Thomas Hawk has written a nice tutorial on shooting concerts. Well not so much on shooting concerts as how to be allowed to shoot concerts. He's got information about getting photo passes, being a polite concert photographer and lots of other things related to shooting a concert for non-commercial purposes.

So You Want to Shoot a Rock and Roll Star

Commenter Daniel Boud left a link to a more technical article he recently wrote about concert photography:

Concert Photography Masterclass
Concert Photography Masterclass Part 2

Boud is an incredible photographer of bands and live music. If this is an area of interest for you you'd do well to read his article and study his work and his blog. It's really excellent stuff.

SportShooter.com has a great article about the low angle technique sports photographer Peter Read Miller uses when shooting football games. His descriptions and the examples of this technique at work are outstanding. Particularly impressive are the photos of former USC running back Reggie Bush and San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson.

Describing the Reggie Bush shot Miller says

"It was not what I expected when he took off towards the right and I swung my camera while lying on the ground and he leaped over a UCLA defender on his way to a touchdown," Miller said. "A number of other photographers had the picture, but the low angle I had accentuated how high he jumped in the air."

Just goes to show that a little change in perspective can make all the difference in the world when shooting. Lots of other photographers probably caught Bush going in for the touchdown but this change in perspective made Miller's much more iconic and memorable.

via Rob Galbraith

My cousin Melissa just graduated from college. Before heading off to grad school in the fall she's going to spend 5 or 6 weeks in France. She asked for some photography tips to make her travel shooting the best it can be so she comes back with kick ass photographic evidence of the trip. Although Melissa was the inspiration for this post the information can be used by anyone about the hit the road, skies or seas this summer.

Dust on a DSLR's sensor is one of those unfortunate facts of life that basically every owner will have to deal with at some point. Shooting outdoors, changing lenses, and even simply using your camera puts you at risk for dust on the sensor. If you don't have dust now, you will later so be proactive and learn now what your options are for dealing with it.

As part of the "Master Photographers Tell You How" series TakeGreatPictures.com presents Al Gilbert's 10 Tips for Graduation Photography.

Photocritic blog points out this ingenius camera add-on to help make a photo session a lot more fun for children. Basically you trim the base (the feet) of a pez dispenser, slide it in to your camera's hot-shoe and watch as your subject is amused and entertained by the funny, candy containing creature just inches above your lens.

It's said that there are more cat photos on the internet than any other kind of picture. Or maybe I just imagined that because I've seen so many. Either way it's no secret that cat photos were a staple of early personal websites and are still frequent favorite subjects of photobloggers and flickr folks. As often is the case when something becomes really popular, perhaps even becomes a cliché, the self-appointed critics appear with their claws out.

Replace cat blogging with your favorite photographic cliché (mine happens to be flowers) and you'll be able to find plenty of self-imagined cool kids who will knock it because it's not arty or hip enough or doesn't live up to their aesthetic standards. But you know what? They've got their own clichés, we all do, photography is an extremely personal art and it's common for us to photograph things we like. Repeatedly. Over time that favored subject of yours is going to meet the definition of cliché but it doesn't matter. As long as you still enjoy shooting something and still find beauty and interest in it then it's still a worthy subject. That doesn't mean you should get lazy and take the same cat picture over and over again. You should try every time to take the best cat photo the world has ever seen. You won't hit it out of the park every time but you should try.

Here are some tips to help you embrace a few common photography clichés and and create wonderful shots.

Super photoblogger Joseph Holst is at it again with another diy project on the cheap. This time it includes using colored jewel cases for CDs to make your own color light. It's super simple (like seriously, two step simple) and works beautifully.

I attended a portfolios and presentations seminar today that I found very helpful. These are my notes from it.

1. Why are portfolios important to photographers?
A portfolio is a visual first impression. It’s an opportunity to present your photography in a context you’ve chosen.

2. What is a portfolio?
A portfolio contains:

Step 1: Getting Started
A. What subject matter really interests you?

• Focus on photographing something that interests you with the idea of creating a portfolio. Ideally the theme should be something that can be on-going so you can add to it over time
  
• You can have different portfolios for different themes (portraits, nature, etc.)

B. What is the goal and purpose of your portfolio?

• What do you want to do with your photographs?
  
• Who do you want to show your photographs to?
  
• Why did you take the photographs?
  
• Do you want to
  
  • Exhibit in Galleries?
    
    • Nature, Landscapes, Still-Life
      
  • Portraits or Wedding Photography
    
    • People, pets
      
  • Photojournalism
    
    • Events, People, Human Interest
      
  • Commercial
    
    • Products, Still-Life
      

Options/reasons for portfolios:

• A specific photographic endeavor
  
• Images from a single camera formal (35mm, Medium Format, Large Format, etc)
  
• Black & White photographs
  
• Hand colored photographs
  
• Sepia-tone photographs
  
• Photographs created over a specific period of time or at a specific location

C. Purpose/Goal = Artist’s Statement
1. Why do you photograph?
2. What do you want to show people or what do you want to do with your photographs?
3. What do you want people to take with them after viewing your work?

Simple artist’s statement: “I photograph for a purpose. Currently this purpose is to show the beauty and positive aspects of nature. My purpose is also to create photographs that will be exhibited and used to decorate homes and offices.” - Alain Briot

There was also an artier, more elaborate statement that I didn’t get completely written down.

Then we had to create an artist’s statement for a project or portfolio we are currently working on or one we plan to start soon.

My artist’s statement for a project that I’m beginning work on: I photograph to deconstruct idealized visions of farm and rural life. By documenting small family farms, migrant workers and farm children growing up in an urban and suburban-centric world, I hope to show viewers both the struggle and the beauty of modern American farming.

