The name sounds familiar but I cannot place it. Whereabouts do they live?

You could have done a good job with only three of these images but its good work none the less. If I may critique a bit the leading line of the stone path draws the eye to the stone tablet as it should but the over done sky competes for attention. I do not know which program you used but I use photomatix and I would have selected a different photograph from which to render the sky, perhaps one with a little less contrast.

I have included a few of my HDR efforts below

A friewnds 69 SS Camaro, my all time favorite car


At Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.


A little known vantage point overlooking the Kennecott open pit copper mine near Salt Lake City

Your quite welcome. You have talent and a good eye so keep on shooting. Is that your eguana?

If there is any loss in sharpness it is because pictures are rendered here at 96 dpi. There is a slight lens flare on the left side upper. These are nice pictures, it is evident that you put some thought into them, good work! :thumbup:

P.S. I like your friend in your icon :mrgreen:

Nothing is wrong with the light, any further exposure would have completerly blown out the sky, which incidently has some nice interest. Placing the tree/water line in the center of the frame was exactly where I would have put it because the rule of thirds does not apply to reflected images. As for the "V" line of the trees they do lead the eye to the center of the picture but they do it in both the top and bottom, as well as intersecting all 4 power points forcing the eye to bounce back and take in the whole scene. Another excellent effort.

I have to disagree. What you would loose by cropping out the tree tops and the rocks at the bottom would far outweigh anything you would gain. The teqnique used here makes excellent use of the wide angle aspects of the lense rendering great focus from a few inches to infinity. I'm betting the focus was only set to around a few feet in manual and the camera was near to the ground, I would also be suprised if some sort of camera rest if not a tripod was used. I have to say that you must have better eyes then I do because the focus looks fine to me. The framing is excellent, the colors are vibrant, and the ribboning of the water is dead on. All in all a picture worthy of framing.

I came home from work at midnight the other day and saw this photo op in the sky. I really had to scramble to get these. I used several different lenses and even my star scope - what do you think?

Full Moon at midnight through thin storm clouds using a D700 camera attached to a 700MM Star Scope. ISO 1000 f/22 for 1/8 sec. Minor focus stacking in post production to bring out moon detail which accounts for the fact that the moon looks liked it is in the middle of a nebula cloud.


Full Moon at midnight through thin storm clouds using a D700 camera, a 17-35mm FX lense, ISO 800, f/8 and 1/350 sec shutter speed. No post production


Full Moon at midnight through thin storm clouds using a D700 camera, a 55-300mm DX lense, ISO 2000, f/16 and 1/250 sec shutter speed. No post production

I guess it all boils down to "don't quit your day job until you cannot afford to work there" - a unfortunate reality to be sure but the obstacles, although very surmountable for the truly dedicated photographer, will sink the casual half interested photographer no matter how sophisticated their gear may be. If that comment discourages you then your battle is all but lost already - sad but true, you cannot let yourself be discouraged in this business; you have to do it for the love of the art first and make money doing it second.

[quote=marcomarks]

My sister, owner of Jolley Photography, is an internationally known master photographer (as is her husband) and does so well with her word-of-mouth clients that she does not even bother with weddings any more but when she did she commanded top money and always got it but she was/is worth it.

It is true that the economy is forcing many to settle for less than the best but there is plenty of top paying jobs for someone who works for the reputation to be sought after. As one increases their skill and reputation the fees will do likewise. If you start at the top of the pay range without paying your professional dues then that too will resonate throughout your clientel and you will crash and burn. That is why the best way to start in the wedding field is to become an apprentice to a good established pro and leartn all you can (it does not have to take a long time, a few months with a busy pro will do it for you if you are intent on learning), then, and only then, will you have the footing to venture out on your own, otherwise you better have exceptional natural skills because for you it is a crap shoot.

Above all be honest, tell the client that you are just starting out and if they want the very best and are willing to pay for it then they should look elsewhere and then have the names and contact info for one or two top professionals, reccommend them and they will return the favor to you with those who cannot afford them - being a professional photographer is a business so treat it like one. Don't ruin yourself thinking your all that when you are not!

