.  The buyer is looking for a photo that seems to have a story to it, that draws the eye and makes the viewer want to ponder the meaning of that photo.

Sounds a bit like art photography, doesn’t it?  Well, in a way, it is.  Just because you are selling the photo as part of your stock collection, doesn’t lower the artistic value of what you are doing.  And if your art is going out the door to be used by a customer, it is still being seen by people who will reflect on what you are trying to say with that photo.  So to you, the photographer, your artistic calling is satisfied and you have a nice chuck of change in your pocket to boot.

Along with building a strong portfolio of quality pictures of each category, make your categories as diverse as possible.  View other stock collections and gather ideas for the genres they have represented and of the diversity of shots and settings they have included in their collection.  You are not plagiarizing other photographers work if you are letting them inspire you to do your best work.

A good discipline to build your stock photography gallery is to take a day each week and go out and build one category of stock photos all day long.  So you may do floral shots all day one week, photos of automobiles the next and pictures of college students the next.

Now don’t forget to get your releases signed if you use human subjects.  Even if you just hang out on a college campus and talk students into posing for stock photos.  Be sure you pay them something for their work and get a release.  In that way if their picture ends up in some very public setting because of how a customer uses it, you are protected from them coming back with their palm up wanting more.

Finally, trust your instincts on what to include in your gallery.  Your artistic “eye” for what you like is probably pretty reliable and will reflect what interests your customers.  Once the gallery is built, then you can go about the “business” of putting together a physical catalog to sell from.  And don’t forget the option of building an online gallery to sell from.  You will need some technical help to get your site up and learning how to sell from it and collect money that way.  But this can be a great expansion of your successful and growing stock photography business.

If you are a sports fan, you know what it means when a team goes into a “rebuilding year”.  It is just when the owners or coaches decide its time to train new members and correct bad habits in others.  And invariably, what team leadership says when they go into such a time is that they are going “back to basics.”

Sometimes it’s good for us as photographers to go back to basics.  And, of course, if you are just getting started in the world of photography and want to learn “the ropes”, the basics are a natural start.  But you want the basics of what the professionals know about the craft of photography.

Anybody can take a picture.  I attended a wedding reception where the wedding party left a disposable digital camera on each table at the reception for guests to snap photos.  Before the evening was over, it was the children who were running around taking pictures of everything from the dirty dishes to their own underwear.  These were not photographers and while those pictures will no doubt get a few chuckles, these are not the kind of professional pictures people want for their long-term memories.

Obviously, the cornerstone of the basics of photography is the camera.  When you see a camera geek walking around with enough equipment on his neck to launch a space shuttle, you get the impression that cameras are phenomenally complex, more than mere mortals can grasp.  But look at the professionals and you see them working with portable, relatively easy to operate cameras.  That is because the basics of running a camera come down to aperture and shutter speed.

Now don’t get nervous about fancy terms.  Aperture is just a term for how wide your camera lens is open to let in light.  And shutter speed is just how long you let the light come in to affect the picture.  For getting a shot of a fast moving event, you want a wide aperture to let in a lot of light but a short shutter speed so you capture the event quickly and close the window so the picture is caught before more light hurts the quality.

Photography is really all about light.  You can and will get learn a lot about lenses and flash photography and other ways to turn the control over the lighting of a shot to you.  So add to your core skills of photography a willingness to never stop learning.  The better and more sophisticated you get in your ability to work with the equipment, the more you will learn and the more you will want to learn.

You can get a greater control over these basic controls of the camera such as aperture and shutter speed by learning how to switch from automatic settings to manual settings.  The automatic settings of any camera are just there for the general public who are not interested in learning the basics.  So they give you some basic settings like landscape, portrait and sports settings.  By switching to manual, you can learn what settings work best in different situations.

And that takes us to the most important basic about becoming a great photographer and that is practice.  Take some time with your equipment and play with it.  Take it to situations and take photos with different aperture and shutter speed settings, in outdoor and indoor settings and different orientations to light.  Don’t get upset when some shots don’t work.  That’s part of the learning curve.

By learning by doing, you will build your confidence in your work and eventually become a great photographer.  But don’t get cocky, there is always more to learn.  And that is one of the fun things about photography, isn’t it?

When you are a kid and thinking about the many ways you can make a living when you grow up, what is the advice your elders always gave you? It was, “Do what you love to do and you will always be happy.” And that has to be true because if you can spend your work week doing what you love the most, it really won’t be work as much as it will be play that people pay you to do.

So if your passion is photography, it makes sense to start your own photography business. But how to go about it? You see so many small photography shops that seem to spring up from nowhere. What is the best way for you to go about starting your own business like this?

The first thing to think about when starting a photography business is how to do it in a legitimate way. You want a business that will last a lifetime so you want to start it out right. So don’t fall for the “get rich quick” internet schemes or books that claim they will spill the insider secrets of other successful photography business. There are no insider secrets to this business other than what you need to know to run any business. To succeed you have to…

Pay your dues

• Get your education
• Learn from the pros
• Know your stuff
• Network
• Value your customers

You can accomplish the first five of these objectives by going to school and working part or full time in somebody Else’s photography shop. You may despair at the idea of more school. But your photography business will be about more than just cameras, photo shoots and dark rooms. You have accounting principles to comprehend and execute, taxes to be paid, a facility to rent, employees to pay, insurance to worry about, contracts to sign and all of that other “stuff” that goes with running a business. So start early and get some basic business classes under your belt such as accounting and economics. It will benefit you dozens of ways as you march toward success.

Many trades have an apprentice system where you tutor under a master of the craft. But it might be a good thing for you to take this matter into your own hands. Plan to work for a photography shop long enough to learn the ins and outs of running a small business and of running a photography business. This gives you the chance to build your knowledge and exposure to equipment, learn technique and how to work with your subjects.

