Speedexposure turning into JoeDantone.com
Hi all, well…I haven;t posted here in a very long time due to the fact that I’ve been focused on starting a more professional site. From now on there will be no more posting here on www.speedexposure.com and as of March 2012 it will not be renewed. All traffic should probably go to my new website www.joedantone.com here you can still find links to my work on FLICKR and also a new BLOG section as well. Let me know what you all think. I hope you will all still follow my work and be a part of my new website. Send me some feedback on any feedback you have about www.joedantone.com again thank you all for the support!!
500PX: The new craze
A new photo sharing website has been launched called 500PX a few months ago. Just recently it has started spreading like wild-fire. This site is just in its beginning stages, as many will notice it has HUGE potential. It is much along the lines of a website some of you may be familiar with called Flickr. There are a few new things to this website that Flickr doesn’t have…yet. As time rolls I’m sure we will be seeing large changes in both websites, as of now Flickr has some competition.
First off looking at both websites 500px has a lot cleaner look to it and is a much nicer place to display your work. Flickr is still very jumbled together. The other great thing about 500PX is that it’s almost setup like a Facebook profile. You can make an avatar and you have a few sections to your “profile” page. When you sign up for 500px you have a lot of fantastic options that Flickr does not offer. When you first open a profile page on 500PX you are brought to a very clean-looking page with a few tabs to choose from. First you have the photo section which is what is displayed when you first open the page. It displays all of the photos that have been uploaded by that one person. In each persons profile you have a tab called Blog. Here the photographer has their own blog space to write-up anything they want. I thought this idea was great because it lets you know a little bit about each one of those people. Moving along we have a few sections that Flickr members have as well. You have your Favorite tab your Friends tab and also an Activity tab. These all being self explanatory lets move to the last tab. This tab is called Wall. Do I need to explain? Ok fine…picture your Facebook wall…need I say more?
Aside from all the different sections of 500PX there a quite a few more features that this site presents that are pretty interesting. When opening someones page and you click on a picture you are presented with a few options. Next to each picture title you are able to click on a heart shape. This will allow you to add the picture as a favorite. The cool part about this site that Flickr does not have is photo ratings. You have a choice to either click the “like” button or a “dislike” button. This will give the picture a rating, this also boosts your “affection” under your avatar, the more “affection” you have shows how many people have voted on your pictures.
With all this craziness you must be asking yourself about social media link buttons. Well first off each person has an RSS feed to their page. each page has a section at the bottom where you can Facebook “like” the page. This is also a feature on every picture as well as Twitter Tumblr and Stumbleupon. So you have a lot of major ways to distribute your work straight from your pictures on 500px. Also you can share other people’s work as well.
In my opinion the one single greatest thing about 500px is this, you can create a separate portfolio webpage! They have an assortment of different themes you can choose from. Here you can create your own portfolio and how it is displayed. Not to mention the fact that you can also sell your images off of this site : )
Overall I think if you give 500PX a bit more time it will be every photographers “one stop shop”. Each website serves their own purpose and not many websites are great at everything they do, but they have 1 or 2 things that they do very well. So far 500PX has shown us all that it has the potential to do everything well. As for right now it is missing quite a few things that I know I love about Flickr. I think a lot of photographers will agree that we love the “groups” and the “chat” areas in all the groups. Also the integration with a printing website. I personally love MPIX but Flickr uses Snapfish. While I havent made prints through Flickr I think it’s a great idea to integrate that into the website.
My final thoughts
I love Flickr, I love 500PX. I think we can all agree that 500PX is FILLED with AMAZING photographers it is definitely a place to show off “your best”. Pictures that I see on 500PX I am forced to pick my jaw up off of the floor. I’ve been noticing a lot of photographers moving off of Flickr and signing up with 500PX. I can honestly say that will not be the route I choose because there is something very “warm” about Flickr that I like, and yet 500PX still feels very “cold” to me. This will possibly change soon. Lets see where both of these sites go in the next few months.
For now why don’t you guys check my work out.
Drop me some of your thoughts, I’m interested in what everyone else thinks.