Outstanding shot :thumbup: As for the market, persistence will pay off in the end. Point-and-shooters discourage easily so those who have to wade through the mess will eventually see the work of a good photographer even if they miss it the first time.

My father used to like to point out the difference in batting averages between a farm league player and a major league player – It’s not very much, in fact the small difference would surprise most people. I think the same holds true in photography, all you have to do is become a dedicated photographer, learn the “rules” of good photography and get to know your equipment intimately and then shoot, shoot, and shoot some more; you will eventually come out on top so don’t get discouraged and never underrate yourself – there is a lot of garbage out there so looking good is not as hard as one might think.

Sounds like a good place to start a business plan! Thanks for the thought :thumbup:

One question, "what is your bottom line profit margin"? It better be in the millions or I must politely decline your offer :mrgreen: - but thanks for the vote of confidence, I appreciate it, really, I do.

There is one silver lining to the digital revolution that has made decent digital and cheap camera available to everyone – “there are a lot of crappy pictures floating around”. If you are going to sell your shots then simply produce better shots and they will get noticed if you show them to the right people.

I've known photographers who started by spending two or more years putting together a portfolio of shots carefully selected to showcase talent not equipment, the customer does not give a darn about your equipment, they want results that the casual point-and-shoot person cannot provide. The problem with being a wedding photographer is that the customer often does not understand the difference between what they get from a pro and a rank amateur with an i-phone camera until it is too late. They want cheap and that is what they get with Uncle Joe or Aunt Theda. That is why they feel justified in trying to get you to cut your rates – they try to leverage all the point and shooters that they could have gotten for free.

I work for Kennecott Copper at their Smelter and I was delighted to see their latest Calendar, what a mess of amateur snapshots for such a huge company, I am quite sure they were done by "upper level managers" who wanted some sort of bragging rights so they armed themselves with a fancy entry level camera, got themselves "inserted" as the photographer by their bar buddies in top level managment, and went hiking for a day or two - it was pathetic. Most PR departments hate what they are forced to use.

I am putting together a series of shots of the open pit copper mine that I am going to present to the Rio Tinto PR department that will blow their current work right out of the water (yes, I am bragging but you would not believe the garbage that they currently print)- the nitch I am looking for is to become the photographer for a large enough company that I can get all the benefits, get paid to shoot, and travel - that is my goal and fortunately there is so much crap out there that shinning is not that hard if one is willing to do the work necessary to get noticed by these companies; every large company uses imagery and in today’s economy they usually look to over confident employees armed with digital cameras and inflated egos.

Show your work to greeting card companies, calendar companies, advertising agencies, and billboard companies, “anybody that uses images to make money”. That is where competition can make you shine; Fresh product is always in demand and a fresh eye is likely to top even their in-house photographers; most people send them crap so it can be easy to stand out if you are good at what you do.

The Kennecott Copper Mine in Salt Lake City Utah


The southwest corner of the mine


The truck shop at the north edge of the mine taken at night

Thanks Rachel, I was pleased at the results. I am putting together a presentation of photographs to show the PR department at Rio Tinto. I am hoping to sell the copy rights to them, I have had a number of people, even some in Kennecott managment tell me that these as well as others that I have would be of interest to them - here's to hoping!

Here are three more of the top contenders I am considering for inclusion in the presentation.

The southeast corner of the mine overlooking the south side of the Salt Lake Valley


This one was taken well after dark, a timed exposure of the truck shop at the edge of the mine.

Thank you for your sentiment Rachel; I have posted six pictures on page 1 of this thread but here are a few more recent ones I took of the Kennecott copper mine in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Not many will see the mine from the backside you see here; getting to the plateau where this was taken is difficult and not very well known. That is Salt Lake City in the background with the Wasatch Mountains behind it.




This is the truck shop at the edge of the mine. The hauling trucks are over three stories tall and can fit an average home in their bed.