I was pleased with the way my statement turned out. I took more time writing mine than anyone in the class and I think it showed. Some of the statements were basically “I want to take pet or wedding portraits to make good money” or “I want to photograph beautiful nature scenes so they will be attractive to a good number of buyers.”

The instructor pointed out that while all of us want to make money with our art the artist’s statement in a portfolio is not the best place to spell that out.

Step 2: Editing
1. Review and select your photographs based on your artist’s statement
For the editing process gather all of your images that fit your goal/purpose (100 photographs would be a good starting place) and put them in one place (physical or computer location for digital files)

2. Step Away for a Day

3. Review the images you’ve selected and delete half (down to 50 at this point)

4. Wait 24 hours then review again and delete half again (down to 25 now)

5. Make 8x10 prints of the remaining images. DO NOT CHOOSE YOUR PORTFOLIO IMAGES BASED ON A COMPUTER SCREEN

6. Get a 2nd or 3rd opinion if needed to narrow images down to 15 photographs. Your second opinion shouldn’t be your significant other or your mom. Someone objective, preferably another photographer

Printing yourself is important. In many contexts (contests, judged shows) printing the image yourself (even digital images) gives your work more weight and gains you more respect as a photographer. The idea is that the photograph is totally yours from conception to presentation.

A. What not to include in your portfolio

• A photograph of lesser quality than the others
  
• A photograph that has not been spotted or corrected (or digitally post processed)
  
• Work prints
  
• Contact sheets

B. What your photographs should have

• Date
  
• Title
  
• Signature
  
• Print identification stamp (rubber stamp that serves as your mark. Meaning you use the same stamp on all of your work and you initial at least partially over the stamp)

All of this info should be on the back of the mat.

Portfolio images should never be printed on any kind of glossy paper. Matte or semi-gloss for digital prints

Step 3: Putting It All Together

A. Assembling your photographs

• Organize by subject
  
• Organize by photographic style
  
• Horizontal and vertical images should be grouped together
  
• All prints should be the same size
  
• Black and white images should be grouped separately from color

B. Most important to remember

• Keep it simple
  
• Keep it professional
  
• Make it easy to hold
  
• Make it easy to view
  
• Keep it consistent
  
• Keep it up to date
  
• Be critical of your own work and get a 2nd opinion when you need it!

Step 4: Protecting Yourself and Your Photographs
3 things help protect photographs and their work

Reference: Business and Legal Forms for Photographers

Soon I'm going to be shooting a portrait session for an almost one-year old. I have very little experience photographing children so I've been reading lots on it and looking at the work other photographers do with children and thinking about how to decrease any stress the session will cause to the child. Because a stressed child doesn't make for a good portrait sitting.

These are a few general guidelines and questions I've come up with:

1. Shoot where the child is comfortable. You're going to be a stranger, holding strange looking equipment, trying to get the child to focus his attention on you. You don't need to add any more differentness or uncomfortableness to the equation. If it were warmer I'd strongly suggest an outdoor shoot, perhaps the backyard or a familiar park. Since we're stuck with winter though the parents and I have agreed that shooting in the child's bedroom or playroom is the best option.

2. Work with the child's schedule Although lots of grown people generally say "oh mornings work best for me" or "mornings are awful for me" little kids are actually on pretty strict schedules that have concrete effects on their mood and energy level. Meet up with a toddler shortly before his morning nap time and you may quickly learn where the "terrible two's" label came from.

So for this shoot I've asked the parents to think about and observe their son to see when he has the most energy, what times of day he tends to be happiest, when he tends to be crankiest, when they are most likely to be able to get him to sit still for 2 minutes, etc.

3. Work with the light The best scenario is to scope out where you're going to be shooting before the actual shoot. You can look at the primary light sources (windows for natural light), evaluate shadows and dark spots, and see how the light works with the colors and tones in the space you're shooting in. Unfortunately that's not an option for me with this shoot. So I'm having to trust the parents to give me some solid information. I'm asking for information like how many windows are in the room, what directional wall are they on, when is the light brightest in this particular spot, etc. These are smart people so I'm sure they're going to give me good info but I'm prepping as though they might not. For example I'm planning to cover my bases by bringing flash, an alternate light source and having the parents choose an alternate portrait location within the house.

4. Help the Parents Go With the Flow I am not a big fan of traditionally posed portraits. I like more candid, naturally looking poses and setups. The parents already understand this and we've agreed to do a mixture of shots with poses and setups that I think will work best and some more "traditionally posed" shots that they're used to seeing. In addition to this though I'm making sure the parents know that some of the best stuff comes from the least expected moments. Perhaps the child will be really distracted by a stuffed animal in the corner. Mom would normally try to pull him back to the chair since that's where she wants him to be shot, but a picture of him cuddling that stuffed animal may be the cutest child pictures since this one. Go with the flow.

Those are some of the most important ones that I've thought of but let's look at it from the flip side, the parent's perspective. The above questions that I, as the photographer, am asking are the same ones that parents need to be asking when hiring someone to shoot their child's portrait. You want to make sure that you and the photographer do everything possible to get the best shots of your child and get the kind of shots that you want.

1. Are you going to work with my child's schedule?
2. Are you going to shoot where my child is comfortable?
3. Are you going to shoot the kind of poses and setups that I want?
4. Are you going to allot enough time for the shoot to deal with my child should he get cranky or distracted?
5. Anything else you feel I should know or consider?

Don't feel nervous about asking a lot of questions. Not only are you paying the photographer for her services but trust me, she wants to to do a good job and make you happy. And the best way for both the photographer and the client to be happy is for both sides to have lots of information, including knowing exactly what the expectations and requirements for each side are.