Apple freaks all over the world were flat out falling over each other to be the first to get their hands on the new "it" thing to have. The new iPad.

On Friday it was Australia’s turn to whip into techno frenzy. As if the Australian Government had recognised Jedi as a real religion it was Geek Nirvana. People were queuing for hours outside the Sydney Mac store, with some having camped overnight simply to be among the first in Australia to get their hands on the tablet.

 I was not one of them. Without being concerned with having to be the first in Australia to touch the shiny screen, I ordered one months ago and was happy to receive it around midday on Friday. To my surprise I wasn’t overly anxious to rip to box apart and calmly opened it at home alone that night.

First Impressions

 It is gorgeous. Say what you want about Apple they know how to make a piece of plastic look desirable. I dare anyone to show me a piece of technology that feels so good in your hands and looks so good switched off! The iPad is truly a beautiful machine and it does exactly what it is supposed to do from Mac's point of view. It says you want me, you must have me, just touch me!!..... Once you do however you ruin it, but more on that later.

 The unit is smaller then I expected but is still decent in its presence, and the thickness to weight gives you a sense of security. I don’t feel like I’m going to crack or break it if I handle it roughly. However I sense a stockpile of iPads with cracked screens will soon not be in short supply.

Once switched on the screen just looks awesome, the colours are amazing and it's apparent straight away this was born to be a tool of display first, a treat for the visual sense. It behaves essentially the same as an iPhone with the layout and icons being almost exact copies.

What use is it to us?

 This is where things start to get cloudy. People are saying that there was no market for this, no need. People are sceptical because they wonder; what does it do that something else doesn’t already offer? People do have short memories, iTunes served absolutely no purpose what so ever, then the iPod appeared....Apple are masters at creating a market for their products alone, so just wait. I’m sure there is a reason we need this, Apple just haven’t told us what it is yet.

From a photography point of view however I believe there is already a market for it. Photos on this tablet look outstanding. The first thing I did was upload some photos and start creating albums and viewing slideshows. I was breathless for quite a while, everything looked so good, and for the first time in years I felt like I was holding a photographic print, only with a few touches I was looking at an entirely different print.

I can imagine handing this over to potential clients as a carry portfolio and having them oooh and ahhh over the high gloss images, and booking me on the spot. I can also see myself offering these as a product to clients. Forget wedding albums, have a wedding iPad!

Photographers are already offering Ipads as porducts to their clients.

This could become a dedicated photography tool.

Not that I can see. A quick search through the App Store will reveal hundreds of photography related applications, most of which offer basic editing tools and cool filters to apply to your photos. Whilst fun to play around with photography use in any professional capacity seems a distant vision, if not illusion.

What is offered however is a resource for photographers. There are some dedicated iPad applications that allow photographers to expose themselves to a multitude of daily professional imagery to engage and inspire. I am already loving the Guarding Eyewitness App that sends you a beautiful photojournalistic image to you everyday, with a pre existing back log of just over 100 images that you can sort through and marvel at.

 I also see in the very near future applications to make the iPad an accessory for the professional photographer. Apps already exist on the iPhone that allow people to view and order images online. I will wager we won't have to wait too long to see an app that shows images in a professional portfolio setting with options to select and order images directly from a photographers website. Make bookings, show images to others, order prints and enjoy slideshows all on the iPad the photographer gave to you upon your first meeting. I can see this being a huge market in the portrait and wedding business. Imagine giving a bride an iPad as a wedding album. With the touch of the App Icon they see their images in a slideshow or on their own all within a skin that is branded to your business and with the touch of a button they are ordering prints for Mum and dad straight off your site.

What I like

• The look
• The feel
• The way images just pop on its amazing screen
• The ease anyone can skim through my images

What I don’t.

• Finger prints!!! Your first greasy touch of this beautiful screen and it’s never the same again.
• Lack of practical use for photography, although I never bought it thinking it would fulfil any actual applied photography use at all.
• Did I mention Finger Prints?
• People will say storage, but if you looking at storing high res images on this I would ask why? It is not a storage device.

The iPad has replaced my laptop at home, albeit I never used my laptop for any demanding tasks before. Simply surfing the net a bit and mucking around with photos as well as taking it with me to show a portfolio of work. The iPad trumps everything my lappy used to do and looks a whole lot better doing it.

However, outside the graphic artists I can’t see it being of any use to ordinary people. This won't stop it smashing all kinds of sales records I'm sure.

Glen.

We all dream of becoming professional photographers, being paid to do what we love. Getting to travel and shoot for a living. Its the dream. We all want it, and are jealous of those who have it.

What about those who have it already, what do they want? Would you believe me if I said  they want to be more like you?  You probably wouldn’t but I’m not talking about your financial situation or the endless amount of technical questions floating around in your head still, I’m referring to your time. Photographers who work professionally all want a bit more time. For what you may ask? To work more? Put more jobs out? Spend more time with the models they shoot? (That last one may be closer to the mark for some) I would argue they want more time to shoot the things they want.

