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No Top 10 List For Me

One of the standard advice to a blogger do a “Top 10 List”. I've never like either doing or reading top 10 lists.

I always find these lists as superficial. It's usually a title followed by one or two sentences that do not explain anything.

When was the last time that a top 10 lists gave you the information that you needed? I can't remember one occurrence.

Finding a Profitable Niche

As a professional group, photographers move in a heard, they copy each other to the letter. The ultimate in copying each other is the huge number of photographers, by the thousands, that go to Yosemite to take the same photos as Ansel Adams. They go as far as going on the same date and at the same time in the, useless, hope that they will be able to duplicate Adams' fantastic work. The problem with these copycats is that they fail to realize that even with the same light, the same place ,and the same exposure they will never get the same prints as Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams' genius was in the darkroom, he was can easily be argued the best printer ever.

How to Specialize

With some many photographers, everybody screams at the top of their lungs that you should specialize. Notice that this is often coming from a generalist that specializes in pressing the shutter button.

Here's a guy that takes specializing to the nth degree: Martin Waugh of Liquid Sculpture. He lives in Oregon and makes a very good living making photos of water/liquid drop. Very nice, very profitable.

If you are looking for water drop photos or videos, he's your man.

Fireworks Blowout Sale

Yesterday was Halloween. There are a lot of stores that open just for a few weeks to sell fireworks for Halloween. PhatBoy had a Fireworks Blowout Sale. I don't think that they realized what it meant.

Fireworks Blowout Sale Yesterday was Halloween. There are a lot of stores that open just for a few weeks to sell fireworks for Halloween. `PhatBoy` had a *Firework Blowout Sale*. I don't think that they realized what it meant.I went to store to take some photos inside, I asked for the permission and he wouldn't let me take photos inside:> No photos! No Photos

Fireworks Blowout Sale   click on image for gallery

Customer Requesting All RAW Files

I've had this customer for a few years. Peter used to phone, but over the last couple of years, it's been all via email. The jobs were not big, half a day here, a day there… Last spring he told me that he was leaving. I took him out for coffee and a nice cake.

Last month, September, I got a request from Hank, who took over Peter's job, to photograph…

$149 Wedding

The problem with a race to the bottom is that you might win

— Famous saying that too many people attributed to themselves

Wedding Photos: $149* Up to 2 hours* Up to 2 Gb of photos, if you want to buy more…* JPEGs only, ready for pickup on a DVD*

Wedding Photos: $149   click on image for gallery

I Don't Understand These Photographers

I was up the valley among a whole group of photographers. It was a group of Chinese tourists from China. Most of them had huge monsters, mostly Canons 500L f/4, a couple with 600mm f/4. This guy had a Gitzo tripod with a Wemberly II head that cost more than his Canon 50D. He uses a Canon 500L f/4 with “more in the mini-bus.”

Photographing eaglesPhotographing eagles at the Sandpiper golf course along the Fraser river.They flew in from China to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was a group of about 15 tourists. They came by bus to take photos of the eagles. Since I don't speak any Chinese, and their English was more than limited, I may be wrong. But after that they were going to make a tour of the Canadian Rockies. They were not going to the US, and I think that on the way back they were going to take the Rocky Mountaineer.harrison-20101121-0304.jpg — Copyright © 2009 Syv Ritch: http://http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

Photographer with Canon 50D, Gitzo tripod, Wemberly gimball head and Canon 500mm f/4 lens   click on image for gallery

Steve Jobs and the Blogosphere

As most of you know by now, Steve Jobs dies last week. I'd like to extend my condolences to his family (I would be extremely surprised if the read my lowly blog).

I want to rant, not about Steve Jobs himself, I've never met him. I don't even use Apple products. But about the blogosphere that went “gaga” after his death with:

  • Why aren't you more like Steve Jobs?
  • How to live like Steve Jobs
  • Present like Steve Jobs
  • Think like Steve Jobs
  • Get things done like Steve Jobs
  • Manage like Steve Jobs

and hundreds of other blog posts.

With Talent In ...

… With talent in a diverse range of photographic genres and solid technical skill in both production and post-production, I'm flexible enough to tackle almost any assignment thrown my way…

I'm currently focused on…

— Anonymous Photographer

Some people think of themselves as God's gift to the world. This remind me of this garage that according to the sign “specialized” in:

  • cars
  • trucks
  • domestics: Chrysler, Ford and GM
  • imports: Japanese and German

I drive a Mazda.

The Next Wave for Photography

I was in Seattle at the Pike Street Market. It's a tourist magnet, hundreds and hundreds of tourists, including me. Here's the next wave for photography.

The Next Wave for Photography I was in Seattle at the Pike Street Market. It's a tourist magnet, hundreds and hundreds of tourists, including me. Here's the next wave for photography.He's using a iPhone 4 for making a small movie. He's using an app that also take some photos with the “mini-movie”. He had a team with him, a producer/script manager, a photographer and an assistant. He's from Brazil (he smokes!) They spent most of the morning making mini movies.At the Pike Street Market, half of the people used a small point and shoot, a third of the people used their smart phones (more on that later) and the rest of the people had lower-end dSLRs like Canon Rebels and Nikon D3000/D5000. I saw only one Leica M9 and a couple of Nikon D3s.This is very good news for professional photographers. It's very easy to see the difference between a “real” camera and a smart phone even at 8 megapixels like the new iPhone 4s. Also, it's much more difficult to make the transition from a smart phone to a “real” camera.seattle-20111002-5576.jpg — Copyright © 2009 Syv Ritch: http://http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

The Next Wave of Photographers   click on image for gallery

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