In fact, it might be a good idea to deliberately apprentice at a number of different types of photography studios before launching out on your own. So you can learn the ins and outs of wedding photography, baby photography, fashion photography and others from specialists all before you spend a dime of your own money to start your own enterprise. In this way, you build skills, you build knowledge, you build experience and you can watch and take notes of the great things others do and the mistakes to avoid.

Your employers will be thrilled to share their real world knowledge with you if you are open to them that you want to learn from the masters how to do this with the goal of becoming their competition in the future. Above all, you can build a client base from the many customers you work with before you start your own business. Buy taking care of someone else’s customers, they can become your customers when you hang out your shingle. And that is good business.

Every wedding has a professional photographer who has been doing this for years. What they are going to produce is pretty much a known entity before the wedding even gets started. You know he is going to hold the wedding party over after the ceremony and do a bunch of staged shots. You know he will “stage” the feeding of the cake between bride and groom, the throwing of the bouquet, the dance of father and bride, all that standard stuff.

But you may have the assignment as an amateur photographer to also take pictures of the wedding. This is not unusual. If the bride’s brother is good with a camera or the groom’s uncle knows a thing or two about photography, why not let them take pictures too. So if that assignment has fallen to you, there may be a few tips for you to keep in mind as the big day approaches.

You are the back up guy. So let the professional do his stuff. Remember, just because your sister or best friend has utmost confidence in what you can do to make the wedding album more interesting and fun, those traditional shots are important to the family and to the bride and groom. They may be old fashioned and a bit boring but that paid photographer was hired to do a job. So don’t get in the way of the professional and if you do interact with him, do so respectfully. You don’t want that guy in a bad mood. So give his space.

Be ready. You can bet that paid photographer came here having checked out his equipment and he knows what he needs and he knows it all works. So you be just as “professional” as the next guy and do your prep work the night before. That way when you step up to get that shot you know will make the wedding album sizzle, your equipment works perfectly too. This also includes arriving ready to go with backup batteries, tape, light bulbs and anything else you will need for a full day of shooting.

Use what he does. That professional is going to stage the people to get those shots that are on his list of standard shots all wedding albums get. But during that time when the wedding party is trying to be good but giddy with nervous excitement, there will be dozens of little moments that will make great photographs. Maybe get that shot of sister fixing the flower girls dress. Or that silly tickle session between bride and groom as they play with each other to get through the tension of the day. Use what that photographer is giving to himself. As long as you don’t get in the way, you can grab some great pictures that way.

Those action shots during the ceremony. You have come with a more mobile equipment set than the professional has because your goal is to get the informal shots. So you have what you need pretty much on your back. You can move around the hall and get those little photographs during the ceremony of things going on up on that stage that everybody else will miss. The wedding party will love you for capturing moments that would have been lost to time if you had not come ready to work on your feet and get those little throw away pictures that are worth gold in the wedding album.

The kids are “down there”. Don’t overlook the children during the wedding or the reception. They add a lot of fun and joy. But remember, they are down there closer to the ground than you are. To get their shots, you have to go down there with them.

Remember, this event is not about you. You are the proverbial fly on the wall to get those shots that the pro doesn’t have on his checklist. But at the same time, don’t forget that you are important to this wedding to. So put down that camera every so often and have that glass of wine and do the funky chicken during the reception with everyone else. Let someone else get that picture.

How do you photograph an explosion? Well, when it comes to a fireworks show, it takes plenty of planning and anticipation of what you will need. Despite the fact that a fireworks display is a preplanned event, that spectacular moment when the fireworks explode in the sky is still a split second when everything has to work right for you to get the perfect photograph.

Now obviously, there are some equipment issues that have to be prepared to have your camera not only set up and ready but at the proper settings to capture that moment when all glory cuts loose in the sky. So from an equipment stand point…

A tripod. The activity of the fireworks is so dramatic that unless you stabilize your camera, the shot will be blurred and unacceptable to you and to whoever you may wish to sell it to. The tripod should be easily transportable and adjustable so you can make adjustments on the fly.

A shutter release that functions externally.

Equipment to work at night as that is when your subject is going to occur. You can get a head mounted flashlight at any camping store so you can direct the light at the camera and still have both hands free to handle your equipment.

A portable chair as there will be some waiting. Anything else that will help you ride out the wait such as food, water, music etc. should also be part of your preparations.

Because the fireworks explosion is sudden and fast, you need to be able to adjust the shutter speed and have the camera set up to react to manual focus so you can use your eyes and ears to know exactly when to snap that shot.

The key to a great or a series of great fireworks photographs is location. You want a location that has an outstanding vantage point view of the piece of sky where the most action will take place. This means you may need to take a position on a bridge, on top of a building or on a hill away from the crowds that come to see the show. This is not going to be easy to find so start early. It is not out of line to “scope out” your location days in advance and arrive hours in advance to secure that spot as yours.

Experience is going to be one of your best teachers as to not only the right location but how to set your camera focus and shutter speeds and how to position the view from the secured location so you can capture the rocket at the moment of explosion. So find ways to do some practice shoots at other fireworks displays before you set out to do the “keeper” shot. Many times minor league baseball clubs have fireworks shows and they would happily let you take photographs of the show in exchange for a few free shots. Here you can experiment with your experiment and get your bearings before setting up for a larger show.

Once the show gets underway, anticipate the explosion that you want to capture. Don’t snap the first five minutes of the show but use that time to confirm that you have the right sky location scouted. The best times to capture the shot are right before the explosion which you can time by the sound of the rocket going up and the expected time before eruption.