Anyone who is a good enough photographer to go pro has probably spent years, like you are, coming up with ideas for themselves, experimenting and shooting, and now that they are pros that thought process doesn’t go away, in fact it probably intensifies with their improved knowledge of what they are capable of. Meaning they have bigger and better ideas they want to try out. Unfortunately a professional photographers life is shooting to briefs, answering to art directors, often creating someone else’s vision for something that is probably not related to, nor interests them, and they do this alot!

Professional photographers want to be more like you so they can shoot more of the stuff they want, whenever the idea pops into their head.

What does this mean for you? Yes we know you want to blow up and make it massive, but while your still among us mere mortals, y’know those ideas floating about in your head you think you might try someday, someday after you have made it big and don’t have to concentrate so much on getting a job? You may not have the time to do all those ideas when you do make it big. So right now, while you have the time, start writing them down, you may not be able to do them all but I would think a few of them would be within reach. Now start making them happen, before its too late!

With the announcement of DSLR Cameras that are now capable of stunning HD video, more and more photographers are wondering if this is going to be a skill they need to learn.

It really is taking the world by storm in the video side of things, Just recently the finale' of TV series House was filmed entirely on the 5DmrkII. Personally I think some photographers would be incredibly naive not to take this video thing seriously. With the development of new portable devices capable of playing back these HD videos at just as amazing quality becoming more and more available and apart of popular culture. This is a new part of the industry I think people are just going to have to pick up, in a hurry!

Check out this example and make up your own mind

How many times have you done it? Opened a magazine, looked at a friends wedding photos, seen a advertisement, glanced over an editorial and thought I am just as good, if not better then this photographer.

Be honest, its ok no one is watching I swear...:) We have all done it, seen someone’s work being spoken about, paraded around and even praised while we sit and think "I can do that too, why aren’t I getting written about?"..."how do I get that recognition?".

Im thinking it right now, but ill spare you the details of that. The thing about photography is you can be the best in the world, you can produce awesome images day in and day out but the truth is people are not going to go out of their way to find you. If all you do is take photos and hope someone will notice your massive amount of talent you will be better of waiting on the beach for Harold Holt to return from his swim.

Photography is so much more then the photographs you take. The reason why a lot of photographers who are good, but not outstanding get so much exposure is because they are smart across the board. That isn’t to say all photographers who get exposure are not amazing, there are plenty of outstanding photographers who get their dues when it comes to recognition. Photographers who get the most exposure  from their work is not because the opportunity  falls into their laps because their work demands it, rather its because they know about things like marketing and PR. Networking and in a lot of cases just the right people.

So how do you make this happen for you? Well there isn’t an easy answer, and I know in some cases it might seem more who you know instead of what you know, and this can be true but the people with the contacts had to make them somehow, so why cant you?

First things first, Identify who or what you want to be identified and seen with, then devise a plan to get in contact with them. In my case having my photos published in a wedding magazine as an editorial is great exposure and doesn’t have to cost me anything. Magazines like this love to hear about true stories, so I get my clients to contact the wedding magazine themselves and with some gentle guidance try and get their wedding published as a "real wedding story" of course giving credit to me as the photographer and boom! Instead of paying massive $$$ for a one page ad I have a multi page spread for nothing!

Of course this may not suit everybody, perhaps your into commercial or fine art, or some other genre of the endless limitations that photography offers. To try and build your exposure you need to build your contacts. Join an organisation like the AIPP; along with photographers the AIPP also has industry companies as part of their "trade affiliates" who are not usually photographers per say but have a vested interest in the industry, examples include magazines and suppliers. Go to these events and meet with these people, don’t be afraid to talk shop and bring up how you might be able to help each other. Be tactful about it, get names, numbers and business cards. Go in with some kind of plan, who do you want to talk to and what about. Whose number do you want to leave with? Sounds like you’re trying to pick someone up at a night club, and it kind of is, do it right and you will have the details of someone you may be able to jump into bed with later on, do it wrong and you will get the cold shoulder!

Want to get your work exposed but think gallery exhibitions are reserved for the known and established? You would be wrong. There are plenty of mini Galleries around, often as apart of a cafe or something that you can pay to put your own exhibition on, some will even just ask for a commission from your print sales in order for you to put a exhibition on. So get a collection together, something that means something or has a theme, as some halls may ask to see your images first and if they look random or just like a bunch of photos you pulled out, they may turn you away. But having something prepared shows you have thought about it and have something to say. Organise invitations, drinks food and throw yourself and opening night party for your exhibition. Dont be afraid to invite people you think will be beneficial to your career. Even if you think they wont come, if you send out 10 invites to your potential targets and one shows up, that’s one more contact you could make that night just by talking to them at your own exhibition, and if their there they will obviously be a little interested in you and will want to chat to you.

So if your photos are amazing but no one is talking about them, perhaps you need to ask yourself what you are bringing to your photography that is not photography.