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Formula Drift 2011 Wall, NJ
So I’ve been to quite a few drifting events including Formula Drift at Wall Township in NJ 2 times before this event. I do have to say if you aren’t familiar with drifting it’s incredibly exhilarating, you MUST get out to a drift event as soon as you can! I’ve shot a few drift events before. One of them being East Coast Bash, also known as ECB. This year was the first time I was able to get a media pass and shoot on the track, where all the action is happening. I was so happy, big thank you to Leo at www.stateofstance.com for getting me the media pass. So I got to the track at 8am. Keep in mind, the doors didn’t open to vendors or media till 10. I was a little antsy standing around! After being the 3rd car in the parking lot I saw a few friends of mine, as well as the www.canibeat.com crew. After getting into the gates, I started shooting a lot of the cars in the pits till about 11:30 when the media meeting was to start.
After the 15 minute briefing about not running in front of moving vehicles and making sure you don’t run onto the track while its hot. Were pretty much kicked to the track, the moment we all were waiting for. At around 12:00 practice started, it was amazing seeing these cars up close and personal and being so close to the action. When I say close I mean close. At one point this Viper spun out and came within 5ft. of where I was shooting.
Did I move? Nope. I have the photo sequence to prove! (will post at a later date)
After Practice rounds came the top 31. Following came all the finalists. At this point we were told by track officials we are able to run onto the track when the cars are lined up to get some shots of the drivers with their sponsor “models”.
At this point all I saw was a swarm of orange media vests running to the center of the track. I found my spot and started shooting. At this point we had about 3-4 minutes and then hurry and run back to your bunker, kind of like I was in a paintball tournament, except I was running with $5,000 in equipment in my hand.
Well the finals round came around and that’s where the magic happened, everyone went all out! I have never seen a track eat up so many cars at one event!
Well the event came to an end. I do have to say that it was an amazing experience to see this action first hand. To view more from the event scope out the gallery and also go HERE for all the high-resolution pictures!
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Amber Senior Portraits
This past weekend Amber, her mom Lisa, and myself went to Princeton, NJ to set out for some casual senior portraits. The shoot was a blast! Amber and her mom were originally from California and moved here about a year ago. Being in Princeton was great because it gave them a chance to explore the little “nooks” and “crannies” about the beautiful town. The shoot took place in quite a few locations in Princeton one being the massive University. Overall it was a great experience working with Amber, there was absolutely no shyness towards the camera and her posing and personality came so natural.
Here are a few pictures from the shoot. To see most of the shoot click HERE
One FAST 1946 Pick-up
This past Sunday I shot my friend Nicks 1946 Chevy Pick-up. This thing is so mean!!! It looks so innocent but packs a huge punch! This truck is packed with a big block Chevy 540 Block and a very rare EXPENSIVE set of Valley head service- thunder power 32 valve heads. This truck is fully customized out of his very own shop with his dad. no words can describe the time, patience, and sweat put into this car. To make life easier he has provided me a list of modifications and specs, hold onto your chair.
To reach Nick or Nick Sr. at Nicks Customs for any work please email them at nweber540@aol.com
To see more pics from the shoot please go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/guitarplaya7/sets/72157626786104679/
Now for some pics!
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Listed Top 50 Philly Blogs
So recently I’ve been noticing quite a bit of traffic coming from a website called http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com I didn’t think to much of it up until recently. I looked into why there was traffic coming from here. To my surprise I saw that my photoblog, yes this one speedexposure, has been listed on a Top 50 chart for Philadelphia blogs. This website, Guide to Online Schools, is a website that offers information about college reviews, ratings, and online degree programs. They also offer information for different online resources for inspiration, local news and events, and helpful ideas. All of these resources were compiled into large “Top” blog lists, one of which was Top 50 Philadelphia Blogs. So stop by and check it out!
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EXPOSE YOURSELF SWEATSHIRT from Zazzle.com
EXPOSE YOURSELF SWEATSHIRT from Zazzle.com A hoodie designed for my blog. T shirts coming soon!! Tell me what you think.
