Photography Self-Challenge

Anyone who knows me will probably tell you I’m passionate about photography. Anytime there is an event worth remembering, I’ll probably be found with my camera in hand. I’m often begging people to let me take their picture. Everyday, I peruse tons of blogs to learn new techniques, poses and tips. Yup, I’m obsessed.

While I’ve learned a lot in the short time I’ve done photography, there is still something I’ve yet to do — shoot completely in manual mode. I dabbled with it in my photography class this past year, but hadn’t learned it well enough to be confident with it. I’ve been shooting in shutter- or aperture-priority modes for ages now. I’ve wanted to go manual for quite some time, but never quite found the right opportunity to practice it; I’ve been too afraid to do it one an actual photo shoot. But this past Sunday at our church picnic, I challened myself to shoot completely manual. There was no pressure, so I could play around with it and not worry about not capturing certain shots. And I have to say, I love it! You have so much more control over how your images turn out. Not sure I’ll ever go back now! (All of these images are straight out of the camera; no Photoshopping at all)

Here are some pictures of my hubby Tyler at the picnic this past Sunday. Isn’t he cute?

Tyler

 

Tyler shooting skeet

 

Tyler cooling off by the fan

Here are a couple pictures of Elana that I captured that day, too.

Elana on the trampoline

I love the way the sunlight looks in this one, as well as how the fast shutter speed captured the little grains of sand. The lower the ISO, the better color saturation you get in your pictures (thank you, Me Ra Koh!). The faster your shutter speed, the more it freezes the motion.

Elana in the sandbox

Here’s another one that I like because of the splattering of the egg. I made it a little bigger so you could see the goop…

Yolky mess

You can see more of this fun picnic on my church’s blog.

So what challenge are you really wanting to take on but are too afraid to try? I’d encourage you to get out there and try, try and try again. The worst you could do is fail, but every failure is a learning experience. Which means, really, you actually succeed!

 

Portrait Bonus!

Because I want my clients to be able to have great prints to hang up on their walls after our sessions, I’ve decided to add in a little bonus to my portrait prices…$100 in ordering credit! That means that you get the 2 hours session time, at least 15 images professionally edited, online proofing and ordering, and $100 in products of your choice. How awesome is that?

This would be especially great for seniors and families to take advantage of before school starts up again. Fill out the contact page of my web site and set up a portrait session right away…this deal may not last forever!

And because it’s rare to find a picture of me since I’m always behind the camera, here’s a little picture that David of Cathy+David Photography took of me at a meeting in Indy this past week. Thanks for capturing me when I’m not making one of my many silly/animated faces, David!

Photo by David of Cathy+David Photography

 

Free Photo Shoots!

That’s right — I’m offering FREE photo shoots! These can be family, senior, engagement, fashion, business, baby, pet, maternity or any other kind of picture you can imagine (well, almost anyway)! That’s a $200 value for absolutely nothing but the pure joy of spending some time with yours truly!

I have some pretty fun shoot sites in mind, but if there is a place near and dear to your heart, you are more than welcome to let me know. Once I’m done with the pictures, I’ll send them off to be edited and then upload them to my proofing section where you can order however many pictures you would like!* You can even give friends and family members the password to your online proofing site so they can order prints, too. Couldn’t be simpler! If interested, leave me a comment and I’ll get in contact with you so we can set up the shoot.

I did a photoshoot this weekend for my cousin Rebecca and had an absolute blast. These were “just because” pictures since her mom never likes the quality of school pictures. Rebecca and I had a great time laughing, and we even had our own Talladega Nights moments. We found ourselves saying several times “I don’t know what to do with my hands” and then bursting into laughter. Rebecca will be a senior this year, and I look forward to doing her senior pictures. She’s a natural! (These images are straight out of the camera…no editing whatsoever)

 

 

*NOTE: I am no longer offering free photo shoots. However, you can check out my web site www.nicoleneffphotography.com for my current portrait session price.

 

Book Cover

Remember when I wrote about the book cover I was supposed to do for my Fundamentals of Imaging class? Well, I finally finished it tonight. It was truly a lot of fun, but I’m glad I’m done. (I rhymed!)

Yes, those are Tyler’s hands in those cuffs. He’s such a good sport!

 

I have not fallen off the face of the earth…

…I’ve just been super busy. With work, classes, traveling, and training for the half marathon, I have had little time for anything else.

