Weddings, road trips, and more testimonials

Well, it has been a very busy summer. Been dividing my time between photography projects, weddings, rock climbing & travel, web development, and our urban homestead [which we like to call "InStead"].

It is time, however, to focus on the business, and as such I have gotten myself a mentor. Ethan Jewett, a good friend and wonderful talent has agreed to take me under his wing. This will definitely keep me busy for a while. I think I'm already booked solid for the week! I'm very excited and grateful for the tutelage.

My own website is woefully overdue for an overhaul, but in the meantime, I have updated the testimonials page to include some more recent raves, and have uploaded a few more pics to my Flickr page.

PhotoShelter Collection Widget

I thought I would throw out a bit of eye candy today in the way of slideshow of my images that are part of the PhotoShelter Collection. As posted previously, PhotoShelter is looking to shake up the world of stock photography by putting more control, and more money back into the hands of the photographers. Can't find fault with that! Now if only some national magazine with deep pockets would actually buy something... enjoy!

*hint: if you want more info on the photo, rolling your cursor over the image will bring up part of the caption. You can also click on the image to get more details, though you may have to enable pop-up windows.

Algonquin Long Table Party

My very good friends Albert & Maureen host a grand dinner party a couple times a year, each with an inspired theme. My favorite part, aside from seeing great friends and meeting new people is definitely the "party piece" performed by each guest. It can be a song, poem, reading, or some other talent that is shared with the group. While this may sound terrifying, even the shy folks put on an inspired performance. I took along my camera for the most recent party, which had a theme based on the Algonquin Round Table of Dorothy Parker fame. You can view the gallery on my PhotoShelter Archive.

Green web hosting?

Well, in my effort to think up new ways to make my business effort greener, it occurred to me today to look into finding a green web host. Much to my delight there were several to choose from, each offering various incentives like free software, access to sustainable marketing guides/libraries, planting trees for new customers, multiple/unlimited domains, etc. My favorite after reading through all the options is ThinkHost and I will now be referring anyone who asks to them. I will likewise be moving my own sites to ThinkHost as they come up for renewal. And better still, I can put them all on the same hosting account. Yay!

Perito Moreno Glacier

A massive chunk of ice calves from the face of the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia. One of the few advancing glaciers in the world, the Perito Moreno creeps forward at a pace of around 2-3 meters per day.

Tis the season...

There's a lot of truth in this comic for most independent photographers...  I know I didn't fully anticipate how expensive this would get.  I suppose when it was just my "hobby", I didn't have the need to keep track of how much money I spent on equipment, software, computers, etc.  But now it's a requirement.  I only have one word: ouch.  So now I need to really focus on building a business, getting work more consistently, and yes, marketing myself.  

I'm not 100% sure what the best approach is, so I'm throwing all kinds of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.  I think the first thing I need to do is find a mentor or two, second is do a LOT more networking.  And I need to revamp my website to start driving more traffic this way.

Shooting tethered with Aperture 2.0

Today I decided to play with Aperture 2.0's ability to shoot tethered. Not really wanting to take photos of myself or my less than tidy office, I called in my dog Ellis to sit for me while I fired off a few frames. She patiently sat, lied down, looked pensive, etc. while I fussed with lenses, angles, etc. Sunday will mark our 9th year together, so I offer this post in her honor.

Nikon D300, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
ƒ/4.5 | 1/40 | ISO 280

As for the software, shooting tethered worked fine--set up was very simple and intuitive. Just launch Aperture 2, plug a USB cable into the camera and computer, turn the camera on and under the "File" menu, select "Tether>Start Session". You are now ready to shoot tethered.

The transfer rates while shooting seemed a little slow, but I imagine that's to be expected given the file size [shooting RAW 14-bit]. I was very disappointed, however, when I ended the tethered session and had Aperture crash on me. No data was lost, but if I were shooting a client session and that happened, I would have had a canary. Not sure yet if this is a repeatable issue nor have I checked the forums for other reports. Luckily, the shots are also captured on the camera's CF card, so there's always a back up. Like anything new - be it equipment, software, or new techniques, always try it out first on your own time.