Today, with the ease of technology, the pace at which its developed and the price of attaining it all becoming cheaper and cheaper, photography has become a more accessible pass time. People are carrying around bigger cameras with bigger megapixels and bigger lenses. All trying to get that "big shot". But is bigger necessarily better?

Well according to world renowned commercial photographer Chase Jarvis, The best camera is the one you have with you. In his case he has built an entire image library with really impressive photos all captured and created with his humble Iphone.

Its a great concept, as much as we love our DSLR's and as much as we would like to have them on us at all times, it is simply impossible to carry around a hefty DSLR ALL THE TIME! So the idea to use whatever tools you have on you all the time to create imagery, and with how much camera phones have evolved, is a masterstroke.

I have spoken about the amount of Apps for the iphone that allow you to post product your images from you iphone as you shoot, then upload them to a web gallery with groups of people from all over the world doing the same thing. But simply just having something with you at all times that you normally wouldn’t notice, or need for other uses, like a phone, is a very good way of keeping your eyes open for photos all the time and not just when you’re carrying around your big DSLR.

You can check out what’s capable from using your Iphone as a camera here.

So get out there and shoot with whatever you have, whenever you have a spare moment!

The big question, what’s it all about? Something people spend their whole lives pondering, reflecting, and meditating on.

In the Photography world at least, we don’t have to give away all our possessions and go and live in a monastery to find the answer, or at least something to occupy us.

With the advancement of technology in photography our industry is changing, and changing rapidly. Gone are the days where a photographer would deliver a set of proofs to a client, the client would order what they wanted and their interaction would more or less end there. Now the photographer is expected to deliver a whole lot more, and provide a much larger and longer service to their clients.

In my wedding industry for example. Now days a wedding photographer must have a website, having a blog is also handy. We must deliver a product that is complete, sturdy, and eye catching. The Wedding album has undergone massive facelifts over the years, and never before has there been so many unique options available to clients. Your client will see your albums and products at an expo you were at, or maybe they read your blog, perhaps they loved their friends photos you did. One thing is sure, you need to stand out amongst the multitude of photographers out there.

Its no longer a case of shooting a wedding and giving the bride some nice photos to show around, they want something outstanding, the only one of its kind. Its my job to deliver this to them. They want to be reached where they are, they want their friends and family to see the images with minimal effort, they want to be able to share their images with the world at the click of a button.

The good news for me is that each job is a significant project, and the price will reflect that. The hard part is to keep coming up with ideas to make my clients feel like they have the most special wedding photos in the world.

Clients know what’s going on, they know that Cameras can now shoot HD video as well as stills, why wouldn’t they expect to receive both these services in the one package? Canon has just realised their new update for the 5DmrkII meaning it is now capable of 24p HD movie.

I would wager 99% of my clients have an iPod, use facebook, have or have seen an iPhone and love how it connects everything. Why cant they have their photos on these pieces of technology they already are so familiar with?

The answer is they can!!! I use all of these aspects in my business, I use facebook to post teasing images up with links to my site for the rest, I tag the couple so all their friends and family can see the images without ever having bothered the couple. Clients receive an album with their images presented beautifully and unique to all others. As well as a slideshow they can share via email and Phones with anyone.

But where are we going? With the development of more advanced iPhones and the new iPad, predicted to sell in the tens of millions around the world, how can we photographers keep up with everything?

How about your own iPad wedding album? something you can take with you wherever you go, without worrying about your photos being damaged or scratched. What about giving clients the option of laying out custom albums to show friends, or just browsing photos, and at the click of a button they send it to the world. Give them the option of viewing a slideshow you created for them or let them browse through and look at their individual images at their whim? How about creating the option for their relatives to touch the iPad screen and ordering a copy of their granddaughters Wedding album to be delivered to their door?

Yes all these things and more will be possible with the iPad, who knows what the future will bring?

Something to think about.

For those who are not awake to the media gold mine that is the NFL Superbowl. The Big game was today, Superbowl XLIV was contested between The New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. The Superbowl is the Mecca for all types of media, with more money being spent on television advertising during the game then most Australian TV networks would see in a year. This is well and truly a circus.

As you can imagine with this much interest in a game of sport, photographers are all over it, with images from this years Superbowl to reach billions of viewers, images are in high demand and images will be delivered and posted via the internet faster then ever before. The game has only been over for 20 minutes (at time of writing) and I have found numerous photo blogs of professional imagery post processed laid up with fancy text and published for the world to see......within 20 minutes!!! and that was only how long it took me to find it. I would wager most of my money that these images were up and ready to go even before the final siren blew.

Media photographers in the 21st century work fast! and they can because of the internet. The photographers who will be the most successful from today’s events will be those who have their images ready the fastest, those with images in front of millions of viewers, some of these are guaranteed to be editors from the worlds media outlets looking for images to use NOW!

The message here is simple, if your planning to be a professional photographer in any field and you don’t have some kind of web presence.....Get one! Never has the ability to show your images to a global audience who are looking for them has never been easier, or cheaper! Photo blogs can be set up for next to nothing these days, and sites like www.photoartgallery.com give you a space to upload and display your images to a global audience for free!

