Realtime screen capture for your Mac

I'm always looking for new ways to teach and provide resources for my students. In late November I attended a seminar put on by Adobe, Apple and Epson which promoted Adobe Creative Suite CS4. As usual the presenters were very good. During one of the breaks I asked the Adobe presenter what software was used to make the demo movies found on sites like PhotoshopUser.com. He said there were a number of tools available, but he really liked one called iShowU. I downloaded the trial version to see if it would work for me.

It only took me about an hour to figure out the software, rehearse, and record my first demo movie. I chose to make a demo on re-sizing images, as this is the most common question I get asked by beginners. The movie is under two minutes long and is also viewable in QuickTime from my Imagemaven Education page. Firefox and Safari on Macs should play the movie automatically. QuickTime is also available for Windows operating systems if the video does not work on your system. Go to Apple.com and download the QuickTime Player.

To see my "masterpiece" (tongue planted firmly in cheek) click the photo below. I also uploaded this on YouTube, but am very disappointed with the loss of quality that occurred. I am very new to both iShowU and YouTube, so I'm sure I missed a resolution check box somewhere during the process.

Bottom line though, I highly recommend this product to people who teach software or do presentations of any kind. iShowU can also record screen presentations and make movies out of them. Stay tuned for more of my masterpieces.

Update June 2, 2009 - I have recently discovered an even better way to make screen captures using Jing. It creates links to files stored in Screencast, so no more waiting for the QuickTime movies to download onto your hard drive. Here is a re-do of the re-size demo using Jing.

Teaching Photography

I have been teaching beginners a lot the past seven years whether formally at ACAD and SAIT, through seminars, or one-on-one. It recently came to me that I have been teaching photography all wrong. Well not ALL wrong, but I just realized I could do it better.

When I was taught French the first thing taught to me was conjugating the verb être (to be). That made no sense and took me several weeks to wrap my head around. I just wanted words. Words were the access point to French. Perhaps my penchant for new languages wasn't that high, but I knew that when children learned to speak, they learned one word at a time, usually nouns, so why they taught French verbs first, is beyond me. (I'm hoping that teaching method has changed.)

A parallel can be drawn with teaching photography. So many of the course outlines I have followed start with photographic theory like f-stops, shutter speeds, and optics and leave composition and lighting until late in the course. I think we should teach composition and lighting first. Isn't that why people are drawn to taking pictures in the first place, trying to find a way to capture those moments of time and light that they see? Of course I'm still a firm believer in all the technical aspects of photography as a way to create one's vision, but I'm going to approach teaching beginners in a whole new way from now on. Perhaps this will reduce the furrowed brows I encounter during the first couple of photo theory lessons. Access to photography is through composition and light, much like access to language is through words.

How do I know this will help my students? This past spring session at ACAD I started giving a weekly class assignment called Picture of the Week (POTW). Students were required to post one new photo during the week after each class to a web space for critiquing in the next class. The photo could be of anything that literally caught their eye. During class we critiqued everyone's new images. This had the benefit of getting students shooting without the constraints of a technical assignment, and learning to critique their own and other people's work.

When I got the evaluations back for that course, several of the students commented that the POTW was their favourite part of the course. They got to concentrate on composition and lighting and capturing the world around them without the boundaries of formal assignments. In effect they were learning the language of light and composition, which is the basis of photography.

The photo above was taken by Dat Tran in my ACAD PHTG 202 class of Spring 2008.

Canvas Prints for Sale Using PhotoShelter's New Embedded Gallery

The above gallery contains some photos of Alberta prairie scenes including Balzac and Rosebud using PhotoShelter's "embed gallery" feature. It is designed to take advantage of viral marketing as it allows anyone to grab the code and embed the slide show in any web page or blog. It is also possible to get a link for the gallery and email it to people or post it anywhere. This is great for introducing new work or for contacting clients directly with the edits from a shoot, as the link can travel easily to stakeholders. These galleries are also much nicer than the Photoshop web gallery option, as it allows full screen playback and it always links back to your PhotoShelter account.

This is a very good option for people who aren't web savvy, as they don't need to know any code, nor do they have to upload the files anywhere once the gallery is made. I know of several photographers who do not update their own web sites, so this is perfect for them.

To post a PhotoShelter gallery on a Blogger page follow these instructions:

• When writing a new post hit the "Edit Html" link on the top right side of the Blogger editing window.
  
• Then copy and paste the code from the web gallery (available by clicking the "grab embed code" triangle on the gallery's bottom right corner).
  
• Hit "Preview" in the Blogger window and the gallery should be there. Make sure you copy the embed code, not the URL code if you want the gallery to show like mine does above.
  
• If you want to paste a link somewhere, then take the URL code instead.

The "embed gallery" option is one of the many new features of PhotoShelter which make it a great choice for photographers showing, marketing and selling their work. PhotoShelter is striving to remain in the game, and is working hard at adding new features to help both photographers and clients buy and sell images.

UPDATE: This embedded gallery process is not as simple on WordPress.com blogs as it is on Blogger. WordPress.org (software download) self hosted blogs seem to work though, but you need to install a widget. Instructions are here, though it still seems to be a rather complicated process.

Newsletter Marketing

I am still working on ways to market myself and reach potential customers and stay connected with my students. I have finally figured out how to use one of those e-mail newsletter programs. Pretty cool actually. I'm using MadMimi. I am focusing mostly on keeping current and past students and workshop attendees in my network for now and use it as a forum for passing on information on the local photo community, things like shows and seminars, that may be of interest to emerging photographers.