Scenery at the Philadelphia Auto Show
Every year I set out to go to the “wonderful” Philadelphia Auto Show. I like going because I usually take quite a few pictures and being that I am an automotive technician, I like seeing what other companies are putting on the road these days. It seems as if every year the show gets more and more crammed. Not just with cars, games and demo’s, but ignorance as well.
So my day began, got up early and headed to the car show. I had to utilize the oh so wonderful parking garage right next to the Philadelphia Convention Center. My “wonderful” annual car show experience started here. As you all know I own a 2006 STI. It’s loud and obnoxious. Recently i had the motor fully built from crank up to the valves. I was coming up the last level and a kid no older than 18-19 years old stands at the back of this rusted pickup truck with his father about to walk down the ramp. Well the son laughed at my car and says “look at that piece of…”, well you know the rest. This day started out great.
Well I was in line waiting to pay for my ticket, just like respectful do…right? Wrong. I had about 5 people cut me in line. Saying something to these people didn’t matter, they are so zoned in on getting their Toyo Tire posters and being first one to sit in and destroy the interior of the new Subaru Sti. Nothing was going to stop them!
Long story short now that I’ve dragged this post out longer than I intended too, I stayed at the show for 35 minutes. I didn’t take 1 picture, at the show at least.
After leaving the show I couldn’t just leave Philadelphia, especially after getting a huge snow storm. So i set out to find a nice quiet place to shoot. I started my way up Kelly Drive to Fairmount Park. Perfect spot. I parked at the closest parking lot and jumped out with my wide-angle and Circular Polarizer and had a field day! Let me know what you think!
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Abandoned Jersey Shore
Well if you’ve stumbled upon this blog post I should tell you now, this has nothing to do with the MTV reality show, The Jersey Shore (TV series). It has everything to do about the Asbury Park beach which IS considered a Jersey Shore. Well two weeks ago and friend and myself decided to pick up the good ‘ol cameras and to go shoot somewhere different that we really have never explored. I mean, we’ve both been to the beach, but never during the winter. So off on our journey to Asbury Park to see a beach town that “could’ve been…”. I had very high expectations for a good day with there being snow on the ground and having it be really sunny out. Overall my experience there was nothing shy of freezing. Who knew it would’ve been that much windier down on the shore! I liked this trip because i started noticing mixed emotions with the setting and season. It was winter and my body, finger tips, and face felt that. Aside from snow being on the ground causing a cool effect, my eyes saw that it could be summer as well, with seagulls, sand, roaring waves, and most of all the bright sun. I’ve only processed a couple of pictures from this trip so far so here is a few for the blog! Let me know what you feel when you see these.
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The mummers hit the streets of Philadelphia
So as you all know yesterday we turned another year. It’s 2011 people, which means start of a fresh and exciting new year. There are people who have traditions and certain “tools” that they use to make the first day of the year a relaxing and great time. If you are anywhere near Philadelphia on New Years day, and can wake up early enough,you’ll only need a few simple tools to make your day exciting. One, you will need a warm cup of hot chocolate or a fresh beverage of choice, as long as it’s in a solo cup. Two, bring a collapsible chair and plant it somewhere on Broad Street. Sit in that seat and let the Mummers handle the rest.
This year after having a crazy new years eve, I set out with my fiance and a few friends to catch the Mummers Day Parade. It was amazing, all the work that goes into the production of this parade is incredible. Here’s a few pictures from the parade, the outfits were terrific as usual! To view more pics from the Mummers Day Parade from this year and last year please view my Philly photo set here.
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Photographers not getting credit or recognition?
This weekend I got really riled up over a series of commercials. These commercials were from Panasonic, and they were based on their new series of Lumix cameras. The message being portrayed in each of these commercials is the “you don’t have to be a great photographer to take great pictures“. Heres the first video.
As you all know I made a post about this in August, to view click HERE. Through reading that post you should understand how much these commercials piss me off. Not only me, but they should aggravate the world of photographers as well! We are no longer going to be able to get credit for taking great pictures. Now the public is starting to think more and more that it’s the camera that’s taking those great pictures. Here’s the second commercial, as much as I’d hate to give Panasonic the free advertisement, this has to be seen.
