Holiday Market Prints Soon to Come

I'm typing this up while I upload the pics for Holiday Market. That's right, ten days after Holiday Market, prints will be picked up today/tomorrow (Tuesday). With fortune (and a good wife) on my side, those prints will hit the mail on Wednesday. If that happens, then we'll be in under the two-week mark. Which was slower than I'd hoped, but I told everybody it would be at least one and up to two weeks before they'd get their pics.

Why so slow? I've been busy, aight?!? Not to undermine my legitimacy, but @PEaCe Photography is a side project. So real work comes first. Also, those product photos I did last week had a much greater return on investment, so those pics took priority over the Holiday Market pics. Additionally, I'm still streamlining my workflow. Having Adobe Lightroom makes things WAY easier than last year, but I still didn't shoot the pictures in the careful way I'd need to so that I could push it all through Lr instead of applying each boarder individually.

 Nevertheless, photos are currently uploading. Still... And there's no way I'm staying up to see them finish because I've got a grad tomorrow that is going to have me out until pretty late tomorrow.

Here's my cute kid.

Product Photography for Genesis Home Decor

Last Monday, I took a quick trip to Phenix City to take some product photos for Genesis Home Decor. She has a selection of home accent items. The short version is this. She had gotten feedback from the folks at Etsy that she needed better photos to sell her products effectively. So she posted an ad on Craigslist, I found said ad, we exchanged a series of emails, and BAM! Here are some of my favorites of the shoot.

I'm quite pleased with what we accomplished. The shoot took a bit longer than I had expected (over two hours before I was breaking down). It was a great learning experience for me. A few things come to mind that I could do better/differently/faster next time. Hey Paul, you need to...

• Set up multiple backdrops at once so you can take all your pics of a product together. This would have saved some time in shifting gears, and it would have kept me from accidentally forgetting to shoot two items on the black.
• Set your flashes and don't move them. I had one strobe bouncing off the ceiling a bit away from the camera, and another mounted to the camera that I would change direction on as I saw fit. Having both lights stationary would have cut down on time I spent adjusting settings.
• Set your settings and don't change them...mostly. This would only be possible if the lights aren't moving and changing. It also doesn't apply to the adjustments necessary for the relative lightness or darkness of a product, or switching between various backgrounds. Consistency in setting also allows for easier processing of the images after the shoot.
• Request good props to work with. This wasn't a problem; she had gotten a few things out to use in the pictures, and I found the baskets particularly helpful. Plus, putting other Genesis products in the background worked great. I only mention it here so that I think about it in the future.
• When shooting something reflective, picture frames for instance, put your reflector panels to use and black that reflection out. I had real trouble getting a shot of the picture frames without me and/or other distracting elements visible in the reflection. Thinking about it later, I should have shielded the items with my light control panel so there was a solid black field instead of a noticeable reflection.
• When in doubt about how to pose an item, ask the customer to do it for you. I was struggling to start with, in spite of the sample pictures she had of other product photos that she liked. So I asked her to arrange some stuff, and "Bob's your uncle!" We were rolling right along.
• Make a packing checklist. I forgot to take contracts and my shoot-through umbrellas with me. Not having the umbrellas meant I had to rethink my lighting (making all my at home tests fruitless). Not having the contracts cost me the extra self addressed stamped envelope I had to enclose with the photo CD so she could send me back a copy.
• Dress cool, and drink plenty of water. There's just something about a photo shoot that always makes me hot.

For any product pros out there who might disparage my wrinkled backdrops, I'll get a steamer and use smooth backdrops as soon as I can afford to buy a steamer and am charging enough to make the extra effort worth it.

Well, that's enough on that. On the way, more Holiday Market stuff, more grad season stuff, and some family portraits down the road.

Oh and a shout out to Village Photographers for letting me borrow the equipment that made this shoot and Holiday Market such a success.

Grad Season Is Here Again

This post is called "Grad Season Is Here Again" because I had a great post about the beginning of another graduation season with Village Photographers. However, I had to stop in the midst of writing that post to actually do my job here at the Alabama State University commencement ceremony, and this app apparently doesn't auto-save a draft when you close it. Grr...

Anyway, here's a couple pics!

(Pay no attention to the time stamp. I got an error at the event and had to wait until I got home to republish.)

Goings On

Thanks to all the happy people who came over to my photo booth or picked up a print at the Tallassee Farmers' Market Holiday Market!

Holiday Market turned out to be a pretty good success. It wasn't a huge money maker, but I mainly do Holiday Market and Trade Day just to get my name out there and practice on low pressure clients. I covered my costs and recouped some costs I didn't cover on Trade Day. The real test of Holiday Market will be if it stirs up some additional gigs.