One of the benefits of using MadMimi as opposed to just e-mailing people directly from my e-mail software, is that it gives me stats. I know how many people open the newsletters and even how many people click on the links that I highlight. This way I can track people's interest in various topics and see if any particular subject area is popular. Popular topics will get more coverage. My philosphy in this is give them more of what they want!

Unlike a blog where people have to seek me out (either on purpose or by accident using SEO, links from my sites, etc.), I am utilizing the tool of permission marketing. Permission marketing is quite fun actually. It feels like I am talking to a group of friends and associates. People can opt in or opt out at any time. Hopefully one day this will generate sales. If nothing else, it will build my reputation as an educator and workshop facilitator. It does take time to research and write useful information, just like writing in this blog. Even the simplest posts can sometimes take a couple of hours.

Collage Re-defined

This week I worked on a couple of collages for a client. Of course when I hear the word collage I get scared. So many corporate clients want event photos arranged in a collage. They are hard to design and end up looking ugly. But the employees love them. As we say in the biz, "garbage in-garbage out".

Thankfully this client was open to my interpretation of what a collage is. I consulted a good friend who's an art director at Critical Mass here in Calgary, who also cringes when he hears the word collage. Since the posters were really for the kids of the client, he suggested something bold, and based some of his ideas on ads he had researched by Burton and Fox. He made me a sample low res file and I took some of his ideas and my own and came up with the highly "Photoshopped" images here. They might not be in everyone's taste, but the kids love them! I'm producing 16x24 inch plaque mounted photo prints to hang in the boys' rooms.

Catching up!

September was a busy month both personally and professionally. Early in September I did a shoot for Paige Smith, a Calgary craft artist. Paige takes fine bone china saucers and transforms them into beautiful jewelry holders. This was my third shoot for Paige. She's an excellent stylist and pre-plans everything to the nth degree, which makes working with her a joy.

The Prairie Chapter of CAPIC hosted an evening with Selina Maitreya of Port Authority. Selina is a photography portfolio consultant. I had a one-on-one session with Selina as well, to critique my current portfolio, and to plan out ways to improve my photography and marketing going into the future.

Selina's main tenet is that photographers should develop a signature style of photography, then translate that vision into all the work they do at the expense of their other (old) style of work. (I think that this type of thinking and working would allow photographers in the same market to be more collegial.) Clients would then hire someone based on their vision. Other photographers, in theory, would have different visions, so therefore would be less concerned with what each other are doing in the same market. It may foster greater community among photographers as a whole, and among those involved in photo trade organizations. It would also allow photographers to work in other market regions, as they would be hired based on their particular vision.

In her public lecture, Selina also recommended that all photographers read the book, The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield, and to reconnect with their inner creativity by reading, The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. The War of Art is a quick read with lots of "in your face" advice for breaking through creative blocks. It reminds me a lot of Camera Lucida, by Roland Barthes in the definitive style of writing of the author. One quote I'd like to share is:

The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

I'm going to leave it at that for today. I encourage you all to read The War of Art. It is suitable for all entrepreneurs, not just photographers. For links to all books that I write about, see the sidebar.

My Favourite Photo Ops (and a few other things) in Halifax, NS

Favourite café – Wired Monk. Great location off the regular tourist trap, at Morris and Hollis. The owners and staff are very welcoming and helpful. Food is great. Go early for baked goods fresh out of the oven. Coffee – very good – and I’m hard to please in that area. Grab a paper, get a window seat and watch the world go by.

Favourite restaurant – Talay Thai. Best Thai I’ve ever had – ever. I ate there two nights in a row. A friend who recommended it said, “even better than Thailand”. I had the cashew chicken.

Favourite beach – Rissers Beach – Lots of room for your beach mats even on a hot Sunday afternoon. Clean water, white sand. Toilets! Be careful with the sand around your camera, especially if it's breezy as the sand is so light and unobstructed, it gets everywhere.

Favourite scenery – Peggy’s Cove - iconic, just go. You can’t help but take great photos. There is the tiny town with lobster traps and orange row boats strategically placed in the cove, as well as the lighthouse sitting atop the large mound of granite which leads to the churning sea below. Have the gingerbread dessert at the Sou’wester restaurant on your way out.

The town of Lunenburg is a close second for scenery, but most of the villages and farms on the south shore are colourful and very well taken care of, so make for great photos. Lunenburg also had the best side-of-the-road fish and chips shack. The haddock was fresh and tasty and melted in my mouth. I could have eaten there every day. The Bluenose II is based out of Lunenburg, so there is a good chance you’ll see it too.

Favourite way to see Halifax – from a tall ship like the Silva – but go in the morning so the sun is shining on the city – otherwise it’s back lit and harder to photograph. A friend recommended the Harbour Hopper, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go through town on the “green monster” with the tour guide screeching into the loud speaker. I’m sure kids would love it though.

Next favourite way to see Halifax – on foot. Great city for walking.

Favourite scenic walk – The Boardwalk. Lots of tourists, but also lots of locals flogging their wares and talents. Grab your morning coffee at the Wired Monk and walk two blocks east to watch the sun rise from the boardwalk at the bottom of Morris Street. Also, walk along Spring Garden Road and stop in at the Old Burying Ground at St. Paul's Cemetery at the corner of Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road. The other end of Spring Garden Road is the Public Gardens, which is also beautiful.

Favourite historical site – Pier 21, though the Halifax Citadel came highly recommended. The views from up there are fantastic. Out of town – visit the SwissAir Memorial, a stone's throw from Peggy's Cove. Sombre. The day I went it was slightly foggy and that added to the mood.

