What Now?

2014, it is coming to an end. I just went through my blog I did January 1st of this year, and all I can do is smile. I have forgotten that my New Years resolution was to get more nature photographs...I think I can say this is the first resolution I kept (without knowing it) and successfully did it. Though, I did forget to buy that hunting blind.

As of this time, with only a few weeks left in 2014, I am still on schedule for where I wanted to be. At the start of this year, I didn't see myself in a gallery or purchasing a new camera. I think I may even be slightly ahead what I original thought I would be. I went back to school for a Bachelors degree in Business management, purchased a full frame camera (Sony A7 mirrorless), and half way through the year started to build an inventory! When I did my taxes this year, I noticed there was something with inventory and I laughed saying that wont happen for a few years. Surprise, it happened the same year. For the past few months, I have building inventory to sell at craft shows and to be able to fill a gallery when I am featured.

Starting this year out, I had no more than four prints in my hands. Yes, FOUR PRINTS! Guess how many I have now...go ahead....have the number? I have fifty-three...yes that is 53 prints on hand and ready to sell, with another 7ish at the Art Gallery on display (either on site or one of their local partner locations). Ranging from 23"x62" to as small as 4"x6", and I am pretty damn proud about that. Another thing, each of them are more than just a print. Majority of them are ready to hang, and at the very minimum ready to be framed (they are already matted and mounted). To get to this point, did require me to take a negative this year. Luckily, this was planned mid-year so I knew that just ordering a few prints here and there will make it easier than ordering all the prints towards the end of the year.

So what now? In 2015, I have hopes to get into the Kenosha Harbor Market the very least, it not more, to sell images out of my own booth. You know how weird that sounds to me? Selling photos out of my own booth......it seems to much like a dream I can't even picture myself doing it right now. I now have the inventory, and now it's time to figure out how to get a booth setup and display my images. I may even try to get into a judged contest with an image or two, we'll see about that. Also, in February, Epson releases their new 13" printer and I will be jumping on that. I will enter the "doing my own prints" area...well at least for prints that are 13" or less in width. Length...I can print up to 108"!!!!!!!! I can do my own panoramas in February. It is going to be a huge step for me to be able to take think of a photo I want to take, go out and take it, process the image, and then print it the way I want. Fully making the image my own from start to image.....excites me as much as selling my prints at a market!

horicon marsh art for sale

In case it hasn't come through in my words, I am beyond excited for what has happened and what is coming. I knew I would be just okay with doing my photography in a way to just pay for the equipment, but this is just beyond what I expected. As cheesy as this sounds, it is because of those who purchases my images am I able to do this.... Seriously, 100% of the money has been turned around and put right back into my photography. I haven't paid myself with any of that money, it all goes back into my photography to be able to bring you higher quality images and for me to be able to share what I see through my lens.

This will also be the first year that I have chosen an image in which a percentage of profits will be donated to a local VFW chapter. This seriously only came to me today, simply because of me seeing it on paper allowed me to realize how strong the image is. The image is of dog tags from a war memorial in Milwaukee, WI. (click the link to see it). Someone purchased that image and I realized that it was money I didn't feel comfortable receiving for it, as I didn't earn the right to use it that way. So I hope this turns out well in 2015 as well.  Just thinking about it, I may visit a few and see if they would like a print to hang up on their walls while I'm at it.

This late night rant went longer than I thought it was going to, and I apologies again for not posting any new images with it. I do have high hopes in 2015 for my photography...and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Investing More Into My Photography - Printing

One of my frustrations is not having 100% control of the final product with my photographs. I look at my photographs as a full process that I cannot complete, and the next step in my photography world is printing.

Currently, I need to send out for each and every print. I've tested many online sites spending money on proofs, different papers, and so on. One of the things that I dislike greatly is turn around time. For example, a new image is ready for printing. I don't like to make prints available prior to me seeing what they look like on at least at 13x19 inch print. So this means I must go online, submit my order, and wait about a week for an order. If it doesn't turn out right, I need to repeat it until it is correct.  My screen is calibrated, but not calibrated with the printers I send to (which is a different issue).

I've been looking into what I need to be able to do printing at home, professional grade, up to a 13" print. I have been mainly looking at the Epson and Canon line due to their history and quality of prints in the inkjet world. I first came across the Epson R2000 and R3000 series. After initial review, the R3000 series was the number one pick due to the higher quality black and white photos. Next, I compared prices of what I was doing for prints, what type of media can I print on, and ease of use.

I have found that the R3000 has created a huge buzz in the photography world.  Amazing prints in both color formats, the large amount of printing options (including canvas), and would allow me to save up to 82% on printing costs (costs just based off of ink costs)! This would overall reduce prices of my prints, turn around time, and I would then have 100% control of my prints that are 13x19" or less on just about all mediums. For example, an 8x10 shouldn't cost more than $1 to product, and it costs me double.

To determine if a printer was a good route to go, or to continue with what I am doing, I had to crunch some numbers and ask some questions. How many prints have I done in a year? How many more prints can I expect to do at a lower cost? Can I maintain the demand?

With what I have currently sold and I assume, I could increase sales by 33% with the lower prices, I would almost be able to pay off the printer in a three years time. However, I also thought of some of the projects I could do with local businesses and events now that I have this at home, and it may be possible to increase sales by just printing photos for people. So I put numbers together of what I would need to do in a year to make up the printer cost. Why a year? That is the warranty on the printer. I can 100% foresee no additional cost with the printer on repairs or maintenance during the warranty time, and therefore create a better model of paying off the printer. I also included extended warranty models as well.

Example Sale Requirements

If I was able to dish out about 1600 general prints (not my own) of 8x10 size in a year, I could pay for the printer. Looking at the 600 number may seem like a lot of prints, but that is only 133 prints a month, and that does not include selling my photographs on this printer. Also, another key is to see that 16x24 have even more profit. Here is one of the example tables I came up with, this is no way actual numbers that I sell images for at the current time.



So with this I would  need to sell seven 5x7, forty 8x10, three 11x14, and five 13x19 a month to pay this off in a year. I don't know about you, but those numbers seem very possible with just printing for people. These numbers do not include selling my photos, but only printing other folks prints for them. Once we include figures for my photos, it would be cut down that number even more. These numbers proved that I should purchase a printer for myself next year, with the additional feature of printing other people's prints. Even if I don't pay it off in a year, the rest of the cost of me being able to control a print from shutter release to drying the ink is worth it as well.

With the holiday season coming around, I thought it would be the perfect time to purchase one of these printers. I was right! $200 off of the price, which means I could print even less to pay for the printer. Half of the amount of 4x6s and only fifty 13x19's in a year!  However, I found out that Epson has announced a new printer that looks absolutely amazing, including my love for printing amazing panoramas and high-capacity ink cartridges. It is able to print on canvas and art boards!