To be honest I’ve been going through a lot of these Panasonic commercials on YouTube. While the may be funny commercials they are actually going against Dslr‘s with their point and shoots…doesn’t Panasonic make a Dslr? This confuses me as well because its like they are going against a form of product that they make. Here’s a short YouTube video that I made with the XtraNormal software.
Well I understand companies trying to catch every new angle to market their own product in a way no other company has. I do believe this was taking it too far. I feel it takes the credit away from the Photographer. Now that this craze has taken over, the market is flooded with photographers that think shooting in Auto modes are enough to get by. One thing Panasonic won’t be able to offer in “auto mode” is our eye.
The difference between a great photo and a work of art is the ability to see in a way other’s don’t. That is something technology will never be able to take away from us.
Anyone who has ever used a camera that reads this blog please leave a comment. This is definitely open for discussion! I want to know from you photographers as well, am I the only one getting angry about this?!
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New WESBITE!!!!
Well this is what I’ve been waiting for so long for. www.joedantone.com Finally I have my own website for my photography. This entire website was put together by a friend of mine named Tony Aprile. When designing this website I had idea in my head as to what I wanted it to look like and do. He was great, he offered up so much great advise and pointers as to how to make this site clean and user-friendly. On top of making this complete site within a days time and offering up great ideas to create it, he was extremely devoted to making this site proper.
Aside from this all being put together so well I could not find a better price than his, not only to create but also to host this site. If anyone would like a website designed by him please contact Tony Aprile at http://www.graythought.com/ make sure you request Tony you can also reach him personally at tonyaprile@gmail.com
Click the blog link at the top of the page and leave me some feedback! Let me know what you think! Remember its not just a site that will not change, with every shoot I will update the blog section. So save www.joedantone.com to your favorites!!
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YouTube Video’s?!?!
Yes, that’s right, I made 2 YouTube slide show video’s. I will say, it’s quite fun but the purpose of me doing this is kind of like having a “Set” in Flickr. I’m making these videos to group different events and or genres of images from my portfolio. For all you photographers reading this I’ll clue you in. I’ve been reading more and more about photography promotion and different ways to market your work. I’ve repeatedly stumbled across the idea of making YouTube slide shows, or even behind the scenes movies. After hearing this I began a search on YouTube, to my surprise I was a little late on this idea. Apparently every photographer and they’re mother read these articles years before I did!
So, that’s what I did. I made YouTube Slideshows…heres 2 and I hope you enjoy them! The image quality sucks on them, I have to figure out why…any ideas drop a comment!
Bloglovin’
A few friends told me about this awesome site to keep updated on all the blogs you may follow check it out! www.bloglovin.com
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Quality over quanity…FCF!
This past Saturday marked the day Canibeat auto blog put east coast fitment on the map. They hosted an event at Princeton Airport called “First Class Fitment”. The whole purpose: Quality over Quantity, end of story. This show was the perfect example of the meaning behind that phrase.
For those of you in the tuning world, know that for years the west coast tuners have always been “one upping” east coast. They always bring something new to the table. Those of you not into “the game” it’s like Biggie and Tu-Pac, well minus the guns, and all the rivalry. This is more of a setting the mark higher and raising the bar type of thing. Not really a competition or rivalry but more of a bringing something more radical to the game.
Some background, a couple of months back Dave Tormey of Canibeat brought up a great idea. He mentioned having a meet of all the sickest cars in the surrounding area. Well this was talked about over Facebook and there was pretty much no backing out after opening that can of worms.
It started with a pre registration online. This show’s purpose was to showcase 75 quality cars from up and down the coast. From what I know a few hundred cars registered this event and then they were sorted out. Knowing that sorting was done by the guys at Canibeat I’m pretty positive everybody knew the selection of cars was proper and the spectators would not be let down.
Now we are fast-forwarding a couple of months ahead. Announcements were made and emails sent, who was selected to show. During this time a teaser pic was posted of the trophies. Friends from CCW sent these wheel faces. Then they were mounted on wooden stands. The categories were Best JDM, Best VIP, Best Euro, Best Fitment, and finally Best in Show.
Also we were informed that at this show will be a DJ, raffles, an artist, food, and free give-aways! So…ummm…what more could you ask for at a car show?