Favourite Halifax street for taking photos – Argyle Street - between Blower and Sackville. It has the most interesting storefronts: The Economy Shoe Shop, which is a pub on a very grande scale, contrasted by the "skinny" Seahorse Tavern, on one side, and Biscuit General Store on the other. They are all in a row on the east side of the street. Go in the afternoon so the sun is shining on the façades.

I will add some more Halifax photos soon. Just wanted to get the list up before I forget everything!

Refreshed ImageMaven Web Site

Today I finally had the chance to refresh and simplify my ImageMaven web site. The main look hasn't changed much, but I've combined a few of the pages so that there are only five menu selections: Home, Portfolio, Stock, Blog and Links. I purposefully haven't gone the route of the "large image" portfolio sites that most photographers now use. My site might be butt-ugly in some people's eyes, but the fact is I rank high on search engines and I'd hate to screw all that up by investing in a Flash generated site. Yes, I know Flash can be optimized for SEO, but I don't have those skills at this time, nor the time and money to invest in that right now. Truth is, my client base is not typically art directors. Sure, I sell some stock to art directors now and then, but most of my income comes from established corporate clients and the images are used in-house for very specific technical things. For the rest, I shoot a bit of travel, plus I just shoot what I love and flog everything I can through my PhotoShelter Personal Archive using rights-managed and royalty-free licensing models.

My role model in this is Dan Heller, SEO expert and sucessful stock photographer, who also has a butt-ugly web site (sorry Dan). His site is however, highly functional, and that is the most important thing. I originally wanted to sell stock directly from my site like Dan does, but I'm no web programmer. I just tinker with html and Dreamweaver. That's why I chose the PhotoShelter Personal Archive route for self-serve selling. It's cheap and efficient. Sure I give up 10% on every sale, but with all that back-end support I consider it a small price to pay for all those features. By the way, PhotoShelter is SEO friendly.

I have finally learned over the years that shooting what I love makes me happiest, along with a couple of good corporate contracts, some teaching, some family portraits and some work for artists to keep me afloat financially. PhotoShelter and Dan's expertise have helped me realize this, plus, as my mom says, "Do what you love and the money will come."

Farewell Nova Scotia

Left Nova Scotia today. What a great time, great people, great food, great shots. I will be writing a "best-of" entry soon to summarize my trip.

Nova Scotia's Treasures

Another wonderful day touring around Nova Scotia's South Shore! Not far from Halifax we hit Lunenburg, where the Bluenose II was in port. We were able to climb around on the sailing vessel and appreciate the grandeur of the ship that's on the Canadian dime.

Before that we stopped at Rissers Beach. We got a second chance at swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. What a great feeling to be bobbing in the warm salt water. After our beach visit, we hit the Lobster Wagon in Lunenburg for the best haddock fish 'n chips I've ever tasted. Another highlight was the cable ferry trip across the river at LeHave.

Peggy's Cove and Lobster - Nova Scotia

Yes, they are clichés, but some things just have to be done! On a trip to Halifax you have to do the typical touristy things. If you go to Calgary, you need to eat Alberta beef and visit Banff, and when you go to Halifax you need to eat lobster and visit Peggy's Cove.

Luckily for us it was a glorious sunny day absent of tour buses. Peggy's Cove is smaller than a postage stamp, but it has an immense amount of charm and appeal. The surf is mesmerizing and wildly dangerous. Sitting on the granite rock formations and watching it is like being on another planet. There are a few kooky types around - the woman at the base of the lighthouse on her squeeze box and another welcoming you with bagpipes. The whole experience is somewhat surreal.

The drive back to Halifax included a wade into the Atlantic Ocean at a roadside beach. At 19 C it was practically tropical. After that, we picked up a couple of live lobster at the SuperStore and created a feast. A walk along the Halifax boardwalk under the full moon completed a superb day!

Image Theft - A Rant

I was checking my web stats last night, when I found a site using one of my images (shown here) without my permission. Amazing what you can learn from your stats! It wasn't a big multi-national or anything, but a blog. The person took a stock image off my portfolio site. It had my copyright symbol clearly on the top of the image. It wasn't even cropped off. There was no credit, no link back to my site (in fact it was linked to Nike's site), nor was I asked if they could "use" it. Needless to say I was a bit taken aback at first, and then I became angry. This is what I wrote to the blog:

I noticed that you poached a triathlon photograph from my commercial web site and posted it on your blog. This is in violation of International copyright law. The photo that you stole, even has the copyright symbol still on it, which is not necessary under law, just a friendly reminder in case people don't know.

I am a commercial photographer. I make my living shooting and selling images. I give many free hours of my time and photographic expertise to amateur sports associations and athletes, however since you didn't ask my permission, nor gave me a link or credit back to my own website and/or stock photography library, I must bill you for the usage of this photo.

This photo can be purchased with a Royalty Free license at web resolution for only $20. Please do so from the link here. As a courtesy to me I would also like the Nike link removed from my photo and instead paste this link in its place.

Just because you can access and "right" click "just a picture from the web" as you call it, does not mean that you can or should do this. Just like it's illegal to download copyrighted music, it is also illegal to download photos without consent and in most cases payment to the artist. Triathlon costs a lot of money to participate in. The cost of traveling to races, wet suits, running shoes and especially bikes keeps many people out of the sport. Surely you can afford $20 to support someone who cares deeply about supporting athletes, especially women in sports.

I get sick of people not respecting copyright and just thinking that everything on the internet is free for the taking if you can. There are enough $1 images around that there should be no need for anyone to steal any photographs anymore.