With some experience you will get your sixth sense about where and when to snap that perfect photo and when you are done, you will have some spectacular shots to include with your portfolio or to display proudly. And this will lead to even more work photographing explosions in the sky.

In the many types of photography you may have to do as a photographer, baby shots may be the most difficult. Even if you are not a professional photographer but you are trying to get a great looking portrait of your own child, getting them to cooperate is a major undertaking.

The first rule to live by with baby photography is that, as a matter of face, they ARE the boss of this shoot. The entire process has to be built around that fragile mood of this child. But there are a couple of tricks of the trade you can use, professional or amateur to get the best shot of that sweet baby.

Baby’s respond well when they are fed and rested, with people they know and trust and when they get all the attention. So right off the bat, you as mom and dad can see to it that the shoot happens when requirement number one has been met. Now, that is not always easy. If you have an appointment to take the baby to the get his or her portrait made at the local photography studio, that mood may not be the way you want it to be.

That is why, if at all possible we would discourage taking the shots in a studio. If you can set up a shoot at the baby’s home, where there is a comfortable setting and much that is familiar around, you have many more opportunities to get that smile that will make the portrait of a lifetime there. Now that calls for a “house call” by the photographer but if he or she is a photographer that wants only the best shot of the child, they will work with what you want.

Another advantage of scheduling the shoot at home is that you know when the baby usually is at his or her best so you can schedule it when that time of day is just right. In fact if the photographer can show up during nap time, there is plenty of time to stage the shot before the angel awakens. And by eliminating the car ride to the studio, you take away a huge risk of that fragile mood going south en route.

A second tip comes from the fact that babies like people they know. So if the photographer has time to meet the child, play with him or her and get a rapport started, then they will be more receptive to playful direction to get the shot you want. You will have to be clever how you introduce the camera as it can either be an object of fear or looked upon as a toy and the baby will want to play with it.

As far as the camera goes, think about the kind of equipment you will utilize to get that perfect baby portrait. You want it to be portable, so you can do those on location shots that work so much better. It should be small, both for portability and to not alarm the child. Digital is best because you can shoot lots of shots and never have to reload. But make sure it’s a good quality piece of equipment that will shoot at a high resolution so when you get that prefect shot, it will transfer to a portrait printing nicely.

By setting up the room with the kind of backdrops that will create a good portrait, you can then have the baby begin to play with her or her toys and interact with parents, siblings or the photographer in a happy way. Before long that sound of the camera clicking and even the flash will become familiar and the baby won’t pay it any mind.

The best shots are of the baby laughing. Try to get on the same level with the child as he or she plays. Mom and dad know the notices or games that always get a giggle so exploit their inside information extensively. The baby will enjoy getting to know you and hearing those familiar games coming from you should do well at getting that sweet laugh or smile you want.

By learning the baby’s personality and how to get in sync with the child, you can coax pictures from the shoot that might other wise be impossible to get. And that is what you want if a portrait of a baby that you want to last a lifetime.

When you move from photography to video as your means of capturing moments either personally or as part of your profession, you enter into a much bigger world with greater challenges as well. For one thing, you now have to deal with issues of movement. The problems of lighting and surface noise are just as big of an issue except now you have subjects that may be on the go and you have to go with them.

But when using a camcorder to capture the event under scrutiny, whether it’s a wedding, a speech or presentation or some other significant event, the issue of having the best quality sound presents unique challenges. So its best to do some concentrated planning on how you are going to accommodate the sound needs of the event to your equipment because if you have wonderful pictures but the words and sounds of the event are muddy or lost, then the quality of your final product is seriously damaged.

Many an unsatisfactory video was taken with a camcorder because the operator depended too heavily on the small microphone that is built into the casing of the machine. The only situation where this microphone may be adequate would be if you were conducting a one on one interview in a small room where you could position the camcorder within three feet of the subject. Even then, surface noise from the surrounding building could become part of the audio outside of the awareness of the operator at the time.

To assure that you have complete awareness of what is going onto your video recording of each event, the investment in a good set of closed back headphones to monitor the audio is an outstanding move. You can plug it into the camcorder and you are dynamically aware of what is going onto that tape at all times. If something gets into the audio that is not appropriate, you can use editing techniques or even re-shoot the segment if that is possible in the context of the event.

For the majority of events, plan to use the auxiliary audio input plug to incorporate a mobile microphone unit rather than depend on the onboard microphone in the camcorder casing. This small plug alone opens up a large range of solutions to the problem of poor camcorder audio that is so often endemic of videos made with this technology.

If you are working with an external microphone, be aware of the limitations of the wire if you are not working with a radio frequency microphone unit. In a situation such as a speaker doing a presentation, you can lay the cord down between the recorder and the speaker’s stand assuming you have sufficient cord length to reach the where the microphone will mount on the stand. Be careful with the excess cord, perhaps securing it with duct tape so those listening to the presentation don’t trip on the cord or pull it free which could cause injury and damage the equipment.

In many situations such as one in which you plan to interview people in a roving fashion or to record a speaker who is on the move a great deal, a radio frequency microphone may be necessary. These can be more expensive but without the investment in this technology, your audio quality relying exclusively on the camcorder built in microphone will almost certainly be disappointing.

Creative photography may be the most demanding of them all. That is because unlike commercial photography, your boss is your creative imagination and the artistic marketplace. And who knows from one week to the next what is considered artistic and what isn’t.

It isn’t just poetic license that we are using when we talk about you following your creative muse when you use your photography as an expression of your art. You can look at a hundred settings and scenes and only you can know if any have the raw materials for a great artistic piece using your camera. It’s a huge drain on your emotional system and your creative side but it is also one of the most satisfying things you can do. And if you can make a living at it, so much the better.

