I’m still here…
This blog hasn’t seen a new post in 5 1/2 months. Though this blog hasn’t seen any recent posts, I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m still here. My attention these last few months has been directed on my new online music site – www.spotlightottawa.com. Now that my music site is going well, it’s finally time to return some attention to this site. This blog will now see some love too. Please check back for more photos coming to a screen near you soon.
Introducing Spotlight…
This blog has been a little neglected lately. Spotlight is the reason. Spotlight you ask? Spotlight is an online magazine dedicated to the Ottawa music scene. I just launched it last week. Please check it out at www.spotlightottawa.com.
Ottawa has a vibrant music scene. We have a lot of great local music being created and performed in Ottawa. We are also lucky to have a great number of artists visit our city to perform for us and entertain us. I created Spotlight to help promote the local music scene. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I hope I can help you discover some new artists and music.
New business cards
At long last I finally have my new business cards in my hands. I should have had them a long time ago. After changing my mind numerous times when it came to the design and colors, I finally sat down one day a week ago, with the goal of getting them done that day. Mission accomplished. A week later I have the results in my hands.
If you are looking for new cards, check out Moo Cards. They currently have a promotion on for new customers – 50 free business cards. The cards have a small Moo branding, but the only cost to you is for shipping. Taking advantage of this promotion let me test out my design on a printed card for a low cost. I am very happy with how they came out. I might make a few adjustments for my next order, but I will be ordering from them again. They are double sided cards with my info on one side and some of my photos on the other. I uploaded 9 different photos, but I could have uploaded as many as 50. As a photographer, it’s a great way to promote your work.
Also, a big thanks to my buddy Alex for taking the time to design my logo!
Hi, my name is Scott…
…and I am a procrastinator. In AA, this would be step 1, admitting the problem. Is there a 12 step program for procrastination? I can procrastinate ’til the cows come home. In fact, I’m so good at it, I could probably keep the cows from coming home.
I’m also a dreamer. I like to dream big. There’s nothing wrong with that. But when you mix it with procrastination, it can get messy. Dreams remain dreams. It can leave you looking back wondering, “What if?” I don’t want to wonder what if. Isn’t it better to try and fail, than to look back and wonder what if? It’s time to get serious about this photographic journey of mine.
For the last few months I’ve been thinking about all the things I could do with some 9 foot wide white seamless. One problem……I have no space in my house for it. Well, except maybe the garage. With winter coming, who would want to sit around in a sub-zero garage freezing their ass off to have their photo taken?? Yet I kept dreaming about what I could do with the seamless if I had it. This weekend, I put a foot down on my procrastinating ways. I went out and got myself some 4.5 foot wide white seamless. I can do less with it. But it fits in my house, in several areas. I own it. I can work with it, and not just dream about it. So in reality, I can do more with it, a lot more.
The last time I saw procrastination, he was lying in my driveway with a wedgie, as I drove off to the camera store. When I got back he was gone. I hope he doesn’t return.
New website!
It’s been more than a month since my last post. I took a little break from things, as spare time suddenly became non existent at home with the birth of my second son. My first son is now 2 and a half, and he is a very busy little guy. Between the 2 of them, they have kept my wife and myself very busy. I did manage, however, to find the hours to put together my new website. Mostly late at night while everyone else was sleeping. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.
With the routine settling in at home, it’s time to get back to a regular posting schedule. Thanks for joining me on my journey. More photos are on the way!
A look back at 2009…
My photography took a big leap in 2009. There was lots of learning and I saw definite steps forward in my technique and results.
Things got off to an early start in January when I decided to sign up for Harry Nowell’s sports photography course, which included photographing an Ottawa 67’s hockey game. I liked Harry’s class so much that I decided to sign up for his pro program, for some assistance and insight in getting myself established as a working photographer. Harry is a great teacher and his mentoring has been very beneficial.
2009 was definitely a big year of firsts in my young photographic career:
- photographing a semi-pro hockey game
- photographing the Canadian Whitewater Slalom National team trials
- photographing a cycling race
- getting started with off camera lighting
- working with models
- photographing auto racing
- photographing a signed touring band – Die Mannequin
- I started my first blog
I’m excited to see where 2010 takes me!
Photo Manipulation
Chase Jarvis had an interesting post the other day about how some say photography today is on a downward slop with photoshop. These “purists” claim that the masters before us didn’t have this luxury and didn’t tamper with their images. Check out Chase’s post to see the marked up photo he has from Richard Avedon, which is covered in instructions in red marker to his printer.
Photographers have been manipulating their images for almost as long as they have been taking them. Where do these “purists” think the dodge and burn tools in photoshop got their names? Yes things can be taken too far, but I don’t see anything wrong with some manipulation if it makes for a stronger or more visually interesting photo.
Flashaphobia
Or fear of flash. I have it. It’s time to ditch it. The fear……not the flash.
A couple of years ago, I bought a flash for my DSLR, but I’ve never really used it much. Mostly because I don’t know how to use it properly. When I have used it, I’m most often disappointed with the results. Over the next few months, it is my goal to conquer my fear and learn to use my flash, or rather control my flash. Mixing ambient and flash. Overpowering the ambient. Bouncing. These are all things I would like to begin to understand and get a grasp of over the next few months. I hope to be posting results of my experimentation with flash soon. Stay tuned….
Lesson learned
Always back up your photos off your flash card ASAP! I just learned this the hard way.
Last weekend I was in PEI for a wedding and took a bunch of photos while I was there. I hadn’t yet had a chance to transfer them to my computer having had a busy week. This evening I decided to head out to the race track again for another chance at shooting my cousin’s races. When I got to the track and turned on my camera, I saw a message on the display that I had never seen before, “Error reading card”. Odd I thought, so I turned my camera off and then back on. I took a couple test shots and all seemed fine. That was until I got home and went to transfer my photos to my computer. It seems all my PEI photos had been wiped out. I know there’s recovery software, but seeing as I had filled up about 90% of the card tonight, there wasn’t much point in trying it out.
So don’t suffer my fate. Always back up your photos from your flash card ASAP. I know I will always be prompt about doing so in the future. I now understand why the pro’s have small onsite backup drives with them! While I lost some personal photos, it could have been worse. They could have been photos from a paid shoot that were lost forever. Had I been paid to shoot the weddding……..how do you explain that one to the client?!?!?
And so the journey begins…
This is it…….my first blog, and my first blog post. With this blog I plan to share my journey into the world of professional photography. I will share my successes, which will hopefully be many, as well as my failures, which hopefully will help me grow as a photographer. At this point I don’t know where this blog is headed, or where my journey will take me, but after years of dreaming of a career I’d truly enjoy, I guess it’s time to find out.