Do you shoot?

Nope.

Just the guy that does the Nemo show Disneyworld.

 

Tried out a bunch of different angles at a state diving meet and got a few decent shots. This one was by far my favorite.

 

Was that the only spot you could shoot from?

What does that look like if you recropped it to only have a white background and no people?

 

I tried out all different kinds of spots and angles. The one you see. Straight on. Straight on from the side. Behind the board and slightly to the left tended to produce the most consistent quality and range of photos, though.

I tried to keep a piece of the board and the water in the crop just so there are no doubts he's diving. I think it probably would look cooler with the tighter crop you described, though it might confuse some folks. Suppose that's what the cutline is for assuming readers actually read it.

 

You need to rotate that pic to straighten out the perspective -- looks like a 3 or 4 degree tilt to the right would make that railing and tent line straight.

 

Figured I'd bring this back.
So I've been working on portrait photography since getting canned last winter.
Today I'm going out on my first paying gig. I'm terrified.
It's for friends, so there's not as much pressure as shooting for strangers, but I'm horrified I'm going to fuck up.
The biggest problem I had was trying to figure out how much to charge. I don't know what I'm worth. I'm giving them a one-hour shoot and rights to the photos, but had no clue on a number.

My portrait stuff still isn't where I want it - doubt it ever will be - but I'm starting to get better.
I took this one two weeks ago. For our new baby reveal, we took pics of Little Rhody with blue balloons holding an its a boy sign, and one with pink balloons and it's a girl. Tried some other things as well; this was an accident. We were setting her up and I was testing the light. Loved the way it came out.
Nikon D7000, 50 mm, 2.0, ISO 100, 1/200 (I think I was trying for 1.8 and didn't get the number when I adjusted for the light; I can do stuff without looking and didn't bother to notice if I was 1.8 or 2.0).


A couple of friends asked me to shoot their Save the Date photos. This was one of a bunch. We did a variety of things; I think they ended up doing a collage. We took shots of chalkboards that said "Save" "The" "Date."
Nikon D7000, 50 mm, 1.8, ISO 100, 1/320.


These aren't quite top of the line pro shit, but I think I'm doing enough that I can start getting paid. My biggest problem is family and friends who want me to shoot for free because I "love taking pictures." A buddy's wife asked me to shoot her a pic of 7 kids at once for a portrait for the grandparents because I love taking photos so much. Gonna have a chat with my buddy about getting paid.
If I suck, it would be great if someone would just tell me so then I could stop worrying so much.

 

Because the sun is setting or rising, you might have been better taking a few with the sun at your back. I don't know what the background would have looked like from the new perspective, but eliminating the homes would help the type of shot you were going for. I like the idea of standing in a tree, though.

In the second photo, I really do not like seeing the bottom of shoes in photos. She could have been on her knees or facing in another direction. I do like the choice of using the railing.

Here are a handful I recently shot...

 

How did you do the leaf shot? Manual focus? I tried to do that all fall and all I got was leaves in focus.
I shot Christmas card photos for a friend with some other portrait stuff. We agreed on $100. He got all photo rights.
Now I have a friend who wants me to shoot a portrait of all the kids in her family (seven of them). I'm thinking $200, because I know I'm going to inevitably be asked to shoot portraits of each of the kids.
Does this sound right?

 

That first one is lovely.

Also, I realize this thread hasn't been updated in months, but I like it, and I miss SportsJournalists.com, so here we are.

 

Beautiful. I love shooting productions because while the light may be minimal, it's almost always beautiful.

 

1. You don't suck. I'd tell you if you did.

2. Don't shoot for other people without getting paid. Caveat: I have a family/close friends policy that is my exception to this rule. But you have to be in my very small circle to get photos for free. You either pay full price, or we're close enough I want to give you a gift.

And now I'm done with the double posting.

 

Shot this one last week that I'm pretty proud of. The story was about a few outfield plays making the difference in a close game, so it had that going for it. She missed the catch, but stopped it to prevent the tying run from advancing to third for what would have been a sac fly on the next play.