Thanks bro

Note of things that stood out for me on brilliant new book bought for me by brother called Fast TRack Photographer:
It is by ignoring what everyone else is doing and building a business that the business will stand out and succeed. More posts to follow.

Hope

Number of times I've picked up a camera: 4
Clients: 0

Have possibility of linking myself with someone setting up a dance and drama school - to take photos of shows etc. Will take pics for her website. Meeting up next week. I'll tell you how it goes. Could this be a breakthrough?

Hairlight

Today I set up my new light on a boom, which means I can place it just above my model's head to light up their hair. I have put a honeycomb fitting on the light. I have two different honeycombs so I'll experiment with both and let you know (honeycombs make light go in straight lines). Now I just need someone to experiment on. Boys back from camping trip today. