Photography on radio!

You can listen to interviews with photographers on Inside Digital Photo.

Rangefinder Magazine

I have a new favorite magazine…  it’s called Rangefinder Magazine and it caters to wedding and portrait photographers. I just got my first copy and I am a fan!

You can read the latest issue of the magazine here.

The [b] School

Here are some great tutorials about wedding photography.  They are done by Becker and it’s in video which I don’t usually like because I can read way faster than a video plays but he has some really good tips for beginners and intermediate photographers as well about workflow and marketing and networking and almost everything about wedding photography.  Best of all, it’s free!

http://www.thebschoolblog.com/

I’ve just also recently discovered Actions in Photoshop.  A lot of wedding photographers use Kubota Actions by Kevin Kubota as well as Totally Rad Actions by the Boutwells to make their photos POP!  Here is Becker’s post about actions. 

http://beckersblog.com/index.cfm?q=sotc&x=1&y=1
http://homepage.mac.com/thebecker/iblog/B533212817/C1640960333/E20060125154844/index.html

Master Tips from the Wedding Photography Experts

Here’s some wedding photography techniques from master wedding photographer Yervant Zanazanian:

http://www.wedshooter.com/2005/12/20/soft-touch

Here is Jessica Claire’s photographer FAQ from her blog which gives a lot of detail about her equipment, techniques and workflow:

http://www.jcsphoto.com/photographerfaq.html

And here is her blog posts where she answers photographers questions.

http://jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?catID=10

Best FREE Classified Ads to submit to

Submitting to classified ads sites is a great way to get free advertising, reach more people who are actively looking for service as well as increasing your search engine ranking. 

Make sure you have an actual working link from your ad to your website so that search engines can find your website.

I use gmail as my email address because it is very good in separating spam from valid emails and I can always tweak my filters so that I don’t get any emails with the word viagra or stuff like that.

Craigslist – Without a doubt, the MOST popular classified ad site in the USA.  It is a very effective venue because lots of people look through craigslist everyday.  Right now, I get more traffic from craigslist than from any wedding planning website.  Lots of bargain hunters though, as with all classified ad sites.

It has a very simple, zen-like interface which you might find boring in the beginning but once you get used to it, it’s really refreshing.

You have the ability to incorporate some HTML into your post so you can embed images in your post as well as layout your post with tables.  Javascript, video, flash and some attribute inside <style> tag are not allowed.

Being a very popular website, it is prone to spammers so expect a lot of spam from nigerian scams and other scams.  The nigerian scam is discussed in detail in another post.

Oodle - This is a great way to submit to lots of different classified ads site at the same time. 

Oodle is partnered with:

• Lycos
• Local.com Classifieds
• PennySaverUSA.com 
  National classifieds with the possibility for print in the Pennysaver magazine.
• eBay
  A global online marketplace.  Shop victoriously.
• OLX

Kijiji

Jaabu.com

Bestweddingpros

www.craigslist.org
www.backpage.com  
www.kijiji.ca
www.gumtree.com
loquo.com .
classifieds.myspace.com
expo.live.com
www.adlandpro.com
www.usfreeads.com 
www.adpost.com
www.TheFlyer.com
www.salespider.com
www.ozfreeonline.com
www.ClassifiedAds.com
www.freeadvertisingforum.com
www.sell.com 
www.InetGiant.com
www.adquest3d.com
www.recycler.com
www.chooseyouritem.com
www.domesticsale.com
www.epage.com
www.classifiedsforfree.com 
webcosmo.com 

StumbleHere.com
iSell.com
base.google.com   

Photography Forum lurking

Every day, as I go about my daily work : usually either editing photos, preparing for a new shoot or fixing my website, I run into various problems, questions and dilemmas. 

I’ve found that the best and fastest way to answer my questions is usually through forums, most notably

        Photo.net 
        Digital Wedding Forum - requires registration
        Photography-on-the.net Canon Digital Photography Forum

I like Photo.net best because there is no need to register and the information there is really good. I usually do a Google search like “keyword site:photo.net” where keyword would be replaced by the keyword that I’m looking for. I don’t really know why I do this instead of just using Photo.net’s search engine (which is also google), I guess cause it’s more convenient cause I have a Google toolbar.

I also like Digital Wedding Forum but I hate the hassle of logging on everytime I need information and also the fact that I can’t google them like I do Photo.net. The advantage of dwf is that since it is ONLY for photographers, there are some information there that are more delicate I guess and photographers are less afraid to say what they mean in case their clients are googling them.