Sure, I could build a flash website to prevent this type of thing, but they aren't as SEO friendly as HTML sites. I would lose my high ranking in Google, plus, the updates would be slower to do and I'd probably have to hire an expert to make changes. I just want people to "get it" and stop poaching photos of people's sites. Do you steal food off the shelves in the grocery store - just because you have access to it?

If this person would have asked me for the photo instead of stealing it, I would probably have given it to them in exchange for a link to my PhotoShelter Archive. As it stands now, I'm just ticked off! Possession, as they say is 9/10 of the law. They stole it. I found it. Now they must pay!

Balzac, Alberta - Heritage Day

I'm sure many of you have seen the hit TV series Corner Gas. Many small towns on the prairies have similar set ups. One of those is the store in Balzac, Alberta. The Balzac Store has a wonderful café full of nostalgic decorations with old movie star photos, horse tack and saddle sales, and of course gas (which sells for less than in suburban Calgary only a few kilometers away). On the east side of the gas station along the railway tracks, sits a traditional prairie grain elevator housing the Balzac Seed Cleaning Plant. On the west side a couple of churches.

The fate of this corner is precarious as the Balzac mega mall and accompanying exit ramps have already forced the closure of the nearby garden centre. I was in the garden centre the other day hoping to find discounted perennials and it was already looking like a ghost town. I also noticed that the Balzac store had a "For Sale" sign on the side of it. I don't know what the fate of the store is as I didn't have a chance to speak to the owners about it during the busy lunch hour when I was there, but I suspect they will also succumb to the suburban "progress" of nearby Calgary.

If you get a chance, stop in and have a club sandwich special at the Balzac Store, fill up your car with gas, and enjoy the nostalgia while it exists. The Balzac Store is at the Highway 566 exit on the west side of Highway 2 (QE2) just north of Calgary.

UPDATE: The grain elevator of the Balzac Seed Cleaning Plant has now been leveled. I'm so glad I was able to get some photos of it before that happened.

AMPA and Uppercase Gallery Host an Evening of Design Pairing

Read on for an event of note, I'd like to pass along. Janine Vangool designed my corporate portfolio and logo a couple of years ago, and I've had nothing but compliments on it. I hired her because among other things, she designs beautiful books and magazines. I will be in Halifax the day of this event, but I encourage you to attend. I wish I could!

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July 22, 2007 (Calgary, AB) – The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association has partnered with Art Central’s Uppercase Gallery to host a gathering for designers and design-lovers on Thursday, August 14 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm.

Design Pairings is a networking and learning opportunity, featuring a talk and design feedback from Uppercase founder and proprietor Janine Vangool. The evening focuses on pairings: which typeface perfectly suits which image? Plus, Uppercase will have all its best toys on hand: letraset, woodtype, dimensional letters, rubber stamps, stickers, pegboard letters, typewriters, etc. so that people can play with type. No computers—this is all hands-on.

Janine Vangool graduated from the Visual Communications program at the Alberta College of Art & Design in 1995. Her solo design studio, Vangool Design & Typography, was formed the following year. Her client focus remains in arts and culture, creative small business and publishing. Past and current clients include Calgary Opera, ACAD, Ottawa Art Gallery, TRUCK gallery, Art Central, Beyond Magazine and Whitecap Books. Her award-winning work has been included in Communication Arts Design Annuals. She was a member of the 2007 Alternative Pick illustration jury and was a judge for the 2006 Junos’ music packaging category.

Join AMPA and Uppercase for fun and fascinating evening with local designers, design enthusiasts, and magazine professionals. Entry is free, with a complimentary wine and cheese to follow.

Design Pairings begins at 7:00 pm

Uppercase Gallery
#204, 100 - 7th Ave SW (upper level of Art Central), Calgary

-30-

For more information, contact:
Anh Chu, Communications and Program Assistant

ampa@albertamagazines.com T: 403.262.0081 F: 403.670.0492

Grizzly Hare Scramble

This past Saturday July 19th, I shot the kids Grizzly Hare Scramble XC motorbike race. What a blast! Girls and boys as young at 5 were racing their bikes through the Maclean Creek Recreational Area just southwest of Bragg Creek, Alberta. The kids were great and were very keen to hang out with me when they weren't racing. The weather was great too, so that made it all the more fun.

It wasn't the easiest event to photograph and I was a bit disappointed with my camera's (Canon 5D) servo focus. I have photographed many mountain bike races and other fast action sports using servo as well as manual focus, but the camera focus could not keep up with the action in this event. I'm pretty sure it's not the lens, as I've shot ski racing with my old EOS3 with no problems tracking focus. Maybe it's time to upgrade to a higher-end sports shooting camera.

Other technical details: I shot using fill flash for many of the images, with my Canon 580EX flash set at -1 using TTL and the High shutter speed setting. I shot using all sorts of shutter speeds as I was experimenting, but 1/800s and higher speeds seemed to freeze the action best. I used 400 and 800 ISO to try and keep decent depth of field, but that wasn't always easy, especially in the trees. Lots of mixed lighting in the trees made post processing a bit of a challenge too. One or two images would have been fine, but having to deal with hundreds was daunting. Shooting in RAW saved me.

Just like the triathlon, I focussed on the individual athletes as opposed to the event as a whole. My goal is to sell files and prints to the riders through my PhotoShelter Personal Archive. Check out the Grizzly Hare Scramble gallery. It was the first time I shot motor cross country and I learned a lot by doing it. Great workout too! My butt was sore from all the crouching and hiking along the course. A special thanks to Joal (#75) and Owen (#900) and their parents for inviting me to the races. And congrats to Joal for winning his race, and to Owen for placing 3rd in his!