But one of the problems any artist has is when that muse just won’t talk to you for a while. Never mind if you have orders in or deadlines that mean that you have to be creative on a schedule. She just won’t cooperate. So we need some tricks to get around these little dry spells and ways to can coax that muse back to work.

One trick is to use the normal highs and lows of your creative side. You know that when it comes to inspiration, its either feast or famine. Sometimes the creativity explodes like a volcano and you have to pick and choose only the best stuff to work on right away. Well when that flow is exploding, take some time and get some of that inspiration recorded. An inspiration journal either on paper or on tape can be used to capture it as fast as it comes out of that side of your soul.

Now this is where you are outsmarting that muse. When the well dries up, that inspiration journal can carry you through. You can start plucking the ideas out of there and developing them. Don’t worry if you don’t “feel” creative. You can ride the momentum of your creative high to keep your work moving forward.

The other great thing about using your journal is often reading your inspiration from when things were popping in your imagination, that will prime the pump and get the fresh inspiration going again.

Above all, don’t panic when you feel your creative engines grind to a halt. Sometimes a day or so of rest will turn things around. Or go and see some artistic work done by others at the local museum. Seeing your fellow artists best work can do wonders to start the flow of ideas coming your way again.

Creative funks are as much a part of the process of creativity as the flow of ideas are. So give yourself permission to go through dry spells and don’t run yourself down about it. A trip into your archives to review your best work from the past is a great moral booster and it will help you remember that, yes, you are a creative person and, yes, you have done good work before and so, yes, you will do good work again.

The final trick is to give yourself permission to create some crap. In other words, don’t stifle the restarting of your creative mind by holding it to too high a standard of quality in every idea you get. You know from previous times of great creative flow that the good ideas come out with the bad. It doesn’t help to try to edit them as they flow. So by telling yourself, I am going to go make some bad art, that liberates your creative side to just be free to express as it wills. It could be that such a trick may be all it takes to unstop the pipe and get the creativity going again.

But it will flow again and you need to have the confidence that it will. And when it does the creative photography you start producing will be as good or better than anything you have done before.

Your wedding is fast approaching and as the anxiety grows in everyone associated with the big day, two big concerns weigh on everybody’s mind. Those are…

(1) How can we reduce the stress of this big day?
(2) How can we cut the costs?

These two questions are in conflict with each other too because in order to reduce stress, you have to increase the work that someone has to do. Sometime during the preparation time frame, the idea will come up, why don’t we let “John Jones” do our wedding pictures? John Jones may be someone’s brother who is “really good at photography” or just a friend of the family. The appeal is that they will save you a pile of money and probably do just as good a job as the expensive photographers.

While you certainly want to watch out before you turn over this important job, maybe you or someone in the wedding party can take the photos as well as a professional. After all, how many wedding nightmares have you heard about a professional photographer who either damaged the romantic nature of the ceremony by butting in too often, aggravated the guests by blotting out their view of the wedding to get an action shot or charged an arm and a leg only to deliver poor quality photos.

In truth, it is entirely possible for an “amateur” photographer to do a terrific job taking pictures at the wedding. But there are some guidelines you should follow if that job has fallen to you. If you are reading this as the bride, groom or anxious mother and you are considering using a friend for these photos, spend an hour going over these guidelines and not only will you get better pictures, your anxiety level will go down too.

1. Know your equipment inside and out. Whether you are using a run of the mill digital camera or an expensive set up that has taken you years to work up, make sure everything is in top-notch working order and that you are thoroughly familiar with every nuance of the machine. Remember Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong, it will. So keep Murphy out of the wedding by checking and double checking your camera and related equipment.

2. Have spares of everything possible. If there are batteries involved with the operation of the camera, have several spare sets on hand and know where they are. If the batteries go out as the bride and party are posed at the alter, you don’t want an hour delay why you run to the 7-11 to get more. The same goes for flash bulbs and even the camera itself. Have spares of everything possible so Murphy just goes to the next wedding down the road to make his mess.

3. The photo is about more than the bride and groom. If you are used to “staging” your pictures, you may not worry that often with activity in the room. After all, if everybody is posing, the environment is controlled. This will not be the case during an action shot like during the wedding or reception. So keep a keen awareness of the room, the activity around the subjects, the lighting and background props. You don’t want to produce the perfect shot of bride and groom kissing only to have Cousin Ned gagging on the cake in the background.

4. Be aware of glare from windows, lights and eyeglasses. These can sneak up on you.

As a rule, someone who is part of the event can get great shots because they know the people and can be mixing as those wonderful “little moments” occur. So it’s worth a try if you feel good about the skills of your photographer and they follow these little guidelines.

In any discipline, you will have what many think of as “the purists”. Purists are those who revere the way things have always been done and view new innovations in the field as upstarts and obviously of poorer quality than the tried and true methods.

This is nowhere more true than photography. For decades the film and chemical processing method has undergone continual refinement to achieve higher and higher levels of sophistication and to find higher levels of quality. Small wonder that when the digital revolution came along, “the purists” were, to say the least, a bit snobby about the idea of professional photography moving in this direction.

But there are some genuine reasons to at least incorporate digital technology into your professional photography game plan. These reasons are compelling enough that more and more we are seeing the big studios going all digital. So if you are running an independent photography business or if you are “just” a photography hobbyist (and thank God for the hobbyists), you may have to think through the value of moving to digital processing yourself.

Ease of Use.

The amount of fuss and sheer “stuff” of doing a shoot digitally is dramatically less involved than using the older technologies. Witness how the digital revolution in photography has revolutionized the personal camera world. Now people can take as many pictures as they want and have them to review virtually instantaneously.