I rarely go to the Canon forum, probably because I’m not really a canon user but also because usually between photo.net and dwf, my question usually gets answered.

The only problems with these forums are that sometimes, instead of people answering questions to help other people, some threads devolve into debates about things that aren’t really relevant (ex. somebody would ask for advice of which camera to buy and the thread devolves into a film vs digital debate or nikon vs canon debate which might not necessarily be helpful to the person asking the question)

I always need to look through several threads to get an answer cause I guess there really isn’t one answer to any question.

Writing blogs and blog stalking…

As you all probably don’t know, I have recently moved from other blog sites to my new blog site here at wordpress.  I have two blogs, one is for photographers and one is for my clients.  I love love LOVE wordpress since I can put really BIG photos in this blog compared to my old blogs (see my old blog for photographers and for clients ).

 I’ve also taken to blog stalking. The blogs I’m stalking the most now is:

Jessica Claire’s Blog
I love Jessica Claire and at the same time I hate her and I want to scratch her eyes out cause I’m so jealous!  Just kidding, Jessica Claire is really great, I love her photos cause they’re always fun, fresh and the colors are super punchy!  I learn a lot just looking at her photos and in her blog, she sometimes explains how she does some of the stuff that she does.  It’s a blog for her clients so you kinda have to read between the lines, and imagine a little bit, but she also has a lot of tutorials around the web so if you search for her name on Google, you’ll find out a lot about how she does what she does.  

Here is Jessica Claire’s FAQ about Photography

Here is Jessica Claire’s video tutorial on Simple Photo Minute about how she gets her pictures to be so punchy in Adobe Photoshop. Or if that doesn’t work, try Jessica Claire’s video tutorial

Jessica Claire also has a text version of the video somewhere in the Digital Wedding Forum but you have to be a registered member to view it.   She also has an interview         

Other blogs that I plan to stalk soon when I have the time are:
          Jeff Ascough’s blog for photographers
          Interview on Jeff Ascough.
           Becker’s blog for photographers
          Anne Almasy’s Blog
 
If you find any blogs worth stalking, please post it in the comment below. 

Happy Blog Stalking!

Photography Resources

Here are some links to digital photography resources.

Photography
http://www.simplephototv.com – videos created by photographers, for photographers
http://www.wedshooter.com – articles on wedding photography by popular wedding photographers
http://www.newschoolphoto.com/blogme – digital photography tools & tutorials
http://www.photolovecat.com – contributions to the world of wedding photography
http://mattantonino.com – Matt Antonino’s site for photographers
http://whattheduck.net – comic relief
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/index.asp – digital photography
http://www.betterphoto.com/allAbout.asp – everything
Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines – for digital newbies
www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/photography.htm – for luddites who still love 35mm film cameras
PhotoNotes.org – Canon EOS Flash Photography Info & many other articles

Magazines and Newsletters
http://www.ppmag.com – professional photographer magazine
http://www.rangefindermag.com – rangefinder magazine
http://www.wedpix.com – the WPJA’s monthly online magazine
http://www.wppionline.com – WPPI’s monthly newsletter for wedding & portrait photographers 
PDN magazine – great for the latest industry news and their annual wedding issue

Business
http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/cdb/ – cost of doing business calculator

Photography Tips and Techniques
http://www.planetneil.com/faq/index.html – tips
http://weddingphotographyproject.wordpress.com – techniques for getting the images you want
http://www.photoshoptv.com – digital photography tips and tricks from photoshop gurus

Photography Lighting and Flash Tutorials
http://strobist.blogspot.com – lighting tools & tips
http://makelightreal.com/ – lighting tutorials
http://www.planetneil.com/faq/flash-techniques.html great resource on how to make your flash technique better.

Photography Backdrops
http://www.betterphoto.com/exploring/MakingBackDrops.asp – making backdrops

Adobe Photoshop Tips for Digital Photographers
http://www.atncentral.com/ – free actions
http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/ – photoshop tips
http://epaperpress.com/psphoto/index.html – more photoshop
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/ – more photoshop
http://www.radiantvista.com/video_tutorials/ – photoshop tutorials
http://www.photoshoptv.com/ – photoshop tv
http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html – photoshop tips

Websites about Photography Gear
http://www.the-digital-picture.com – a good site for some ‘hands-on’ canon gear reviews.
http://www.conraderb.com/flashrepair  illustrated tutorial on fixing your canon flash shoe

Feel free to add your favorite links in the comments below.

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