Coral Springs Triathlon Photos Now Online

Summer has been slow to come in Calgary this year, but I've managed to get some great shooting days for the events I'm covering. July 13th, I shot the Coral Springs Triathlon in Calgary. With that, I'm using my PhotoShelter Personal Archive to sell personal use licensing of those event photos. It's a great self-serve selling system. I'm not a computer or web programming whiz, so I opted to use PhotoShelter for online sales. Once the uploading of images is done, the client is able to purchase the files from the archive, with no further interaction on my part. I also set up PayPal to collect the money. PhotoShelter has very thorough instructions on how to set everything up. Configuration of PhotoShelter and PayPal still took a couple of hours though, mostly because several decisions need to be made during the process, and I was back and forth with the instructions a lot.

On the subject of uploading, even with high-speed Internet, it took a couple of days to upload 300+ jpg format photos ~2MB in size. Of course this wasn't constant uploading, I sent the files in batches of 30 or so, in between the post processing of all the raw files. I realize though, that this is a process that needs streamlining or automating, and next time I have hundreds of files, I need to figure that out better.

As far as the personal use licensing, I'm going this way as the photos are unique to each athlete so the market for the photos is very limited. Plus, none of the photos are model released. I will also sell prints, but in order to do so using PhotoShelter, I would have to use an American supplier and all the pricing would be in $US. My events are all very local to Calgary, and I don't feel right selling in $US. I'll sell prints if people contact me directly, but since most people do their own printing, I'm not counting on that. I'm hoping that eventually, PhotoShelter will partner with a print supplier in Canada so that production and shipping costs will be less, and will also be in $CAD. Maybe Technicare would be interested? They would be a perfect partner, as they have labs from Vancouver to Winnipeg, so could service the country well.

Triathlon

Today I shot the start of the Chinook Half 119.1 Triathlon at Lake Midnapore in south Calgary.

It's been a while since I shot a sporting event. I used to shoot a bike race or a triathlon nearly every weekend when I was part of that scene in Toronto. It definitely brought back memories of early morning starts along with the beautiful early morning light. A couple of friends were participating in today's event, so I tried to pay attention to where they were in the pack so I could grab a few stock shots.

Then, this afternoon I attended an artist's market at the Carpenters Hall in Kensington. I bumped into a few of my former ACAD students (Amy Wakefield, Heather Reinhart, Pat Wong and Aimee Qiu) and it was from talking to them and seeing their work, that I was inspired to play around with my triathlon shots in Photoshop, as they just seemed so plain and ordinary. Not that I wanted to fix them, I just felt the urge to be creative in a different way than I normally am.

I'm usually the type to shoot a photo the way I want it to look as I have little experience in "Photoshopping" those artsy effects I love so much. Truth is, I had never actually tried. So, armed with layer masks, blending modes, and some experimental brush techniques, I came up with a few "sketches". I must say it was quite liberating and fun to be painting on my photographs. I shall definitely keep experimenting.

Vancouver Walk Walk

When I saw this utility hole cover for Vancouver Water Works this past Sunday, I laughed. The message that flashed through my mind when I saw the VWW, was Vancouver Walk Walk. I had been walking through Vancouver's Gastown, Granville, Coal Harbour Seawalk, up and down Howe, Hornby, Granville and Seymore streets to meet friends and take photos along the way. It was great to travel light for three days - no computer and just my Canon G9 for a camera, which shoots 12MP raw files.

I can do without my dSLR on a holiday, but I can't seem to do without RAW. Shooting raw files has been part of my work flow for the past 4 years. It pains me to shoot jpg, mainly because of the loss of control that those 4096 tones in a raw file provide me.

The G9 is not perfect. If it was, then why would I bother with a high end dSRL for 10x the price? I had to get used to the noise, but I try to keep the ISO as low as possible to minimize it. For grungy inner city photos though, it's perfect.

I'll be adding some of the Vancouver shots to the travel stock on my PhotoShelter Personal Archive over the next short while.

Oh, and while on my travels I bought a new pair of blue shoes. You can see the top of them in the shot.

Field Trip

Yesterday I took my Photographic Design (PHTG 202) Spring semester class on a field trip. We didn't have to go far, just to downtown Calgary. I thought it would break up the semester a bit and also give them a break from me doing all the talking. It was a great day to be trekking around the core. The energy of the office crowds at lunch was a nice change from the quiet halls of ACAD, as the school is nearly devoid of students after April 30th.

We visited ABL Imaging and the Four By Five gallery of photography. The purpose of the visits was to introduce the students (who are starting their last year of ACAD in the fall) to the world of design and photography outside of the classroom and to learn what happens after the photo is taken and the design is complete.

ABL President, Susan Otterson gave us the rundown of their services and a tour of the facilities. The students were impressed with all the professional design work that they saw in progress and in "finished" form. Their creative juices were really flowing with the possibility of designing a plexi mounted cover image on their grad portfolio book.

ABL Imaging produces a wide array of display solutions for all types of clients like photographers, ad agencies, real estate developers, architects, restaurants and more. Photographic prints from 8x10 inches to wall size, back lit displays, inkjet printing on canvas, custom wall paper from your design, signage, and all sorts of customized mounting options are just a few things on their product list. ABL still even processes E-6 film on the premises.

