My Online Photography

Before you rush into buying your digital camera this holiday season make sure your properly informed. Many consumers during the holiday season rush into purchasing electronic equipment in a mad panic to get that high end gift for their loved one or spouse.

Once in while I receive e-mails or phone calls from aspiring or beginner wedding photographers asking me for advise on how to become successful in the wedding field. My first question is always what their motivation is to become a wedding photographer. Some will reply that they heard from somebody that it is easy money, or that they got a cool camera that takes great photos or that they would like to make some money on the side etc. While it is true that wedding photography can be a very profitable business achieving success in the wedding industry is not just a matter of getting a camera and start shooting. Wedding photography involves artistic talent, human sense, complete mastery of photographic techniques, business knowledge, and a strong desire to learn and deliver the best to the wedding couple.

Take a photograph that is set up perfectly, composition, lighting, scale, its all right. You take the shot and feel pleased with the outcome, but how much personal emotion went into the shot?

This is a question you should ask yourself every time you press the shutter down. For human emotion is a powerful tool to equip your images with. It avoids images taken without reason or understanding. It evokes feelings and emotions within the viewer of the photograph, and it gives the image a much greater level of meaning.

A career in photography can be educational, rewarding and lots of fun! But where do you start? How do you get your first photography job? Do you work for an advertising company, newspaper, or modeling agency? Maybe if you are a photography major. So where does that leave the rest of us.

Depending upon your level of motivation and commitment, you can be a successful freelance photographer lining up your own work, but that’s another story OR you can find an employer to take you on and train you. Yep-sure, where are you going to find that?

As a newspaper photographer I’ve taken quite a few `snatch shots’, which are photographs of someone that were taken without the person in the picture being aware of it.

Actually there are two kinds of snatch shots, long range and close range. Long range shots are usually but not always taken with a zoom lens, usually from several hundred yards away. Close range snatch shots are best taken with a medium wide angle lens and they are taken from just a few yards away.

How many times have you come across people with expensive bits equipment but a poor or cheap bag to carry it all in? There can be no justification in spending lots of hard-earned cash on the latest gadgets only to put them at risk when storing or transporting them all.

It is true that a variety of bags, holdalls and rucksacks are freely available and cheap. But do they do the job and are they sufficient for your needs? You need to consider getting one that is specially made for the task.

Picture the scene: a beautiful summer’s day. In front of you is a field awash with greens and yellows and oranges and a wonderful blue sky. And there are sheep in the fields, grazing contentedly.

Or a beach scene, with boats floating serenely on the water, waves gently lapping their hulls as the sun shines down its splendour.

Patience is a virtue. It always has been and always will. In photography terms, it is vital.

We are so used to things happening rapidly in photography that we can sometimes feel overwhelmed and ever ready for the sudden shot or opportunity. Candids, objects going at breakneck speed and the general rush of life all make us believe that getting the correct shot “as soon as possible” is the only way to capture a great image.