When you’re on the job, you need to know how to use your tools. This requires some level of education, and practicing on your own time is a part of that education. The last thing any photographer should engage in, is on-the-job-training. Yes, I know experience is valuable. There is a difference between experience and training. Experience helps you apply what you have been taught, to be more efficient in producing the images you had envisioned. I have met a number of “pro” photographers that will only pick up the camera if somebody pays them to do so.

Most proficient photographers know that setting up a practice regiment, keeps you sharp and ready for any situation. This is what I believe separates the pros from the amateurs, not how many wedding gigs you booked this summer.

Photographing birds is fantastic practice. Most of the same rules applies to birds as it does people. You can practice high-speed focusing, tricky exposures, framing and composition, and dealing with the general public. When you pick up your camera, every function should be second nature. The laws of depth of field should be ingrained in your head. You need to know the math of photography backwards and forward. Birds move fast, you need to react accordingly. Learning how to anticipate movement based on the surroundings is a skill that only comes with practice. Most of us rely on auto focus, but that takes practice, just like anything else. Composition is also very important. Seeing that it is unlikely that you are going to get a warbler in your studio, you learn to use the environment to frame your subject. Use the background provided by the world around you to frame your subject .

The best part of photographing birds, they are everywhere. In cities, in the desert, at the beach, on the river. I mean, you can see birds everywhere.  Pay attention to everything you do and apply you learned from those days of shooting birds to your day job.

A great book to check out..
National Geographic Photographing Birds

I look at my walls and see the pictures of my family and places that I have visited are a reminder of life before digital. A shame really. Prints are nice, but I guess they have lost some importance.

Shot on Ilford Delta 400 Pro, Koni-Omega Rapid 100.

I’ve been a camera nut for more years than I care to admit sometimes, but my friends and family have provided me with tens of thousands of images. I do have some hard and fast rules that I follow when photographing people, these rules are only slightly negotiable for different situations. These guidelines have taken me a long time to realize, and sticking to them has served me well.

Always carry a camera with you and use it, but there’s more than just that.

These are not in order of importance. I may also be missing some.

1. The right camera for the job. Always have a camera with you, but have an appropriate camera for the situation. It’s probably not a good idea to bring a big scary dslr to a pub when a small non-threatening camera will do the job perfectly. With that logic, you probably should not use a point-and-shoot to photograph your friends’ wedding.
2. Trust is the key to great friendships. The trust you build with your friends is the best way to get the image you have been looking for. Showing the world embarrassing pictures of somebody is a surefire way to shatter that trust and in some cases destroy a friendship. Don’t post a picture of a friend doing something they shouldn’t be doing for all the world to see. FaceBook and MySpace are filled with images of people violating local laws and ordinances. Don’t be that guy/girl. Non-flattering images of friends is another way to be an unwelcome guest at any gathering. Do you want bad pictures of you floating around? Neither do your friends. If it’s not a good picture, don’t show anybody. I don’t delete anything personally, when I go back over my collection I use those as a reference and nobody else ever sees them.
3. Edit down to a reasonable number of pictures. Editing your images is a very important skill. The advantage of having hundreds of pictures from one event, is that you can choose the best images. Don’t worry about not getting a picture in there. If a friend asks why they didn’t see a picture of themselves, you can just tell them that you didn’t get a good one. (see #2) there are some great tools to make this easy. I prefer Lightroom to organize my images, but there is are some free programs like Picassa that make this task easier.
4. Displaying your pictures is a matter of preference. You can email the pictures and frustrate everybody. Your best bet might to join one of the many online photo-sharing sites. If you are a YahooMail user then there is Flickr, if you are a Gmail user there is Picassa. Another good way to do it is perhaps build your own website, there are so many great tools online to help you get that done if you can’t do the coding yourself. Create a gallery and send everybody a link, instead of a file. Make a print, frame it and give to your friend as a gift.

I know this seems to be an over simplification, but it can be more difficult than you realize. Photography is not just about picking up a camera and taking a picture. There is so much that goes into taking a picture, that everything about it needs be second nature. Photography is equal parts of mathematics and artistic expression.

Happy shooting.

You will need to install Adobe Air.

You can get the download here.

The pictures below were taken a couple of weeks ago and shot on Efke 50 and push processed in D76 at e.i. 100.

I was at the coffee shop this morning and I overheard two guys talking about whatever two guys in a coffee shop talk about, at one point one of the men says, “well my brother-in-law is a professional photographer.” and the response from the other gentleman was perfect, “yeah I know, but he doesn’t have any talent.”

As a photography enthusiast I am subjected to a lot of people telling me that their brother this or their best friend that. I learned early on not to openly critique someones work unless asked to do so. Most of these “pro” photographers are a little sensitive. I look at a mind boggling number of photographs and study what makes them good not so good and just out right bad. I like to think I know a good photo when I see one.

I believe the average American would not know good art if it bit them in the ass. This is not completely their fault though. We lack education, and culturally we see little importance in art and artistic expression. Look at any American public school district and the first programs they cut in hard times are the art and music programs. You know times are tough when they cut a football program in a Texas high school. So it’s no mystery why Americans settle for bad photography, even when they overpay for it.

