Photographers?

How many people here are aspiring or pro photographers? I know i've done quite a bit, but i'm wondering what the rest of the board does.

Anyone?

 

it was my plan to be one. i went to a photography school in Santa Barbara for a year, heading for a degree in Commercial Advertizing. i decided that i wasnt having fun while shooting.

the whole idea of the pass/fail on how i want to express myself wasnt worth the money. however, i did learn a lot and im glad i did it

 

I am planning on starting up my own photography business this summer, I will be selling prints and doing photo shoots. I recently got paid for the first time from my photography, it was weird getting paid for something that I LOVE to do. I think a career in this line of work would be perfect for me, but I am not sure about how much money is in it.

Here are some of my best pics.
http://givemealook.com/ipw-web/gallery/Lucas-Scarfones-Album

 

Lucas, I know you do. I always see your stuff here and at FCF. You're a talented photographer.

 

I'm an aspiring photographer..... 4 megapixel camera just for playing around. I took 8,453 pictures last year, ~4,000 so far this year Now I just have to figure out how to take good pictures.

 

I like to play around with it. I shoot mostly on an old TLR MF camera and some 35mm.

I really like b&w. Lately I have just been taking pictures of places I find around town.

I only had a few things scanned. Here are some.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/mpmcdonald/7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/mpmcdonald/4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/mpmcdonald/2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/mpmcdonald/3.jpg

 

I've been a pro photographer for 25 years. BS in biology, BA in art. Worked for UGA for 10 before my current position at a teaching hospital. Have a fleet of 35mm Nikons as well as a Nikon D1 & D70. Can print B&W or color oldschool (darkroom w/ a color head or filters). Corel PhotoPaint or Adobe PhotoShop w/ the best for digital.

 

I'm strictly an amateur photographer, but my company provides products to full and part time professional photographers.

I can tell you this, some guys make a ton of money doing it, some make very little. The mom and pop studios, in my experience, are struggling to stay viable in many instances. I see about a 60-70% fall off from 1st to second year in folks who take a run at professional photography on thier own.

The industry that I serve, school and sports photographers primarily, has split into two groups, the very large, shooting 100,000 or more kids a year, and the small, shooting a couple of thousand a year. Both make money, but the guys shooting 100,000 a year are telling other folks how to take the pix, and the small guys are still behind the camera.

Studio photography has been under constant pressure from the Kmart/Sears/Walmart concept of portraiture for 30 years, and still survives, and in some cases thrives.

I know little about commercial photography other than in my limited experience, this is where I see digital is taking off the fastest. Speed and expense still make it prohibitive except for the largest guys, and even then, it's more in the printmaking end than the picture taking end.

If you really want to give this a go, hook up with a local professional studio that serves the market you enjoy. One thing I have learned over the years about professional photographers is they are generally a very generous and helpful bunch with aspiring professionals, and will go out of their way to give a start to a new kid with talent.

Dave M.

 

ditto here....... im a wanna be. i have done landscapes, people, cars, ect. i have had a bunch of muscle casr and did lots with them in various backgrounds and lighting. people are fun, as long as its half naked girls with the cars, guns and guitars i own! i think i am going to get a new Nikkon or Minolta this year.

 

Stictly amature, but the tool box includes about 10 cameras from a Nikon Coolpix 3100 (which sucks) to a Sinar 4x5. All the rest are 35mm.

Waiting for the $ to go back to 135 yen so I can pick up an F5...

 

Amateur and loving it. My websit will be up soon www.tchphotography.com

But here's a couple of pics I've taken lately.

St. George Island

St. George Sunset

 

I am into Event and Aviation photography. It is an exspensive business to be in but it can also be quite rewarding also.

A few things to think about.

1. Make sure you have a strong bond with local labs and shops. While you can save $ by buying mailorder a local shop will bend over backwards to see that you are made happy when you have equipment problems. Also the local labs will have a separate bin for your shop and will put all of your work on a priority basis.

2. Invest in the best equipment you can buy. if you constantly have to upgrade your lenses and bodies all of the time you are losing money.

3. Develop a great relationship with your clients and customers and other photographers. I have managed to get jobs just by helping out other photographers when there are conflicts in schedules Etc. Likewise i will call on other photographesr the help myself out when i am looking at a double book.

