Travelin' About

Sometimes I forget that I've come a long way as a photographer. I expect that everyone who owns a camera can shoot good photos. A colleague at work today asked me what resolution he should set his camera on.  He was referring to the size of the .jpgs. I told him it all depends what you are doing with the .jpgs. If you intend on having a picture blown up to say a 11" x 14," then you'll want the highest quality you can get. If, however, you just like showing your images off on your computer or posting them on FaceBook and you have no intention of printing them, then make them as small as possible. You'll get lots of pictures on your memory card and there is no need to take up so much space on your hard drive. If you understand this basic concept, a lot of the time you can choose the larger size when attempting a portrait of your grandchild, but then change the setting to a medium or small ,jpg when getting generic photos of the kids playing in the pool. First and ...

In an effort to make money as a photographer, I proposed to colleague Sandy Viola that we shoot portraits and group shots of the dancers at Taps N Toes where my niece's dance. It sounded like it would be an enormous task but probably quite lucrative. I got us the "go ahead" from the owner and took the day off from the full-time job in order to clean lenses, format memory cards,  charge batteries and pack the car up. I was excited to see how Sandy set up her lights and worked with the children. While the experience turned out to be a lot more chaotic than I'd anticipated and much less lucrative given that the dancers had to constantly change costumes and had little to no time for posing for a camera,  I still did gain insight into being a better photographer from working with Sandy. She gets down with the kids and convinces them to act silly and have fun with posing. She likes knowing what to expect from her light. She reminded me not to cut off the feet (a disaster c...

I've always said I'm lucky to be living in the Hudson Valley - we have so many photographic opportunities here. Lots of historic sites, a beautiful river and lots of cool mountains. And FOUR very different seasons that all bring with them new photographic opportunities.  Why, within 10 minutes of my house I can find a castle..... Magnificent mountains..... The Poughkeepsie cityscape... Or just flowers at my own house.  The important thing is to keep shooting, trying different angles and settings and learning from what you've shot.  Happy shooting!