An Elevator Pitch for the Blog – 31DBBB
- At April 09, 2009
- By Neil Creek
- In Admin
3
I’ve long been a fan of problogger.net and friends with Darren, via my association with the Digital Photography School as a staff writer. So when Darren started a 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge to improve your blog, I decided to hop on board. I’m expecting many of the exercises will be fun and interesting, and make good blog posts, so I’m going to share with you my exercises as part of the challenge. I promise to try and keep the 31DC posts as relevant to photography as possible, but that shouldn’t be hard, as I’m trying to improve my photography blog! Anyone can join the challenge at any time. So if you have a blog on any subject, check out the challenge and join in the fun.
The first task for the challenge is to write an “elevator pitch” for the blog. That is a short description of the blog, what it’s about, who it’s for and where it’s going. I’m interested to see what I actually end up writing, and I thought you might like to know, to perhaps give you a clearer idea of my goals here. So this is what I have come up with:
I love photography, and I love to share what I know so that others can have as much fun with it as I do. This blog chronicles my experience learning about photography, and my efforts to turn a beloved hobby into a career. The emphasis here is a shared community of photographers, learning to become better at their craft together, and revelling in the joy of capturing and creating beauty. Don’t you want to find your inner photographer?
How does that sound? Do you feel that it sums up the blog well? Are there any parts of that which I’m not doing as well as I could be? Do you think I’ve forgotten anything important?
Shooting on Film – Southbank via TLR
- At February 04, 2009
- By Neil Creek
- In Experimental
- 5
I have been inspired by my friend and exceptionally talented photographer Brian Auer, and a growing number of other photographers, to try shooting film. Retro cameras are back in style, and I’ve been keen for a while to experiment with them. I asked Dad if I could borrow his Twin Lens Reflex cameras, which I photographed in another post. I thought that experiencing photography as it used to be – nothing auto, no preview, hand-held exposure meter – might help me learn more about photography.
Unfortunately, it took me a while to get around to shooting, and even longer to get the photos developed, but below you can see my first roll of medium format photography, taken on a short, solo photo walk along Melbourne’s South Bank. Eleven out of twelve photos worked out, not too bad for a first effort.
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The Atrium, inside Crown Casino. Significant dust contamination on this negative and several others. I’m not sure what the source was.
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Also inside the Crown Casino atrium, at exactly the same location as the last shot, but this time looking directly up. I really liked the circular lens flare that serendipitously appeared.
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A large (approx 8-10m) metal sculpture, in front of Eureka tower, currently the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.
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A deliberately slow shutter exposure of a carousel. This was under exposed, but scanning the film at 16bit (greyscale) gave me the latitude to recover the photo in Lightroom.
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This is one of my favourites from the shoot. The geometric structures caught my eye, and I was impressed with the dynamic range in the 16bit greyscale scan.
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A “busker” blows giant soap bubbles with detergent, rope and dowels, and sells the devices. One little boy was fascinated for many minutes.
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I had to squeeze my way to the front row to get the angle I wanted for this shot, but I think it worked. I like how the audience watches on, and the volunteer’s head is cut off. Naomi thinks it would have been better with the face in shot. What do you think?
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The arch of the iconic South Bank footbridge acts as a dynamic element to draw the eye into the composition.
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I liked the symmetry of this starkly geometric, architectural photo of part of the South Bank mall.
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Old and new stand side-by-side. Eureka tower in the background.
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Looking down the covered walkway in front of the famous Flinders Street Station. By this time I was really enjoying myself and was disappointed when I realised that this was the last photo on the roll.
A Stocking Full of Bitsas
- At December 24, 2008
- By Neil Creek
- In Admin
- 4
Time for another “bitsa” post, with some links, a photo from the past and a kick in the teeth.
