Just a quick message to let you all know that I may have some sparse postings the next couple of weeks.   It’s project time at my house, which means I’ll be spending a lot of time doing things that aren’t photography.  I do have a few promising images in the workflow, so I will post them as soon as I get an opportunity.  Meanwhile, feel free to browse my gallery and check my back posts.  Or check out some of the fine work by some of the photographers I have linked at right.

There’s more to photograph at the Zoo than just animals.  Look around!

Same holds true for nearly any location.

So today, I had a bit of a humbling experience. I recently applied to become a submitter for a high quality Stock Photo website. Part of their submission process is that I need to submit 10 photos, 7 of which must be accepted. They can reject for almost any reason, but they explain very briefly why a given photo is rejected. I was expecting to have a few rejected. And, to be honest, I was expecting that I wouldn’t get accepted this time around.

None of my photos were accepted.

I never considered myself an excellent photographer. I’m learning as much as anyone else. I never had very mcuh formal training, and rarely do I receive any formal critique. Why they didn’t spend much time criticizing my photos, I got enough to know what I need to work on. I know that I have to work on focusing at the appropriate area (Depth of Field probably has a major impact on this). I also know that I have to work with color correction and keeping my photos free of artifacts (dust, etc). I also, apparently, need to avoid over-sharpening my images and properly exposing my shots.

Now considering the amount of time I’ve spent developing my craft, this is somewhat disheartening to find that I have so much to improve upon. Having 10 out of 10 photos rejected, I could very easily be bitter about all this. It would be very easy for me to criticize their review process. I could say they didn’t spend enough time evaluating my photos, I could blame it all on my equipment, and so on. But I would be hurting myself and my own work if I weren’t at least honest with myself.

Lets face the facts. As I mentioned, I have very little formal training and very few formal critiques. So it’s safe to assume that improvement is necessary on my part. I also need to accept that this company has a very lucrative business based on the quality of their submissions - they’ve got this process down to a science. They know what they want, and they know what is considered quality vs. what isn’t. I cannot even pretend to believe they don’t know what they’re doing.

That said, I have a few things I can work on improving, and I will. I owe it to myself to heed those comments and see what I can do to improve. I have another month before I can submit again. I’m thinking it will take a few more months for me to improve the way I need to. So the mature version of me will be spending a lot of time improving my works.

Photography is a very serious way to have fun.  Books such as The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification is proof that at least some artists don’t take it all too seriously.  But what a fun concept?  I can imagine the author of this book starting with a few photographs of these derelict carts - because lets face it, almost any junk can be beautiful - and he ended up with a fetish.  I only use the term fetish because photography of this level can really be considered perverse to some.  At least people will tease and make fun of the concept.  But it shouldn’t be that way.

My first thought was that this book, based on its title alone, would be incredibly humorous.  And, with the driest of humor, it really is.  But then I went back and really looked at the photographic work between the covers and realized that this is really quite impressive.  Here’s a photographer that has literally taken photographs of junk and made the beautiful.  Add some humor, and you sell books.  In my opinion, this man is a genius!

So in summary, my random thought of the day can be turned around into a lesson.  As this author clearly demonstrates, you cannot overlook any subject matter.  And don’t be afraid of humorous infatuations with bizarre topics - such as shopping carts, traffic lights, road kills, or so on.   Feel free to post your own ideas.

I have a bunch of pictures just waiting to be formatted and posted up here for your enjoyment. Unfortunately, I am the victim of the rare Laptop Fire. Alright, so I’m exaggerating just a bit - the laptop itself never caught fire. But my AC Adapter did. Regardless of what actually burned, I can’t use my laptop until my new adapter arrives in the mail (hopefully this weekend). But there is a lesson to be learned here: Redundancy and care.

First, lets talk redundancy. Backups are something that you should make a priority. Chances are, you may not need to go back to your backups ever. But you have a lot to lose if you caught without backups of your precious data. External Hard Drives are pretty cheap these days, they are definately a worthwhile investment. It’s also a good idea to burn backups to CDs or tape backups (just be aware, both have a set shelf life). If you can get it to an off-site location, that is best - just in case the horrible happens to your home (fire, flood, etc), you want to know you can get it all back. This is your livelihood after all. If you can afford it, a safe deposit box or an internet backup service are great solutions.

As for care, it’s always good to take care of your equipment. This isn’t something I really need to remind you of, after all you may have spent a grand on your camera. But there are little things you don’t always think about that you should consider. Lets take my AC adapter, for example. The fire was caused because the wires broke inside the protective rubber sheathing. Looking back, I may have wrapped up my cables too tightly and the repetitive stress at a certain point must’ve caused it to break. When I get my new pack, I will make a conscious effort to keep the cables loosely gathered in a loop (as opposed to bending the wires back on themselves).

This could’ve been a serious problem. It could’ve caught my house on fire. Thank goodness I was there. So I’ll count my blessings and consider this a warning. Hopefully I’ll be back in action this weekend and I will post some new photos soon.