10 Absolute NOs! for Freelancers Tip on Behance Network

This list nails it. There are a few others, but this NO list works well. And I have heard them all. Read the whole thing.

10 Absolute NOs! for Freelancers Tip on Behance Network:

"5) Can I pay for my e-commerce site from my website sales? No.

I hate to be the pessimist, but when I am asked this, I want to tell them that they most likely won't make any money so they might as well ask me to do it for free. Yes, I know there are exceptions, so sometimes I will ask them about their business, marketing, and revenue plans, which 99% of them don't have. They just thought that selling t-shirts would a novel idea for the internet. I usually go into a spiel about having to support me and my family, and I can't do it with speculative work -- I then recommend Yahoo! Shopping or CafePress, and 9 times out of 10, they never get their site up anyways."

ReadyPhotoSite Blog » 8 Significant Trends in Photography Website Design

ReadyPhotoSite Blog » 8 Significant Trends in Photography Website Design:

"In this post we overview 8 trends in photography portfolio design we observed and identified while analyzing personal websites of well-known professional photographers. Hopefully, it will inspire you for your own creative projects. By the way, if you have any suggestions falling into categories listed below or we missed any recent photo portfolio design technique, let us know in comments!"

3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand

3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand:

"If you do decide you want Facebook to support your personal brand, then you will have to capitalize on its openness and the ability to grow your network, one friend request at a time. There are three new features that you should pay close attention to, as you tap into the millions of resources presented to you on the service. Each feature — tagging, Pages and widgets, and real-time search — is tied to a specific personal branding strategy."

33 Wordpress Plugins To Power Up Your Comment Section | Graphic and Web Design Blog -Resources And Tutorials

Wow. I had no idea there were this many. Some of these look pretty sweet. And they work with the Lighting Essentials Word Press Sites for Photographers. Check those out here.

33 Wordpress Plugins To Power Up Your Comment Section | Graphic and Web Design Blog -Resources And Tutorials:

"As always I am trying to mix up topics I cover and this can be considered as continue to previous article. Last time we got inspired and examined many good blog comment form examples, but this time I went further and found 33 Wordpress plugins, which can be used effectively to power up and evolve comment form possibilities and security. If programming is not your strongest side, then such automatized plugins will be irreplaceable for your blog! If you know some more effective comment form plugins, feel free to add them in our comment section! For the next time I am thinking about Wordpress comment section hack roundup article, so stay with us!"

Santa Claus and Tropical Flora in Saint Louis

Just a fun shot before the meetup in Saint Louis. Fun workshop

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Sylvain Dumais chats with Heather Morton

Well, this article should make you think long and hard about current perceptions and practices.

The Lounge Week 29: Sylvain Dumais — HeatherMortonArt buyer:

Sylvain:
"My bet is, that in 5 years the photographers who just do photo will be really slow. Advertisers are moving strongly to the web and the web loves motion (great article about the future here). Besides, even the cameras are able to do both things (the Red shoots stills and the 5D shoots video). From now on, every Canon and Nikon will shoot video and they will keep improving. At the same time, as everything is computer based now, photography is less of a craft unfortunately. Creatives in agencies have cameras and they don’t always feel the need to hire a pro photographer, sometimes they do it by themselves too. I’m teaching at Pikto where some of my student don’t know much, but have the same gear than me and are shooting here and there for corporate and commercial clients. And those CGI artist are getting really good, I would have never have guessed that these pictures were CGI."

How to Compete

How to Compete:

"How do we compete with other companies? What are our unique differentiators? In a world where everything is pretty much the same, what matters? They’re bigger than us. They have more budget than us. They have the market share."

Raping a thirteen year old girl? Bad? Naww, that's cool stuff in Hollywood.

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Hollywood Unites to Defend Polanski:

"Which begs a question: If his unspeakable deed doesn’t meet the standard, what exactly would Roman Polanski have to do in order to become a pariah in this town … I mean, besides vote for Sarah Palin?"

Approaches to Showcasing Work in Your Portfolio Site | Vandelay Design Blog

Some very nice approaches here.

