Why You Need a Radio Remote Trigger

One of the most useful tools I have found for my outdoor photography is a radio remote triggering device for firing flashes and my camera.

These can be useful to fire a flash that is far from the camera but also will trigger the camera to fire from a remote location. The uses are unlimited and can be used for just about any subject depending on your imagination.

The radio remote device have a sender and receiver although some are transceivers and will work as both as the sender or receiver. The sender attaches to your camera and the receiver to your flash.

Maybe you are wondering about the Infra Red triggers that are available by the manufacturers for firing flash? These are nice but have more limitations than a radio remote. The distance the IR is effective is much shorter than the radio devices and the line-of-sight between flash and sender can be an issue. Often if anything obstructs the line-of-sight between the devices the flash wont fire. You may have trouble as well if you are trying to hide the flash and receiver around a corner or maybe even in tent. If anything obstructs the signal the flash wont fire. The IR trigger also won’t fire the camera.  Here is how I use them. … Continue Reading

THE GIFT OF PHOTOGRAPHY by Brenda Tharp

“Why do you photograph?”

(c)Brenda Tharp

The workshop participants looked at me with surprise. I asked my question again and told them to write down their responses. It was an exercise that had nothing to do with a camera or f-stops, and it was unusual. Since this was a workshop on learning to see creatively, my students figured their thoughts must be important and off they went to write.

Each time I’ve assigned this exercise, the answers to that question continue to inspire me. In the anonymity of unsigned papers, emotions and heartfelt truths come out in the written word. “To be closer to flowers and plants and all living things is exciting to me. Somehow, as I am learning to see more with my camera, I am also learning to see more without it,” wrote one participant. Another student wrote, “I photograph so I can attempt to portray the essence of my subject, to try to find its spirit.” Still another stated, “…The process allows me to express my connection to the spirit of place, the spirit of time, and the spirit of people. As this connection expresses itself through the images, photography becomes an expression of my spirit, my timelessness, my humanity.” Wow. … Continue Reading

Is This The Future for Licensing To Text Books?

I teach an online class about the business of nature photography and last winter I had a student in the course that I just received an email from the other day regarding a stock usage that was proposed to him.

The student was contacting me for my opinion on a potential stock sale of an old image he had taken in the 80’s. He had been contacted by a text book company who had found his blog and the picture of the Yellowstone fire aftermath in the late 80’s. (Thanks to excellent keywording.)

They wanted to license the picture and said the target print run would be 1,000,000 text books, which I think is the planned print run before a total re-edit of the book. They offered $1200.00 for the use for a 4×6 inside use.

Now my pricing guide suggests a 1 million print run would be around $1000.00 and is probably the rate I would have quoted, but things have changed since this book was published in 2007. In this economy with plummeting prices, what can you really expect to get? Is the ‘normal’ rate a little lower or a lot lower?  … Continue Reading

Adventure Photographer Mike Tittel’s New Portfolio Brings in the Work

Mike Tittel is an adventure sports photographer from Utah with an impressive resume of client projects and adventures. Mike recently created a visually stunning new portfolio and then hit the road to show his wares to art buyers and photo editors.

The response to his new portfolio has been a huge success, landing some assignments on the spot and proving that the printed portfolio and personal meeting is still one of the strongest ways to impress potential clients and earn new business.

We got in touch with Mike and asked if he would share the process, from concept to completion, on how he went about creating his new portfolio.

Hi Mike. Your new portfolio book looks fabulous. Thanks for taking a moment describe for us the idea behind the book and tell us about your business and the goals you hope to reach with this portfolio?

I got my start shooting hardcore adventure based sports but lately have been shifting more and more into fitness and general active lifestyle type images. I shoot for a wide range of both editorial and commercial clients. Recently I have been shooting more commercial and advertising work. The goal with the new portfolio was to create a book that I not only felt proud showing but that also presented me and my vision in a clear, memorable way. Ultimately I wanted to leave an impression on those viewing it. … Continue Reading

Photographing The Elusive African Leopard

by Manus Van Dyk

Ask most wildlife photographers where in the world they would choose to go to photograph leopards and the answer will nearly always be the same – Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve in South Africa.   Part of the Greater Kruger Park, but not open to the general public, Sabi Sands is rightly known as an exclusive destination. And that means an exclusive game viewing experience where guests are few but game is plentiful.