First, an update on my running. Last week was my best running week in a very long time. I ran three days during the week at five miles apiece, plus a long run of 9 miles on the weekend. Grand total, 24 miles. Not too shabby. And my long run was so great! I did the big loop of 4.3 miles that is near my house twice, and tacked on an extra little loop each time for a total of at least 9 miles, if not more. I only stopped in between big loops at the house to get some water and one other time because a dog started chasing me (it was the first time I was actually close to using my pepper spray). I’m on track this week to do even more…I have done 15 miles already, and I plan on doing another 4.5 on Friday morning, and then my long run of at least 10 sometime this weekend, depending on the weather (it’s supposed to rain on Saturday). This will put me at about 30 miles for the week, which is so great considering the mini is less than a month away. I’ve been really disciplined in the running, even going after my classes at Ivy Tech get over with if it’s not too late. This race is a biggie, with 35,000 people entered, so I want to make it my best run ever. I’m feeling very confident and strong right now, so I’m praying for good health and no injuries between now and then. The only thing I’m down about is that I seem to be gaining weight instead of losing it. I know I like to eat, but good grief, I don’t think I eat THAT much.

I didn’t do my long run until Sunday this past weekend because we were visiting our new niece, Elizabeth. I wanted to go up to Indy to get some pictures of her while she is young, so we made the trip up on Friday night and came home late Sunday morning. I had a great time taking pictures of Elizabeth. She’s such a cutie! But because she sleeps a lot, I wasn’t able to get all the pictures I wanted. I still got some good ones, though, and Tyler and I are going to Ivy Tech tomorrow so I can do some editing on them. I want to get a book made of all the images I’ve taken, and since I don’t have a computer with Photoshop on it, I have to use the computers at the school. I don’t know my way around Photoshop all that well, so hopefully they will turn out okay. I had such a great weekend with Kyla (Tyler’s sister) and Adam. I really felt like I got to know them a lot better and bond with them. They’ve not lived locally since Tyler and I have been married, so I usually only get to see them during their short stays when they visit the family.

Photography is going well. I think I’ve decided to go with Appointed Design in Lafayette to edit my images. Since I won’t have Photoshop for quite a while, I’ll have to outsource the editing. I had been looking into some of the bigger companies, but really wanted someone more local that I could really count on to listen to my ideas and taylor how they edit pictures to my taste. I contacted Pictoral twice, but have yet to hear back from them. So if that is any indication of the kind of service I will get, I’ll gladly go with a smaller, local business like Appointed Design. I’ve been in contact with the owner through email, and I feel completely confident that she will do a great job. I will be building my portfolio over the next few months by taking pictures of some family and friends who have expressed some interest in it and then working on actually getting paying gigs as I go. I’m so excited about this. And I’m quickly learning how my camera works, so I feel much more confident about going out and doing some photo shoots. I plan on buying some filters for my camera in the next couple of weeks. I want a UV filter and definitely a polarizing filter, but I’m not sure what brand to go with. I also need a camera bag…I’ve been worried constantly that I’m going to break my camera without one.

The other good news is that I won $500 this week on the radio. I’m now in the running for the $100,000 grand prize, which would be pretty sweet. We would pay off our house and then work on saving money for a while. Eventually, we’d like to build, but we want to save so once we do build, we won’t have a huge monthly payment. I’m not holding my breath for the grand prize, but there are only three of us so far who have qualified, so it might not be too bad of odds.

So there you have it…my life in the past week and a half. I’m exhausted just writing about it.

 

Mini Portfolio

Tonight in my Basic Photography class, we were given our final assignment of the mini portfolio. We have to turn in 10 images in black and white. The images should be 8×10 and also have to be matted. 

I’m super excited about it because it means I just get to go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. But the deal is, we have to have a theme. Some people are doing nature, some architecture, one her kids, etc. But I want mine to be unique and something I would want to hang on my walls after I’m done with the assignment. Does anyone have any ideas? I’m open to just about anything.

 

What If?

A couple of days ago, I was completely sure that I would be purchasing my camera as well as a 4G card and 50 mm lens to go with it. Since then, I’ve put it off. One, because Tyler and I had a misunderstanding about other items I’d need (editing equipment and software) but mainly because I’m feeling incredible guilt over making a purchase this large. You would think that being married and having two incomes would mean that we have indisposable amounts of money to spend, but that’s just not so. Tyler also needs to go back to school soon, as well. I don’t want to financially cripple us just to pursue a dream, one that may never go anywhere.

And it’s not just the money, but I’m afraid of failing. What if I make the purchase, completely suck at it, and then the camera sits on a shelf in the house, never to be used again? What if no one wants to hire me because they hate my images? What if I’m not cut out for this? Then every time I walk by the camera, it will be a reminder that I wasn’t good enough to be a photographer, my biggest passion right now. I would love to make a job out of something I love doing, but then when I see how our economy is declining, would it really be a smart idea to ever leave behind a secure job to go out on my own? I know that would be waaaay down the road, but it’s still something I think about. OK, really I daydream about it.