Holiday Market pics should be ready to print and mail later this week. They'll hit Facebook before they print, and I'll amend this post with a link when that happens. I've also got pics of the Christmas Parade sponsored by the Tallassee Chamber of Commerce. Those pictures should go up later today.

[Amendment:  Holiday Market pics are out, and I forgot to post the pics to FB first. My bad. They're up now, though. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.390532951030825.93500.174367212647401&type=1&l=7d828790f6 ]

As soon as I finish this post, I'm headed to Phenix City to take some product photos for Genesis Home Decor. I'm excited to branch out into a new area of photography. It's always good to add a new tool to your set, and this is one which actually could prove quite profitable. These are coming at a bargain rate, but even that is helping to repay the household for stuff bought with non-business funds.

I also have some Christmas photos to take for a couple sets of family friends, but those are pro-bono. It's always good to practice, and friends are more patient with trying out techniques than paying customers.

Plenty going on. AND grad season is beginning at the end of this week.

Holiday Market

It's time for Holiday Market! "What is Holiday Market?" you ask. It's a local arts, crafts, food, etc. market put on by the Tallassee Farmers' Market. It occurs in conjunction with the Tallassee tree-lighting ceremony and Christmas parade. The market is open Friday from noon to 6PM and Saturday from 8AM to 1PM.

So why am I excited about Holiday Market? Because @PEaCe Photography is going to be there with a really awesome photo booth, and I'm @PEaCe Photography! Keeping with what worked well at Trade Day, I'm charging based on the size of the group. Groups of 1-3 people are $1, 4-6 people are $2, and 7-there's no more room are $3. At trade day, I couldn't handle a group larger than about 7 people, which is one reason I'm going tent-less this time. (The other reason is so that I can just compensate for the sunlight rather than try and control it.)

I'm hoping for better results this weekend than we had at Trade Day back in October. I've got far less $ sunk into being at Holiday Market, so I'm hoping to pull back into the black this Friday and Saturday.

The equipment I borrowed from Village Photographers couldn't be picked up until this afternoon, the real garland and wreath I'm using wouldn't survive the additional wear and tear of being set up for days on end, I just didn't feel like stringing all the lights over my backdrop stand, and so for all these reasons  and more I wasn't able to get in a full test of the set up. But trust me, it's going to be great.

The resulting pictures will be somewhat different from day to night. So I'm hoping a lot of folks come Friday evening for the most dramatic lighting. Folks who get theirs done in the day will still have a great picture, it just won't have the deep contrasty awesomeness of the night time shots.

Since I only had pieces of my backdrop up at any given time, my sample photo selection was a bit limited. Nonetheless, I have the cutest kid around for a model and I was able to compensate for the lack of the flash effect I wanted by tweaking the levels in Adobe Lightroom. Below are the resulting samples.

Customers can select from the following boarders:

I Failed Louie's Chicken Fingers

***This post has been radically edited from its original content in light of events subsequent to its posting.***

I got a call from SignWorld in Auburn asking if I had any pictures from around Tallassee that they might be able to use in a mural for the new Louie's Chicken Fingers. I posted on here a LARGE number of pictures so they could see what I've got.

I posted a selection of older pictures I had to dig through my archives to find. Some of those older pictures weren't taken with a pro-level camera, but even so are high enough quality to print fairly large.
Then there were some more recent Tallassee area photos.

I was tweaking and uploading the pics while substitute teaching. It's a good thing we had a test that day!

The SignWorld folks liked my work, but they wanted something HUGE. We're talking 5 feet tall by 12 feet wide or so (I don't remember the exact dimensions). It was supposed to be something to fill a focal wall in the newly renovated restaurant. After going back and forth a few times, I uploaded a wall-sized collage of images for them to evaluate, which I put together before getting the exact dimensions but also told them I could redo it if this was on the right track. Since they never called back, I'm guessing it didn't suit them.

It was a fantastic opportunity, and it bugs me greatly that I couldn't capitalize on it. I'm chomping at the bit to upgrade my camera so that I can take pictures that could be blown up to fill a wall (or sold through stock photography companies). However, I can't sink more money that I don't have on the possibility of maybe potentially recouping it later. That's not good business.

Sorry Louie's, I failed you. I'll pop in sometime soon, and I can't wait to see what did fill that wall.

Anyway, here's a small version of the collage I created.

Updated Pricing!

Portrait Sessions:
Mini-Session: $25
A Mini-Session is meant to give you a very limited number of great pictures. This is what you want if you are looking for one picture to be your family Christmas card, a birth announcement, a save-the-date card, a party invitation, etc. These sessions should last no more than half an hour not including set-up time.