A Big Thank You
I’d like to say a big thank you to my blogging buddy Brian Auer of Epic Edits and PhotoNetCast. The most recent episode of the excellent photography podcast PhotoNetCast discusses the sexy new Canon 5D MkII (you know, the one that will be my new camera sooner or later ;) ). I listened to this episode for that reason alone, but lo and behold, Brian actually selected my recent post on going photographer full-time as his link of the week! He graciously offered it to his listeners as something they may want to watch as I learn the ins and outs of a career in pro photography. Well I plan to live up to that and you can look forward to some interesting posts – I hope – as I build up my new career.
Have a listen to PhotoNetCast episode 19!
A Plug for Brian
Brian has a fascinating project going on over at his blog, and as usual this one takes a very unique and interesting angle. Rather than taking photos, Brian wants you to make an action or preset to help with the processing of your photos. If you have any Photoshop, Lightroom, or other application shortcuts that you use (Actions in Photoshop, presets in Lightroom), Brian wants you to write about it and submit the link to his project. And the best thing is, there’s over $1000USD worth of prizes to be handed out to ten talented winners. But you’d better hurry, the due date is January 2nd! Read about the project here.
Don’t Forget to Shoot Your Paperclip!
On the topic of projects, don’t forget about our Iron Chef Photographer – Paperclip project! The due date is just TWO DAYS away! So get out the camera, scrounge up a paperclip and get creative. Read the full details here.
Photo from the Archives
This is a photography blog, so this post should still have a photo. So here’s one from the archives.
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This was taken in 2006 on the first evening of our driving trip through Southwestern Western Australia. Our friend Antanas holds the setting sun in his hands, as it disappears behind the clouds in the Pinnacles Desert, near Cervantes.
Yes, I Said Kicked in the Teeth
Finally a short story about a road bump on my way to being a pro photographer. I was very excited to receive an email yesterday from a large Philippine advertising agency, who wanted to use my image of The Night Sky over the Church of the Good Shepherd. The image was to be used in three of the country’s newspapers, with a combined circulation of 300,000, as a double page spread! I was very excited by this prospect, and knew that such a huge scale, prominent use of my photo would command a good price.
I used the very handy Stock Photo Price Calculator to work out what I thought was a reasonable price – I even discounted the image use in the third newspaper, a kind of volume discount. In the end I quoted around $2000USD. I was very excited about this potential sale and I must admit I got a little giddy with the good news.
The reply brought me back to Earth however. A choice quote from the rejection email was: “Getty & Photolibrary … have quoted a much much much lower rate with a similar image.”
It seems that the ad agency were given an extremely restricted budget by their client. Alright, I’ll say it, they were tight. What makes me think this? 1) They found my photo on Flickr, where I suspect they hoped to find a photo from an amateur who would be more thrilled by the idea of being published than being paid. 2) They asked if I could do it cheap because it’s only going to be published “for one day“. All newspapers are only published for one day, and I priced my quote accordingly. 3) They asked if I could do the price cheap because “it’s only going to be used for a christmas greeting“. Excuse me, but what?!
I guess the lesson here is stick to your guns, and don’t get your hopes up until your quote is approved.
Photowalk, Melbourne CBD, January 17th
- At December 09, 2008
- By Neil Creek
- In community
- 10
Photowalking is a recent idea where a bunch of photographers get together at a pre-agreed location, and walk along a common path, all taking photos, and usually ending up at a cafe or gardens or some similar gathering to talk about photography and compare photos. It can be anywhere, urban or parkland, and there’s no cost.
Who wants to do a photowalk meet? I’ve already started promoting the idea among my Manifest buddies, but I’d love to get lots of people involved. If anyone knows friends who love photography and might be interested, invite them along, and send them to this post.
This meet is all about meeting new friends, learning photography, asking each other questions, getting ideas and inspiration and having fun with our cameras.
Where? Starting at Fed Square (We’ll meet near the big screen), working around Southbank and ending up in Fitzroy Gardens – approx 3kms
When? Jan 17th – Sat, 1pm
Who? Who’s up for it? Leave a reply in the comments and I’ll add you to the list. The first few people listed are my Manifest buddies who are already coming along.
