Photography, Me, and Google+

For the past several months I have been spending time with a new social network, Google+. At first I wasn't real sure what to do with the account. In short order though I found that there were a lot of other photographers on Google+ and they were interested in sharing and interacting with each other.

I'm not going to tell you how to use Google+, or even talk about all the great features that are available to photographer, and other users. If that's what you are looking for, the Colby Brown has you covered with his Google+: The Survival Guide for a Photographer's Paradise. I highly recommend reading his post.

In fact, it was Colby Brown that really prompted this blog post. He recently announced a contest the required writing a short essay about why G+ is great for photographers. I wrote something, very short, and not nearly as articulated as I might like, but I've been thinking about it since then. This is an attempt to express my thoughts a little better, but I make no promises that I will succeed.

Preparing Images for Printing at Retail | LightScribbles

Rule one, or maybe it's one rule of blogging is to write about what you know. I think that I'm qualified to write about this topic. I've worked in photo retail for over 10 years, much of that time printing photos for customers.

I often see customers that bring in photos that are the wrong filetype, size, bit depth, colorspace, or any number of other possible issues. I'll try to address some of that and help you to get it right next time you take your photos in for printing or order prints online.

This is the image that I'll use to help illustrate this topic.

A Resolution for Better Photos | LightScribbles

A few years a wrote an article to offer my customers and fellow camera club members a better understanding of resolution and how it relates to digital images. It was intended as a beginners' guide of sorts, and not an expert technical reference.

I decided to update the article somewhat and offer it here on my blog. Hopefully it will be helpful to more people this way. If you notice any inaccuracies, please bring them to my attention so that I can have this article as complete and accurate as possible.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment. I will update this post with additional information as needed.

Photographers, are you and your customers educated and informed about copyrights? | LightScribbles

This is aimed at all photographers creating images for customers, especially wedding and portrait. This is aimed at no photographer(s) in particular.

What do your customers know about copyright? Perhaps I should ask what you, as a photographer, know about copyright? This is an important issue that is as timely now as ever.

Getting the Big Picture | LightScribbles

Lake Tahoe - Emerald Bay

Occasionally, and I really mean just occasionally, I take a sequence of shots with the intention of putting them together to make one larger image. Then, occasionally, I actually get around to putting them together.

I always tell myself that I'm going to work on doing more stitched panoramas, but then I don't really end up doing it. It's not that it takes that much time or effort to put them together, and it only takes slightly longer to take a series of image instead of just one.

Adding Some Color | LightScribbles

This blog needs some color, wouldn't you agree? I like the dark theme that I have because I believe that photos will show up better on the darker background than they would on white or on a patterned or photographic background.

I mentioned that I would likely throw a few shots from the old Light Scribbles blog into the mix here. Since I'm needing some content that's what I'm doing today.

This was originally done on Novemeber 12, 2008. It is of a small handheld fan that has some colored led lights on one of the blades. The light pattern changes as the fan turns.

I hope that you enjoy this photo. I will be adding more content soon if all goes as I would like.

A Fresh Start | LightScribbles

I've been thinking about getting this blog started for a while now, so here it is.

A couple of years ago I made regular blog posts with recent photos that I had taken. I was posting at least twice a week, sometimes more. Then I got to the point that I was not enjoying photography as I once had, and I removed my blog.

Now I'm back and I'm going to do things a bit different. Instead of just posting recent photos on here, which I'm sure will still happen, I'm going to be sharing much more. I'm serious about improving my photography and making it the best it can be. If I learn something new, or rediscover something that I forgot I knew, I'll try to remember to share it here. Hopefully I'll be able to post a few things that help others learn too.

Basically this blog will be all photography all the time. It will be photos, photography instruction, my opinions on equipment, books, resources, etc. If I come across something that I really like, I'll be sure to share that. If I come across something that I don't like, or I believe to be a complete waste, I'll let you know that too.

Oh, remember that old blog that I trashed? Well, I still have the images on the computer, so expect them to make a return here, or at least some of them. I'll try to add them in gradually rather than flooding the blog with them all at once.

I hope that you'll join me on this journey and together we'll see what we can learn. Feel free to make comments about what you are seeing, and what you would like to see, here.