I need to motivate myself to start updating this, and to take my photography more seriously. I did a photoshoot for a friend a few weeks back, and it had me questioning how to value my own work and what to charge. This is something I'm still grappling with, but at a work party last night I talked to some fellow artists about how important it is to take yourself seriously. If you don't, no one else will. If you hesitate when asked how you'd like to be reimbursed for your work, that's not good. I'm thinking about this, and I have no idea how much to charge when asked to take photos for someone. I tend to devalue my own work, which is a problem. So, this is something I'm struggling with, and will continue to make attempts at figuring out. If you've got any ideas, please comment!
A few weeks ago I moved to Northampton, and I feel a lot more inspired here than I did in the woods of Sunderland. Granted, there are some beautiful fields and barns in Sunderland, which I do miss- but something about this little city gets my creative energy flowing. I've got a few ideas for photo series that I want to do, and I'm meeting more artists that are also helping to inspire me.
Here are a few pictures that I've taken recently.
This is Lyz, as are the next couple of shots.
My cat, wishing she could be out on the porch with. I like working with reflections lately, and I've been thinking a lot about them. To be continued, possibly...
I haven't updated this in so long, I have so many pictures I want to post.
Amelia and Simone- sisters. I'll never get sick of the way my lens adapter ring warps the background and edges of some of my photos.
Jess and Axel
The sky after the tornado warning-inducing storms we had in The Pioneer Valley the afternoon I moved into my apartment in Northampton turned everything yellow. I think I'll bake cookies today to fill this display case, it's looking lonely.
I suppose that's it for now. I have a strong desire to give this blog more direction, and possibly to make it into more of a website. I'm finally passing in my thesis today, so aside from working full-time in retail and trying to start a worker's cooperative grocery store, I've got a lot more time on my hands. I don't think I'll miss being a student very much.
Hey Laura!
ReplyDeleteThose are some really beautiful pictures you posted, wow! I was wondering what kind of camera / lenses you were using for those, and what you tend to use in general. Also, do you edit your photos in Photoshop or an equivalent, or are those unaltered?
Keep up the good work!
Billy
Thanks Billy :) I need to get better about posting what lenses and settings I use for different shots. It's hard, though, because the lenses I use are non-ai lenses and can only be used in manual mode, and the camera isn't able to record the EXIF info. So, if I want to know what my settings were, I have to either write them down or try to remember. Luckily I use my 35mm Nikkor-O 35mm f1:2 the most, and I generally keep the aperture set to 2 because I love the shallow depth of field that gives. I also love the amount of light it lets in, which is helpful because non-ai lenses are not compatible with the flash that's built into my camera. I have external flashes, but I haven't figured out how and when to use them just yet. They're older, so it's a little riskier what with their higher voltage and my newer camera body.
ReplyDeleteFor this post, I can tell that I used this 35mm Nikkor-O lens because of the edges of the photos. See how they've got that vignette, almost warped look to them? That's because of the adapter ring that I use to create the vignette effect, and I really only use that ring with this lens because it's yielded the best results.
For editing, I've started out just using iPhoto's simple edits- I usually just adjust the contrast or the levels, but since iPhoto's update came out I've been really unhappy with the results of those editing features. I've been trying to move to Photoshop for my editing, but I've been searching for a stream-lined way to edit larger batches of the photos I upload from my camera. It seems to slow my computer down considerably when I try to edit more than one photo at a time. I do prefer Photoshop, though, so I'm moving towards working with it more and abandoning iPhoto altogether.
I plan to include details like this in future posts, so I'm glad you asked, Billy- this is what this blog was supposed to be about in the first place.