Approaches to Showcasing Work in Your Portfolio Site | Vandelay Design Blog:

"For freelance designers and design studios, portfolio websites that effectively showcase the work are an important asset in terms of generating new leads and new business. In this post we will show many of the different approaches that you can take for displaying your work. The post includes examples from more than 30 portfolio sites from designers and photographers, along with a description of the approach that is being used."

Heather Morton's Blog Keeps Kickin' It!

Quickly becoming one of my most recommended and read blogs.

The Lounge: Your Behind-the-Scenes Videos — HeatherMortonArt buyer:

"Suffice it to say that they are generally considered a good thing by Art Buyers but don’t let producing them distract you from what you’re really here to accomplish."

Well, Yeah... that works too...

Heh..

The post in which Heather gets angry — HeatherMortonArt buyer:

"If you aren’t doing good solid work (mid tier) or super interesting work (top tier) then put down the laptop, pick up the camera and go fucking shoot something fantastic!"

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site - Inside CRM

Pretty good list of ideas here.

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site - Inside CRM:

"A webmaster's work is never done. What may have worked a few years ago when could be outdated today, so it's important to constantly improve your Web site. However, a massive overhaul is just too much work to undertake at one time. Instead, tackle these quick fixes over time, and you'll be able to improve your Web site with minimal pain."

The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap « Deep Dive Marketing

Smart young lady, this Imogen. Wonderfully astute to the new marketing situations.

The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap « Deep Dive Marketing:

"It’s been a while since someone in the music business impressed me. Finally, somebody has impressed me so much that it inspired me to launch my long-overdue company website and marketing blog. This is the story of how one woman and 700,000 (and climbing) followers on Twitter are creating the new music business model.

During the past ten years we’ve seen dramatic shifts in the music business. Since the launch of Napster and other peer to peer sharing sites there’s a growing sense among consumers that music – at least the songs – should be free. We’ve seen record label executives struggle with the changing environment, we’ve seen some independent artists thrive, and we’ve seen some major-label artists go independent and take advantage of this turn. Is it that we must give the songs away for free? Or is there some other asset of perceived greater value that we can offer fans, and still successfully sell music?"

The Quiet Power of Microsites

The Quiet Power of Self Directed Projects is another title for this piece. Photographers who aren't doing personal projects are really missing one of the most amazing facets of what we do.

The Quiet Power of Microsites:

“Days With My Father” is just one of several projects sites Toledano has created. It’s also one of many Web sites photographers in general have created to showcase a specific project, apart from their commercial portfolio sites. The projects often reflect creative ambitions, and the sites emphasize the work while barely mentioning the photographer. Self-promotion, in other words, is not the primary intent but executed well, project sites can lead photographers to new assignment opportunities, print sales, and offers for exhibitions and book projects."

Intricately Designed, Multiple Occupancy, AeroDynamic Carbon-Based Lifeform Transportation and Barf Creating Devices

Just a fun day on the beach in San Diego.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Great last-moment hotel offers on Twitter from Inoqo - Home - Inoqo

Great last-moment hotel offers on Twitter from Inoqo - Home - Inoqo:

"Hotels give us great last-moment rooms they’re desperate to fill.
You won't find these unique offers anywhere else."

Photographers take aim at Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen’s bucks - BostonHerald.com

Papparazzi disgust me. But not as much as 'Celebrities' who think they have the right to act like thugs.

Oh wait... they do.

Photographers take aim at Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen’s bucks - BostonHerald.com:

"The two claim they had permission from neighbors to stand on their property and photograph the Brady-Bundchen weddding. However, the couple’s security guards rousted them as they returned to their car and demanded their cameras and memory cards. The pair refused and took off, which is when, they say, they were fired upon."

The Internet's New Enforcer: The FCC chairman appoints himself top cop on the World Wide Web. - Reason Magazine

Unfuckingbelievable. From a democratic republic with freedomes to a fascistic country where gubment and business are thrown into a symbiotic relationship against the people. Swell.