Probably the biggest leap forward in the use of digital photography is that you can do re-shoots quickly, easily and for virtually no cost. If you conduct a portrait session with a customer, you can have the “stills” of the session available almost as soon as the session is done. If a shot was good but not perfect, you can correct it and re-shoot immediately saving huge amounts of time and improving the chances you will get the portfolio you want and that the customer wants on the first session.

Rapid Customer Service.

The impression we get when a technology delivers so much value to the public is that quality will go down. But, amazingly, this is not the case with digital photography. If anything, the quality of the photographs is as good or better than any we could do with prior technologies. And the cost both to you as the photographer and to your customer drops off so dramatically that the age old complaint the customer has had about professional photographs costing too much can be eliminated making the customer want to use your services more often.

Digital photography, being a child of the internet and the digital revolution that has swept our lives via personal computers, can be delivered in a myriad of ways and at a speed that was unheard of prior to the arrival of this technology. We can deliver the photos via email, by posting them to an online gallery or by burning them to a DVD or CD so the customer can order lots more shots for the same cost and have them delivered in a way that easy to view and store.

Editing

Editing has similarly moved from the realm of the back room wizards to something any of us can do due to the sophisticated computer programs, such as Photoshop, that we can use to improve the pictures we take. It is really amazing the effects that can be imposed on a picture with this software. But more importantly we can so much more easily correct minor problems with a photograph so what might have been a lost session can be improved to become acceptable with some clever use of digital editing.

In virtually every way, digital photography, delivery and editing is superior to the way “the purists” would have us hold on to. It makes our lives as photographers easier, faster and more profitable. But above all, this is something our customers want us to use. They get to enjoy their pictures so much faster, at a more reasonable cost and the pictures can be emailed to friends and posted on their family web sites which is fun for everyone. So despite our desire to be “purists”, every reason we need is there to convince us that digital photography is the way to go.

If you have been hired to create a video of someone’s wedding and reception, it can be a really fun job. Not only is there a lot of joy, laughing and fun moments during a wedding celebration but it is really gratifying to know that the video you are creating will be part of family celebrations of these people for decades to come.

Naturally, you want to do a good job. But whether you are just getting started or have been shooting video for years, you know things can sneak up on you and make your job more difficult. So there are some “insider tricks” that you should keep in mind especially on the big day so the wedding goes off like clockwork and you get that great video without disturbing the joy and fun of the family.

The first few precautions actually happen long before you drive up to the church and that is a thorough equipment check. Check and double check your equipment and then check it again. It can’t hurt to be a bit compulsive about this. Also, check that all of your supplies are new, in good shape and that you have back ups of batteries, bulbs, tapes or whatever recording media you are using. If you know your equipment is in good shape, you can walk in there like the professional you are.

Next, be everywhere early and well prepared. In fact, it can’t hurt to scope out the church and reception hall the day before to check the lighting and do some planning on where you might plan to get your best video from. If Martin Scorsese can pre-plan all of his shoots, so can you.

Now be sure everybody knows who you are. Meet the bride, groom, the wedding party and others close to the planning. If there are security people, be sure they know who you are as well. If there is a need for passes or badges of any kind, be sure you have one well ahead of the wedding day.

Part of networking with the key players includes getting some face time with others who may be supporting the wedding. Many weddings have a wedding planner who must know everything that is going to happen. Be sure he or she knows who you are and what you are going to do before you start disturbing their domain. It is also a great idea to meet the other photographers and do a bit of preliminary choreography so everybody can get their shots. Be aware that you really don’t want to do such a great job of videotaping the wedding that you damage the experience of the wedding guests. This all takes lots of planning.

If they rehearse, you rehearse. The rehearsal is one of the great missed opportunities that wedding photographers and videographers have to step through the wedding with the party and plan where you are going to be. Now secure permission to be there as you never want to surprise a nervous bride or her mother. But if they know you are working as hard as they are to get ready, they will be thrilled and you may find them giving you directions on shots they want included in the video and where they want (and don’t want) you to be at strategic moments during the wedding. This information is gold on producing a high quality video for your customers.

Once everything is ready, jump in there and enjoy the wedding right along with everyone else. You know you are ready and you like what you do so you can celebrate this big day and produce a top-notch video that will be a treasured memory for this bride and groom for many years to come.

The controversy about whether photography is art is one that has been raging in the art world for a long time and we are not likely to totally solve it here. But it can be an important decision you have to make if you are considering a career in photography with the goal of producing quality art works. If that is where you are, the idea that someone would say “That’s not art, you just took a picture” is pretty disturbing. So it’s worth looking at the question from several different angles before we pick which side to weigh in on.

Of course, art is a subjective thing. Many people would look at a Jackson Pollack “splatter” artwork and determine most definitely that modern art is not art because it “doesn’t look like anything.” And if you spend any time in the modern art world, you will definitely see something at some time along the way occupying space in a perfectly respectable art museum that, to you, could never be considered art.

So is it just a matter of opinion? To some extent, yes. But there is an art world and an industry behind it that depend on there being some standards upon which art is judged. One such standard is the intent of the artist. If you produce a photograph or an art work derived from a photograph that is intended to be viewed as art, then the viewer is obligated to try to see the artistic merit in it. Whether the viewer sees that merit or not may depend on the viewer’s abilities, how good you are at getting your artistic message across or many other factors.

But just wanting something to be art doesn’t make it art does it? As a layman in the art world, I sometimes go with the “I don’t know art but I know what I like” system of evaluating pieces I see. Art, after all, has a tendency to touch us in another place that is above and beyond the image. It is an emotional place, a place of reflection and understanding. Maybe we would say it touches our “soul”. For a work to be art, there should be a message, a feeling, a reason the artist made the work because he or she wanted to say something, even if how I interpret the statement is different than what the artist meant.