So no web presence? Get crakin!!

and Well done Saints and Congratulations people of New Orleans!

Photographers all over the winning team in Superbowl XLIV.

Image on the net within minutes of the win. Getty Images.

A beautiful magical winter wonder land advertising campaign shot by  Brian Kuhlmann  Except this whole shot was done indoors!!
 
Brian spoke to PDN about how he went about creating this shot for the Bacardi USA Martini and Rossi Asti campaign. Looking at the shot, its very difficult to tell it was entirely manufactured within a 40x40 foot set. The interview is an interesting read and I would encourage anyone who has ever tried to plan a studio shoot from start to finish to read it. Brian talks about what exactly the client wanted and how he went about creating it. He also describes what problems there are in shooting something like this, including how to light a scene like this without casting any shadows from the 12 foot trees......that needed to be shipped 600 miles....... and mounted on its own stand. Its a rare insight to the mind of a commercial photographer and how the whole advertising process works, as well as the lengths and dedication one must have to reach a brief and produce work that will be suitable for such a high profile campaign.
To read more of this interview you can check it out on PDN Website

In Previous blog posts, I have talked about keeping yourself inspired, seeing what other photographers are doing as well as pushing the boundaries of ideas and methods.

In examples of my photography I have often recieved questions about my techniques and methods in shooting them, from the initial briefs tthe lighting set ups.

While I was pondering how to best show this information........someone else thought of it for me!!! A photographer who I think incorporates everything I just mentioned in my first line, Chase Jarvis has been approached by blog reader and founder of a company called Trade Secret Cards,, he had the terrific Idea of interviewing a selection of influential photographers about some of their best known photographs, questioning them on the approach to dealing with the client and the brief, right up to the styles and techniques used in the shoot. After which he would put all of this information on to a footy card like display with the famous well printed shot on one side of the card and all the details, complete with diagrams, on the other. Its like they took all the most helpful bits out of all those photography books we buy just for the inspiration and ideas, and threw away all the stuff we don’t pay attention to, then put it all on a single card easy to view, Brilliant!

The cards come in packs and just seem to be a wealth of information and inspiration for any photographer wanting to get an inside look to how a top level pro photographer works on big commercial shoots. If your a fan of the Strobist Blog they have also put together a pack of cards from these guys too

They look just stunning and are exactly what I want for Chrissy! hint hint!

Till next time, My Name is Glen Edwards and you should be shooting

A question many photographers ask themselves, and from time to time, of other photographers. Is: Are you a professional??

How, or when are we able to call ourselves professional photographers? There is no test, no exam no government approval, absolutely no legal qualifications needed to go into business as a photographer.

But because you buy a camera, save some money, open a studio and start charging to shoot weddings, can you then in fact say you are a professional? Answer: You can, nobody will stop you. But just because you say something doesn’t make it so.

The Dictionary defines:
 pro⋅fes⋅sion⋅al
–adjective
1.    following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain.

There are many more examples of the adjective, but this appears to most relevant to a photographer. A lot of people will tell you, if you get paid for doing something that makes you a professional in that field.

I disagree, the key words in the above definition are “means of livelihood” this means, in my eyes, to be able to call yourself a professional photographer you must be earning enough money from your photography business to sustain your livelihood. If you paid Uncle Ted to build your back shed because he was handy with a hammer and saw, would that make Ted a professional carpenter? I hope not. I don’t think Uncle Ted would realistically believe he could support his livelihood from building the odd shed for friends and family either.

Now I know this might annoy some people. How many photographers, especially in recent times, are shooting weddings/portraits or whatever on weekends charging professional rates and claiming to be a “professional photographer” but going back to a day to day job Monday to Friday to sustain their livelihood? I would wager a fair few. In my eyes these are not professionals.

I realise this article my get on the wrong side of a few people, but I don’t mean it as a bad thing. There is no shame in shooting a few weddings here and there to get your experience up before making that leap into professionalism. However if you continue to split your time between an office job or whatever and photography on the weekends, can you really call yourself a professional?

This is a question I ask myself almost on a daily basis, am I a pro photographer? What would it take for me to become one? Now I know I earn a substantial amount of money from my photography, is it enough to sustain my lifestyle, not quiet. However the job I do during the week is directly related to my photography, I use my photography knowledge every day to complete my work tasks. Surely this makes me a professional? Using the knowledge I have in photography to earn my nine to five wages and then just topping that up with my shooting on weekends. Doesn’t this make me a professional photographer? The answer in my eyes is No.

If I am to call myself a professional photographer. I need to be just that: earning ALL of my income that will sustain my lifestyle from my photography, and my photography alone.

The most definitive quality I see in professionals in any industry, not just photography. Is the belief in ones own work. That self belief to put everything you have behind your self, your skill and your product in a bid to make your presence known in your chosen field. This could mean putting all the money you have saved for the past 15 years into creating a business, its marketing, offices and products and putting it all on the line in the hope that this skill of yours will become your profession and be able to support yourself and any family you may have.