I hope that helps you look into my world of what I can do to make my workflows more of my own, how to lower prices of my prints while maintaining quality, and showing you my next step in my journey of making my photography more than just a hobby!

If you have any questions or subjects you would like me to cover feel free to leave a comment or find me at one of the following sites:

• Twitter - @SteveSFoto
• Facebook - www.facebook.com/StevenSantamourPhotography.com
• New Online Gallery - fineartamerica.com/profiles/steven-santamour.html

Last Quarter of the Year Reflection

This blog will actually cover a number of things as I haven't posted since July when I joined the art gallery, and many things have changed.

So I'll start were I left off, the gallery. Since I have started in the gallery I have made many connections within the art world in Kenosha. I've learned so much of the art culture, that I couldn't believe how much of it was hidden in plain site! Just about every weekend is a gallery showing, local music, or a farmers market happening. It's amazing how communal this city is, but at the same time how it is hidden in plane view that you may not see it when you come here. I sure did. Also, I sold my first print last month in the gallery! It was such a great feeling receiving my first check and felt I reached another milestone in my photography.

At my day job, I have been constantly asked to work on my manager skills, organization skills, and over all more education. Another thing I found out myself, is that I lacked general business knowledge. I didn't really know how to record things, organize things, or even what options are out there to grow my business. I simply knew how to sell things and do a general decent job at marketing. So I reviewed my options and found a perfect opportunity with my work to go back to school and get a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurial Studies. This is a mutual gain for my day job and for my own business, and I have already started and just over halfway through my first set of classes.

Another new thing is I purchased the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon DX-Format DSLRs. Why? I was missing my landscape pictures. I was missing being able to take a photograph and not having to take 4 images to capture the subject (even though the benefit was a very high res image for printing large prints). I reviewed many online videos and read many blogs about this lens, and decided this is what I wanted. I have to say that this lens is incredible for the price. Here is a sample image I took with it.

f/4 1/400sec ISO 100 16mm

So what new am I doing in the photography business subject? Building an inventory. I started this year with 5 products (5 different prints). These were to be used in the gallery and when sold, I take the profit and purchase more images. So I have been paying what I need to on the bills for the new purchases to where I draw no interest, and _all_....I repeat all of my extra money is going to buy prints. One of the things I need to have is product as next year, in August, I will be one of the featured artists that month and have a room dedicated to show my pieces. I wouldn't fill a wall with my current images, so to make sure I have a strong presentation I have started to build an inventory. This will also allow me to do flee markets, or similar things, next year if I choose to do that as well. So over the next months I will only be purchasing prints on sale days where I purchase my prints from. Just a last week I ordered 5 metal prints, each at 30% off!  I also have to renew all of my permits with the state this year as they are due every two years. This year, I plan on taking a loss on my business as this year I only make money on prints I sold and not on photo sessions and events like I did last year. To date, I have turned 9 weddings and over 20 portrait sessions. Those numbers, I may have to purchase my portrait lens.....but that would be another $1,300 purchase. I was actually thinking of starting to print all of the 13" width prints and less at home, which the printer is $1,000. It would pay for itself in 3 years at the current rate of sales. So I have some decisions to make with that; do I return back to portraits or continue doing what I love.

Upcoming blog, that I actually started last month and never finished, is about photo processing. I also have another blog subject in my head as well, so hopefully In October I can at least give 2 blog posts.

milwaukee skyline canvas prints

Finding the First Gallery

Since I have moved to Kenosha, I haven't really been able to find much of the art scene. However, a single search and Kenosha changed all together. Kenosha actually has a huge art community that is not only greatly adverse, but really close and connected. Events all over are always being held and hundreds, if not thousands, are gathering to be part of them.

One of the galleries in Kenosha as been established for 15 years, and it also happens to be a non-profit. Yes, a non-profit art gallery! This really blew my mind, and this one caught my interests big time. So to take what I learned, I decided to adventure to this gallery and see what the gallery was like. I decided I was going to go in and purchase a low dollar piece of art to see how the sales went, knowledge of the person that works there, and just get an over all feel of the gallery.

My first impression as I drove up to it, I was slightly put off. The neighborhood doesn't seem to be the art style, and it seemed to be very small. As I looked for a place to park, there wasn't even a parking space. I then remembered that this was a non-profit and that it wont have a budget for aesthetics that a for profit is able to do. Finding a parking spot on a side road, I then stepped into the gallery.

My second impression; Wow. The inside was so different than the world inside. The lighting was great, everything was well spaced and displayed, and was almost right away greeted by lady. I tried to hold my excitement back and was able to peel away from her just so I could walk around. She caught me lingering near some art longer than I was before and before I knew it we were talking. She was very sincere about the artwork, knew the artists as if they were relatives, and was able to explain the piece in a way the price no longer really mattered. That last part was the key. This was a $400 dollar piece that I really wanted, and I actually only wanted to spend up to $50, and if she was able to make me want to by that piece for $400 I was sure she would have no problem to do that for my work. Luckily, I didn't have enough money to buy it at that time, though, I have a feeling I will end up buying it in the future if it remains there for to long.

After talking, I finally broke into that I was a photographer looking to break into the gallery world and have also just recently moved to Kenosha. She was more than happy to discuss what is happening in Kenosha, how the gallery works, and gave me the grand tour. There was so much more than what you can see from the outside, it was incredible. She explained what the dues covered, what was expected, and what being a member to the gallery means. Before she was even through, I was eager to get home and fill out the application to have my prints reviewed to see if I would fit their gallery.

I then continued to walk through the gallery and see what type of art was there. There were about five or six other photographers that displayed their work there, however, none of them were close to my style. I also had a unique medium used for my prints; metal and glass. None of the other photographers used those and felt this gallery could benefit from my prints as much as I would benefit with joining them

Today, I dropped off my application and prints and now sit until I receive an e-mail on the decision. I have a feeling it will be approved as one of the artists there was willing by purchase the metal panorama print on the spot (the director said, "Wait until he's a member before you buy" and than laughed). Also, she was able to point me to a local framer which I now have doing a custom frame for the Milwaukee Skyline panorama. We are also working on a unique frame for the metal prints that are normally not framed!

milwaukee skyline art

Into the Gallery

This will be a short and sweet blog, as I have just started the next adventure in my photography; Getting into an art gallery!

I now have 5 pieces at home that I feel are strong images and are ready to be put up into a gallery. After a bit of internet searching the last few days, I have found pretty much nothing beyond of:

• Visit the gallery before you offer your images to be displayed in it
• Learn how much the staff knows about art
• Talk to other local artists on their experience with the gallery

Most of the articles found are all about setting up your online gallery, setting prices, and getting the word out. Last year I reached out to one local (Milwaukee area) retail shop that also sold photographs, and ended up getting the cold shoulder after one e-mail of them expressing they would be happy to sell my images. So now my photography concentration will be finding out how to get into a gallery and getting it set-up (and the special image requests). . 