So that might also be an evaluation of a photograph as to its artistic merit or not. Now the primary objection to whether photography is art sometimes is that a photograph is often a realistic depiction of a moment taken with a machine and some would say that “anybody can take a picture.” The implication is that the same mechanical skill it might take to paint a picture of sculpt a statue is not needed for photographic art.

It’s true that the mechanical skill that the guy at Wal-Mart might need to take baby pictures may be the same as a great photographic artist might need. But the objection doesn’t hold up because the same human language is used to create great poetry as it takes yell out obscenities at a baseball game. So it isn’t the skill that makes it art.

Good evidence comes from the credit some great art experts have given to photographic exhibitions in the fine museums in the world. The very fact that photography is considered art by those who know may be evidence enough. So the conclusion must be that because the arguments against the artistic value of photographs are weak and people who know consider photography to be art, then we are safe in viewing what we do artistically too. And that opens up that side of your soul to express yourself through the medium you love the most – photography.

Keeping it Legal

Have you ever been watching a video or a show that includes public shots and some of the faces seem to be blurred out? No, that is not poor production values on the part of the video team. That is because the producers who eventually sold that video to be used commercially did not secure releases from those individuals. And if they used their images, they are laying themselves open for lots of legal problems.

So how do you know if the work you are doing in your photography business requires such releases? After all, you would rather be safe than sorry and get releases from everybody you use as a subject than face a problem down the road. But there is a downside to securing them if you are not sure. That is the impression you create in the mind of your customer.

If you primarily do portraits, weddings or other events where the intent of your work is to sell the photographs to the people being photographed, there is certainly no need for releases. So long as you have no intention of ever using any of those photographs in a sale that will profit your business other than the original way, then you should be fine.

It is when you step over into that realm of photography in which you may be working with models to provide photographs for advertising, magazines, newspapers or any other purpose in which you are selling the images you have photographed for a profit, that is when a release is needed. This area of professional photography is tremendously profitable because you are working at a higher tier of professionalism than photographing the public to provide them with portrait level pictures. And because it is such a lucrative arena of professional photography, the competition to make those sales is stiff to be sure.

When you are working with professional models, securing their releases is pretty much part of the program and never a problem. They are working for you and they know the photographs are for sale so their agents and lawyers do all the legwork so the releases are routine and understood. But from your perspective, don’t let this detail go unattended to. Your customers, those magazines or ad agencies who look to you for professional photography work, are assuming you have this covered and that they can count on you to deliver not only quality work but work that has been legally released to be used for promotion.

The complications come if you do your shoots in a public place such as a park, a mall or anywhere that there may be traffic that becomes part of the shot. If you complete the shoot and discover that the perfect shot that fits your customers needs just right happens to have miscellaneous members of the public in the background, you have to have releases from them or you cannot sell that photograph.

You could think ahead and try to secure those releases on the spot. But if the people you are trying to convince to sign such releases know you are going to use their images for profit, and you pretty much have to tell them, you get into another whole level of negotiation. But you sure don’t want to have to blur their faces out on the shot. You could Photoshop them out but that may lose the spontaneity of the shot.

It’s best to stage the shot from start to finish. If you want traffic to be occurring around your model, bring in models who can do the job for you. Any good modeling agency to provide you with “average looking” models to use for this purpose. You will have to pay them but at least you know that the shot is clean. Plus when you sell the shot, you are going to get questions about whether those models were paid and if you have releases on them too.

You can find a standard release form on the web or your lawyer can help you develop one that covers the legalities you need handled but also reflects how you want to handle this issue. But don’t let this issue slide through the cracks. By protecting yourself, you can do good business and profitable business but above all, legal business in perusing your professional photography career.

More Than Pictures – Memories…

When you are hired to be the photographer for someone’s wedding, it is quite an honor. For a professional photographer, we can sometimes just see it as another “gig”. But it pays to look at the event through the eyes of the wedding party, the parents, the siblings, the groom and above all the bride. For the bride especially, there is nothing routine about this day. Everything is personal and getting the best possible photos of this important day could not be more personal and important to her and her family and her groom as well.

So if you are expanding into or setting out on building your photography business to include wedding photography, you should plan to approach this task much differently than any other form of photography. You are doing a lot more than taking a few snapshots of an event. You are as much an integral part of the ceremony and the significance of that day for this bride and this groom as the minister or perhaps even many of the wedding guests.

So what can you do to make sure the wedding albums you create capture not only the events of this day but the emotions and the spiritual importance of it as well? The key is to know the hearts and minds of the people who are involved in the event. That means, get involved early and be involved often.

For most weddings, the planning begins as early as a year before the ceremony. If you get hired to be the wedding photographer, it is not too early to meet the wedding party and family that early also. To be a skilled wedding photographer, you should also have a bit of the investigative journalist, the amateur psychologist and the psychic in you as well.

Your photographs will capture not only the images of the event but also the spirit of the people who attend. So get to know each of the key players individually. This certainly includes the bride and groom but a similar level of familiarity is appropriate for the wedding party, the parents of the bride and groom and their best friends too.

There are some subtle ways you can learn the hearts of these people so you can plan to get photographs that will be ones the each person will say, “I am saving that one forever.” Here are some suggestions…

Get to know the colors of the wedding. But more than that, find out how the bride and significant decisions makers view colors. Watch how they dress and show them examples of wedding photographs and listen to their reactions. You can plan the how to stage your pictures accordingly.

