The Other Side of Me

Come see my other blog with all the thing that I can't talk about here!  Go Here  http://seekingmychazown.blogspot.com/

A Bridge to Photos

That was a terrible title but I'm sleepy. Anyway, after work last week I stopped by the Diamond Jack's casino. Not to gamble away my hard earned money, but because there is a train trellis over the Red River right next to it. I'd drive by that bridge twice a day and have always wanted to stop and photograph it but have never taken time to do so. Well I finally did go and got some great photos. I was constantly looking over my shoulder for the train to come barreling toward me at any moment, but I edged my way out.

For the ones below I actually just sat on the tracks.  I tried using my tripod but it couldn't get low enough and I just ended up holding the camera.

I thought that the pictures were very cool until I got home and realized one glaring problem; no subject.  If I had thought about it at the time I would have found a flower or at least a weed growing between the tracks to focus on.  Right now they are just kind of cool photos with nothing in particular to pull your eye to.

Church Photos

One of the eventual goals of our Photography class is have a pool of "trained" photographers to take pictures of events at church as well as provide "stock" typed photography for various advertisments and such.  Well for a couple of weeks now I've been grabbed at the last minute (literally) to take photos of things we had.  The first week was when we had Darrel Evans (the creator of the song "I'm trading my sorrows", among others).  The service was already started when Anna Joy, the paster's wife, asked me to take photos.  I've started getting in the habit of taking my camera everywhere I go so I went out to the car to get it and tried to get a few good ones.  This was my first experience taking concert-style photos so it was a great learning experience.  Here's some of the good ones:

The next week Anna Joy snagged me as I was coming through the door and asked if I would take some photos of the kids Palm Sunday skit.  There wasn't anything too great with that but I took the opertunity to also take some stock photos.  Here are those:

Stock Report 11 Apr 10

Ok, long time, no update. My bad. I think the initial surge of excitement surrounding the class, getting new gear, and the prospect of selling online has worn off a little, especially now that I realize this semi-pro photographer thing is going to be some work and I can't just take photos of what ever I find interesting and sell them by the hundreds. But I still love the camera and am still enjoying what I do. I may never become a famous photographer and change my name to Claude, but I'm learning and we'll see what God has for me down the road.
"So how is selling stock photography working out for you?" you may ask. Well here are my current stats at the companies I've submitted to.

123RF.com
Accepted = 0
Pending = 24
Rejected = 0
Sold = 0

Crestock.com
Accepted = 0
Pending = 37
Rejected = 0
Sold = 0
This site is annoying me. It was the first site I submitted to over a month ago and they still haven’t approved/disapproved my photos.

BigStockPhoto.com
Accepted = 15
Pending = 19
Rejected = 28
Sold = 0

Dreamstime.com
Accepted = 9
Pending = 0
Rejected = 26
Sold = 1!
I like the upload form on this site. It's fast and I can do multiple ones at the same time.

So I'm officially published! Don't worry; I won't let my $.35 go to my head.

Tricks of the Trade - Episode 1: A "Catch" to the Eye

I thought I'd pretend that there was a large following of interested photographic people who are following my blog, because I'm egotistical like that, and post some tips from time to time of things I've learned from other people or from playing around myself.  This is one from a site I found detailing how to shoot children (with the camera, that is all) and how to edit photos.  I found it very helpful, especially the area discussing adding a "catch" to the eyes.  Take a read and give it a try.  Here's one I did of Lorelei:

Before:

After:

A Trip to the Nursery

Our gardening class (yes, I'm in a gardening class too 'cause I'm a girl) went to Akin's Nursery this past weekend.  We picked up a tomato and a couple other things.  I also snapped some pics (because I'm the weird guy who always has his camera on him).  I got several nice ones and plan on posting them for stock.  Here they are:

The Learning Curve

The problem with having an awesome new camera with all the bells and whistles is that you have to KNOW how to ring the bell and blow the proverbial whistle. My previous experience was more or less point and click with a few adjustments on the fly. Now, I have to decide do I want my wide-angle or telephoto lenses? Use the on-board flash (the ugly maker), the mounted flash, or no flash? And if I use a flash should I use the diffuser and/or angle the mount away? Do I go with the prescribed settings for different scenarios or do I mess with the aperture and shutter speed to get what I want? It's all well and good when I have the time to figure it out but when my subject is running away, or setting (in the case of the Sun), or burning (in the case of the food on my grill!) I don't have the time to figure all of that out and I'm usually not happy with what I get.


Everything I've been reading the last couple of weeks tells me that I just need to practice and get to know my camera (duh). I just wish they had sent a operating manual. All they sent was this 1/2 inch cu...... oh, well this should help.