Hope this helps you out.

Rob

 

my latest shots... but no, i pretty much suck, i'm just in it for capturing the moment, if they look nice then that's a bonus.

http://www.users.on.net/~ashsimmonds/r5t_deflowering/r5tdeflower.html

whole bunch of pics from that day here: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55920&page=3
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here are a couple of mine
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Just a photographer, no claim to fame. I was photographer in high school yearbook and took to it very well.
I STILL use a Canon AE-1 Program SLR with assorted lenses and bounce flash.

(Excuse my "jimmy" style tag in the corner, I'm not taking those type of cues.)
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I love my old canons. The one I use the most is an early F-1. The AE-1 is a great camera. A friend of mine has one that he still uses all the time.

 

Been Pro for going on 22 years now but i got started VERY young. Now a Photojournalist (was the plan all along as i HATE doing weddings and Events) just one of those things i guess

big pelican box full of goodies but i started out with a Minolta rangefinder 35 then "upgraded" to a K 1000 pentax, have shot and owned
Olympus OM1 OM2 OM3 OM4 OM10
Pentax k 1000, MESuper
Pentax 6x7 and 645
Cannon A-1 AE1 F
and now deeply committed to Nikon D100 and a boat full of lenses with the penny jar aimed at a new D2x (picked up a used F5 and F4 for the little film i use now)
If the grey matter between my ears has not atrophied too far i can do most anything in a darkroom from push to pull processing for BW and E6 and C41
but never really got to the fine detail work my lab guys can do by rote so I would rather them do it so i don't have to.

Little mixed little Mexico mostly car stuff now
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I have an AE-1 as well. With a 28mm, 50mm, and a 100-200mm lens. Great camera.

 

Am I the only one who has a couple of Topcon Super Ds? Bought one off E-Bay with a jammed shutter. Also got a couple of 400MM lenses. Found another at an estate sale with about 6 lenses. Found a nice zoom lense on E-Bay. Too bad I haven't had time to fiddle with any of it. I take all my pictures with a simple 35MM Minolta with a fixed lense.

 

Looks like Long Vue Gardens...

 

It is actually The Healing Garden at the Colombia Street Landing in Covington, LA.

I have only seen pictures of long vue; it is very nice. I hoped to make it to the FFQC event there but didn't get to.

 

Amateur with a 4 megapixel camera but I love taking pictures. I took more than 1500 pictures at the grand prix, though I would say that less than 100 came out good and less than 50 really good (There are some in the racing thread under bahrain gp pics thread). I try to imitate a lot of what I see from the people who take photos at crystal cove, etc. Thankfully Malcom parks his beautiful cars on the street sometimes and that way I have some photo subjects! Some of the members here are truly talented and I can only hope to be as good as them someday.

 

I do wedding photography on the side....I don't advertise, since my primary job had me travelling too much to book thinks on weekends far in advance. But there is a market for what I do, so there are opportunities here. I have used 35mm film and Nikons since I started playing with real cameras. I knew this pro photog in Hawaii who shot model portfolios using a pair of Nikon N-90S cameras....he was raking in so much $$$ he traded in his 348 Spyder for a Diablo. You CAN make lots of money in photography - part of being successful in the trade is talent, and part of it is equipment, IMHO.

Trouble for me is, film is dying out. Labs won't stock good, quality pro film anymore. Many of the 'pros' are going full digital, now that Mamya and Hassy have come out with Digital Medium Format cameras. Digital, pro-grade cameras are still wildly expensive, and digital photo editing software can take years to fully learn and feel comfortable with to crank out professional imagery that people will actually pay you for. I predict that film will be completely obsolete in about two-three years - people will just stop selling/processing the stuff, and film cameras will be collectors items on ebay and nothing more.

I've found that the best way to get better is to have a mentor who can critique your work and offer pointers. Burning lots of film, taking notes of camera settings as you take test/practice shots to see what you're doing right or wrong, and reading books on the subject all will help a lot.

 

in B and w. its now my desktop background !

 

I've always loved cars and recently started to take alot of digital shots. I hope to start a car portrait side business mostly to justify looking at cars. I have found other photographers very helpful and encouraging when you ask the right question. I come from a printing background so digital is my direction.

Here are some sample shots.
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