When you have the belief in yourself and your photography, to be able to put everything you have into getting this business started, when you can put everything on the line with confidence that your hard work, diligence and skill will be able to support you in your life.

Then You will have earned the right to call your self a professional.

Until next time,
My name is Glen, and you should be shooting.

Last week I spoke about feeding your creative soul, keeping yourself sane in a world where professional photography often means photographing similar things, over and over again, or simply shooting stuff you may not like. I spoke about looking at other photographers who keep themselves going through their personal projects, as well as always making time to shoot your own stuff to keep your creative soul alive.

I had a few emails from people about this, and yes that was only the tip of the Ice Burg. There are many things you can do to keep yourself going, thinking, and inspired!
The image at the bottom of this post is one I have been working on for some time, with this exact purpose in mind; to keep me inspired. I have never been a huge fan of hanging my own work around myself, I prefer to keep images that are thought provoking, images from great photographers that keep me inspired. However this is a little different. I compiled this image from various photographs of my closest friends and family, printed it, mounted it and hung it in my office. The image reminds me who I am, where I come from and why I do this.

After all why do we work so hard other then to be able to have fun with those we hold most dear? This photograph will always act as a tool of inspiration for me as I sit and work at my desk, a reminder of what and who I work for, as well as constantly showing me what photography is all about, recording brief moments in time, full of emotion and saturated in nostalgia! Images I can look at for hours on end and remember exactly how we all felt that day and the promise that some day soon we will have that much fun again.

This image never fails to make me smile, and so working under it always feels just that little bit less like work. You might want to consider doing something like this yourself, it may not be an image that speaks to you, it could be an object, a magazine clipping of the dream house you are working to, It could even be as simple as a clean working environment.

Until next week, keep yourself inspired, keep moving forward and just keep shooting!

Glen.

As you grow as a photographer, expand your horizons, realise your dreams of working as a professional or just making money off your photographs, chances are you will find yourself shooting things you may not of considered shooting earlier in your life. That’s just the way it works, if your looking at making money off your photos and making a living from it you are, at some point, going to have to shoot something someone pays you to shoot, even if that something isn’t what you normally shoot, or "like" to shoot.

This is normal, in fact some photographers have made a great living out of photographing the things that pay well over the things they like to shoot. That isn’t to say they don’t like what they do for work, I guarantee that any successful photographer loves what they do. However it may be a bit hard to get an add agency or a magazine to pay for that shot of the scene from your subconscious depicting an Astronaut in front of a TV eating pop corn, there just inst much of a market for that. You need to be able to shoot the things that pay your bills and enjoy it enough to shoot it day in and day out.

But any photographer worth his salt will tell you that the same thing every day can get stale very fast and eventually lead to your demise. So how do we avoid this abrupt end, this creative death? By feeding your creative soul. As a photographer YOU MUST keep yourself inspired! and you need to make time to shoot the things you want to shoot, for no other reason then keeping your self from going stark raving mad!

I personally am always making notes of ideas I have, keep a diary with me for notes and images that I think of to turn into possible shoots in the future. If your out and about and you see something you like, stop for a moment take a note of where it is and return there when you have the time, if you see it, or think of it and then decide that you will remember it later, 8 out of 10 times you will forget, the dullest pencil is better then the sharpest mind in my book.

Another thing is to keep your self inspired by others, I have a bunch of photographers blogs and sites that I visit regularly to gain inspiration and see what people are doing all over the world. No man can have all the Ideas, so look at what other people are doing to keep their creative souls alive, and you might pick up a few ideas yourself. One of my favourites is Chase Jarvis  A photographer who is very concerned with keeping the creative flame burning, always trying to come up with new ideas for his own personal images to keep himself inspired. Is it any wonder he is one the most successful photographers around.

Watch films, go to exhibitions and just try to keep shooting what you want, even if it means reaching into your own pocket a little, the more your creativity grows, the more ideas you will have for you day to day work and the more you will love life!
Keep shooting!

Glen

HELLOOOO!!!!!!

Well after a quick and much needed break, I am back in the Photo Art Gallery offices as a married man! HARAH! ready to throw my self at all things photography again.
Of course while I was away I took my trusty Canon 5D with me, never go any where without my camera. I of course got the usual holiday snaps and a few arty ones as well while I was on my Island get away, but it wasn’t until we started to come home that I was really glad I brought my camera with me.

You see both me and my lovely new wife have something in common, when it comes to traveling costs, were a tighter then Santa in a spandex! we try to bring the costs down on everything, so when we get to where were going, we have more money to spend on the fun things. However this often creates longer trips with connecting flights and slower modes of transports, it can also mean relying on lesser known air lines to get to your destination which often results in cancelled flights with no explanation and no money back....but that’s another story.