The Internet's New Enforcer: The FCC chairman appoints himself top cop on the World Wide Web. - Reason Magazine:

"A better analogy, however, would be to a judge and jury. Genachowski doesn't merely envision a Web bound by FCC rules, but one subject to the momentary whims of FCC commissioners. 'I will propose that the FCC evaluate alleged violations of the non-discrimination principle as they arise, on a case-by-case basis.' In theory, this gives the FCC more flexibility, allowing the agency to be smarter and more generous when weeding out violators. But in practice, it's likely to expand the bureaucracy's reach as it refuses to define the boundaries of its authority.

Clearly defined regulations are probably unnecessary, but at least they would provide innovators a sense of stability. But Genachowski's case-specific approach to judging violations—essentially we'll know it when we see it—doesn't even give them that. Now, whenever a telecom company wants to implement a new service or product that works by manipulating traffic flow on the Web, it will have to worry about whether or not its innovation might set off Genochowski's sense of... well, whatever it is that he and the rest of the regulators at the FCC don't like.

Nor was that the speech's only bureaucratic power grab: Genachowski also announced, as previously suspected, that the FCC would move into regulating the wireless data..."

HeatherMortonArt buyer

Quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs, Heather Morton supplies interesting and very cogent posts on the realities of commercial photography. Thanks, Heather. Very nicely done.

The Lounge: Evaan Kheraj — HeatherMortonArt buyer:

"It all started a few weeks ago when a photographer I had never heard of wrote me a note saying he was in town from Vancouver for that day only- he knew it was super short notice but could he show me his book? Well, I was out of town so no, he couldn’t. No worries, he followed up saying he would pop his book in the mail for me. Unsolicited but… OK."

APE - The Value Of Behind The Scenes Videos

Are behind the scenes videos now going mainstream for photographic marketing? APE has some ideas...

A Photo Editor - The Value Of Behind The Scenes Videos:

"Now, I’m sure there’s a group of you who will see this as a sign the apocalypse has arrived, but I do think there are tasteful ways to do behind the scenes videos and subtly suggest you have the skills and temperament to handle big productions. Just don’t be the person who’s better on camera than behind the camera."

Dust storm in Australia: A Photographic Presentation

Simply wonderful images of Sydney shrouded in dust. Incredible.

Dust storm in Australia - The Big Picture - Boston.com:

"A huge outback dust storm - 500 km (310 mi) wide by 1,000 km (620 mi) long - swept across eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, September 23rd, disrupting flights and ground transportation and forcing people indoors for shelter from the hazardous air, gale-force winds, and in some places hailstorms. Those few who ventured outside, especially at dawn, were greeted by a Martian sky, familiar landmarks blotted out by the heavy red dust blowing by. Collected here are a few photos of the worst dust storm Sydney has seen in 70 years, three of which you can click to see a before/after fade effect."

A Slideshare on Social Media and Business.

An excellent presebntation on social media and how businesses are using it to create conversations, monitor what others are saying about them, and deliver value through information.

Communications, Social Media & Business

View more presentations from Lars Voedisch.

Well, thanks be to our benevolent overseers. There are now cameras on the beach. I feel warm and fuzzy now! Really.

Mission Bay, from the beach series.

I used a flash on the pole. I took its soul.
I felt somehow vindicated or dismissed...

Not certain how the feelings of having cameras on the beach makes me feel.
Safe? Meh...

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

Chat Y! messenger: dgiannatti Skype: wizwow AIM: wizwow Google Talk: don.giannatti

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Dry Erase White Board Paint for Offices | IdeaPaint

Now this is really amazing, and very cool too.

Dry Erase White Board Paint for Offices | IdeaPaint:

"When you’re confined to the space of a typical whiteboard, your ideas are destined to be small. IdeaPaint turns virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving you the space you need to collaborate, interact and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, big ideas follow."

A Carousel in Mission Beach, San Diego captured against an interesting cloudy evening

One of the shots from the Beach series, this carousel was kinda fun to shoot. I used a strobe to add to the ambient just a little. I liked the structure and the ambient and the lights were too contrasty, so I filled it in a little to keep the detail.