I also found the following recommendation about the artwork when you submit it to be entered into a gallery:

• Have the image framed or displayed the way they would be sold to the customer
• Have your information and sale price already on the piece
• Remember the gallery gets a cut out of the sale, so adjust the price to make sure the profit you desire is there
• Don't sell a piece for $100 if the cost to make it is $80 (paper, time, frame, ect..) and the gallery's cut is 20%.  It only covers the cost to make it, leaving you with $0 for yourself and unable to move forward with additional product.

I will be keeping my blog updated as soon as I have learned something new, or have successfully put my photographs into a gallery.

Photograph taken on vacation while in South Carolina in early July 2014.

kenosha wisconsin art

A New Chapter: Nature

Not sure if you have noticed or not, but 2014 is almost 25% done already! April is here, which means rainy days, warming up weather, and animals return back and become more active. For the past 4 months you may have noticed that I haven't been posting many blogs or pictures. I have actually been looking at my photography plan and decided it was time to switch over.

Quick History:

I started out doing photography of landscapes and it quickly grew into friends and family wanting portraits done. Shortly after that, I was requested to shoot a wedding. Excited about the opportunity, I purchased a pro level lens for portrait/wedding shots; Tamron 20-70mm f/2.8 with VC. It was an amazing lens and my research showed that it was a staple for any wedding. So I spent the money and purchased it with credit with a new camera that offered low light ability; Nikon D7000. At the time, I couldn't afford a full frame camera like a Nikon D600 (and still can't afford one). I decided I was going to really dig into portrait photography. I ended up doing dozen of photo sessions and ended up doing two weddings, pretty much breaking even with all my expenses the first year!


When I started this, I told myself I would only do weddings/events/portraits until I can afford a super telephoto lens (over 500mm). Well, the time is now! Last January, a new lens was introduced to the market that raddled the professional world and extreme nature hobbyists like myself.  Tamron released the SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD (Tamron's Official Page for this lens), at a very low price for this length of a lens. It's not as good as glass as the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II Lens, but from the reviews and looking at the $5,000 price difference, you can see why my interest was captured. 

I've been following reviews for this lens for months. Watching YouTube channels for people's reviews; both professional and non-professional. Across the board, everyone was impressed. I could see some difference in the quality and not to mention the f stop is only 5 at the 150mm and the fastest the lens fully zoomed is only 6.3. This requires a relatively good day to get images and also the lens isn't weather sealed. However, the price again reflects all of this.

I was expecting to wait 5-6 years to get to this point to have a super telephoto zoom lens, but because of this release I'm ready to do it now. To start this process I listed my portrait lens on Craigslist for 900, taking a small hit on the retail price of the lens (about $500) with only a year worth of use. However, remember that I paid that lens off already last year. So I looked at this as selling old equipment and upgrading, so this lens will only end up costing me $200 dollars. With only a few contacts and a few no-shows, I decided to post on my personal Facebook page and was able to sell it in a week.

Now, up to that time I was in a slight chaos mode with my photography. I'm going to take a huge hit in sales because I am not able to do portraits anymore and I no longer have a wide angle lens to take landscapes! But, my real dream is to do nature photography. Capture animals in their element.

I will be making a new blog either this weekend or next weekend, on what I'm hoping this year will result in. I don't plan on making nearly as much as I did last year, or even half of it. But, I do plan on having much more fun!  Also, this lens is on back order for another few weeks. So I wont be able to shoot to much until then. 

This bird above was taken out of my double pane glass door and a screen door using my 70-300mm lens. That is why the image is a bit soft but I am hoping to get more of these type of shots, but much more sharp obviously, of many different types wildlife. 

Imagine the type of images with double the zoom!

2013 Year Review - The Good & Bad

I was able to think on this for a very long time and I felt it was worthwhile to share with those who read my blog. Part of this blog is to give those who want to start on the same trail as I did; make your hobby of photographing into something more.

Now that it is 2014, I can look back and go over the good and bad things that I ran into. I'll start with the bad.

The Bad:

Starting up is the second hardest thing with moving your photography from a simply hobby to something more. The amount of money to become a legitimate name to sell items was crazy. That alone took  7% of my earnings the first year. Getting an EIN, getting the tax number, application fees, license fees, fees, fees, and more fees. I started of not thinking this was a great idea, but it was. Make it your first year goal to make double your fee's, cover any cost through the year, and you can call it a successful year because you didn't spend one dime on photography (if you don't purchase any gear).

Time is the hardest thing for me. I work a full time job that can take 40-60+ hours a week of my time, all during the day hours. Since I like to take wildlife and landscape photos, this is the peek time for me to do that. So that narrowed my time to days off and weekends. Weekends I had to balance with family and friends, and last year they got the tail-end of the deal. I did two weddings, over a dozen portrait sessions, and some volunteer work. One wedding was about a total of 50 hours for all of the editing and live coverage, so you put that on top of the 40 I already work there isn't much time for a social life. I decided weddings are not something that will be in my 2014 goal, unless it is for a direct friend.

Selling photos was the third hardest part. Pricing things is one of the trickiest things. You don't want to be to cheap to not be taken serious, and you don't want to be to expensive to not get the sale. Pricing your prints to where if someone really wants it they will buy it is the goal. I think I found the price point mid year through, but it had very little profit in it for me. This made me re-think of what I wanted to do with my photos, which is covered in the Good part!

The Good:

The portrait lens I purchased; paid off. Quarter of my camera body; paid off. Web hosting, licensing fees, and operation costs; paid off. Extra gear I purchased this year; half paid off. I made more money on this the first year than I thought I would. I was almost able to come off this year as even, and I probably could have if I didn't turn down as many gigs as I did. Look above at the time paragraph in the Bad Section above.

I had fun. Once past the bad part of getting everything started up, I had a lot of fun. I met a lot of fun people, learned more than I thought a was available, and really found something I enjoy doing. This first year was simply a test for me to see if this was something I wanted to get into, and at the end of the year to see if my interest is the same as it was a year ago. To my surprise it was not, it is actually more than what I started out with. I'm looking into buying hunting blinds, camo gear, booking cruises/tours to get out of Wisconsin photographs, and doing youtube videos on how I edit my photos. This is something I really want to do and for the longest time it was hard for me to concentrate on anything but work.

A New Year. I'm continuing to go through with selling my photographs but at a different level. I sold over a 150 prints, ranging from 4x6 all the way up to 24"x36". Those large photos are extra special to me as I know they are being hung up where more than just the family can see them. They found that photograph to be something special that they wanted on their wall to make them feel happier and anyone else that walks by and looks at it. So instead of just selling prints, I have now decided to sell this more as an art instead of as a product to get out. The smallest print will now be 8:x12" and the largest is 40"x60" and also removed a lot of the "just have it on there as an option because it's cheap".