ANYWAY! during a 6 hour stop over in Darwin airport after landing at 1:00am there was absolutely nothing to do but wait around in the terminal for our flight, un-able to sleep I was restless and bored. It was then I decided to pick up my camera and document a few things around me to pass the time. Photographing in a Airport terminal at 3:00am is an interesting experience, people are often so exhausted and out of it they don’t even realise you are there, and when a bunch of people who all feel around the same level of fatigue are together, dignity goes out the window and people will do almost anything to get comfortable regardless on how it makes them look, usually because if they are comfortable, everyone else wishes they were them. This makes for extremely interesting subject matter.

So I started snapping away, photographing not so much the individuals waiting for a flight, but the collective feeling of everyone in the terminal, just wanting to get where they are going and more importantly a bed of some kind. Next thing I knew it was time to board our flight.

Capturing photographs in a situation like this allows you to get some really photo journalistic style images, the best photos of people in the world, are those that capture raw emotion and people are rarely at their rawest then after a flight in the middle of the night only to be waiting longer for another flight, just to get home.

So the next time your bored out of your skull, check to see if you have your camera on you, and you should always have some sort of camera with you look around and think, what can I take a photo of around here???

Good day all!

Today is my last day working at the gallery for a while, because I get married on Saturday! YAY me! Or should that be YAY us from now on??

Anyway, as a wedding photographer myself, as far as my wedding photographs were concerned, I knew exactly what I wanted, and exactly who to see to get it. But when I awoke to this story this morning I wondered, how do other people perceive wedding photographers and wedding photography?

A photographer in the UK has been ordered by a judge to reimburse a couple £1,450 after describing the wedding photos as "woefully inadequate". Out of the 400 photographs taken, only 22 images were actually approved by the couple.

Among other things, the cutting of the cake was missed, images were taken that chopped off peoples heads, were poorly lit or with people not looking at camera. And to top it off, the thank you cards made by the photographer had the wedding couple's names spelt wrong.

This story raises a discussion very commonplace among photographers, in that, the evolution of digital photography has created cheaper and more accessible high quality cameras. Couple that with the ability to see straight away whether one has captured an acceptable photograph or not and the market has opened up to a whole new group of "digi pops". So-called professional photographers who pop up shortly after purchasing digital SLRs and believe they have the ability to capture someone’s wedding effectively. After all, how hard can it be to get good photographs of happy people on the best day of their lives, possibly looking the best they will ever look?

Answer: EXTREMELY DIFFICULT! Ask any seasoned professional wedding photographer and you will get a list as long as your arm, and then some, as to why shooting a wedding is so hard:

• the pressure of the capturing the biggest day of someone’s life
• having the ability to keep the bride and groom from getting swept away with the emotion of the day and forgetting they have 4 photo locations to get to in an hour and a half
• organising 100+ guests all at once to look and smile for one nice group shot
• making sure you get all the "basic" shots to keep parents and grandparents happy
• all the while keeping one eye open for that split second moment, that one child blowing bubbles, that quick sly kiss from the couple, Aunty Jane wiping tears away from her face; all the moments that if captured, will make sure the emotion of the day is kept forever, and if missed then those beautiful moments in time are lost. Forever.

Combine this list with the fact that the wedding album delivered by the photographer to the couple will be the ONLY thing they will have to remember the day by, and one of only a handful of things they will pay for on their wedding day that will actually be around after the day is done.

This is what you pay for when you hire a professional wedding photographer, what any professional photographer WILL be able to do for you, and what every "digi pop" will be lacking. It comes from years of training, assisting and shooting at weddings. Gaining an understanding of how weddings work and what happens on the day.
As a photographer, I hear a lot of horror stories regarding wedding photographers but I wonder how many average people get wind of these stories? As it appears, the only way a bad photographer can be picked is if someone is going for the cheaper option or if they have been fooled by someone who is a far better salesman than photographer. Either this, or simply not enough research was done in selecting a wedding photographer.

So how do you avoid leaving your wedding day memories in the hands of a hack with a nice suit and a nicer camera?

Answer: Research. Most, if not all wedding photographers will meet with you and show you their work for free. So you have good reason to see more then one, compare their work, check their website and choose your favourite. Perhaps they have a blog or something similar that doesn’t just show you their favourite images, but show real photos from real, recent weddings.

This will give you an idea of how many weddings they shoot and if the quality of their shots is consistent.

Don’t be afraid to quiz them about things you don’t understand; a good photographer will give you a straight answer off the top of their head. Finally, ask around. Word of mouth is important; clearly if someone was really happy with their work then chances are that photographer can’t be that bad!

If one looks hard enough for the right wedding photographer, the best will always stand out from the pack.

Glen Edwards.

Hi Guys!

Welcome to another instalment!

Over the last couple of weekends I have set about shooting some really simple images of people, and I thought I would share with you a really simple way to create some nice images. If you enjoy taking pictures of people, or are tyring to get into it, this is how you start. It is very easy and rather cheap to do. It is also a great way to practice your lighting techniques and model instructions.

Study various fashion magazines for poses and notice the way the model stands if your not sure on how to pose your subjects. The best people to use when you start out are your family and friends, they will usually do it for free as a favour (if your extra nice to them) and you will be more comfortable with them, as they will be with you making the shoot a whole lot easier.