After lunch we went to Art Central where the Four by Five Gallery of Photographic Arts is located. Steve Speer was an enthusiastic presenter. As it turns out, Steve is a graphic designer as well as a photographer and it was a great fit for the students. It is clear that Steve "loves what he does" and he's not afraid to say so. He has a great blend of experience with both the art and the technology of photography, which really fits well with my own philosophy and way of teaching. Steve kept the group engaged with both his design and photography stories from the field, and finally settled the age-old question of inkjet vs. giclee. Inkjet = Giclee, and that only the pompous call their inkjet prints giclees, or as I like to put it, giclee is the French word for inkjet. (I recently exhibited an inkjet print on vinyl and cheekily labelled it "Giclee on Vinyl" to see if any eyebrows raised.)

Four By Five exhibits and sells only archival quality photographic prints. Silver based as well as digital prints are accepted. All shows are juried by the Four By Five collective.

As always, I appreciate the time busy professionals like Susan and Steve take out of their schedules to meet with students. It's a great way to introduce products and services to students as they enter their final year of college and move on to their professional practice. It teaches them to network, and it opens doors on both sides for future customer/supplier relationships.

Art Attack

Inspired by my Photographic Design (PHTG 202) students, I am participating in this year's Art Attack, which is a fund raiser for ACAD's Visual Communications student scholarships. See below for complete details.

About the work
This is my first time participating in Art Attack and also my first time shooting food, so I wanted to make something interesting and appealing for this year’s event.

Veggie Toss was created by throwing actual vegetables up in the air and capturing them at the moment of peak design. Some motion is still present, due to the slow shutter speed, which adds to the dynamic qualities of the shots.

The vegetables are lit from behind using the translucent panel of a Photoflex Litedisc, and in front using a shoot-through umbrella. This shows nicely in the backlit tomatoes and soft highlights.

Vegetables travel at different rates of speed depending on their weight. It took about 120 shots to get the three images shown here. No retouching was done to the photographs.

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ART ATTACK
A feast for the eyes: 50 fabulous creations that pay homage to food and drink

The Alberta College of Art + Design is pleased to present the ninth annual Art Attack on Thursday, June 5, 2008.

Art Attack is a fundraising extravaganza that features the thrill of a live auction for one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Started in 1999 this event has grown and now provides two scholarships to deserving students in the Alberta College of Art + Design's Visual Communications Design program. Art Attack is successful because of the outstanding support of the community combined with the contributing designers, illustrators and fine artists who donate their time and work. Many are ACAD alumni; busy professionals who want to give back to the college to benefit the promising students with strength in both design and illustration.

This year’s event promises to provide a feast for both mind and body with stimulating pieces of art and design combined with great food and conversation. The silent auction will feature works created by local well-known artists who will utilize a common household element as their blank canvas – the chef's apron. Twenty identical aprons will be transformed into twenty unique and creative interpretations. This "variety within unity" approach is based on a design principle of the same name and will create a tremendous visual impact, certain to be appealing to food aficionados and artists alike. In contrast, a live auction will feature thirty "anything goes" pieces which were created by artists and designers whose only direction was to create a piece that reflects their expression of the theme. Ceramics, photographs, illustrations, paintings, jewelry and mixed medium creations have been donated for the heart-stopping live auction event.

Artists who have donated work include: Rick Sealock, Chris Cran, Katrina Chaytor, Karen Klassen, Laurel Johannesson, Guy Parsons, Dena Seiferling, Dee Fontans, Charles Lewton-Brain, Hugo Dubon, Margo Visser, Scott McLean, Marlene Hielema and many more!

Art Attack
Alberta College of Art + Design
Thursday, June 5, 2008
7 pm - doors open and silent auction
8:30 pm - live auction begins
Tickets $75.00 each
Please call (403) 338-5585 for tickets

Art Attack is presented by the Graphic Designers of Canada, Alberta South Chapter and net proceeds go to Visual Communications Design student scholarships at ACAD. Art Attack is also generously supported by Macleod Dixon, Coast Paper, Sasges Inc. and McAra Printing.

PhotoShelter

After much research, consultation and deliberation I have finally adopted PhotoShelter Personal Archive to house my stock image collection. Currently I have over 100 photos in my PS archive mainly in the area of women's fitness and travel. In the coming weeks I will be adding more photos, as well as setting up the e-commerce functionality that is available. This will allow me to sell licensing and prints through the site with little or no hands-on involvement.

It took me a long time to choose a partner in this endeavor. Digital Railroad was also an option, as was building my own, but PhotoShelter made me an offer I couldn't refuse: $124 a year for 10GB of storage, including the e-commerce set up option. For the price of ~ $10 a month I can't even host my own site with that many high resolution images. I'm no web programmer, so a pre-built system was really my only option, as I don't have the funds to hire the talent needed to build me a custom site.

So why did it take me so long to make up my mind? My main concerns were that I wouldn't be able to utilize the SEO techniques that I have recently incorporated into my portfolio website. I am consistently placing in the top 10 in Google searches for my images, especially in the area of women's sports and fitness. I didn't want to lose those hits and contacts with buyers. As a result I am trying a hybrid model; one that uses the hits that lead to my web site as a launching point to my PhotoShelter archive.

Another reason I chose to go with a conglomerate image site, is that all current marketing research points to social networking sites as the place where people make connections in their field. I am hoping to get new clients by moving to PhotoShelter and keep existing ones by maintaining my portfolio web site. Hopefully a healthy cross-pollination of clients will occur.

Family Photography Experience

I am excited to now be offering family portrait photography to my clients. It has taken me a long time to admit that I like or want to be doing this kind of photography, but I have decided to officially make it a part of my professional practice. Here is my pitch:

A creative family portrait experience awaits you. Choose your favourite location, whether it is a park or your own backyard. Your family can be photographed in your own special place. Or, go traditional, and set up a temporary studio in your home. The choice is yours. We will create your memories together.