Mission Beach, CA. I love that place.

Don Giannatti - Mobile Unit 5
www.lighting-essentials.com | www.learntolight.com | www.dongiannatti.com

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9 Ways to Make Your Writing More Compelling – FreelanceSwitch

9 Ways to Make Your Writing More Compelling – FreelanceSwitch:

"Here are nine ways to make all of your writing more compelling and interesting:"

New "Gray Scale" WP Website for Lighting Essentials: Design studies for consideration

We are launching some new WP Theme Websites at Lighting Essentials.
http://www.lighting-essentials.com/wordpress-themes-for-photographers/

This theme has the home page "New Work" with 10 images but instead of using thumbnails we are using small blocks for navigation.

I am thinking about using the left side as a widget area for recent tweets or facebook entries.

About page will be similar.

The home page and portfolio pages will be using our JQuery gallery, so the whole site will be viewable in iPhones etc...

There is enough text areas on each page to create the powerful SEO that photographers need.

If you are thinking about a new website, you should check out our WordPress based websites with built in blog.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

Chat Y! messenger: dgiannatti Skype: wizwow AIM: wizwow Google Talk: don.giannatti

Contact Me LinkedinFacebookFlickrTwitter

--- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices « Smashing Magazine

This is such a good article! Read it all.

Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices « Smashing Magazine:

"A general question that comes up often is whether to design a visually appealing dark website (that is, use big bold typography and vivid colors to give the user a colorful and memorable experience) or a softer lighter website (one that has a simple structure and clean typography).

Surprisingly, according to our studies:

* 82% of portfolio websites have a light design with neutral calm colors. The backgrounds of these websites may be a light shade of gray or yellow, rather than pure white (e.g. Happycog, SimpleBits, 80/20 and Concentric Studio).
* 29% of portfolio websites have very vibrant, striking colors (e.g. 45royale, Hicksdesign, Duoh, Frexy and Odopod)
* Dark websites are much more likely to have big typography and strong visuals (e.g. Adaptd, OrderedList, Carsonified, Blue Flavor, SidebarCreative and pod1).

Of course, picking a dark or light design depends strongly on your personal approach and individual goals for your portfolio. Saying that the “trend” strong favors light designs would be inaccurate because each type serve its purpose in its particular context."

Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices « Smashing Magazine

Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices « Smashing Magazine:

"We have brainstormed on the most important design issues and asked designers across the globe what design decisions they often have to make when designing a portfolio website. We also asked designers what questions they would like answered or analyzed in our case study. In the end, we came up with a bag of 40 solid portfolio-related questions — sorted, grouped and ranked according to importance. Finally, we searched for a good mix of established design agencies and well-designed portfolio websites of small and large agencies."

Lauren in Minneapolis: A Portrait with Cranes.

I kinda liked the cranes in the background, and the little sun flare was nice as well.

Bare flash, very quick shoot.

(sorry for post without image.)

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Lauren in Minneapolis: A Portrait with Cranes.

Just a simple portrait of Lauren, one of our Minneapolis models for the workshop.

I kinda liked the cranes in the background, and the little sun flare was nice as well.

Bare flash, very quick shoot.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Stephen Shore - American Surfaces - The Art Newspaper

One of the 20th Centuries most influential photographers gives us a glimpse into his thought process and working style.

Stephen Shore - American Surfaces - The Art Newspaper:

"Stephen Shore talks to Jean Wainwright about his early works which saw him photographing Andy Warhol in his Factory. With stills from the era, this interview offers an insight into the workings of both Warhol and Shore. He also discusses his transition from black and white to colour photography, a move which gallery owner Paul Strand tried to convince him not to take."

David Hume Kennerly on Newsweeks Photo Use

Another nail in the coffin of MSM. The narrative cannot trump the truth. The narrative cannot exist in the halls of the newsroom or the confidence of the reader will deteriorate at ever increasing rates. Newsweek lost me a long, long time ago. Too bad. They just don't get it.