Well, the day arrives and we pull in to the show area. Wait…that wasn’t the show area…that was the spectator parking. Well we passed the spectator parking and wrapped around to the airplane hangers. We turned the corner and to my amazement cars were being directed every which way. It was a car “lowasis”. People were cleaning their rides and assembling tents and setting up their spots, all with small private airplanes taking off on a runway 150 yards from the entertainment! Amazing setting!
Within no time, the music fired up and so did the grills! There was so much activity going on. There was not one dull moment. After walking around outside the hangers it was time to go into the main hanger and check out even more cars. I can start naming all the people at this show but i would have a laundry list to type. I will say that i did enjoy shooting Miro’s slammed Honda S2000. It was sitting so pretty.
Through-out this show it was great to see the scene on the rise and just the culture of people who it attracts. One thing I loved was all of the people getting involved with exposure of media. There were people with cameras everywhere. There were people with small pocket video cameras, point and shoots, disposable, HD video cameras, camera phones, everywhere you turn there was a flash or the sound of a shutter.
Overall this event kicked ass. Best event I’ve been to all year. I give a big thanks to Canibeat for making this show happen. It was executed perfectly and I know that people are already waiting to see what next year will bring. Well here are some more pics from the event. If you’d like to see more photo coverage check my Flickr set here
A New Life, A Wonderful Journey
This past weekend I had an awesome opportunity to be a second shooter and to assist a good friend of mine, Cliff Cooper in my very first wedding! Well where should I start? Being my first time I was extremely nervous, I had no idea what to expect. Things were going through my head like “Is there a point in time where i shouldnt be photographing something?” or how about “what if someone is dancing and doesn’t want their picture taken?” Probably the biggest one of all “what is proper wedding photographer etiquette, and are there people that I should not be taking pictures of together?”. Well considering that it was a first for me I feel the whole day ran through very smoothly.
So the wedding took place in the West Village of Manhattan, at a venue called the Alger House. Marc and Erin were married on October 22nd, 2010. This location and venue was perfect. There were about 80 guests at the wedding. With this venue and the amount of people who attended set up the mood perfectly. It was a very warm and personal atmosphere, which in my opinion suited this couple very well. First the bride was getting ready upstairs on the 3rd floor. Here is where I let Cliff take over and get the shots he needed, but i snapped a couple as well.
After the Bride saw the Groom, it was decided that it would be a perfect time to go outside and really capture the couple in action and really soak up the atmosphere the area had to offer us.
After we shot the couple outside we went back in and got on with the ceremony.
Now as for all of the rest, well, you can only guess. There was 2 “I do’s”, 2 Rings, 2 Huge Smiles, 1 Kiss a couple of tears, a first and last dance, and 5 hours of memories to capture. Here are some.
Overall I had a great experience and just got the tips of my toes wet. I can’t say I have an understanding about how wedding photography works and is coordinated, but I did learn a couple things. Knowing where to be and when, also timing is key. That can be taken two ways. One timing makes those amazing pictures, but also timing so you know where to be positioned for that anticipated kiss, or even the smiles and tears you know will pop out and then quickly hide.
Please visit my friend Cliff Cooper at his website www.cliffcphoto.com and view some of his work from previous events.
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I love her, but I can never shoot her!
Not to get sappy or anything, but I’ve been with my fiance for just about 5 years now. You would think me being a photographer and her being so beautiful that I’d have TONS of pictures of her right? WRONG! She never wants me to shoot her, even when I ask. There’s always some sort of excuse, such as the dreaded pimple. Better yet I love this one, “it’s not nice out…”. No matter how hard I tried, I was never able to get her out to do it.
So this weekend the clouds parted and the heavens shined down! I said to myself, “self, she’s looking out of this world today, just give it another shot, maybe I’ll get a new excuse out of it to add to the list”. This wasnt the case at all, she said YES! It was like there was no thinking about it either. It was great!! So we took off to go to Sayen Gardens in Hamilton, NJ. I actually got nervous because I knew if the pictures didn’t come out right that this opportunity would never happen again. She said she loves the pics, now you the reader be the judge of that. What do you think?!