Here I have simply got a small white paper backdrop and two lights....Thats it! not use for fancy lighting here, simply set them up take your readings use a 2:1 or 3:1 lighting ratio to begin with, that is the main light is only 1 to two stops brighter then the fill, once you understand how this looks you can experiment a bit more.

This was a really easy, very quick couple of shoots and the simplest results often look the best, so grab your self a couple of lights, some friends and even just a white wall will work and get shooting.

Till next time,

GE.

WOAH!!! What a weekend!! It came and went with days of temperatures above 22 Degrees Celsius!, 28 on Sunday :) . I want to give a big shout out to Global warming if your reading! awesome stuff.

It was like a mini taste of summer, a reminder that winter is coming to an end and Summer is fast approaching. Summer for most means surf, sand and sun. But what does it mean for photographers? The light gets harder and brighter, not so good for people and portraits....lots of time spent in the sand, not so good for your camera......more time spent in the water, EVEN WORSE for your camera!! Summer doesn't sound like fun for photographers when you look at it like that. But whats good about summer for photography?? Colours become more vibrant, surfaces become more illuminated and of course, the Shadows!!!! deep dark and totally black! just the way I like it!

So over the weekend, I broke out of my winter wonderland shooting and began getting used to summer shooting! a stroll along the beach camera in hand on a warm weekend afternoon does wonders for the soul. But in the harsh light what to shoot? Well I went looking for shapes, patterns, textures and lines. Colours are great when the sun is out and anything in full Sun light will show you its full brilliance of colour.

Look for lines that lead into or away from shadows, take time to compose interesting shots, try adding a few different interesting features, not to many to cause distraction, but rather one dominant feature then let the others compliment it rather then compete with it. Then take everything away, leave one feature on its own, standing alone demanding attention in its simplicity.

This is where your creative eye can really grow, taking inanimate objects and creating an interesting picture from them, using lines, textures, shapes and shadows.

Enjoy!

Welcome to Monday again everyone!!

I hope we all had a productive shooting weekend?

I would like to say I did but alas, I did not. This weekend dissipated faster then a family size pizza in front of Meatloaf. I simply did not have the hours in the day to shoot something, and although I try to keep my camera on me at all times, truthfully every once in a while My beloved tool gets left alone for a few days at a time, and once the day had come to an end I was far to exhausted to shoot anything during the night. But if your anything like me, you'll know the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you think about the lack of work your have done and that litlle voice in your head starts to call you lazy and UN-committed! ok so maybe only I have voices in my head but you get what I mean. But what do we do when we have nothing to shoot, or we simply run out of time, but we still want to contribute something to our art form?

Well as I settled in on a Sunday night with my computer in front of me I went over some of the competition entry's entered into the "Magic hour" photography comp over at Ph.Art HQ, if you have not seen it yet check it out HERE and I noticed one of the sponsors was BLURB Now Ive always thought about putting a book together, Simply for myself, but have continued putting it off, assuming it would be a fairly large and difficult project. Never the less I checked out the blurb sight, just out of curiosity.

One hour later I was already about 7 pages through creating my very first book! It was astounding just how easy it is to put together. I would recommend anyone that has thought about making their own books to visit BLURB and have a play. There are plenty of previews to show you what is capable through their site and what you may be able to produce, and the pricing is not to bad at all either, for example I am looking at US$17.95 plus postage for a 7x7' softcover book with 80 Premium paper pages.

Without going into to much detail you have a few options, download their free software (like I did) that will take you step by step through each page of your book giving you templates you can use or giving you complete control over the design of your images. You can also create your book in any program you like and export it to them as a PDF, they give very detailed instructions on how to do this, with measurements and down loadable sheets included. So you can have as much or as little control over your book as you want.

I went off the track a little and created a bit of a hybrid theory. I created images in Photoshop to be the size of the pages of the book. To put it simply I created composite images in photoshop and used inserted these as single images into the pages of the book, giving me total design control over what my book will look like. I intend to create a record of my work from my TAFE days right up until now, basically a nice and polished version of my visual diary's from over the years.

However I can see myself using this for portfolio books to send to potential clients and of course as products for my existing clients, and who knows if I create a book good enough I might print a couple of hundred and put it into publication, a service Blur also offers I might add!

SO guys if your into it check out BLURB and have a go. You can see the direction im going in bellow with some of the pages I created for my book "Belief"

Until next week!

GE

Hello all!

Welcome to another week, and the end of another weekend (sad face)

I wonder how you all went and what you shot over the weekend, anything interesting, different or difficult?

Myself, I took a visit to Sydney's Taronga Zoo, A life long favourite of mine and an absolute special for great photos of subjects you don't get to see every day.