Essay: Chop and Crop - Lens Blog - NYTimes.com:

"We photojournalists have a long and storied tradition of striving for objectivity. Many of my colleagues have died flying that banner. I consider myself as much historian as photographer, having spent a 40-year career endeavoring to make photographs that inform, not misinform. My heroes are the likes of Joe Rosenthal, who photographed the Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima; Eddie Adams, whose photo of a South Vietnamese police officer shooting a Viet Cong suspect changed the course of a war; and countless others who have hung their lives out to capture the facts through the lens of a camera. Their photos have provided a raw and unflinching view of the world and have contributed to a free society’s understanding of sometimes harsh reality.

The advent of digital photography and the proliferation of instant images have dulled the power of historical photos against the steady and relentless 24-hour drumbeat of the “breaking story” syndrome, which holds publications and networks hostage to the relentless demands of feeding the News Monster. It doesn’t help to have the photos misrepresented on top of that."

Off-the-Grid Living – Self Reliance Through Home Solar and Wind Power and Farming - Popular Mechanics

Interesting. Very, very interesting.

Off-the-Grid Living – Self Reliance Through Home Solar and Wind Power and Farming - Popular Mechanics:

"Carpenter, the author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, is, by her own admission, “a bit nuts.” If so, she has company—similar farms have sprung up on city blocks in Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh and Detroit. And food is hardly the only commodity that people are producing for themselves these days. A small but growing number of American households generate all of their electricity using wind, solar or micro-hydro. But off-the-grid living has come to mean something more nuanced than cutting all ties with utilities and society; for many, it’s about finding creative ways to produce and conserve resources at home. Hundreds of thousands of Americans capture rainwater in barrels, can food from their gardens, heat water with solar collectors and commute by bicycle. We may be nearly a decade into the 21st century, but the self-reliant spirit of an earlier era—that of homesteading pioneers—has returned with gusto."

Still Life Shot for an Magazine Ad | LIGHTING ESSENTIALS For Photographers

Well, my Volleyball client needed a new ad. That’s great. We needed it to be concepted, shot, and produced in one day. A day that had me doing other things as well. Stressful? A little, but I have been at this game long enough to know that it will get done. It always does.

Concept was easy. The software they design for Volleyball coaches currently runs on Palms and handheld devices. A lot of coaches are wanting it to run on a laptop as they are starting to carry laptops to the games for other things and it would be nice to only have one device courtside. Announcing the availability of a PC based software for laptops is the overall message of the ad. It wasn’t meant to overshadow the total message of the two available software packages, but to let those who are currently using the older software that a new tool was now ready.

via lighting-essentials.com

This post has been getting some attention. Hmmmm....

Posted via web from Now This is Cool...

Lighting Essentials - a Place for Photographers. Learn Lighting, Photography, Fashion and Editorial Portraiture on Location and In Studio. Portable Strobes, Studio Flash and Natural Light Photography

I have decided that it would be easier to simply catalog all the great excuses photographers can use for failing at business. This list is intended to help you decide in advance which excuse will work for you. And that will save you time, and get you going. Having goals are important, and if you want to fail, I am here to help you establish some goals.

That’s me. Mr. Helpful.

If you haven’t figured out that I am tongue in cheek here, I am. I don’t want anyone to fail. I love success. I love it when other folks succeed. I want photographers to succeed. It’s good for the industry. It’s good for people.

Unfortunately, failure is most definitely something we all have to deal with. It is a competitive field. That’s a reality.

But there are things that photographers do that exacerbate the challenges we already have to face. We are going to look at 10 of them. If you recognize any that seem, well… recognizable, here is a chance for you to reverse the trend as they say.

via lighting-essentials.com

My newest post on LE. We are approaching things from a bit of a different view these days. Aiming more for the Emerging Photographer than the beginning shooter. Beginners are certainly welcome to come along for the ride though.

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Well... there is that...

Still not making it up...