Every bride has that perfect romantic setting in their heart. If you can discover that hidden treasure, you may be able to frame a special wedding photo just to fit that dream. Perhaps she there is a public gardens in the city that has a fountain that she has loved since she was a child. If so you can make arrangements to have the wedding party meet out there when the lighting is just right in full dress and get some wedding photos that will be in her heart forever.

Don’t forget the groom. Maybe he would love to have a fun photo showing him and the bride on his Harley. Or if he is a big sports fan, getting a photo dressed out in team regalia at some other time than the wedding can be a fun addition to the portfolio. And it will mean a lot to him too.

Knowing the people, their personalities and what makes them tick makes you a better photographer. Don’t miss a chance to be with the wedding party at every stage of planning. The key players will not only not resent your presence but they will see that you have the same commitment to making this day as special as it can be. And they will love the outcome and you will remain as much a part of this big day as the flowers and the chapel itself.

When you see videos of the early developers of photography, it’s pretty funny especially in light of photography today. In those old movies, to get a picture, the camera was as big as a computer is today. The photographer had to put his head under a sheet and hold up a huge tripod which exploded with smoke and fumes to make the flash.

Today photography could not be more different. In the movies, we used to be astonished when spies had cameras in their watches or the soles of their shoes. But now it is common for almost everyone to have a camera in their phone and to be able to pull it out and snap a photo virtually anywhere.

Let’s fill in a few gaps. We can go back to the origins of the language to find that the word “photography” began in the Greek times and it literally means “drawing with light. But the actual science of photography did not really take off until the 1800’s in this country when a fellow by the name of John Hershel applied the words “photography”, “positives” and “negatives” to the task of producing pictures. We had “negatives” of our photos from then until the dawn of digital photography in the last few years.

For most of us, though, the company Eastman Kodak is probably the one we associate most with the early developments of photography. And it was the early pioneer of photography, George Eastman that made the first advancements on the primitive methods being used until his work in 1839. A little trivia? Eastman made the name “Kodak” up because he wanted his company name to begin with a “K”.

The developments began to come along pretty routinely as photography began to mature and become more sophisticated. Color photography was developed in 1861 by a scientist named James Clark Maxwell. Up until then all photographs were black and white or monochrome. Color photography was a huge leap forward but it really did not start to move into the public arena until two brothers named Lumière in 1907 invented the color plate.

Over the decades to follow, photography moved forward steadily and moved out of the world of science and then journalism and into each of our homes. But the revolution that has turned photography into what we know it to be today occurred in 1981 when Sony invented the first camera that worked without film. The digital age was upon us.

It was Kodak that again got the lead on the marketplace by getting the first digital camera out on the market in 1990 when they developed the Kodak DCS 100. As with all technology, early digital cameras were large (by today’s standards) and much more expensive than we are used to now.

Innovation in the field of photography has continued to march almost as fast as people could keep up. When digital cameras were offered that gave us a port to be able to download them to our computers, the internet explosion of imagery was fueled.

Further development coming virtually every year since 1990 included the rapid and phenomenal expansion of memory in digital cameras along with the concept of swappable storage drives. This changed the way people took pictures because now the number of pictures someone could take was virtually limitless. The expansion of memory also gave developers the ability to add video capture to the same devices as were used for photography so that virtually anyone could become a cameraman with that tiny camera that could by this time fit in their shirt pocket. Much of the fun of internet sites like YouTube can be attributed to the ability of the average citizen to take video anywhere, anytime and at no cost to them.

The photography and video industry has had to do a lot of adjusting to learn how to service this market that was changing at speeds unimaginable by George Eastman a century before. The affordable availability of quality color printers that enabled people to print their photographs at home was a boon to the amateur camera buff but a blow to the photography industry.

But to their credit, the industry has kept up. But we can be sure that the developments are just getting underway. Who knows what new technical wizardry is ahead for the photography world. It is sure to be a fun ride, no matter what the future holds.

Hard as it is to believe, portrait photography is considered to probably the hardest of the many specializations in the profession. That moment of positioning a subject in front of that plastic fake background to sit on an uncomfortable chair and make a smile they would never use in any other setting is legionary and not one that you look forward to. And you can tell the subjects, especially the men, are enjoying this about as much as they like going to the dentist.

So how to take some of the teeth out of the process. For some portraits, you cannot get away from the formal “seating”. But even then, there are ways to relax the subject so the smile you get was one they really wanted to give you.

The optimum portrait is one that is not a portrait. If you can get the subject talking about their favorite subject, interacting with someone they like or love and using their sense of humor, that sparkle in their expression and gleam in their eye is absolute portrait gold to you the photographer.

Now, you cannot lie to the subject. So if you explain that you are going to be over here working on this stubborn camera, then just gently guide the conversation, they will begin to get used to hearing the shutter to off and seeing the flash but they may be able to not tense up.

Some of the finest couple portraits I have captured happened when I got the couple having a loving chat or mild argument with some teasing and that natural flirtation came out. When you can snap that moment in time, you will have a photograph they will treasure for a lifetime.

Obviously, the key to any photograph is to capture the personality and the “soul” of your subject. I was photographing a boy scout in his uniform for a very important photograph to the family because the boy had achieved the Eagle rank, which is a high honor. But I knew this kid had lots of personality so I wanted the “formal” shot but I wanted this kid’s heart in it too. So I told him I would be snapping a few shots to test my shutter and I got him talking about boy scouts and camping. As I got him to tell me about the funniest moments he experienced camping, that smile came out and boom, I had my shot. It hangs in my lobby now as one of my finest moments as a photographer.

If you can get the couple to do the portrait at home, in a restaurant or at some familiar setting, you can get that kind of rapport going much easier. This requires that you, the photographer must be not only a skilled artisan with your camera but somewhat of a politician, a psychologist and a hypnotist all tied up in one. So polish up some good “charm” that you will use to ease those personality shots out of your subjects.