For more pictures from this shoot please visit HERE
A summer in review…
So I noticed this morning I was shuffling around looking for my hoodie to wear to work. Right then I thought, “I miss you already summer, but I can’t wait for winter” and I got the idea to write this post. This summer was amazing. I met a lot of great people and went to a lot of wild events!
Well here was my summer in review. It pretty much started with a big bang. I attended the New Jersey Motorsports Park to shoot for the Redline Time Attack event. Here is where I was issued my first media pass. It was an amazing experience.
Shortly after this in June Formula Drift event was scheduled at Wall Speedway also in NJ, therefore I was scheduled to be there. Even though I wasn’t able to get a media pass I was able to get some great pictures from the stands.
Due to a lot of my friends being heavily involved in the drifting scene I had attended more events than usual. I will say these guys def know how to have a good time! So I went to ECB (east coast bash) at Englishtown‘s Raceway Park drift course. It was a blast! I got an opportunity to hang on the track with some of the big guys in the drift world like,
Mad Mike Whiddett
Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Chris Forsberg
Ryan Tuerck
Aside from hangin with the big guys I had the chance to sit in on a crazy photo shoot of about 30 cars set up by the Lower Class crew where I took this quick snapshot, just to show you the caliper of cars that we there.
Soon there after my car blew up…I got real pissed, my precious 06 Subaru STI. Ok here’s a pic of that, but enough of this.
To get my mind off my car me and the fiancé decided to spend the weekend at the Shorehouse in North Wildwood. Here is the last picture that came out of my 40D, as it pretty much blew up on me and fried itself, luckily not the card.
Well as if my luck couldn’t get worse from my car blowing its motor my camera had to blow. Well that FORCED me to buy a Canon 5D MKll. Yes, forced me. From here I did some sweet shoots of friends cars.
Matt – RSX-S DC5
Greg – Turbo’d S2000
Justin’s Audi TT
This pretty much wrapped up my summer. So now that I’ve overloaded this post with pictures and you’ve seen SOME of what my summer has been like, how about you? Whats your summer been like? Good I hope. Well for now, peace out summer, it was good seeing you, I’ll be seeing you again next year!
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There is a style, an art, a term…street photography
These past couple of months I’ve been wanting to just take a full day in a city and take my stab at some street photography. Yes I know you may think to yourself “…hey this is a little creepy”. I think to myself, whats so creepy? Oh is it capturing that one frame that you will never see in your life time ever again? Taking pictures of people in their natural beautiful state? Or is it the part about taking a snapshot of a couple walking down the street holding hands? For those of you that like to do what we call “people watch”, and sit at an outdoor restaurant or coffee-house and just look at people go by, I think you’ll understand. Well if that’s the case I do believe that would be about 95% of this worlds population. People watchers just observe and remember that glimpse for a few moments, I capture it, and save it. That’s the difference in people watching and street photography.
I owe all of my street photography inspiration to a certain photographer from Singapore, his name is Danny Santos. Just by viewing one of his pictures you will understand how amazing street photography really can be. Just that one split second, that one frame, can be worth an uncountable amount of words. He perfected this method. After looking at his work I set out to the one city that I love the most, Philadelphia. I went with my friend Cliff Cooper.
My overall experience was great. A little nervous about taking some pictures. Minding what other people would say to me and not understand what or why I was doing it. This is one of the hardest obstacles to overcome. I really only took a few pictures of people. Here’s my favorite, I call it the window shopper. Let me know what you think
I have a lot of pictures from this past weekend, don’t be afraid to scope out my flickr its only a click away! Leave me feedback.
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- This Week in the Digital Photography Photography School Forums (26 Sep – 2 Oct ’10) (digital-photography-school.com)
5 Tips, and then some, on being a better photographer
There are many pointers, tricks, methods, rules, guidelines…etc that many photographers use in order to get that shot they want. Everyone has their own way of going about setting up a shot or trying to make their shot that much different from everyone elses. Now seeing how I mostly shoot scenery and automotive, most of the time objects that I am shooting are stationary. Therefore I am able to access the scene and set-up accordingly. I will tell you right now…I am not the best photographer out there, and I don’t think I have even begun to scratch the surface, but I do try my best to produce that “WOW!” effect in a picture. That being said, the MAIN tip for every photographer out there is have CONFIDENCE in yourself! If you don’t have confidence or a strong head on your shoulders you will get stomped on and walked all over, and believe me, no one wants to hire a limp photographer! On to the tips before I go on a confidence rant!