WillCollier.com: More Mush From The Wimp:

"And for those too young to remember history's greatest monster (thanks, Glenn), Jimmah's empty slander is just another sign of the unbecoming moral vanity at the heart of the modern Left, to say nothing of its overweening intolerance for any hint of dissent. People know good and well that being opposed to socialized medicine or trillion-dollar deficits doesn't make them racist. Calling them ugly names isn't going to make them cower away in fear--it's going to make them more convinced than ever that they're in the right."

Filed under: You can't make this stuff up.

You really can't.

Cops: Fox Lake teacher gave drugs and booze to students - Chicago Breaking News:

"Kym Krocza, of the 36300 block of North Wilson Road in Ingleside, allegedly paid the girls with the items in exchange for doing household chores for her sometime between January and August of this year, Lake County Sherriff Mark Curran said."

The End Starts Here

I am such a huge Rodney Smith fan. Nice to see his blog.

The End Starts Here:

"This applies to music as well: much of music, obviously, is a technical skill, as is photography. However, the difference between a good musician and a great musician is, I think quite obvious: emotion. When I was in Israel right after graduate school, I sat in on master classes with Arthur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, and Gina Bachauer. I remember a particular class with Isaac Stern. They had some of Israel’s greatest prodigies on the violin. They would play in a technically perfect way. But then Isaac Stern would play the same thing. It was like night and day. The difference was not so much that Isaac Stern knew the notes any better; rather, he could feel it better. He knew himself and his emotions better."

Portrait in Minneapolis

Just a simple slight overcast at the end of the day Sunday.

I loved her hair and the cute smile.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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12 Tips for Creating a Great Portfolio Site « Noupe

Good Tips for sure. Most of these tips would be well implemented by photographers as well.

12 Tips for Creating a Great Portfolio Site « Noupe:

"Below are twelve tips for creating a better portfolio site. These suggestions apply to all kinds of portfolios, no matter what your particular artistic field. Also included are examples and a gallery of excellent portfolio sites, with what they’re doing right and what could use some improvement."

Lighting Essentials » Iconica Blog

Photo by Iconica Studios.
Sounds like a plan to me! How about February, 2010.
Lighting Essentials » Iconica Blog: "I had a blast and learned a ton that’s why I hosted two workshops. Its been a while since the last workshop in fact I think it was almost a year ago, maybe its time to host another workshop? Stay tuned and subscribe to my blog so you will get email updates. I will certainly bolg information here."

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings | Washington Examiner

You just can't make this stuff up. And if you think I am some sort of partisan, get a clue. If we are going to be bamboozled - from either side - I will fight back. And right now, there is some serious bamboozling going on - the press is SUPPOSED to keep the truth - not take sides.

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings | Washington Examiner:

"With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. 'The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,' said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. 'And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.''"

Being ready for client changes and challenges means taking more gear, but also getting the shot.

There was a change of plans on a shoot I was doing for a client quite a ways from my city.

The changes happened while I was en-route, so I was not aware of it till I got there. And the changes were pretty big.

I had thought I was going down to make natural or nearly-natural light portraits of artists, but at the last minute they decided that they needed images of the product in the gallery more.

I packed a pretty good amount of gear - including my ProFoto 600's kit. Glad I did. If I had gone with only what I thought I would use, I would have had my speedlights, a couple of stands, and one small Dynalite head. That would not have been what was needed for this shooting.

I needed the power and the light dispersal of the bigger lights to make the shots pop. Adding the reflector to the front of the set brought out the color and kept the shots from being 'rimlit' instead of studio lit. I had enough stands, clamps and reflectors to make the shot look the way I needed it to - and that was great for my client.

A speedlight into one of these shoot-thrus create a bit of a hot-spot that falls off. The reflector on the ProFotos keep the light full on into the umbrellas and lessen the fall off dramatically.

As you can see, we had to bootstrap it a bit. I wish I had brought the softboxes as well, but the shoot-thru's did fine.

I am all about not over-packing, but I do make sure I have enough gear to cover all kinds of challenges and possibilities.

