[zincprincess]

I’m a geologist who wrote my thesis on zinc. Well specifically sphalerite (ZnS if you are into chemical formulas) and the sulfur isotope ratios blah, blah, blah . . . don’t make me talk about that. Also, I have been told that I’m a bit of a princess/diva from time to time when I don’t get my way. Princess Poopy Pants is my full nickname bestowed on me when I was slowly losing my mind in grad school. So I combined the two and became zincprincess.

If I had it to do over again, I think I would choose something more clever. Although right now I don’t know what that would be.

[zincprincess]

I am taking a photography class this semester and my professor is a professional photographer (weddings, kids, etc.). He has really opened my eyes to what good photographers charge around here. If you read my earlier post, you’ll see I’ve been getting the best deal in the entire southeast proper for photographs of my child. So admittedly, I was clueless. I’ll share with you what he shared with us last week.

He sells prints that are meant for display not digital files. He doesn’t print anything smaller than 8 x 10. His 8 x 10’s are $85 and come with a mat and backing so they are ready to go in a frame. I think the 16 x 20 is $125. He has three options for print size with the middle being the one he wants to sell. It works because very few people want to appear to be either cheapskate or the big spender. I think he steers people toward 16. x 20. As for digital files, if you buy his top wedding “collection” (packages are what you get at the JC Penney photo studio) for $4500 you get a disk with all the images at a resolution fit for nothing bigger than 8 x 10. I think he has gotten onboard with the whole facebook for photo sharing thing and they do offer facebook-sized images although I’m not sure what the price is for that. Probably free if you buy one of the high end collections.

We talked via Skype last week with a photographer in Australia (Susan Wall, if you are interested). She mentioned that when she was basically giving away her services for the opportunity to improve, very few people bought prints especially big prints. She attributed it to people not taking it seriously because they weren’t paying for it.

The bottom line is to make sure that you are charging a people a price that is justified based on your talent as a photographer. Only your talent and the market can determine what that price is.

[zincprincess]

zincprincess, my competitive nature almost stopped me from voting for your waterlily entry, but I couldn’t do it. Had to vote for it, it was just too good!

Thanks. 3rd is my highest place finish and only my 3rd or 4th top ten.

Congrats to CISS.

[zincprincess]

My bees (and my A’s):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/sets/72157627172512447/

The last four were from another outing, also 15 minutes from home.

[zincprincess]

Re: U-Man’s entry from 2011-07-27 08:13:19 PM, I had no idea the Flock of Seagulls hairstyle was making a comeback.

[zincprincess]

I have blown off both the 10-year and 20-year reunions for my high school. I moved and transferred high schools in the middle of 10th grade so I didn’t really establish any long term bonds. The few people I connected with I am friends with on facebook eliminating the need for a face to face reunion. Limited human interaction is one of my favorite things about the internet.

Apparently at my husband’s 10-year reunion a newly single gal and a single guy were nearly “fully involved” on the dance floor. They had to be asked by the class president to find a more private place for their reunion. If that happens at his 20-year this weekend, I’ll have my camera to capture it. That sort of thing seemed to garner a lot of votes for olavf in the Shore Thing contest.

[zincprincess]

I love the one with Atrus sitting on the bench looking ahead at the boardwalk.

Agreed (“waitin on mom”), and the “Contemplative Atrus”, as well.

I have/was/am told not to degrade my own photos, and I’ll suggest to you the same (even though I haven’t mastered that skill myself!)

Yep. What they said. Especially the part about not poo pooing your work. Practice makes perfect and all that.

I like the pictures of a kid being a kid. Posed pictures don’t convey their personality which is really what you are trying to capture. If that means you only get the back side of them running away from you, that’s fine.

[zincprincess]

I think that some combination of a terrabyte hard drive (probably internal on the desktop) with an online back up service is probably the way to go for us. Carbonite does not back up an external hard drive. So I’ll keep looking around at online back up services – perhaps CISS‘s suggestion. I have about 100 GB of photos and other stuff so mozy is out with its 125 GB limit.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I knew you guys (and gals) would not disappoint.

[zincprincess]

That frog shot’s pretty awesome.

Thanks. I was standing on some rocks at the edge of the pond wishing like hell a dragonfly would stay still long enough for me to get a decent picture. When I looked down, the frog was right under me. And unlike the uncooperative dragonflies, he didn’t mind posing for a shot or two.

[zincprincess]

I blew off work too this past week. Rather than posting a new thread, I’ll just put this here.

My job sucks right now for a variety of reasons that I won’t bore you with. So I decided to blow off work and do something I wanted to do. Sure I could have used the day to work on my resume, clean the house, etc. but where?s the fun in that? So I spent the day in the woods at the local nature center and then the botanical gardens. I lost about 5 pounds in sweat and a good bit of blood to the mosquitos, but it is a small price to pay for sanity even if it only lasts a day or two. My favorites are below and the full set is on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/sets/72157627197389270/

[zincprincess]

I borrowed this from one of my co-workers and lugged it around the woods and trails yesterday.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/220407-REG/Manfrotto_3021_Pro_Tripod_Legs.html

Holy cow is it heavy. He hikes up the mountains around here and he wanted something that would be stable for long exposures in 40 mph winds. This is up to the task. It is just too heavy for me to lug around. The search continues although I’m narrowing it down.

[zincprincess]

I had a hard time choosing. In the end I decided that it was supposed to be a theme about the ocean (or water) and not of my kid at the beach. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I opted for only one kid at the shore picture.

B’s (with the kid):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/5935112473/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/5935689666/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/5935704286/in/photostream/

Only one of my entries was shot with my DSLR. The rest are from the point and shoot. It will be interesting to see how they fare in the voting.

[zincprincess]

Stupid power outage. Had everything ready just about and it got windy enough took out our entire town’s power. Glad they have it back, but I was supposed to start back to work an hour and a half ago!

I feel your pain. We were without power for almost 96 hours last week after a freak summer storm.

[zincprincess]

Another week, another archive dive. Oh well. At least I had something. I wish I had time to really go explore for this contest but the pesky real world got in my way.

Here are the b’s.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/5910813684/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/5910254307/in/photostream/

[zincprincess]

Research continues . . . I see several tripods with a multi-position center column. Is this something worth having? I am not sure that I will need this capability but I often underestimate my needs when buying stuff. I’m probably going to buy a ball head w/quick release if that makes a difference in the answer.

Here is an example that I am considering.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/733656-REG/Vanguard_ALTA_PRO_264AT_Alta_Pro_264AT_4_Section.html

[Author]

Posts