I guess I’m needing some advice from others who have gone into business for themselves. What were the risk/benefits, what made you decide to go for it? What advice do you wish you’d have been given when you were just starting out?

 

Shutter speed assignment

I just got done shooting some pictures for my Basics of Photography class. Our assignment is to use shutter speed to learn the motion-blur, panning, and stop-motion techniques. While I’m not sure these are the photos I’ll use, it was fun to see what I could do. All of these were shot in shutter priority mode on a Canon Rebel xt at Ivy Tech.

f/14, Shutter Speed 1/30 – Panning to create background blur, but keeping object in focus (my favorite)

f/13, Shutter Speed 1/30 – Creating blur of the subject to show motion

f/3.5, Shutter Speed 1/1000 – Stopping the motion

 

Becoming a Photographer: Goals

As I’ve been reading, I’ve realized that having a plan for your business (or in my case, lack thereof) is very important. So to keep myself accountable, I’ve decided to outline some things I’d like to accomplish as a photographer in the upcoming year:

1) Take and complete photography classes. I’m on my way, having gotten my first Fundamentals of Imaging and Basic Photography classes under my belt. I’m very excited about my BP class; it seems like I’ll learn a lot of really important things in the class. I’m more nervous about the FOI class; it deals mainly with Photoshop, in which I have no experience. But nonetheless, it’s a very important class for me to take.

2) Buy my first professional D-SLR. I’m pretty sure that it will be the Canon 40D, based upon some reviews and advice from my mentor Anne Ruthmann. Although the Rebel xti is more in my price range, I think it would be a better business decision to get a camera that is actually in the professional category.

3) Shoot my first wedding. Once again, I look to Anne to help me out on this one. I’m set to second-shoot with her on May 10 at a wedding in Indianapolis. I may do a second one with her if time allows, but this is a huge opportunity for me. I get to learn from Anne and see how a real wedding goes from a photographer’s perspective, but she is the one who has the most responsibility. This will take a lot of stress (hopefully) off of my shoulders when I do finally take on a wedding on my own.

4) Build a portfolio. I have some people who have expressed a desire to be photographed, so for my assignments in my classes, I will likely look to them as my subjects. I also am doing a maternity shoot for my sister in law, who is due in April. I want to get a variety of experiences under my belt so I can learn to be creative and comfortable in any shooting situation. My focus will be people, but I also definitely want to dabble in pets. I absolutely love my dog and love taking photos of her, and I’ve also noticed that this area does not have ANY pet photographers.

5) Build the foundation for my business. This means coming up with a logo, web site/blog, budget, and deciding how much I will charge. I know this will mean I have to manage my time really well since I will still have a full-time job during the early stages of the business. I also need to learn about the process of editing the photos and how to get people to buy products from me. This is the most important part, and likely the part I know the least about. But thankfully, Tyler is a great businessman and Anne is going to allow me to pick her brain over some really great Indian food in Terre Haute in a week; I want to soak in everything she has to say!

6) Book my first client. This is a long shot in my mind, but I suppose completely doable. I have to have faith and confidence in myself that I can do this. I want to be someone that clients can not only rely on as a photographer, but also as a friend. Relationships are SO important, and it all has to start somewhere!

I may add to the list once I think about it some more. But for right now, these are the most important that come to mind. Anyone else have suggestions for an apsiring photographer?

 

Next step to becoming a photographer…

So I’m almost positive I’m taking a photography class at Ivy Tech during the Spring 2008 semester. I’m pretty excited about it. It will be the Basic Photography class since that is the prerequisite for all the others. Tyler’s being such a trooper by not taking classes if I take this one (for two reasons: he loves me and also because he hates classes).

I’m also going to speak with Elizabeth Pugliese over coffee sometime soon. She and her husband do wedding photography in addition to working at the Courier & Press, where I’m currently a freelance writer and photographer. I was very happy and surprised at how willing she was to meet with me and discuss what she does. Of course, I guess when you love what you do, it would be hard to contain that excitement. 

There’s a lot of uncertainties for me before taking this class: 

1) I’m not sure what camera to buy, if any, before I take the class.

2) Do I need to get an associates in photography, or should I just take a few classes and then work on building my portfolio?

3) Should I completely forego the classes and just learn on my own? Some say experience is the best teacher.

4) What brand of camera would be best? What should I get as a beginner? I don’t want to have to upgrade right after I learn what I’m doing.

I’m really looking forward to finding out more. I borrowed a church member’s camera over Thanksgiving and I realized I have a LOT to learn. Some of the pictures were pretty good, some not so much. I guess you have to start somewhere, though.

For you photographers out there, I’d really appreciate some advice!