For more information on lighting and working as a photographer, see Lighting Essentials.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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22 Tips on How to Operate a Trade Show Booth « The Jason Calacanis Weblog

Good info!

22 Tips on How to Operate a Trade Show Booth « The Jason Calacanis Weblog:

"Since we’re less than a week away from the third installation of the
TechCrunch50 conference, which I partner on with Mike Arrington of
Time 100 fame, I thought I would take a moment to discuss the best
practices for running a booth or table at a trade show or conference.
These points are general and are intended to apply to everything from
a 50-person SIG (special interest group), where you’re given a generic
folding table, to a custom-built booth at a trade show like CES, held
in the Las Vegas Convention Center."

Secret's out: why women really have sex | Health & Lifestyle | News.com.au

Heh...

Secret's out: why women really have sex | Health & Lifestyle | News.com.au:

Money Quote:P
"But many have more selfish motives, with financial or material rewards a major factor."

New WordPress Web Design for Photographers: Open and Clean design.

We have several galleries, but the overall look and feel is that of a very simple, easy to use photography site.
As with all of our designs, it is very simple and can be used with most WP Widgets.

Slideshow on home page.
Three recent posts or projects on home page.
Paragraph for SEO on home page.
Clean design.
Change background color to whatever you want.
Add a graphic to the background if you wish.

Before we go to final on this, we welcome comments and questions.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Todd Hido: I love this work!

Bruce Silverstein Gallery, located at 535 West 24th Street in Chelsea, represents fine art photography.

Leica's Erhardt Addresses Criticism Over S2's Hefty Price Tag

Gimmee a break. A $22K camera body at this point in time is just stupid.

Leica's Erhardt Addresses Criticism Over S2's Hefty Price Tag:

"Seeking to address some of the Internet chatter that has been critical of the Leica S2's just announced pricing – $22,995 (body only) – Leica Camera's Vice President of Marketing Christian Erhardt talked to PDN Gear Guide about why he thinks the camera's not getting a fair shake.

'People always forget when looking at the camera the fact that it's actually a medium format solution with a sensor that is 56% larger than a full-frame 35mm digital SLR,' Erhardt said. 'Many people have been comparing it to SLR cameras and there are certain features (on the S2) that just cannot be compared to a DSLR.'"

The Photographic “Eye”: Innate or Learned? | Fuel Your Photography

The Photographic “Eye”: Innate or Learned? | Fuel Your Photography:

"If you are wondering “what about those people who can just pick up a camera with no photography background and STILL take a beautiful shot?”. Well, just like anything in life, some people have different backgrounds and different learning curves. If you have any artistic background, whether that be painting, drawing, designing, decorating…anything….then you are already exposed to elements that are appealing and beautiful, and are more likely to pick it up quicker than those with no artistic background."

A Photo Editor - Suzanne Sease – Estimating An Advertising Shoot

Photographer must read of the day. Thanks to Rob and Suzanne for a fascinating post.

A Photo Editor - Suzanne Sease – Estimating An Advertising Shoot:

APE: "Any last thoughts on pricing advertising photography?"

Suzanne: "You can never gauge something by another person’s success, because you don’t know how they got there.

Only walk in your shoes."

Apricot Lane City North, Phoenix. Renovated Home Page and Site Refresh

The home page for Apricot Lane Boutique - City North, Phoenix, had become a mish-mash of things. Trying to be all things on the home page is not necessarily a good thing... at all. It can lead to clutter and an overall lack of visitor attention.

I took three levels of information, videos and images that had been added to the page to promote different aspects of the store, and moved them off the page. The home page was a mess, and my goal was to clean it up and make it leaner and more focused. The simple, open design, lets the imagery and text be easily viewed. Navigation to other pages is up 40%.

Moving much of the home page content off to other pages, I made sure they were SEO'd to provide good landing page prospects. I cleaned up the home page design by removing a tall image to the left, adding the horizontal slide show on the right and keeping the text-copy simple and easy to read. Simple descriptions lead to easy navigation. The home page features CMS for certain areas allowing the boutique to keep the page fresh and the RSS blog/twitter deliver news and info in real time.

