More on Photography

Are  ya sick of me talking about it yet? :)


Especially as a newbie photographer, I take this photo meme's and a huge opportunity to get out and make myself shoot every single day. Its hard cause I have things to do, or I'm in an office  for 6-8 hours daily. But with my current schedule, I know I'm going to be blowing my cameras up, so I might as well get used to it! Anyway I stumbled across this forum on Jessica Claire's Facebook page, which I thought had some incredible tips. 

1. Understand Lighting - . Learn how to see YOUR best light, the light that defines your images.  Achieving great lighting is the first step to a great photo.
2. Rent Equipment - Advice from Jessica Claire herself:  Don't buy a ton of equipment right away. Rent it until you really understand and figure out what you want. That way you aren't wasting $$ best spent on other things.THanks to my school, I can borrow lens and such from there, which makes me incredibly excited. Yeehaw! I'm big on the "Try before you buy" which is why I have been so hesitant to purchase more lens for my Sony. 
3. Don't compare yourselves to other photographers. - A toughie for sure! But that's words I will make myself live by this semester. 
4. Know Your Camera
5. Shoot A LOT - Advice from Jessica Claire: Shoot a LOT. Shoot every single chance you get. Try to shoot at least 500 images every single day and once you are comfortable shooting objects in all kinds of light, work on moving objects--kids, cats, dogs, anything that moves!
6. Be Yourself - Pick a style. Be confident in it, don't question yourself, it'll show in your post processing.
7. Know When to Edit -Think before you edit... often we get so caught up in the latest preset or action and just run that on a bunch of our photos, or we are excited to try a new way of processing without thinking about the effect on the photo. Watch for what your editing does to the skin of your subjects.

Yesterday, I got a chance to watch a pro photographer shoot a wedding live via the internet. Thanks to my dear friend, and AMAZING photog Abby for tweeting about it! It was amazing, I mean so.freakin.cool. its one thing to hear it in class, and to read it on line, its a completely different world to watch a pro in action.

Jasmine Star Photography  held a FREE online course in shooting weddings. While that's not something I plan to do professionally...um.. seriously do you know all the tips I got just from watching? It was amazing. Thank you Creative Live!!

I started watching around 730pm just as the reception started, and didn't stop until they cut the sound at 11pm (EST..they are in Cali) when the dancing started.  I also jumped back on today and watched as she went through her images individually and talked about what she did to get that shot and how VERY LITTLE she edited them for her clients/herself/magazines.

It was way cool.

Time for me to start saving up for either a Canon EOS 50D or an Sony Alpha a700. Yeah when I upgrade I UPgrade.

And I'll stop there because I have run out of writing steam.

TATA!

=]