Tip #1
MOVE YOUR FEET
What makes an amazing capture always starts with a base, I’ll give you a hint, it’s the first step every photographer should take before that shutter clicks. That is framing the picture and composing the shot to give the consumer that “WOW!” effect I had mentioned earlier. You want to create an angle between you and that object that will grab your customer/consumers eye and draw them in. A few things should be going through your mind as you prepare your shot. Look around and check your background, make sure nothing will be or is over powering your subject. For example: I’m shooting a sport bike at a loading dock, right next to this sport bike is a GINORMOUS 18-wheeler. Ummm that in my opinion takes away from noticing the beauty that bike may have. Yes it can be framed to look differently if you MOVE YOUR FEET but certain things in background will take away from you subject. Next! Check your reflections, and your horizon lines. Things like these can be changed or processed in Photoshop, but your goal as a photographer is to create as little work for yourself in processing as possible. If adjusting something at the time of the shoot takes you 30 seconds, you will have saved about 3 minutes in Photoshop. So if you’ve got a reflection move a couple of feet over and see if it washes out (this is if you don’t have a circular polarizer, definitely a must have). Finally, there is nothing worse than taking a picture, visualizing what you want that final product to look like then going to process and you find a foreign object behind your subject that totally distorts the picture. in some cases such as candid shots this may not be able to be prevented. I had taken a picture of my fiance. I absolutely loved this shot. I took it a couple of years back when we took our first vacation and I got my first camera. I still love it, but someone pointed out to me that it looks like a tree is growing out of the model’s head. Here is the picture to get a better understanding of foreign objects in backgrounds. In this case it couldn’t have been prevented due to the fact it wasnt a posed shot.
Tip #2
TAKE CRITICISM AND LEARN FROM IT
Unlike the first tip this one is pretty self-explanatory. Take your pictures, post them up, let the public see them on flickr, photobucket, webshots, or even facebook. Let them judge your work and your style (which yes, you will develop your OWN style). Then have them tell you why they don’t like it and knock you off of your pedestal. Then LEARN FROM IT. After this, read from the second sentence of this tip to the part where it says LEARN FROM IT, and uhhhh, do that for a couple of years, maybe the rest of your career. You don’t always have to take everyone’s advice, but you sure can take it and make your own judgement from it. Art is different in everybody’s eyes, and its on you to make the decision if what you ment to do is how you visualized that picture to look. People will go their own ways in this industry and that’s how you create your own look, your own style.
Tip #3
SHOOT MORE…PROCESS LESS
Well those of you that only own 1 2 gig card may hate this tip, but ya know what, if you only have 1 2 gig card then you need to purchase another, or better yet get a 4,8,16,32 gig card. Well a lot of people say setup your shot and shot it once. Take the time and double-check all your adjustments and shoot. I do agree with taking your time and fine tuning everything, it’s a must. I disagree, strongly about taking 1-2 shots. Those little LCD screens on the back of our cameras may look nice and pretty, but sometimes you just wont be able to totally tell if lets say your subject is in complete focus, or even if the white balance is correct for the lighting. I’ve found in some cases that I have only taken that 1 shot and it turned out to be great…but the front door was the focus point, and the front bumper was not. Or even the leaf directly behind the flower was in focus and the flower was slightly out. I can only imagine this would’ve been a different story if I had set up again to maybe take 2-3 pics instead of just that 1.
Tip #4
NEVER MAKE EXCUSES IN FRONT OF A CLIENT!
Doing this will and can hurt your business very quickly! When you make excuses in front of clients it kills your professional image that you are trying to set. That very image that you and your work use to sell YOUR BRAND. You want to show your customers that you have the confidence and the “know how” to give them what they are paying for. A customer doesn’t want to hear “only if I had…” out of your mouth, or “my camera doesn’t have that many megapixels”. This all hurts you. You are a professional and you are getting paid to be creative. SO GET CREATIVE! Think of a work around, that’s what you’re getting paid to do. Make that model feel good about themself, or present that communion or wedding and tell a story and make people get to know the people in the pictures. Think of ways to work around maybe flaws in lighting, or equipment, or even lack of help. Don’t make excuses!
