Do you shoot?

[Rhody31]

Love having ADod's commentary. She's brilliant, for those who don't know or aren't familiar with her work.
I've been shooting some portrait stuff and getting paid - not much, mind you. Just some friends who want pics of their kids and like my work enough to ditch the photog they've been using in favor of me.
I'm done doing stuff by appointment for free. My policy is if they call me, they pay. If I go to something (a birthday party, for example) on my own accord and take out a camera, I have no problems not paying.
What I'm battling is how much to charge. I shot a cousin-in-law's kids football game and gave her the pics, but put a bunch up on flickr and sold some for a healthy price. My friend asked me to shoot some portraits and I did; then she asked me to get them printed and I was terrified to charge full rate. She ordered 29 4x6s, 6 5x7s and 2 8x10s based on my prices I charged her 50 percent less than I should.
I don't shoot as much sports as I want but I still love doing it. Right now I think children's portraits is a market I could settle in to as a cheaper alternative to people I think are much better than me.
This pic is one of my favorites. It's my daughter at a sunflower thing my wife's family goes to. Of course, me being an ashhole, I lost the jpeg and had to download this off Facebook so I had a copy. I wanted to print it huge for our new house, but oops, I'm an idiot.

Would love to see this in color.

Here it is in color. I like the black and white a little more.
Again, I'm furious I lost the JPGs.

 

[ADodgen]

How did the band concert go?

 

[Rhody31]

How did the band concert go?

Better than expected.
I shoot for a studio that has the yearbook contract, so they're not looking for anything crazy. That gets boring, so I try to find different angles.
The larger problem is me not wanting to interrupt the show. I won't shoot from in front of the stage. Everything is from a set of stairs that enter the stage on the left and right and I can get backstage and shoot from the sides.
Last night I asked the band director if I could crawl around and shoot the kid playing the tymphany. He said he was fine with it and warned the kid I'd be shooting so don't get distracted. I crawled back and held my 24-70 up at him, keeping the tymphany in the foreground. I didn't get the shot I wanted - I was hoping he'd face me a little more - but now that I know I can do it, I'll know what to do.
The Yearbook photos get tricky because there's such a balance of getting what they want and trying to be creative.
This is a shot I took at the same school for their talent show. I'm trying to get the reflection of the kids brighter, but I can't figure out how. What's the best way for me to execute this type of shot:

EDIT: I didn't do any postproduction work on the shot. Studio handles it, so I just give them the JPGs. I would crop some off the top, but I really just want to figure out how to get this reflection shot on a more consistent basis.

 

[ADodgen]

Not much you can do, if you're shooting with the available light. There's just a lot of fall-off in the reflection.

 

[93Devil]

Love having ADod's commentary. She's brilliant, for those who don't know or aren't familiar with her work.
I've been shooting some portrait stuff and getting paid - not much, mind you. Just some friends who want pics of their kids and like my work enough to ditch the photog they've been using in favor of me.
I'm done doing stuff by appointment for free. My policy is if they call me, they pay. If I go to something (a birthday party, for example) on my own accord and take out a camera, I have no problems not paying.
What I'm battling is how much to charge. I shot a cousin-in-law's kids football game and gave her the pics, but put a bunch up on flickr and sold some for a healthy price. My friend asked me to shoot some portraits and I did; then she asked me to get them printed and I was terrified to charge full rate. She ordered 29 4x6s, 6 5x7s and 2 8x10s based on my prices I charged her 50 percent less than I should.
I don't shoot as much sports as I want but I still love doing it. Right now I think children's portraits is a market I could settle in to as a cheaper alternative to people I think are much better than me.
This pic is one of my favorites. It's my daughter at a sunflower thing my wife's family goes to. Of course, me being an ashhole, I lost the jpeg and had to download this off Facebook so I had a copy. I wanted to print it huge for our new house, but oops, I'm an idiot.

Would love to see this in color.

Here it is in color. I like the black and white a little more.
Again, I'm furious I lost the JPGs.

Thanks

I was wondering if the yellow would pop more oss of the flowers.

 

[Songbird]

I was able to use the left woman's head to block the exit sign.

They're the art teachers at the middle school. We're showing their students' work Saturday during Mayfest, the big street fair that pretty much kicks off the summer season. If you're within 75 miles of Bennington, it's a pretty decent event iffin you're up for a day trip. If you do come, stop into the gallery and say hey.

 

[valpo87]

So I'm having trouble posting photos on this message board. Here's a link to some photos I took from the WWE Tribute to the Troops last December at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

https://www.facebook.com/dean.siemon/media_set?set=a.10151764010311954.1073741831.513541953&type=3

 

[Rhody31]

So I'm having trouble posting photos on this message board. Here's a link to some photos I took from the WWE Tribute to the Troops last December at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

https://www.facebook.com/dean.siemon/media_set?set=a.10151764010311954.1073741831.513541953&type=3

Use tinypic.com ... super easy

 

[Songbird]

BTW, thanks for the earlier critique, ADodgen! Been awhile, huh?

 

[ADodgen]

BTW, thanks for the earlier critique, ADodgen! Been awhile, huh?

It's definitely been a while, Du. I've gotten out of the habit of being here.

 

[93Devil]

OK, here come a few action shots...

 

[I Should Coco]

Devil: I like the isolation shots of (your daughter?) dribbling, especially the one with her hair flowing.

Good pictures ... plus, at that age, it's rare to find a moment when there aren't groups of 10 kids kicking away at the ball.