So hopefully the above gave you an insight of what I had to go through last year and helps you decide if you are ready to take the next step in your photography. I can already see the first question; "How much time total last year did you spend on photography". Well, I was always on my computer looking at my past images and playing with them. If we put that to the side and count the actual time photography for money and for product; less than 1000 hours. Which ends up being just over 40 days out of the year, so if we round that out to actual days worked; about quarter of the year was spent on photography.


If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here, or visit my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StevenSantamourPhotography

I hope you had a great 2013 and hope you take 2014 by the grip and get your photographs you dream of! My New Years resolution is to get more wild life photos, which requires blinds and traveling.

wisconsin photos

Backing It Up....Your Files

**Warning, Long Blog Ahead**

Photographs, accounting files, other documents, bookmarks, favorites, and saved game files. What would happen if you lost everything right this very moment? What would it do to you personally and financially if your computer was stolen, or if the hard drive failed?

These were the questions I was asking myself when I took my first wedding gig. What would happen if my computer would crash while I was editing the photos? Could I financially handle this type of a loss? What is the cost of getting a backup? Should I have multiple back-ups, onsite and offsite? How do I get started?

Well this blog is going to help you understand the importance of backing up your computer and/or your personal files.

Step 1:

Understanding what a backup is. Generally, backups have only two purposes. Recover data from accidental happenings (example: deleting the wrong file), or if your hard drive becomes corrupt, and the other is to recover data from a point earlier in time (example: if you made changes to a document and you clicked save, you could go back before the change).  Another thing to understand, backups generally (some can) do not restore your complete computer (such as the Operating system and program files) functionality.

Be sure you understand the language of your backup software. Backups that can fully restore your computer tend to reference this backup as a "Drive Image Backup". If the software only states it does file backups, assume it will only save your files and not the Operating System or programs on the computer. This also affect how much storage is needed for backups; Drive Image backups will result in much larger storage needs.

Step Two:

Understand the storage needs. The most important thing about a backup, is making sure you have the room to store them. If you plan on just doing file backups, not a Drive Image Backup, you can simply right click on the folder where the files are located and add up all of the file sizes. You can also select multiple folders by using pressing ctrl prior to each click, then right click on any of the folders and go to properties. It will give you the total amount of memory it is using.

Step Three:

Decide on storage location(s). This is almost as important as step two, as you can have all the space in the world but if you can't access the backups what good are they? You also need to decide are you going to have multiple locations of your backups and if you are going to have them offsite (different location than your computer, such as not being at your home or office). Generally, I support having both onsite and offsite backups. Online backup solutions are so inexpensive and so are onsite. Also, for onsite storage do you want to use an external hard drive? **Please note, backing up to a different partition is not the same as backing up to a different drive. If you partition a drive into four partitions (think of cutting a pie into 4 pieces), and your hard drive fails (think of your pie being thrown against the wall) all of the partitions will most likely fail with it. So you will want to save your backups to a different hard drive.  You can buy cheap internal hard drives that are easy to install in majority of your computers, use an external hard drive (though the writing speeds are normally slower) that connects directly to the computer, or use a Network Access Storage Device (NAS) that connects to your switch. Then there is also the cloud storage.

Internal Hard drive - You can normally take an old hard drive from one of your older computers and put it into your current computer. You can then use that specifically for backup purposes. Or you can purchase them new for around $65 for 1TB of storage.

External Hard Drives - For simplicity of this, you can purchase external drives for around $85 for 1TB of storage. If you have USB 3 ports on your computer, be sure to get a external drive that supports it. It will reduce your backup/restore time dramatically.

NAS- This is a bit more advanced than the other, and another huge area. For simplicity, they are generally the same as an External hard drive that connect to your switch via an ethernet cable. These generally cost $100 for 1TB of storage

Cloud (internet storage) - There are hundreds of companies that offer online storage, search around or read my blog about Carbonite (which is what I currently recommend for cloud storage).

Step Four:

Decide on your software(s). There are literally millions of titles out on the market to backup your files and computer as a whole. The price ranges can go from free-hundreds (some thousands) of dollars, depending on what you want to do.

In both operating systems, Mac and Windows, have built in back-up software. These are very basic, but very effective backup options. In Windows 7 it is called, "Back Up and Restore" and in Mac (Snow Leopard and up) it is called "Time Machine".

I personally use the Back Up and Restore along with Carbonite.

Step Five:

Put your backup plan into action.


Now that you have your files backed up, don't assume everything is good. Test your backups before trusting them. Understand how to use them before you actually need them. To do this, simply move one of your folders to another location and attempt to restore it. This way if the backups aren't working correctly, you didn't actually lose anything since you can just move the folder back.

My Current Backup set-up:

Currently, My computer is set to run backups every Tuesday and Friday with the windows backup utility. These backups are then saved on my second internal hard drive. Then on Saturday, windows backup utility backs up my second internal hard drive and saves that backup to a third internal hard drive. So, within my finger tips I have 3 locations of where the file can be found; My main hard drive, backups on the second hard drive, and a backup of the backup on my third drive.

I then use Carbonite as my off-site backups. Because the drives are all located in my apartment, you have to think of the worse. If my apartment would catch on fire, most likely all three drives are going to be worthless. To resolve that, I currently have Carbonite backing up all of my files, ALONG WITH doing a Drive Image Backup (or a mirror backup). Because of the way Carbonite works, with my Window Backups, I have 100% certainty that for over 1 month all of my files are safe and fully recoverable. I will be writing a review on Carbonite shortly.

The amount of data that I am backing up; 370 GB or .3TB of information. This does not include my operating system or program files.

Use this this link to Carbonite.

Explaining the Cost of a Photograph

Recently, I have been asked why I can offer my prints for so much less than many other photographers but my limited edition print costs so much more. I'm hoping this blog can iron out some those questions and help you understand the price of a picture or photograph.

In photography, the photograph is a product of the photographer. This product came to be with the cost of equipment, travel expenses, licenses, permits, time, and the actual cost of printing it. Not all photographers use the same equipment, travel around the world or print their photos themselves. Because of that, their price reflect what they invest in their photos.

Starting off with equipment this is the biggest investments a photographer will spend their profits and their own money in. Prior to starting to charge for my photos, I had already spent over $3,000...that's right over $3,000 in equipment. I started with a basic camera body, but I learned that buy the best glass you can afford. You can take the most expensive camera body and put on cheap glass (camera lens) and your photos wont be as good as if you reverse the scenario; cheap body with high quality glass you will actually get better photos. Over time I learned why tripods costs so much after the cheaper ones wouldn't even hold my camera because of the weight. I'm not saying that photos are only as good as your equipment, but you can't sell a picture if it's not sharp. Some wedding photographers charge $4k or more, but they can offer so many more options than what I can. For example, if the church doesn't allow flash photography I wouldn't have any options but to not use flash. Those who charge more may have options such as setting up equipment to increase the lighting in the church which would get around the no flash rule and therefor resulting in better photos.