Wedding photographers are a special case though, I will say there is almost no originality in that field because no bride is willing to take the chance with the most special day of her life. I have heard time and time again, “I want my wedding pictures to be photojournalistic” I will be the first to tell you to stop lying to yourself. Perhaps a photojournalism style, but you’ll still see the photographer pose the wedding party for an hour or so after the ceremony, this is where originality ends. I have seen some stellar wedding photography, but it was not style that made it stellar, but the brilliant execution of the project.  This is where the photographer being a real professional pays off for the client. The photographer shows up early ready to go, they spot the best vantage points and learn who all the players are, and get to work. I am in the opinion that to be a successful wedding photographer you don’t necessarily have to have much talent, but you do need to be a good salesman and have strong communication skills to give the clients what they want. I say this because I know and have met successful wedding photographers with little to no talent for photography and making a good living at it, because the clients usually don’t know the difference between good photography and mediocre photography.

The one thing I really love about commercial photography is that it is a self-regulating industry. All sorts of professionals are involved in a photo shoot. These trained professionals already know the difference between a talented photographer and a hack. Your lack of skills will keep you from making a living. If you want to be successful in this field it strikes me that your career would be best served if you knew what you were doing.

Fine art nature photographers are can be broken down into two schools, OLD and NEW. The oldschool photographers with their 8×10 large format cameras huffin’ it through the woods waiting up all night for the light to be perfect pumping out 20 – 30 images, and the new-school rock-stars with there $5000.00 DSLRs shooting 1000 – 10,000 images manage to get lucky from time to time.

I have always loved photojournalism, and have come to the sad realization that I can’t do it myself. I do take some comfort in knowing that neither can most of photojournalists. (the Daily Camera is my case in point)

I could go on for days criticizing every aspect of modern photography. What this really comes down to, is how consumers define professional, and how photographers define that same word. I believe your work should speak for itself. In sports the difference between pro and amateur is whether you get paid or not, this can’t and should not be the same definition applied to photographers.

The moral of this story is, don’t listen to your Mom. When she tells you how smart and talented you are, she is lying to you. Unless your mom is Margaret Bourke-White you should be listening to what your peers have to say. Learn from your successes and mistakes.

Note the white PVC on the end, with this I could increase magnification by extending the length of the lens barrel. This little do it yourself is fun. Now however I realized I need to purchase a Macro-Focusing Rail Set. It’s about $200 for one, some hopefully by the end of the summer, I will save some coin for that..None of the images below are cropped these are full images from my EOS 40D.

I actually hear this question often. It is a good question, but it can’t be answered that easily. If you spend anytime on photo-related web sites then you will see this question posted everywhere. It is mind boggling how some people believe this is a question that could just be rattled off the top of my head.

My generic response is that I can’t answer their question.

“I love your pictures. What camera to do you have?” For some reason I don’t think a 1974 Koni-Omega 7×6 Rangefinder or a 1950s Rolleiflex 2,8 would work out well for you.

So lets tackle this question with more questions.

1.How serious are you about photography?
If you answer honestly and tell me that you are not serious.
“I want to photograph my kids and send them to my parents.”
“I want a to photograph my friends hanging out to post on Flickr^®”

No need to go any further, get yourself a compact digital camera and you will be perfectly happy.

If you answer, “quality is important to me and I want to make prints”, then we just came to a fork in the road.
The path to the left we have Advanced Point & Shoots and to the right we have DSLRs.

How much control over camera functions do you feel you need? Full control? A DSLR may be the way to go. Reasonable control with a good zoom range? An advanced point and shoot may just fit the bill.

I suggest shopping around for right camera for you. That is a hard thing to figure out. Read everything you can get your hands. A camera that makes sense you is important, because if it doesn’t you will never use it and never get a decent picture from it.

This leads to the next question.

2.What is your photography experience?
This is tricky because people often don’t realise what they don’t know about photography.
Fortunately, for people that tell me that quality is important and answer they have a lot of experience, this question is easier to answer than one might think.

Often times individuals that tell me that they know a lot about photography are not really asking for advice on a camera, they are looking  to see how much I know or to let me how much they think they know, or worse, compare gear. UGH!
This behavior easily thwarted when I ask  if they know how to calculate depth of field.

Truth be known, I love talking about photography with others that are genuinely interested in the art and science of photography. All too often people have a hard time taking advice on how to take better pictures, even when they ask for it. I dislike critiquing photos for friends, I have no problem doing for people I don’t know.

I find that beginners are generally open and just don’t know where to start, because the world of photography is so over saturated with advertisements, fashion and even ego. It is difficult to sift through the bullshit. So what do you do? Read! Read! Read, everything you can get your hands on. Surf the web, talk to as many friends as you can find. Buying the right camera can be difficult if you care about taking nice pictures. First and foremost, don’t buy a camera solely price. An expensive camera is still just a camera and believe it or not that will not make you a better photographer.

If you are a beginner, do this; go to the Boulder Bookstore and make your way to the magazine section. Purchase three magazines, American Photo, Popular Photography and Outdoor Photographer. Don’t be tempted by Darkroom Techniques or PDN, these may be a little overwhelming. This is a great place to start. Read and learn about photography. You will learn that you love to read about this crap. Buy a camera you are comfortable with. Shoot a lot. Read more and try to comprehend and apply what you have learned. Most of all be honest with yourself in regards of editing your images. It’s not about your gear, it’s about your heart. Get a Picasa^® or a Flickr^® and post the good ones, join some photo groups on Picasa^® or a Flickr^® and try to get some feed back. Now it’s okay to buy a DSLR, look how far you’ve come.

Learning how to make good images is a long process, but worth every second you spend on it. Just keep in mind, the only person that needs to be happy with your photography is you.

“If photography were more difficult, there would be more good photography.” ~Ansel Adams (I think)

Online Resourses
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/
http://dpreview.com/
http://gizmodo.com/tag/digital-cameras/
http://www.photowalking.org/
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/
http://www.popphoto.com/