And perfect that charm for different personalities. You may need to flirt the smile out of a young girl or tease it out of a child. You may need to get some “man to man” humor out of that burley construction worker or make an off the cuff crack about a politician to get Mr. Business Man to chuckle. And for the babies, well, they will almost smile for their mommy and almost certainly smile for daddy so use them to the hilt.

By combining your skills as a photographer with a generous portion of people charm and grace, you will make memorable portraits that will be better than the uncomfortable, stiff looks that so many accept as ok. Your customers will be happier and you will enjoy a pride in your work that you well deserve.

In the history of photography, there has never been a time that we can achieve such phenomenal results in editing as has happened in the digital age. And while there are a myriad of tools that the computer and internet have made available to us to enhance and change the images that come from a photo shoot, none can top the popularity and power of Adobe Photoshop. The program has become so synonymous with editing and creating effects that the term, “to Photoshop” has become a verb that means to enhance or alter an image.

We can “Photoshop in” new outfits, accessories or even people to a shot where it was just not possible before. So if you want a picture of you shaking hands with the president, you don’t have to go to Washington to get it, just “Photoshop” your image into the image of the president and it will look as real as if you had been there.

Similarly, we can “Photoshop” out things from a picture we don’t want to see there anymore. So if you have a physical flaw, that can be removed. You can even remove a distracting person from the background of the shot. The program is so sophisticated that these images are possible and you really cannot tell the alteration has been made.

Photoshop has become such a de facto standard for photo processing that if you are setting up a photography studio or business, a copy of the software is as necessary as Microsoft word or PowerPoint. The good thing about this software is that it is readily accessible and a lot of people know how to use it. So if you feel insecure about learning yet another computer application, you can probably find a college student, someone at the high school or maybe the junior high that knows Photoshop in and out and can help you jump start your use of the software as well.

But Photoshop has not always dominated this genre. The program was created in 1989 by two brothers, John Knoll and Thomas Knoll. While the brothers developed Photoshop for custom uses they had at the time, it wasn’t long before the market potential of this software became evident. So, being smart entrepreneurs, John and Thomas founded a little company called Adobe and began operations in 1990.

Adobe has been a shining example of how to achieve success in the age of the internet. Today few of us who use the internet are not aware of Adobe. You probably cannot find a personal computer that uses the internet that does not have a free copy of the Adobe reader on it to read PDF files. The PDF format is yet another example of how this little company has created and then taken over a particular market of online business.

To really become skilled at using Photoshop, the first thing to do is probably find a copy to play with. Like most computer applications, you can probably find a copy on a friend’s computer just to tinker with it and get a feel for the controls. Then if your friend is a wizard at Photoshop, let him or her show you some of the real “wiz-bang” things they can do with Photoshop using the same menus you were just tinkering with. This little Saturday afternoon experiment could turn you into a Photoshop addict forever.

After that, you would do well to download a copy for yourself. You can get an evaluation version that will give you most of the features. But you really only need that if you are not sure if you are going to buy a copy. Since Photoshop dominates this market, you almost certainly will buy a copy so you might save some frustration and purchase a licensed copy right away. Now, you will probably find yourself playing with the software for long hours just having fun and that’s great. But don’t overlook the value of taking some organized classes in photo editing using Adobe Photoshop. These classes can show you the shortcuts and how to get the most out of the software.

From there on out, your imagination is the only limit to how you will use this tool to make your photographs better for your customers. And you will be able to respond enthusiastically when someone says, “that’s ok, you can just Photoshop that and fix it right up.”

Vintage photography gives us a glimpse into the past, and helps to allow people to gain some understanding of the world before us.  Unlike many of the collections that are considered the staples of art collection, vintage photographs are truly a unique exploration of the recent past, and many eras of the current civilization have come to contribute their share of what makes up vintage photography.  Though not the largest grouping of auctioned materials of artistic value, they are still valued for their recollections of past events, and even items relating to vintage modes of photography are included in the auctioning of these things.

Cameras and equipment, photographic books and photo postcards before 1940, and even Viewmaster reels are acceptable pieces of auctioning material.  All these things have contributed to the overall history on film, and even as the motion picture took on a predominant role in culture, the photograph has still been a staple of this system forming the basis for it all.  Much of what seems to have the most value are those photographs that come from eras predating this revolution in film, and even further back to those images captured years just after the invention of the camera.  Some are standards to which we have become accustomed to considering is merely part of our past, and we have to know that these things also have worth.

It is with this in mind that one can better grasp the innate worth of the photographs that might have caught their eye, and to be most prepared for an art auction with vintage photographs as the focus a bit of research is in order, especially if you wish to get the most out of your money for a proposed purchase.  Much as any other auction, the buying and selling of vintage photographs can done in a variety of places, and that even includes through the Internet.  Today, the markets are wide open with many different examples from previous eras, and finding that photograph that can really capture your attention can be a difficult process well worth the effort.

There are many organized auction houses that conduct business every day, which could perhaps be of service for you and your needs for the art you choose to become more aware of, and you can learn much by consulting experts on such matters.  For the most part, buying and selling art through auctions can be an easy process with the right amount of time and money spent in the right places, and you can always go back to your research when you happen to feel overwhelmed by how complex the bidding can get with these types of experience in life.

It is when you are considering the value of a piece that you already own, that consultation with an appraiser can be of much help, and the more professional ones will go out of their way to get you the best total for your items.  When concentrating on just what you want, you be better adapted to finding those needs met more adequately, and you will have no need for fearing the system of rules when it comes to the art auction.  The more research that you commit yourself to, the more worth your time it becomes, and the more you can have your money work for you.