I had the privilege of meeting Tara Lynn last year at a concert she opened up for Jimmy Fortune. Tara is an incredible singer with an awesome voice and she has a stage presence that is absolutely amazing!
This past Saturday I attended another Tara Lynn concert and served as the photographer, hoping to capture the mood and excitement of the concert with my camera. Take a look at these concert photos and let me know how I did in trying to accomplish this task.
Do you ever find your photography creativity getting stale?
Creativity can be elusive at times. It’s like a flash in the pan–it comes out of nowhere but disappears just as quickly. Maintaining creativity is essential to keep your edge and to keep your photo dreams within reach. So how do you maintain creativity?
One thing I do is look at the work of other photographers. Seeing fellow artists’ work can stir some new ideas within us. Reading books can help, too. I have a growing photo library of good photo books which I find myself constantly referring back to time after time. The internet can be an extremely helpful in keeping our creativity alive.
What do you do to maintain your creativity?
Do you remember the magician in Frosty the Snowman? He used that line, “Busy, busy, busy!” He always seemed to have alternative motives, too. Anyway, it is getting to be that time of year again! Busy, busy, busy!
I have been busy. In the past two days I was behind the camera for three different shoots. I’ve been shooting so many photos in fact that I haven’t had any time to post or display many of them. I will over the next few days and I’m certainly not complaining because where is there a better place than behind the viewfinder?
Tonight my daughter and I attended a Christmas Concert by Tara Lynn. She is an incredible singer and entertainer. She had us all singing Christmas carols and getting us in the Christmas mood. Her boyfriend, Jeff, is an incredible guitar player, too! They make a great team and it was an awesome concert!
I had the privilege of being the photographer for the evening, with the task of trying to capture the concert with my digital sensor. This was not an easy task in a dark church without much stage lighting. I hope to post some of these photos tomorrow so you can judge for yourself how I did with this. It sure was fun!
Okay, I confess, I like being busy, busy, busy!
We all know we ought to do it. It’s one of those givens–backup or beware!
Knowing the value and importance of something is one thing; it is quite another to actually do it. Backing up files goes right up there with going to the dentist or sitting in traffic. We all have to face these things but they certainly are not fun to do.
So, how do you backup your photos? Do you use an external hard drive? Do you use a Drobo or Raid system? Or do you cross your fingers and just hope for the best?
I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about the Drobo and I think I might give this a try.
But what do you do?
I’ve been posting to this blog for over a year now. WordPress has made blogging very easy for me and I enjoy sharing photographic insights with others. It’s a cool way to connect with others and create dialogue with fellow photographers. It also allows customers and those interested in my photography to stay updated.
This week I also began to Twitter more frequently. I had a Twitter account for some time but did not fully see the potential of this powerful social medium. Now I am posting a daily tweet including a PhotoTip. You can follow me on Twitter to see a new photo tip each day.
I also have a Facebook page that replicates each day’s blog post and displays some photos and upcoming events.
Photographers are always looking for new subjects to photograph. It’s in our blood, I guess. We just cannot help ourselves. There is always that elusive photo that we’ve had back in the recesses of our photo brain out there somewhere. We can see it our mind’s eye and we hope and pray we will be able to see it with our camera sometime very soon!
But what do we do when we cannot find that once in a lifetime subject? Do we put our camera away and go in the corner and pout? Or do we keep our eye behind the viewfinder and keep trying?
Here is a series of photos I captured one day when the creative camera juices were flowing a little bit. It was great fun!
Most of us photographers like to spend time behind the camera. After all, we are photographers so this is our rightful place, isn’t it?
The problem is there are so many other details and little things that can distract us and prevent us from spending time behind the camera. Think about going on vacation for example. Just to get away there are a ton of things that must be done. Our to do list grows to enormous size and we have a lot of details to wrap up before can leave.
Even preparing for a photography-specific vacation requires paying attention to a lot of mundane details: did you charge your batteries? Did you pack enough spare flash cards? What lenses are you going to bring? Do you have cleaning supplies packed? How will you backup in the field? Do you know exactly where you are going? Do you have enough money for everything? Did you put on clean underwear? (Opps, that was bad!)
But in all seriousness all these little details can get in our way. So sit down, make a list, and begin checking these items off. The sooner you take care of the little things the sooner you can focus your camera!
I have a Nikon D300 camera so I use compact flash cards. I have CF cards in the following sizes: 8GB, 4GB, & 3 1GB. I keep each card in its individual case until the one in use is full and then I switch them. The problem is twofold. First, it takes time to take a fresh CF card out of its plastic holder and then swap it with the current one. Second, once cards are filled it can be confusing to which ones are still empty. I do try to keep the empty cards in my right pants pocket and the filled cards in my left pocket. Only once have I ever inadvertently formatted a card that full of photos. It hurt to lose these photos and prompted me to seek a better procedure in handling flash cards.
So what do you do? How do you handle your flash cards? Could you please explain the process you use? I’ve been thinking that a case to hold all of my cards could be helpful, but what do you do when handling flash cards?
As a wildlife and sports photographer I do not use flash all that much. Yes, there are times when fill flash is needed for a shot, but those times are relatively few and far between for me. In fact, until recently I didn’t even pay attention to the necessity of learning about flash photography.
All this is changing, especially since the new flash strobes do an incredible job of replicating the natural light look. It is amazing what these small strobes can do and they even work wirelessly! I love the Nikon system that incorporates built-in wireless flash. With just a simple set up I can use my pop-up flash to fire an off-camera flash and get a variety of different looks. It is amazing!
Now don’t get me wrong; y0u still won’t see a flash on my camera very often, but when needed I will know how to use it. And isn’t this what photography is all about; using the tools at our disposal to achieve what we are looking for in a photograph?
Do you know how much a spreadsheet can help your photography?
Most people assume that spreadsheets are only for working with numbers, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I use spreadsheets for all sorts of things. For example, I have one spreadsheet with my photo equipment dream list. One one sheet I prioritize the items I hope to buy in the future. On another sheet I track my savings for the next piece of gear. I can even compare features of several lenses side-by-side.
I use spreadsheets for upcoming photo events, too. I can list shots I don’t want to miss, create to do lists to make sure I am ready for the event, and even track my progress by using little check marks and highlighting what still needs to be accomplished.
Spreadsheets can be a great tool for the photography. Give it a try!