Unfenced boundaries allow wildlife to roam freely  – across the private lodges that make up the Sabi Sands reserve as well as the adjacent Kruger – giving the photographer ample opportunities to capture the majestic leopard on film. Off road drives mean you can get up close to these beautiful animals and be mesmerised by sightings of all aspects of a leopard’s life – with a kill, maybe with cubs and sometimes, just maybe with a mate. Sabi Sands prides itself on its high leopard population: in short, there is no better place to track and photograph leopards.  For that very reason it’s where we run our photography courses. … Continue Reading

Free Survey on Getting Photo Buyers Attention

It has been a month since Rob Haggart over at aPhotoeditor.com released his art buyer survey which you can download here.

Rob has some great experience in the publishing world, most notably as photo editors at Outside Magazine and Mens Journal. This experience and his professional resume allow him some nice access to other photo editor and art buyers.

Rob was generous enough to take the time to create and post this survey which benefits all photographers. You can examine the survey and download it as well as read his fabulous blog.

I wanted to take some time to review his survey and form my own opinion as to what the results mean. I selected a few of the questions that I felt were the most important and have commented on them below. … Continue Reading

Snowboard Photographer Fights to Get Paid and It’s Getting Ugly

Canadian snowboard photographer Chris Messervey has his hands full battling a corporate bully for unauthorized use of one of his photos.

Chris is an awesome photographer and like many adventure sports photographers, he makes his living traveling and shooting the sport and licensing his work to magazines, design projects, and corporate advertising.

Last winter he joined a group of riders in Revelstoke, BC to film and shoot. As he describes in his blog post here, the weather was not that great but he scored some nice shots.

One of the riders, pro snowboarder (and Olympic contender) Dustin Craven, loved some of the shots and suggested they send some of them to Grenade, one of Dustin’s sponsors, for a preview to see if any images would appeal to them. … Continue Reading

Ansel Adams, Photographing Hummingbirds, CATCH Magazine, Digital Workflow

In our post the other day, we spread the news about the discovery of lost glass plates purportedly belonging to  Ansel Adams and apparently worth as much as $200 million in this report on CNN.  Well not so fast!

In this first article, the family and the Ansel Adams Trust doubt the authenticity of the glass plates, despite experts authenticating them.

In this post the issue is raised and questions asked as the whether the buyer of these glass plates even has a legal right to sell copyrighted prints from the original plates. I am no lawyer so I don’t know, but my limited abilities at legal analysis would make me think NO. I would think it is the image that is copyrighted, not the negative, camera, tripod, processing lab, or glass plates used to create the image.

And then a woman says in this report that her Uncle Earl photographed Yosemite often and during the same time Ansel Adams did and she has some of his prints, one which apparently appears to have been taken exactly from the same spot and only minutes after the alleged Ansel Adams image purchased from a Fresno garage sale and printed.

Rick Norsigian, the purchaser of the glass plates has responded to the allegations here.

We will hear more about this i am sure. … Continue Reading

Sean Bagshaw Pulls Off A Bank Job

Editors Note: The markets are tough these days and making large multi-image Rights Managed sales in the face of a formidable Microstock market is no easy task. When we hear about it we want to feature it so when we caught wind of Southern Oregon photographer Sean Bagshaw’s large project with a bank, we asked Sean if he would share the story behind the project and how he handled the details.

Hi Sean. Congratulations on such a large project with a local bank in your area. It looks like they used a lot of imagery from your files. How did they find you?

Thanks Charlie!  In this case they were already familiar with my work and looked me up.  I am fortunate to be one of very few photographers doing the kind of work I do in my small corner of Southern Oregon. The combination of specializing in imagery from my local area and being very active in keeping my images in the public eye through my website, social media, blog, galleries, exhibits, news articles and so on has created a situation in which many local businesses are already familiar with my photography. When it comes time for them to find images for a project they often seek me out.  It takes a lot of ground work to be in that position but it is nice when the calls come in. … Continue Reading

Lost Glass Plates of Ansel Adams Discovered

Rick Norsigian’s hobby is exploring garage sales. 10 years ago he bought a box of glass negatives for $45.00. Today they are estimated to be worth $200 million.

They were created by Ansel Adams and experts agree they were from his early years as a photographer estimated somewhere around 1919 – 1930’s, well before he became well known.

Norsigian bought them in 2000 from a Southern California garage sale and has spent a decade trying to establish their worth. Today they have been authenticated by experts-and are valued at $200 million.

You can read the full story here at CNN.