However as I mentioned I have been to this Zoo a couple of times already, and the inclination to just grab my 70-200 throw it on my 5D and get shootin' is almost an involuntary action. Once you have shot at the zoo a couple of times with a tele lens, good shots are almost present themselves, and this can be very VERY satisfying, especially when you get so close as to fool others into thinking you have captured the images on Safari on an African continent! However I wanted something different this day, I Wanted to create an opportunity to force myself to try new things, so, I left the 70-200 at home, slapped on a 50mm 1.8 and left.

Thats right, going to a shoot subjects that are quite happy to stay at the very back of their enclosures and make it extremely difficult for you to get a good picture of them, I chose to take a lens that would get me no closer then most of my friends could get with their compact digital cameras, much to their confusion when they made the assumption and asked "that looks like an expensive camera!, you must be able to get really close with that!?..." upon arrival of course you notice the abundance of other photographers, all with as expensive or more expensive cameras then mine and ALL with big, long, very impressive looking telephoto lenses attached to said expensive cameras, this can be off putting but I insisted that having to create interesting pictures in camera for myself would be far more rewarding then getting a nice image, simply because I used a long lens to get nice and close to my stationary subjects.

So I went about my day, having to think each time about how I would approach this shot, compose it and execute it. Knowing that if I could make a few good images today, they would be good because of my ability and knowledge and not because I had the expensive gear allowing me to get up and close and simply snap away.

Its because of this that I found these results a lot more pleasing.

let me know what you think, and also when have you gone about a shoot in a "non traditional" way as to give you a different set of results?

unitll next week!

GE

Good day to you, my fellow shooters!

I have been asked by Ph.Art to write a weekly blog entry documenting my Photographic exploits adventures and mishaps over the weekend, in the hope to do some or all of the following:

- Inspire you to try something different as a photographer and an artist

- Create conversation and comments from those who have experienced, would like to experience, agree, disagree or generally just enjoy what im saying

- And finally to maybe even just laugh at my expense........

Some of you may already be participating in the weekend shots section of the phorum which is great, if your not and have no Idea what im talking about, check them out here. Your weekend images

But in essence that's basically what ill be doing here, telling you what I did in the world of photography over the weekend and then asking you to tell me, and everyone else that is listening, what you did and show us some images that you captured!

So what did I photograph over the week end?? well....nothing! whoops! that is, nothing I can show you. Because this weekend I finally realised a photographic dream of mine, that has existed for some time now. I purchased a Medium format film camera. A Kiev 88 to be specific, for those who know what a Kiev 88 is DON'T WORRY I have my reasons for purchasing this. For those who don't know what a Kiev 88 is, the single word I would use to sum up this camera is "absolute DOG!" ....did I say single word?? Its basically a Russian knock off of the Hasselblad 500 CM, and no where near as good, the shutter is not reliable the crank does not always work and its incredibly hard to use.

So why? I hear you all shout? would I purchase such a relic in today's digital age? well the answer, funnily enough is the same reason no one likes them, because they are so hard to use. Photography, with the introduction of digital is becoming more and more apart of a throw away society, and the ability to use the screen on the back of your camera as a "safety net" is becoming more apparent in photography now days. This is where a problem occurs, I found myself continually relying on the screen and the histogram instead of exercising the knowledge I know I have, and so my photographic ability begins to plateau.

As photographers we MUST continue to drive ourselves to new creative heights, continue to look for new ideas, new ways to express ourselves and most of all continue to use our brains and learn! The only way to become a better photographer is to try something you haven't tried before, get out of your comfort zone, shoot for the stars people!!!

After I purchased and started using my Kiev I started to remember and recall all kinds of things from dynamic range to characteristic curves and thinking how I wanted certain shades of colour to appear on my B+W film. After using my digital camera for so long and filling 4, 8 or 16GB cards up with utter crap that I knew I could delete later, I was facing a new type of photography. One that forced me to painstakingly load my 120 film into an uncooperative film back for about 30 minutes then try to deal with that fact that each photograph I took would cost me around $2.60! So after about 80 minutes, I had taken my 3 and only shots of the day!

I felt I had grew and learnt more in that 80 minutes as a photographer then I have in a long while. Simply because I forced myself to try something different, take myself away from the familiar, and commit to the art that was, and still should be "Real" Photography.

The next day I was shooting with my trusty 5D again, and found myself feeling like I just "had" certain shots without ever checking the screen, and as a photographer and a semi-professional that's a very gratifying feeling.

Of course im not suggesting each one of you go out and purchase your own medium format camera, as I said above it can be very expensive and heartbreaking when it goes wrong. But The next time you go out shooting, like this weekend, try something different, push your limits, if you shoot flowers all the time, try some people, if you have always wanted to try a certain shot, or light set up, get out and do it! If you feel like you rely on your screen to much, try shooting a whole day with it off, see what you get, then ask yourself Why you got what you did, then try and improve.

Who knows you may realise you actually like this "old School" way of shooting a bit better the shoot and scoot approach so many have these days!

Till next time, Keep Shooting!

Glen.

Next Week: I go to the zoo, but with a twist,  A Kiev 88 very similar to the one I purchased.

A Kiev 88 Very similar to the one I purcahsed