This page is working much better now. Easier to navigate, and much easier for them to manage.

The additional landing pages within should start to be indexed within the next few days.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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A Portrait in Houston: One Light, One Beauty

At the Houston workshop earlier this year. She was quite lovely and this look just kills...

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Annie Leibovitz sued by Italian photographer

Sheesh, Annie. I hope this isn't factually accurate. If it is, that will be a very, very bad chapter in the life of one of our greatest photographers.

Annie Leibovitz sued by Italian photographer:

"He says that he was informed later that Leibovitz would not be travelling to Italy for a photo shoot, after he'd sent her various pictures he had taken including ones of the Trevi Fountain in Rome and Plaza San Marco in Venice.
Pizzetti then states that when he saw the calender at it's release in October 2008 he noticed that two of the images were his but with models superimposed onto them."

HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Posterous

HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Posterous:

"Whether you need a little more space to create a lifestream that serves as a compliment to your Twitter presence, or you’re looking to totally replace your existing personal or group blog, Posterous makes the transition and posting process dead simple. The Posterous possibilities are endless, and the best part is it that takes very little effort to maintain your site and attract a subscriber base."

A Double Portrait: Street Photography in Philadelphia

This young man and his mom came up to us at the Philly workshop. He was really wanting to be a 'model' and his mom was very apprehensive about the situation.

The photographers jumped in and made him feel really great. He knew what pose he wanted and we simply encouraged and shot some great images.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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--- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now

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Sunflower in Gallup, New Mexico: Just for fun, I took its picture. I never said a word.

Just kinda standing there in the stormy weather. I snapped it on high speed Ektachrome from the front seat of my car.

It was about to rain. Nikon F3, 300MM Nikkor.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Why 'GQ' Doesn't Want Russians To Read Its Story : NPR

So Conde Nast believes they can simply hide information. In this day and age? Really... well, good luck with that. Sheesh - these folks don't get it.

Why 'GQ' Doesn't Want Russians To Read Its Story : NPR:

"'It was quite mysterious to me,' Anderson says. 'All of a sudden, it became clear that they were going to run the article but they were going to try to bury it under a rock as much as they possibly could.'

Anderson, 50, is an accomplished reporter and novelist who has written previously for Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair."

20 Dingbat Fonts That Are Actually Useful | Web Design Ledger

Very cool!

20 Dingbat Fonts That Are Actually Useful | Web Design Ledger:

"Dingbats probably don’t get taken that seriously as a resource for web designers. However, there are a select few that standout in quality and style, and can actually be very useful. Here is a list of 20 dingbats that you will find useful in adding elements to your designs."

We Lose Money on Every Sale...

But we make it up in volume. Stupid then. Stupid now. Some people get it.

The bar for success in our industry is too low - (37signals):

"So I guess what ultimately bothers me most about this New York Times piece, and many other pieces just like it (see TechCrunch daily), is the example that’s being set for the next generation of entrepreneurs. They’re seeing business success defined as “the projections say we’ll profitable later”. They’re constantly being exposed to excuses. They’re being taught that profits are these things that only happen one day far away. That’s just wrong."

Yosemite Valley from the Highlands: Halfdome and the Sierras

A very early morning on the top of the world in the Sierras.

A film shot from a long time ago. I love the granite up top of the mountains there.

Nikon F2 Photomic, 24MM Nikkor, Ektachrome 64.

Don Giannatti: Designer / Photographer / Writer
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / 602 434 1765

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Losing the News, Alex S. Jones and The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy

It's a good read... but we have come to expect that from Robert.

Losing the News, Alex S. Jones and The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy:

"Part of the reason I was approached by the Times to do work for them was that I was outside of the newspaper world. I had not cut my teeth on newspapers, I did not go to J-school, I had never shot a grin and grab nor a high school soccer game. I don’t have that memory bank of solutions to photo problems that go through a 24mm lens close to the subject if you know what I mean. Which is not to disparage what journalists have to do. There are necessary limits implied by the mandate, I will get back to that."