I don't plan on doing portrait and event photography forever, my main goal is to become a nature and landscape photographer. For me to get these landscape and nature shots, I need to travel. Hotels, gas, oil changes costs add up quickly. My trip to South Carolina would have been pretty expensive if I went there just to get a few shots. I was lucky enough that my lifestyle already had traveling in it to help reduce these costs. Wisconsin also has great locations for what I like to take pictures of, so that also works out. However, I also want to be able to go on a cruise to Alaska and get less common photographs than what someone would normally see.

Permits and licenses are another factor when taking photographs. This includes a permit to shoot on private land such as in a Zoo or private establishment (example: http://county.milwaukee.gov/Photography9057.htm). Some cities require you to purchase a photographer's license just to be able to professional shoot within their city limits (Milwaukee for example is $100, http://www.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/ccLicenses/profphoto.pdf). We aren't able to just walk in, set-up our equipment, snap some shots, and sell them. Like us with photo rights, private establishments have their own rights on who can come in and use their property for commercial use. Mainly, if you disrupt the flow of traffic on a sidewalk or walkway you will most likely need a permit.

Time. Like any job a photographer is paid just for using his time for the photo. With me, I don't live off of my photography. I actually use any and all profits to purchase and upgrade my photography equipment and website. How does a photographer figure out how much to charge? I go off of a few variables: Are you going to order prints from me, is the photo session/event only for a few hours, is it an all day event, is it on a Sunday? I also want everyone to be able to have at least one photo taken of them that they can be happy about. If you can only afford 35 dollars for a photo session, you can only expect me to give you so much time, use so much of my equipment, and offer you limited options. If you can afford 800 dollars for me to shoot an event, you can expect me to work my ass off the whole time. You can expect I will take time on photos to ensure they have the perfect color settings, exposure, crop, and other edits. You can expect me to offer you a discount on photo orders.

Cost of Printing. I don't print my photos at home, I don't have the cash to purchase a professional printer (those are about 800 now). I don't want to be in charge of printing, packaging, and shipping. Because of this, I use my website to do all of that for me. Because of that, they take a % out of the sale and I have a yearly fee for them to host my site. So when I came up with my pricing I had to figure out how much did I want to make on each photo I sold, how much it costs the photo to make, and how much of that I was going to pay to my web host. I believe I have found myself a great price for me and for you.

Limited Edition. So why is my limited edition print so expensive? First lets define what a limited edition photo is; A limited edition is normally hand signed and numbered by the artist, here is also a specified amount of prints that will be available, and once these specified amount of prints are exhausted it will no longer be printed.

So I will use my "Layers of Love" as an example. I first decided what I wanted it printed on. I found out that aluminium printing is a bit expensive, but the prints are waterproof. It is also done with recycled material and offers more detail than traditional printing mediums (canvas or paper). Because of these factors, I decided to go with this medium. I then decided on print sizes. I though this photo would look great down a hallway, so I picked 8x12. I also thought it would look good in a larger room so I decided to go with 16” x 24”. I also felt that there may be a few people out there that would want it larger than life, so I also chose 24” x 36”. Now to make this limited edition, I have to choose how many prints I want to offer. I figured a small number would be best so I decided on 25 and 25 for the first two sizes. On the last one, after finding how much it costs just to have it printed I decided to keep that at a very low number of 3. Now, the pricing of these photos. First is the cost of the printing was taken, added to the half day of shooting I did to get this shot, and then the profit estimate. I needed to determine a number that was fair to me, but worthwhile to still purchase. Once these 53 prints are sold, I can no longer print this photo which then makes it worthless to me. So I put a price on the photo; If someone asked me how much for me to buy the copyright of that photo, how much would that be. After I researched online on what a shot could go for, I divided that by 53 and added the total of the Cost and Time.

A picture of "Layers of Love" being displayed still wrapped from shipping

I've been asked, what if I print beyond the 53 photos? I technically can be sued. I am actually lowering the value of your print because it is no longer as limited as it previously was believed to be. So there is many reasons why I would not want to print beyond the specified amount of prints. By giving certificates, which I actually do print myself, it has very specific information about the print and print series to ensure that this is in fact a limited edition print.

Future limited editions. I also plan on keeping my limited editions to a very few. I decided that at the very most I will have one new limited edition each year. I want these photos to be my very top photos, so those who own the photos have even a higher appreciation of the photograph beyond just looking at it. I want them to be happy with their investment. By doing this, I am hoping that this will only increase the value in my limited edition prints.

So I hope this helps you understand why a photographer charges what they charge.

Also check out my website for photographs you can order: http://santamour.smugmug.com/

A Wedding: Photographers' Aftermath

First, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Dave Nelson! Again, thank you for allowing me (and talking me into) photographing your wedding. This has opened my eyes to event photography and what I thought was simple to a field of high respect.

So what I hope to cover in this blog is what my thought process was, how I was feeling, and what I did to get shots that I got. I just wrapped up my first edit through of all the photos (a bit over 500 total) and will be looking through them one more time before uploading them for them to see.

My equipment list:

• Nikon D7000 + Grip
• Tamron 20-70mm 2.8
• Nikon 55mm 2.8 Macro
• Tamron 70-300mm 
• Battery charger for the car/wall
• SB-700
• 20 AA battries (for flash)
• Two batteries for camera (one in camera one in grip)
• Lens Pen
• Lens Air Blower
• Lint free cloths
• Four 32gb Scandisk SD cards
• Business cards
• Body Strap (quick purchase from Best Buy on the way out to the church)
• Large shoulder bag to carry this all

1/200 sec at f / 2.8, ISO 800, 36mm

I started out at the Brides parent's house (about 15 mins from the church), and at the same time my friend that I hired to be the 2nd photographer went to a hotel where the guys where getting ready (which I just got the photos he took late 7/28 evening). All of the girls had their make-up and hair done, and where just finishing up what looked to be lunch. So right away I started to shoot detail shots instead of getting shots of them putting food in their mouths. I started out with the dress, the flowers, and jewelry. While doing this I would keep a close eye on the bride, and her parents, hoping to catch those candid shots. This hour and a half went by very fast and I ended up taking just over 100 pictures in that time. I wanted to use natural light and not a flash because I wanted them to look at the photos and it spark a memory of this is what it looked like in the room they where in, instead of seeing a fake light or an unnatural bright room that doesn't exist in the house. All of the shots at the house were taken with the 20-70mm lens. Some of the detail shots were taken with the macro lens.

One of the things I was concerned is giving the ladies the privacy while they where getting ready, while at the same time catching candid photos. I knew this was one drawback of being a male photographer photographing the ladies getting ready. I started getting better pictures when I started to talk with everyone, instead of hiding against the wall. Everyone seemed to shake of their nerves about the camera following them around.