Standard Session: $50 first hour + $10 each additional half-hour
A Standard session is...well...pretty standard. This is what you want if you are looking for a series of pictures to go in an album, fill a photobook, or display all over a wall in your home or office. These sessions would typically only last for one to two hours. Changes in wardrobe, moving to a new location, and shuffling props are included in the time, but basic set-up and break-down are not counted against you. Typically, these photo shoots will include both standard posing and more artistic and candid style shots.

Additional fees:

• No Logo Fee: $10 - I normally apply a small logo to the corner of each picture. To have logo-free images, there is a fee.
• Out-of-Town Fee: $5 per quarter hour of drive-time outside of Tallassee. I live in the middle of town and anywhere I can get to in less than 15 minutes does not carry an additional fee.
• Way-Out-of-Town Fee: $0.555 per mile from my house. This fee is for locations which are a significant distance away from Tallassee. This is the IRS Standard rate for business travel. 
• [What's the difference between Out-of-Town and Way-Out-of-Town? Roughly speaking, you are Way-Out-of-Town if it's going to take me more than thirty minutes of interstate driving to get to you, but you are just regular Out-of-Town if I'm driving for an hour down county roads. One or the other will apply to events outside of the immediate Tallassee area, but not both.]
• Props/Scenery Fee: Assessed based on availability and re-usability. Simple backdrops (black, white, and off-white canvas) do not carry this fee. This fee applies to things I will need to purchase and may or may not be able to use again and to things I have which will eventually need to be replaced due to wear and tear. You are free to use almost anything you want to bring to the shoot (the only exclusion being things I personally deem obscene or objectionable).
• Large Group Fees:
• Under 8 people -- no additional fee
• 9-12 people -- add $10 to the first hour and $2 to each additional half-hour
• 13-20 people -- add $20 to the first hour and $5 to each additional half-hour
• 20 people or more -- These will be priced on a case by case basis.
• Child/Adult Imbalance Fee: 
• Less than 2-1 ratio -- add $10 to the first hour and $2 to each additional half-hour, applies to groups with less than 2 adults per each child under 16. This fee may be waived on site at the photographer's discretion for exceptionally cooperative children.
• Less than 1-2 ratio -- add $20 to the first hour and $5 to each additional half-hour, applies to groups with more children under 10 than adult arms present. This fee may be waived on site at the photographer's discretion for exceptionally cooperative children. 

Picture CDs/DVDs and Printing:
Every session includes the best images of your shoot with basic edits on a CD or DVD (as size requires) and a letter stating that you have full rights to use your pictures however you choose.

If you want prints, (this is new) you can pay a $20 print consultation fee, and we'll sit down and select the images you want printed and the sizes you want. We will then have your pictures printed and shipped to you through your choice of MPix (pro-quality), ShutterFly (quality), or Sam's (economy). You will need a credit card to pay for your actual printing and shipping costs.

Special Event Photo Booth:
Would you like me to set up a photo booth at your special event and take commemorative photos of your attenders similar to what I do for Trade Day and Holiday Market?
$100 for a minimum of 2 hours shoot time plus $30 for each additional hour, I bring everything and deliver the images to you on CD.
If you want me to mail prints to your guests, then it's an extra $1 per 4X6 print.
If you want me to deliver prints to you for you to distribute, that's only $0.50 per print.
If you want me to incorporate your event logo into a boarder for each picture, that's free.
If you want me to charge your attenders for each picture, then I'll rebate you $0.10 per group.
If you provide a suitable background for the pictures, then I'll discount you $20. Background must be approved by me prior to the event.

Other Special Events and Projects:
Use the portrait session rates as a rough guide, but I'll need to know specific details before giving you a firm quote.


If you want an explanation of why I'm pricing things the way I am, go check out my original Prices and Packages post.

Trade Day Prints Going in the Mail Soon!

Trade Day Photo Booth prints have been picked up, info labels are printed and affixed, and address labels are going on as I type (thanks to my beautiful, wonderful wife). Everything looks good for those to go out tomorrow. We are short one print because of an error neither of us caught, but we'll get that one printed at Wal-mart tomorrow and be back on track.

Are you terrified that I don't get my prints done at a professional level lab? I'm only slightly ashamed of it. If I were doing a major job, then I'd probably go with MPix or maybe Shutterfly. However, every penny matters and speed is more important than print quality for this task. I undercut MPix by 6 cents per 4X6 print plus shipping costs and don't have to wait for them to ship to me before I can turn the pictures around and send them back out. Shipping large prints also gets cost prohibitive very quickly.

Back to Trade Day...

You can see unboardered and more or less uncropped images in the facebook album linked below.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.373004172783703.89603.174367212647401&type=1&l=79c641f408

Here's what the booth looked like from the outside:

It's all over but the shoutin'--as they say--as far as Trade Day is concerned. Still, I hope that there plenty of people who holler back that they want more prints or photo sessions to get me out of the red on this one.