Contact me for further information and pricing.

Keegan

What a cutie! Keegan graciously worked with me for over two hours without crying or falling asleep. He did pee a few times though, mostly on his daddy, but what do you expect from a 6-week old.

This shot was lit with a softbox hanging from a boom over top and using the silver panel of a MultiDisk for fill. Keeg's dad did the post on this image and gave it the nice soft desaturated look.

Noah

I am working hard on the "Boys Project" this week with a couple of shoots booked.

This first is Noah here. He's about 14 months old and he's a real bookworm. This shot captures a genuine moment from our time together, no forced smiles, just Noah being his curious self.

It took us awhile to connect, but once we did, things really clicked, and clicked. Two hundred shots later and we were both ready for bed!

Lighting was an umbrella front left, a 2'x3' soft box up high and slightly behind the right side as a hair light, and a 3'x4' white scrim as fill on the right side. I was shooting from a small space between the umbrella and the fill. This is the lighting set up I usually use for corporate portraits. I like using a soft box as a hair light. It's a bit smoother than a grid spot. This lighting set up also gives one large catch light in the eyes, which I like.

Calgary Cares

A unique print of this photograph has been donated to Calgary Cares, a fund raiser for AIDS Calgary, for their silent auction happening during their big event on March 29, 2008.

About this piece
Photographer: Marlene Hielema
Title: Taylor
Date: 2008
Medium: Giclee on Vinyl
Dimension: 35” x 27” Framed

The first photograph I ever envisioned and captured was of my two year-old brother, when I was six. He was sitting on the front step of our farmhouse wearing dad's cap and holding a box of Ritz crackers. I remember looking at him in that moment and thinking, "That would make a great picture." I ran inside and asked my mom if I could use the camera - a Kodak box camera. That was the start of a lifelong project of portraits of boys.

Why boys? Access mostly. I am the only girl in my family. When my brothers eventually married they also had male offspring. All of my closest friends seem to have boys, and my partner recently became a grandparent to, you guessed it, a boy. As a result I have a comfort level with boys of all ages which allows me to photograph them easily.

This particular photo comes from a portrait session I had with two brothers. They chose the location and borrowed a buddy's truck for the afternoon. It was one of those amazing shoots where everything was in sync: weather, location, and personalities, to provide a memorable creative experience for all involved.

I have been experimenting with printing on metal for the last five years and this presentation is part of that research. This image was printed on outdoor use vinyl using an ink jet (Giclee) printer. I hope to some day compile a show or a book of the photographs of boys that I have taken over the years.

This photograph is also on display at the Alberta College of Art + Design Faculty Show in the ACAD Illingworth Kerr Gallery, which runs from March 20 to April 19, 2008.

Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous

Hello from Whitehorse! I'm spending a few days "North of 60" in Whitehorse, Yukon visiting a school chum from Ryerson, Cathie Archbould. We're putting our heads together this weekend to work on our businesses, do some information sharing, and come up with some ideas to sell and promote our stock photos. Cathie is also shooting a lot of the weekend's activities for a local magazine called: North of Ordinary, which is available on Air North flights. Yesterday we bombed around town a bit and I took the shots above of a man made ice climbing wall. While being here I've also had a chance to read Dan Heller's book: Profitable photography in the digital age, which is a great resource for anyone considering selling their stock photographs online.

First off, great book Dan! If you haven't read any of Dan's business writing, check out his business blog or his website: www.danheller.com. I know I've mentioned him before, and I must say that his approach to the business of photography and stock photography is realistic and straightforward. I wrote Dan a month or so ago to get his opinion on joining PhotoShelter to sell my stock. He didn't endorse nor dis-endorse PhotoShelter, but he encouraged me to just get started any way I could. So, I did. I started scanning my stock photo collection and naming the files and adding text to my site using the search engine optimization techniques I learned from Dan's seminar I took last October. Just for fun yesterday, I looked up my web usage stats for February. To my surprise I had been found by search string terms that directly matched the text in my file names or the description text within my site. For example: "woman triathlon" was a search term that came up in my stats. So, to find out how high I ranked with that term, I plunked in "woman triathlon" into Google and was not shocked to have 345,000 returns on that search. I was ranked #14! Yes that's right, showed up on the second page! In case you're wondering how long it took to get noticed by search engines, it was less than a month from the time I published the triathlon page of photos. So, my point is, SEO works! - even for beginners, and even on a small scale. If you are planning to sell your photos, either stock or assignment using the Internet, all you need to do is employ some simple SEO techniques and you will get noticed, and probably sooner than you think.

So, next steps? I'll keep loading more and more images and keep using SEO techniques. Another thing I learned from Dan's book was that to make money in the stock business, you need to have a high volume of good quality images. You want to drive traffic to your site so that you will rank high in searches, make a few sales and then build your client base. Right now I only have about 100 images online, but there are a few hundred more high quality images sitting on my hard drives and DVD's. I've got my work cut out for me, not to mention, I'll keep tabs on what the search engines are looking for and make sure I have lots of product in those categories. I'll drop a few shots of different subject areas on my site to test the market. The search terms that come up in my web stats, are the ones I'll bet there is a demand for. The more demand the more images of that subject matter I'll shoot and upload. I'll let the market (the buyers) decide what's important instead of trying to predict it. Pretty exciting stuff for me. I'll let you know if it works.