They started to load up the truck to head to the church, I felt this was the best time to pack up myself and get to the church and meet-up with the other photographer to get some empty church shots and get photos of people walking in. I felt these shots were important as both the bride and groom would be tucked away in a room and wont get to see much of these events. I also coordinated how I would like the wedding shot with the other photographer; I would shoot the party walking down from the floor and he would catch candid's throughout the wedding and covering a few shots in case I miss focus or exposure, or in case his angle would better since he would be on the balcony. I found this part of the day the most strenuous and it wasn't because of the precise moments that needed to be recorded, but the amount of squatting and moving that I had to do. Even though I was comfortable walking in front of someone else to get the shot I was looking for, I didn't want to ruin their own experience by standing in front of them. I took my shot and moved out of the way, I tried not to spend more than a few seconds when I was in front of people sitting.

1/10 sec at f / 3.2, ISO 400, 24 mm

The above picture I asked if they could scoot in so I could set next to them. They smiled and slid down so I could sit and after the shot I said thanks and continued to crouch and walk through the church. With the wedding kiss coming up, I took a spot in the middle aisle so I could be directly in line with them. To make the angle interesting, I lined just right of the cross on the back wall and put the couple to the left of it. Once I got the shot I wanted, I moved out of the way so others could have a clear shot with their cameras.

At this point, I thought the hard part was over. I was pleased with the shots I got so far and I was relieved that the important shots were done.....I was wrong. The hardest part was the posed shots after the wedding with family and the bridal party.




One of the photos was a group shots of all of the members that were married in the same church as the newly weds. This was when I first got hit by a wow factor of the history this family has. I was in a slight rush to get this shot done so I could clear out the church a bit for other photos. This was the moment I realized that these photos were more important than any of the shots taken during the wedding. These were photographs that recorded not only this moment during their wedding day, but as a recording of history for them to have and to share down with future members. This also made me realize that these photos needed to be perfect and that these photos are what everyone are going to be looking for. I also started to use flash at this time to help me get a quicker shutter speed as the first few shots were blurry do to movement for those that were standing. Primary reason for the slower shutter speed as I had to increase my aperture to make sure everyone was in focus.

Once this was done I then took a few more shots of just of the newly weds, which I had ideas when I visit the previous week. These shots went quick and got them out of the church and let them have time alone before they had to go to the reception. This was a perfect time for me to stretch out and take a look around the reception area as I haven't been there yet. This was only 15 minutes from the church and was a nice ride. The reception was at a museum which they rented out for the evening. Visitors had free reign of it and as long as I didn't use flash I had permission to take pictures for the wedding in it.  I also was able to get some detail shots of the set-up while nobody was in the area.

At this point I've been standing for about 4 hours (only 30 minutes were sitting, while driving from and to locations). I was super thirsty because of the heat of the church and my legs were cramping, so I quickly got some shots and started to slowly hydrate with the water fountain inside the museum. I also had to watch the time as I wanted to get a picture of the couple driving up to the museum (I told them to call me or text me when they were about to pull up). I was also able to introduce myself to the DJ and the dinner coordinator during this time and give them my business card. When I got the text, I went up to the front and was able to get 5 minutes of sit time on the bench and once they pulled up there was no more sitting until dinner was served (2 hours from then). From this point, it was very fun for me. This was my favorite part of the evening was capturing the candid moments. Moments the couple wouldn't see, moments of family and friends laughing and smiling, moments of tears over the happy moments, and of just everyone dancing and having fun.

I didn't realize this until he sun started to go down that I was actually very lucky! The canvas that was used, that everyone sat under for the reception, was white. I was able to use it as one huge reflector umbrella and was able to fill up the whole area with my SB-700. This was perfect as I was able to shoot well into the night. One of the other things, that I was hoping they wouldn't get with another photographer, is I was able to talk to the ranger to do some photos in the back of the car. Was some of my last shots of the night and they are really neat. While walking back inside from the car, they instantly held hands while walking down back to the museum. I instantly saw the last photo of the night, and to me represented them ending the night together walking away together.

1/80 sec at f / 2.8, ISO 3200, 48mm

I left shortly after and got home. I right away got the images copied over to the computer and ran a backup. I also then took the other memory card (I had my camera set to shoot duplicates on the second memory card) and put it into a fireproof safe. I also edited three images for the Bride right away so she could share them right away and use them for Facebook. I didn't only do this for her, but for her to post images of what I took so everyone can see what type of photos I will have compared to those who uploaded via their phones. I wanted them to be eager to see my photos before printing their own photos, hoping they would order mine instead. I did realize, however, that I forgot to put my watermark on those images since I was in a rush. However, I did get a few messages through FB asking when they would be up ready to see. I told them my goal is to have them up by August 3rd or shortly after.

At this point it looks like I should be delivering over 500 photos, and because of some of the things that happened (certain stains on clothes) I actually touched each photo to make sure things were perfect. This was something I didn't expect to do but since I love editing photos was fun to do. It added a good chunk of time I didn't expect to do, so make sure you take that into consideration if you decide to photograph a wedding. It took me about a total of 24 hours to edit these photos and since I just got another 100+ from the other photographer I expect to spend another 6 hours. that would be a total of 40 hours spent for this wedding. So when you are attempting to price out a wedding, this one took me a work week of time. When you put this on top of another full time job, it was very wake, work, sleep type of week. So for those who are reading this that wonder why a photographer charges what they do, I hope this helps you understand their prices. For those that read this to that are looking into wedding photography, I hope this helps you to pick a worthwhile price for you.

Overall, I'm 99% happy with the results of this event. There's a few shots that I thought I had, that ended up being blurry when I looked on the computer. Once of them was a request photo from the Bride's parents of them standing in front of a section in the museum that has history with their family. Beyond that one photo and a few candid's that didn't turn out that I thought they did, I think they will enjoy the photos greatly.

Photo taken by: Curtis Gibeaut Jr. 

At the end of the day, I only ended up using one battery and one bar out of the second. I used half of the battery power in the SB-700 and had about 400 shots left on the first set of memory cards. I didn't drive any shot, though I did shoot it a drive setting which I changed the FPS to 3 instead of the full 6. The only time I drove my shots was during the cutting of the cake in which she stuffed cake into his face. All other shots I waited for the shot and took it, and I don't think I missed anything because of this. A few shots where blurry because I didn't watch my shutter speed but I think this is why my first wedding turned out so well. I pictured the shot in my head, composed my shot, and waited for the moment to happen. If it didn't I moved to the next shot.

Feel free to visit my website at: http://santamour.smugmug.com/ to view my gallery (not of the wedding photos as the rest are being kept private for the families to share). Also, please visit and like my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StevenSantamourPhotography

Event Photography: Jumping Right Into a Wedding

So I am now, eleven months (almost to the day), of when I started to look into selling my photos and services to pay for my photography addiction. With a lot of research, lots of pricing comparison, and getting a feel to my style of photography, I have finally reached a comfortable zone to start doing events! I was hoping to get a few other events in before I did a wedding, but a friend decided to come to me to do record her wedding.

