by successfulbob | fine art photography, Lumix Lounge, photography education, success education
TAKE OFF THE FILTERS…
I’m not talking about the filters on your camera.
Talking about the ones in your head.
Ever notice when you go on vacation or to a photo seminar or go shooting with a friend that there are times when you start to see art all over the place? Or, when a fellow photographer comes to your neighborhood he or she makes stunning images in the space you spend a lot of time in? You missed it but it was there all the time?
The Amazing Brian. Sometimes it helps you tooooo much…
Your brain is incredible… But sometimes in order to protect itself it puts you on automatic pilot. It has to control the amount of stimuli it gets… and sometimes leaves out the things you really want to be paying attention to. Drive somewhere and wonder how you got there? Always turn right when you leave the driveway? Always brush your teeth with your right hand? Eat the same foods quite often but neglect to taste them? This is a result of your mind conserving itself by putting you on auto-pilot. There are things that the body needs to attend to without you thinking about it. Making sure your heart beats. That you breathe in and out and much more. The problem comes when it starts to make more and more things so automatic that you are almost an automation.
Fight back from the easy path. As the eastern religions and people who champion meditation will tell you, “Be in the Moment!” How to fight back to see more and be connected to what you see hear and feel. Take your brain off auto-pilot and move it into manual transmission.
Drive a different way to work or the store. Walk backwards. (although if you can’t take a little ribbing don’t do that one in front of others). Brush your teeth or shave or apply makeup with the opposite hand you are used to using. Listens to the water falling and splashing on the floor during your morning shower. Try a new restaurant or order different food from the one you normally go to…
Letting the brain go and be in the moment. Working on new directions for my photography.
If you want to take it straight to photography put a different lens on your camera for a week. Try new settings on your camera. shoot only from the waist. Or, do like I did and totally change the format of camera you use. When I moved to the micro 4/3rds format with the Lumix cameras things changed a lot. I originally found the system because I was looking for a camera that was light enough to have with me on vacations but still had enough of a file to produce larger prints. Then I found I was able to have my camera with me all the time and worked hard at being, “In the Moment” more often. Now I’m getting more and, I think, better images to work with.
So here’s your assignment. Disengage the automatic transmission in your brain. Go stick shift. You’ll be surprised what you start seeing and capturing with your camera!
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography education, success education
One of the ways I keep in shape with my photography skills is to practice and try new things on a regular basis. Yesterday I was having an IPA (that’s India Pale Ale for the brew bereft) I quickly photographed the chilled glass of beer and then the bottle before enjoying my libation… By the way it was quite tasty!
Then, before I went to bed I decided to build a mock up of a magazine ad for the brew. Here’s what I started with…
IPA beer bottle capture.
Frosted beer glass with a nice head. Images captured with the Lumix GX7 and the 20mm f1.7 lens.
Then it was off to Photoshop with three different textures and the tools to separate the bottle and the glass from the background. Using Layers and Blend Modes some drop shadows and a little VooDoo Magic I came up with this…
IPA ad mock up.
How have you stretched and practiced your skills lately?? Let me know…
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography software, success education
When prepping images from an event or wedding it used to take me quite a while to give a quick once-over to the images in order to make a proof gallery. Take the images that were shot in the same situation. Make some corrections get the color set and apply it to all the images from that portion of the shoot. Gather next set of images and repeat. It was pretty amazing how much time that ate up even though single adjustments were being made to multiple images it was still pretty hands on…
Now I’m using Perfectly Clear. I must admit I have had access to this software for quite a while but it takes a while for this old dog to jump on new tricks! Wish it wasn’t so. I had played with the software using it on an image here and there but i wish I had been a bit more diligent! Once I realized that you could batch process files while making up to 12 corrections in an image without touching them i started kicking myself for not utilizing the power of this software earlier.
Here’s a strip of a couple images from a batch process that includes three different scenes and would have needed me to touch multiple sliders in Adobe Camera RAW three different times, and that’s just part of the wedding…
Thumbnail view of two bridge windows of the same images. Top row – unprocessed RAW files. Bottom row – Images after running an action using Perfectly Clear Software. Cleaned up exposures. Smoothed skin tones. Neutralized white balance. Opened up shadows and more.
For today and tomorrow you can pick up this time-saver at 50% off. Sunday night and the price goes back up but after that you can still get it by using code COATES. Cool part is you can get the software right away, try it out for a month and if you don’t think it works for you get your money back. Take the time to save some time. Check it out. If you have any questions give me a shout.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | marketing, photography education, success education
You need to stay in front of the people in your community. One of the ways to keep out there is by sending out press releases. You know I’m a fan of this piece of the marketing puzzle and I want to make you one also. Here’s another article that appeared in Sedona’s local entertainment newspaper/magazine to show you that it works…
Kudos article on Bob Coates Photography & AZPPA Convention Competition Results
This particular article is about some success in imaging competition. I am a huge fan of entering competition at the local, state, region and National levels especially when you have access to viewing the competitions and getting critiques of your work. It pushes you to take your work to the next level. And that’s a huge benefit for you and your clients. Learn more about image competition at PPA.
When we pursue this press release avenue it is a win/win/win situation. It’s a win for the newspaper or magazine because they get well written content that doesn’t cost them a lot of time or money to use. It’s a win for your community because they get to learn about you and your skills. And, it’s a win for you because you are kept front of mind in your community in a positive way that you really can’t pay for… Learn more about writing and sending press releases by checking in here.
If you need some help with your marketing give me a call. Coaching rates are very reasonable. The first hour is no charge if you don’t think I’ve been a help to you… then you don’t pay – No hard feelings.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography education, success education
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Want to help a charity better?
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I’m a big fan of Roy H. Williams and have mentioned him and the Monday Morning Memo in posts before… If you haven’t followed my advice to subscribe to the MMM in the past, at the very least, go forth and find out what the heck ERBS are!
Yours in Successful Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography education, success education
Being in business means more than just making money in the community. I feel a great part about being part of a community is being able to give back and support those who are doing good things or providing service ‘over and above’.
One way to bring that to other folks attention is by blogging and telling the world about good things you see. The Internet is full of people who share their bad experiences and spread negativity in their wake… I feel if we reward the positive more often that it will breed more positive behavior. One of the ways I share that is with my images and blog. When I run across something good happening I try to share it with as many people as possible. Here’s an example of a salute to a great employee at our Sedona Community Center.
Following the the post I make a copy and put it in a frame and give it to the business for display. It gets the person who is featured more exposure and lets them know they are appreciated.
Here is the 8×10 piece for display that also keep Bob Coates Photography name in front of people.
How does this help my business? In looking for stories I tend to have my camera with me all the time so I don’t miss anything. Having the camera all the time generates conversations about photography. Exposure for my business through people seeing the salutes, getting people to feel good about themselves and each other, more human interest material for my blog which helps with SEO. AND, people want to work with positive people… Start sharing the good things and see how it helps you.
Yours in Photography, Bob