Social Media FTW

Here's a pretty mind blowing article I read a while back about a lying, copyright infringing, other person's work claiming fauxtographer and how social media was her downfall. It's pretty epic. I just can't imagine how she ever thought she'd get away with it.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-picture-of-dishonesty-social-media-slaps-down-a-wedding-photo-faker?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150787367171230_21371911_10150787572421230#f291f93c84

Trade Day Edits Done!

My hope was that I would be able to run my Tallassee Trade Day pics through Adobe Lightroom, doing only minor edits and then letting it apply the boarder, and have all the images ready in a matter of minutes. Well, that didn't happen. While shooting, I wasn't as conscious as I thought I was being about leaving enough room at the top and bottom of the frame to allow for the boarder and words. That left me with a lot of shucking and jiving to do to make each pic fit the boarder, including some filling in at the edges. (I only had to punt and add solid color blocks to the sides of one picture, and that one was a freebie of my pastor's family.)

I'll be uploading the best of each group to facebook in a day or so. Prints will likely happen Saturday, mailing...probably Monday. To tide you over until then, here's my kid!

Trade Day Happened

Tallassee Trade Day was this last weekend. I set up a photo booth and took pictures looking a lot like this:

I've got most of the best pictures selected. There are a few I'm going to have to get a second opinion on from my wife. After that, there will be a few special editing issues to take care of that will be a bit of a time sink, then I'll just let Adobe Light Room apply the boarders and create the final JPEGs and they'll be ready for printing...then addressing...then shipping out.

Those pics above are some samples I took beforehand in my back yard when testing out my setup. The font is called "Big Top" and can be found free on dafont.com. Thank you Shamrock, whoever you are. If I had made any money, then I'd probably figure out how to send you a couple bucks.

As it stands, I'm pretty deep in the red for Trade Day. That will likely get a little better after we send the prints out. We had a pretty significant number of people wanting additional prints of their pictures last year. If we can get some additional orders, that will help. If I can get some portrait sessions or other work out of it, then that would be a big help, too. That's actually why I do trade day, getting my name out there to build some business. That, and the experience.

I learned two big lessons this year. First, it's not worth the trouble of chasing the sun to work under a tent. I'll be shooting Holiday Market without the tent and just blast people with flashes and shoot with my D70 at 1/500 sec. (because that's as fast as anything will sync to a flash). Second, prints don't sell well...if at all. I'm not settled on what to do with this information, but I've got to do something with it. I can't spend money on prints to sell and recoup 0% of that; it's just bad business. If nothing else, I'll be selling the prints I have at crazy low prices at Holiday Market. Hopefully I can capitalize on people buying presents.

Last year, I actually made a little money on Trade Day. This year, Tallassee's Trade Day was competing with Loachapoka's Syrup Soppin' Day, an arts-n-crafts fair in Wetumpka, and some Jr. League thing in Montgomery. Which means that Trade Day had fewer vendors and fewer attenders. I shot about 2/3 as many groups as I did last year and sold $20 in prints compared to over $50 last year. (That $20 for this year amounts to one 16X20 collage.) I did have the forethought to charge $1 for 1-3 people and $2 for 4 or more this year, so that helped boost the gross income some.

Lest you think I'm down on this year's Trade Day, let me say that I'm not. It wasn't a huge success in it's own right, but I did cover most of the costs that can't be justified in some other way. I had a good time. My customers will have a good keepsake. It was fun. I'd do it again if I had it to do over, though I'd do it slightly differently.

Oh, and I'd like to give a shout out to Village Photographers for loaning me some equipment that helped to make my photo booth more legit than it might have been otherwise.

Product Photography?

I just saw a Craig'sList ad for a new business in Phenix City looking for a product photographer. I've sent them an email pointing them here, to my blog, so they can see samples of my work. While I've got all sorts of pictures posted here, I didn't have any product photos...but I do now.

Here we have a few pictures of items I've sold on eBay:

          
     
     












Now, I know these aren't exactly catalog quality pics, but the fact that this is what I produce to sell my junk on eBay should indicate that I would produce a vastly superior set of images were someone paying me to do so.

There was actually a lady at Tallassee's Holiday Market last year who asked me about doing some pictures of her crafts to submit to a company that sells such things through their catalog and website, but sadly she never got back in touch with me. Too bad she didn't have VistaPrint business cards like I did.

In totally unrelated news, things are looking good for Trade Day this year...far better than last year.

Fall Photo Wander Number 1

Tallassee Trade Day is coming up, and I'm intending on having some better fall pictures to display and hopefully sell some prints. I'm also trying to get some quality, commercially viable shots to submit to stock photography companies. My last attempts at getting accepted to sell stock photos through two companies were rejected, which is not surprising; no one gets accepted their first time out.

My camera and I took a little photo wander the other day to fill these needs. Below are the results.