When she messaged me I was actually pretty excited, I mean someone actually reached out for me and asking me to do something as important as recording one of her most important days in her life; her wedding. I actually ended up saying no to her a few times and explained that I really only did landscape and nature photography. She said she understood that this would be something new for me but she really did like my photography and would really like me to shoot her wedding. After clarifying this, and understanding I would also do this as an official business transaction, I finally agreed to do it!

She actually had asked me back in February, and it gave me a lot of time to hone my indoor photography as well as research wedding photography. I was amazed on how much was out there for free! Youtube became a great learning pool of video after video, actually able to see how other photographers prepped and shot for a wedding. I then realized it wasn't much different than nature photography! When I shoot nature, I actually setup my composition for a landscape. I then wait for an animal to jump into it making a great story out of the picture. Otherwise, they were just candid photos of the birds flying or the animal running around. That isn't to different than a wedding if you look at it closely. The only difference: light, time, and space.

Light in the church, or at high hours of the day, or weather can all affect how you can shoot. How fast your shutter speed is and location become the biggest puzzle of this event. How fast can your shutter get in this low light while keeping your ISO low enough to get the best quality photo? How do you fit everyone into the photo? Where can you fit everyone into the photo? How much time do you have in the church after the wedding happens?

I only saw a few photographers recommend checking out the location before the wedding day if possible. This allows you to feel the area, take your time, and work with those in charger of the church prior to the wedding. This actually worked for me, as I went a week before the wedding and took a look around with the couple (which happened to already be there when I went). We were able to point out a few spots to take photos after the wedding, point out where people where going to be, and I was able to get some sample shots to determine what the light would be.

Exposure +.5 (ISO 800, 1/80, f / 2.8)
No other edits were done. Lens correction would fix the "everything falling away" feeling

I set up in the back of the church, put it into aperture priority and set my camera to be wide open at 2.8 (didn't worry about composition). From this point I adjusted my ISO (I do not use auto-ISO) until I got to a shutters peed of 1/80.  I then took a look at the histogram and saw it was a tad bit underexposed and put it up a half step and it was spot on. As you can see in this picture, the lights were not on so if it is cloudy the day of the wedding it should be close to this with the lights on and no light coming in from the windows. One challenge I have: available light only. Meaning, I cannot use flash inside the church. This was important me to find out before the wedding in case I needed to rent a different camera body than what I already own. I do not as I have a Nikon D7000 and I can take great photos up to 1600 and grain/noise just starts to appear here. If I go black and white photos I can bump the ISO up to 3200 with no problem. So I am very comfortable with my equipment at this point. 

Beyond the posed shots after the wedding the rest of the event are candid and detail shots which I love to do. I have already set up their online gallery on my Smugmug site, password protected it, and I printed off 50 business cards that have their URL to their gallery and password for them to hand out at their wedding/reception. One other thing I did to prep for this event, is I made a photo checklist to help me get all desired photos. They are not promises, but I will be looking at this checklist to make sure I can get as many as possible. So when we are doing posed shots, I can get a few shots off and if we are wondering what is next I can pop the list out and keep the flow rolling. I also had the bride and groom enter in some of their own items to the list as well. Such as key names and shots they would like that I wouldn't have normally done. Example: They would like all couples in one photo that have been married at this church. I would have never of thought of recommending that one!

One of the last things I did, is I looked at photography insurance. This is something I would recommend anyone who could not afford replacing their camera if it was damaged. Mine is about 500 a year, and covers just about everything with a 500 deductible. No matter what of my camera equipment is broke, it's cheaper for the deductible than to buy the equipment again.

Keep an eye on my blog as I will follow up with this Sunday if I have time, or early next week. The wedding is this Saturday (only two days!). Let me know if you have any questions. Comment here or on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/StevenSantamourPhotography

Band Promo Photoshoot: Behind the Scenes

This last weekend, I photographed a local cover band, "In Harm's Way". The photo shoot's goal was to supply an image they can use to create a promotional poster for their upcoming event. The goal of this blog entry is to give you an inside feel on what I did, why I did it, and will try to explain how I did it.

A day before the shoot, I did some scouting of the location we were going to be at. I wanted to keep the photo shoot to an hour, if possible, and this allowed me to find some locations that I knew I wanted them to model at. To do this, I took my camera and took pictures as I walked around (even got a great landscape panorama from it). I then looked at the photos when I got home and was able to study the area to find spots I wanted them to model at.

The following morning I was contacted that they would like to move the time because the weather radar was predicting that there was only a 10% chance of rain between 1-3pm. So I moved up the time to accommodate this as with the fog the shots I have prior thought of were no longer possible as everything was hidden. As I pulled up to the location, I was actually excited to see how the fog was laying around in the trees. I had them do a quick shoot over the lake which ended up just being a neutral color background (Raw Shot and then Editing).

For this photo I shot at 1/125 sec at f / 2.8, ISO 100, at 70mm. As you can see from the before and after, the shot results are very different from the original. I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.3 for this. For this shot I increased the highlights by 100 which changed the background to a nice white. I then increased the shadows to give their shirts back their color and also increased the vibrance by 71 to bring the color back in the reds. I then put some clarity in there and then brushed out the tree.

This was the first shot of the day, and if the fog was not there there would have been lines created by the waves with the lake behind them. I thought this would create great contrast but with the fog, I was able to supply them with a nice clean white background easy for them to put on a poster.


Walking back to the car the fog caught my eye looking down the hill with the road. The lines of the side of the street, the center line, and the split of the center line made great leading lines for a photo. This ended up being a personal favorite from the shoot.

I was able to get the guys a bit more loose and smiling at this point, everyone was already cold. They looked puzzled at first when I told them to "walk towards me" but I was able to get this photo and to me almost feels like a candid photo of them walking down the road. I centered the tallest in the middle so I could keep the shot tight on the sides (there were a lot of signs) then split them up so they would add depth to the photo. Photo settings on this are: 1/125 sec at f / 2.8, ISO 100, at 30mm. I was told they where going to dress up in their colors and when I was editing this photo it actually looked really great in just Black and White. I'm actually not a huge fan of selective color within photos, however, when I decided to play with this one and just add the red back into the photo it created something that I enjoyed. It just made the picture in my eyes. I then cropped it, again something I don't like to do, and remove the negative space to create something great for a poster. I also then went through and removed the signs from the photo.

The rain really started to come down and I noticed that their shirts were getting noticeable dots on their shirts and wanted to take them to the roofed area down by the pier. While driving down there, I passed an open amplitheater and saw a few shots within that. It set up for my second favorite photo of them.