Discuss: http://neil.creek.name/forum/index.php?topic=25.0
Update: Melbourne is in for a scorcher this week. If we decide on the day that it’s too hot for an outdoor photowalk, we’ll get on the free city circle tram, and walk the short distance to the Museum and do our walk indoors there. The museum has an entry fee: $6 for adults, free for children, concession card holders and seniors.
neilcreek (organising)
kei24
Patryn
jaken_cosplay
Life’s Blade
Kobayashi Shiki
nakey
UniKoRn
Here’s the route:
Starting in Fed square, under the big screen, we walk North to Flinders St station, West along the front of the station, South underneath the station to the footbridge over the Yarra. From there we turn East along southbank, till we reach St Kilda road. There we cross the Yarra back North, before heading East, past near our starting point, through Birrarung Mar, over the walkway across the railway before turning North to Wellington Pde to enter Fitzroy gardens, finishing at the hothouse. Once at the gardens we can explore the beautiful locations there as a group or break up into small groups and explore in our own time.
The whole route ends up being less than 3kms, and we get to see a wide variety of environments: city street, underground, riverfront, bridges, open parks, inner urban and a botanical style park.
I’m not expecting there to be any trouble from the authorities or any of the photo walkers on this meet, but it’s always wise to be aware of your rights. I highly recommend everyone visit the Street Photographers Rights page at the Arts Law Centre of Australia – http://www.artslaw.com.au/legalinformation/StreetPhotographersRights.asp – and read the page there. You should also download and print out the PDF. I keep my copy in my camera bag. I’ve never needed to use it, but I know I’m prepared to answer any question about my rights.
Stay tuned to this post for updates!
Manifest Studio Shoot – Setup and Lighting
- At November 06, 2008
- By Neil Creek
- In Tutorial
- 9
A few weeks ago, I was at the Melbourne Anime Festival (Manifest) photographing in an on-site studio in a professional capacity. This was the first time I had ever covered an event in this way, and it was a first for Manifest as well, having an officially endorsed photographer shooting for the attendees.
I thought that it might be useful for readers of the blog for me to describe my experience at Manifest, how it worked and what I learned.
First some photos and a description of the setup.
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The gear used in the setup is listed below, including what I paid for it all, in case you’re interested to know what it would cost you to build a similar setup.
- 3x Vivitar 285HV ($90usd ea)
- 1x Canon 580EX (could be substituted by another Viv) ($400usd)
- Large white drop sheet and stand ($100usd)
- 2x diffuser umbrellas (either kind would work) ($30usd ea)
- 4x stands ($30usd ea)
- 1x transmitter and 4x receivers – Cactus radio flash triggers (total about $100usd)
Shipping for all that to Australia would be about another $150usd, so the total price (if you used 4x Vivitars) is about $890usd or so. I’m not even gonna bother converting to AUD cos the dollar is so volatile at the moment.
Here’s a lighting diagram for the setup I used on Saturday. I had the Canon 580EX and a Vivitar 285HV on stands with umbrellas at 45 degrees to the model, left and right. I had a Vivitar on a high stand back left as a kicker (highlight on the hair and side of the face), and with another Vivitar behind the white cotton background to illuminate it.
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And a slightly modified setup I used on the Sunday. I hated how visible the background was in photos from Saturday, so I sacrificed the kicker and put two Vivitars directly on the backdrop, which did a much better job of giving an even white background. Next time I’ll try to get a 5th flash to put back in as a kicker.
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These setup basically flooded the area with light, nice and soft. There wasn’t a big difference between the key and fill lights. I was shooting at about 1/4 power max on mostly AAs, and I went all day, only needing to change batteries on one flash. The recycle time on this was about one second, so it was nice fast shooting.
Here’s an example of a typical photo on Saturday and Sunday.
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The Manifest 2008 galleries, can be seen in total here: http://neil.creek.name/gallery/v/manifest.
Here’s some photos of me at work taken by my friend Colin, who was my sales assistant on the day.
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In a later post I’ll talk more about the business side of the shoot, and how we went about booking the shoots, what we charged, and how we promoted the studio.
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