Stock Photography for Sale

For the past month I have been scanning slides from my 10+ year-old stock collection. These consist mostly of images of women in sports and recreation including cycling, triathlon, running, walking, and golf, along with a smattering of city and industrial images. I have started to put these on my PhotoShelter archive for public sale of editorial or commercial licensing, and prints. I was encouraged by photographer and stock guru Dan Heller who bluntly suggested I just "get started" no matter what form that took. He said not to get too hung up on e-commerce features at this time, as it takes a while to get "noticed" by Google and the online world. I am counting on the search engine optimization (SEO)* techniques that I learned from Dan in a recent PPOC sponsored workshop of his that I attended in Canmore last October. Now that I am done slide scanning, I shall edit and compile my digital stock image files.

As a result of starting this tedious task, I have a new enthusiasm for sports and fitness stock photography. Seeing all my images compiled in one place gave me insight into my style and my way of shooting. I have developed some new ideas on how to improve my work and I am already planning some stock shoots, lining up models and scouting locations. Locations are what drive my work. Looking through my images, I recalled that in most cases I found a location first, and then figured out how to photograph the person in that location second. Adding to the formula a beautiful day, colourful clothing, and a willing participant, results in the iconic imagery I strive to produce.

I welcome your comments on my images. Please pass the word around to photography buyers that you know. I will be constantly upgrading the viewing and shopping experience, but for now I just want to get the work online as quickly as possible.

*What is SEO? Search engines can't "see" a site. They can only "read" a site. Pretty does not talk to a search engine. What "talks" to a search engine are the words, the content, the material in your site that explains, shares, informs, educates, and babbles. As pretty as photographer's Flash sites are, it's best to design your site with SEO in mind so that search engines can read it. You can do both, but make sure your designer is aware of how to design sites with SEO in mind.

Test Your Market

In today's Financial Post, Part 2 in a series of 12 articles on starting a business talks about market testing your products as a form of market research. Conventionally, business owners may look to their competition, read market statistics, read published research, conduct focus groups and build customer surveys. A photography business may not fit this traditional kind of market research, so testing is crucial.

How can photographers test (and therefore research) their market? Simply put, by working in it. When you are starting out you may take any assignment that comes your way. This is a great way to do market research. As a photographer, ask for feedback about the photography session or print sale as soon as possible after the transaction. Find out if there were any barriers to the shoot, getting the sale, or selling more prints. Was the shoot a great experience for your client? Was the time after the shoot (looking at proofs) a great experience for your client? Was it fun and easy for your client to buy prints? Was price a consideration or did your client hire you on reputation or referral? Were there any pricing problems or confusion with things like post processing charges? Generally, people don't mind spending their money when they have a good experience doing so. That's a sign of good customer service. Did you complete the job on time and on budget? Did you deliver what they needed? Did you, as the photographer, have trouble pricing the job? Did you make a profit?

Pay attention to all the indicators one way or another and adjust your shooting, pricing, and sales tactics accordingly. Listen to your customers. They are your best asset and indicator that you are doing a good job. No customers, no business. Don't be afraid to ask the difficult questions, including why you lost a shoot.

From this you can further evaluate your strengths and capitalize on those strengths. As Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt say in their book, The Power of Focus, "discover your brilliance" p.35. Don't get hung up on what you cannot or do not like to do. Learn. Move on. Get more experience doing what you love, and eventually hire people to do the things you are not so brilliant at.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to you all - clients, friends, colleagues and especially my students. It is the time of year when we assess our past and make resolutions in many areas of our life.

Resolutions in your photography business are important too. As you know there are many pressures that hinder your profit making such as micro stock, low balling competition, amateurs with high-end dSLR's that aren't focussed on sustainability, and the perception that "anyone can take a decent photo, so why hire a pro?"

I've had several discussions with photographers about low balling and amateur competition. My response is always, "Don't focus on them, they will not be able to sustain their business for long." Typically these people either have lots of money obtained in other ways, or another job that enables them to offer bargain priced photography on the side, just because they love to take pictures and they think it's fun to see their photos in magazines once in awhile. My advice to non-professional photographers is: Go ahead and take great pictures, but please charge proper rates. There are lots of sources on pricing, especially when it comes to licensing fees - Foto Quote, Editorial Photographers, and professional photographers like John Harrington who just feel it's good to share their pricing models. Typically photographers are very closed minded about sharing prices in their market, but the reality is by doing so, you can raise the bar.

There is a lot of photography work in my market in Calgary, but there are also many clients who offer next to nothing for professional photography. I recently had a discussion with a colleague and we both had terrible experiences with the same client which was an ad agency, that also ran a magazine. The scenarios were similar; rush job, no money to pay for photography, wanted to trade for ad space, poor management on client side and lots of other screw ups like no photo credits or returned phone calls. I talked to two other photographers who had worked for the same client and they both had similar experiences. We all did one or two jobs for this client and then realized that it was not a client we were interested in keeping. None of us will work for that client again. We all gave the client a chance, and were hoping for a return on our investment. I figure that within the year, no one in the city will work for that client because word will get around about them. So my point is, that it is important to network and share with other photographers so you can either collectively avoid those clients or collectively educate those clients and perhaps raise the bar.

After all, if they can sell "Fair trade coffee" we should be able to sell "Fair trade photography" that sustains us for the long term, allows us to take a salary, send our children to college, and save for the future with some sort of investments to live off of in our retirement. Isn't that what the clients want? We deserve the same.

Not sure where to start? See the Cost of Doing Business Calculator on the NPPA site. You may be shocked at the results.

Resolve to be a better business person in 2008. Estimate fairly and include licensing fees in all your quotes. If everyone does it, the clients will expect it and will get used to it. If they can't afford professional photography, they need to reassess their needs and their budgets, and not expect photographers to lower their rates.