Same settings as before, the light hasn't changed. I also was having flash issues, the external flash didn't always want to fire. Again, 1/125 sec at f / 2.8, ISO 100, at 36mm. This photo required a bit of clean up as the floor was messy due to all of the dead leaves and I removed the snow from their shoes. Also while looking for rain drops in the photo, I noticed that there was an electric outlet between the legs on the model on the far left and that was also removed. I liked the lines from the background and thought it made them pop out of what would probably have looked to be flat otherwise. So I increased the highlights just enough to see them but also making the image to bright. Increased the clarity and removed some of the shadows from under them and behind them. If my flash was working correctly the highlights and shadows would have been much easier to clean up. I also popped the vibrance a bit to bring out the reds.

I ended up with 8 great photos that I thought would work great for a poster, and when I was leaving the shoot, I thought I only had 2. The photo shoot lasted for an hour and I offered to take some shots of them practicing as I only thought I had 2 and wanted to offer them more choices. However, they felt comfortable with what I had and called it the night.

Some tips; one of the biggest reason why I shoot in RAW format is because the amount of information the picture has in it when comparing it to a JPEG. Information in the darks may not be able to be recovered (without large amount of noise, if at all) and light temperature is much easier to change. This makes Black and White photos actually better if you can manipulate the temperature of the photo.

Take a look at the band's Facebook page as they already have on up as their banner with their logo: In Harm's Way  and feel free to check out the photos in higher res as they requested to open up the gallery for everyone to see: http://santamour.smugmug.com/portraits and don't forget to check out all my available landscape prints that are available for purchase: http://santamour.smugmug.com .

If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask in the comments here, on my Facebook page, or email me: steve@stevensantamourphotography.com

Why did I start selling my photographs?

Selling my photography was actually something that came up in a conversation with one of my friends. Prior to that, I simply enjoyed going out and getting photographs and sharing them on either Facebook or Flickr. I enjoyed reading peoples' feedback on what they liked and didn't like, and I enjoyed seeing my pictures getting "likes" or "favorites". If you have have read my past blogs you would know that I only did Landscapes, Nature, and Close-Up (they aren't true macro shots) photographs and my friend asked me if I would do some portraits for him for holiday cards. I said sure, not even expecting to get anything out of it but just some practice in taking photos of people. He ended up giving me a few things that I was not expecting and that is when it hit me.

Why not sell my best photos and offer discount portrait photos to help pay for my hobby?

That is when I started looking into going more professional with my photography. I learned there are numerous ways to make money selling your photos, but majority of them required you to do to it full time and this is not what I currently want to do. My current goal is for the sales to be able to pay for my current equipment and future equipment, not for me to live off of. This may change in the future (I'm hoping that it does as photography would be a really neat career), but it is not something I want to rely on to survive. Once I was able to define my career goal with photos, I was able to lay out a pretty good plan. I added up everything I spent in equipment, registration fee's to be able to do legitimate sales of photography in Wisconsin, and other expenses that was only specific to my photography. That is how much I would like to make in profits in a year. I estimated how much I would like to sell my photos for and also if I decided to go into portrait shooting how much an hour I would charge, how much for a photo, and all the other license costs (example giving someone unrestricted license to a photo). When I got through all of this, I was very please to see how many photos I needed to sell, how many portrait shots I would need to do, and how many prints of those photos I would need to print. I then compared those numbers to companies around my location and found that I came up much less than what the current pros offer and I was glad with that as I do not count myself as a Pro yet. A professional photographer to me is someone who actually lives off of their photography, or a majority of their income is from their photography. I count myself as a semi-professional photography or an extreme hobbyist.

I really thought this was a great idea when I actually ordered one of my own photos on a 20x30 print, and actually saw that my photos would make great wall decor and that this could actually work. If it doesn't, it wont bother me in the slightest as it's not my goal to make a living off it but to help with the cost that goes with this hobby. I mean, 1300 dollars for a lens hurts the wallet a bit. Why not offer others the ability to use this lens in a way and have them pay for a bit of it? :D

Spring is coming around and I do have some traveling plans scheduled this year that will allow me to capture some great landscapes. So far this year, I have planned on going to North and South Carolina which will offer great mountain and ocean landscapes not to mention some fun street photography.

Don't forget to check out my Online Gallery  which will have my best shots. If you would like to see other photographs that didn't make the cut you can check out my Flickr page. If there is something on there you like, and is not found on my Online Gallery please email me and I'll post it up there for you to order!

One of my newest photos:

Eye of the Gerbera

What Type of Photography?

I was always intrigued by photos in magazines, for as long as I could remember. As a kid I loved being in front of the camera, video or photo. I enjoyed the funny faces, the memory, and seeing how other people saw things. I also enjoyed stealing people's cameras and taking random pictures, giving them a big surprise.

I then entered a stage in my life where I thought spies were the coolest things in the world, and one of the best things spies could do is take pictures. I remember going to our local 'junk store' and purchased a small spy camera that took small 35mm film. I remember taking hundreds of photos with it of random things; rocks, trees, friends, animals, and tons of other things. I ended up with many of those orange film canisters, and used those to hide things in (who looks in those things anyway). Going to the store to get them processed, waiting the hour+ while my mom shopped was one my most eager times. I was always in a rush to see how my pictures turned out. I actually still have a few of them today.

I think this is why I enjoy the photography today. Some of the main things I love to take pictures of are my pets, landscapes, lightning, animals, and just nature in general. I enjoy being able to capture what people see as cute, or amazing. Something that makes them smile, or sparks a memory from their past. This is also why I enjoy living in the time that I do, because the internet allows me to share my photos with strangers in a mass scale. Not to mention, no more film to buy.

Currently I only have the kit lens that came with my Nikon 3100 , which is an AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6g VR. I also purchased an AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G VR. These two lenses have been working great for my photos, however, I am finding I want more. One of the things about doing pictures of nature, is detail. With the lenses I get, I can actually pull off a pretty close picture and get decent detail. However, I normally have issues getting the desired bokeh (blurry background). Since my money is tight, and lenses being expensive (but so worth it), I tend to stick with what I have access to. Currently, I am limited to what American TV has to offer and luckily for me they carry a good amount of Nikkor lenses for my camera and at normal price I can get from anywhere else. Few weeks ago I put in an order for a 50mm lens, and waiting eagerly for it as they have been out-of-stock and haven't yet restocked it. One of the main things about this lens is the f/1.8g that is has, should be able to give me the bokeh I am looking for. I also purchased a Macro Lens set on Amazon that should be allow me to do some Macro photography with it (link for product). I'm hoping this well let me have more fun with nature photography. I'm thinking my next purchase is going to be a smaller one, and surprising by this Best Buy has a great number of filters for sale that have good to great reviews. The one I am specifically looking at is the Polaroid Optics 58mm HD multicoated neutral density fader filter so I can do long exposure pictures during brighter days so I can get that misty looking water in photos.

I was also looking into playing with fire, light graffiti, and splashes (thanks to Alex Koloskov for that). Most of these pictures will be better if I have the filter and 50mm lens.