Tip #5
BE BOLD AND THINK OUT OF THE BOX
Every photographer has their own style. You ask what makes one stand out from another. Well that’s simple, there’s a lot of things but 1 main point that I always look for,who has seen this picture from that perspective? Show people a picture from an incredible place they may never get to see in their lifetime. Catch that angle that no one else can, or be at that spot and frame it in a way that people will ask, “how did they take that picture?”. Make the consumer curious, it gives them the drive to want more.
This concludes my 5 Tip’s…and then some on being a better photographer. I hope you learned something new, after-all that’s what this games all about right? If you want a better understanding of what I mean when I say be bold and different a great place to see examples of this would be Flickr‘s very own Explore page.
Make a comment, tell me what you think!
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A couple from Princeton, NJ
Last weekend I had figured I havent shot in Princeton in a while, so what the hell. It was a gorgeous day out, nice sky, clouds, cool breeze. Everything you could ask for. Here is a shot I took right as I was entering Princeton. View my Flickr for more shots.
New Calendar!!
Well heres another project I made. New calendar from some shoots and events that i have done so far this year! Definatly check this out, a lot of cool shots. Ya never know, your car could be featured in here…
Nice camera it must…STOP RIGHT THERE!
Watch this movie I created before reading the blog post. This is something that has happened to me quite a few times, and I know every other photographer freelance or pro has had this happen many of times as well. Whatever is said in this movie is just ment to be funny. I personally don’t get this bothered when someone says this (yes sometimes it will get on my nerves) but not to the point in which this cute little bear takes it. Enjoy!
This Post was actually created because I had read another blog post from an amazing photographer, Danny Santos II. He puts it very well in what he says in the post. If this comes out wrong from me check out what he said. You may understand a little better. I’m not being cocky and no, I do not think I am the best photographer out there. But to all of you fellow photographers, I know comments like these get under your skin a little. I’ve needed to blow off some steam a little bit and I’ve felt this would be the best way to do so. Yes as some of you know I recently had to purchase a Canon 5D MKII camera. My Canon 40D decided to blow up, along with my car two weekends ago. That is actually when I came about making this video. I was pissed because I missed having a camera and needed to let out a little steam. In the past two years that I have been a photographer there have been a few times when people have said to me, “nice camera, it must take __________ pictures”. Fill in that blank with fast, nice, great, beautiful. Hell you can throw in that blank ugly, shitty, fucked up, or disgusting as well. Yea all these things happen good and bad with this camera I am shooting with right here. But I have news for ya peps. The camera didn’t just take that picture, I did. Yes I took that picture and I made it great, I made it shitty, I made it work, and yes I made that magic that will make your jaw drop, your eyes water, or the horrible blank look that says, never show this picture again.
Example: I took this picture below with a point and shoot camera. I like to show this picture. (this was a couple of months into my journey as a photographer, with a little bit of knowledge on how to work a camera)
On the other hand here is a picture I took when i got my first DSLR (when I had no clue). The picture is out of focus, exposure is all wrong, framing and composition was horrible. I think this could’ve been a decent pic, given the fact that I had a clue as to what the hell I was doing.
Sorry if anyone has been offended, the post wasn’t ment for that. It’s just I feel I am speaking for other photographers when I say this. Yes as well as myself but like I said it usually will not bother me when I hear this. As a photographer I love attention, and if the size or looks of my camera gets that for me than bring it on!
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August 25, 2010 | Categories: Rants, Uncategorized | Tags: Arts, blog, camera, canon, city, comments, dannyst, dantone, Digital single-lens reflex camera, exposure, Film, image, images, joe, joe dantone, nice, people, Photographer, photography, photos, Point-and-shoot camera, post, rant, Shopping, speed, speedexposure, street, stunnrstatus, water, wordpress | 5 Comments »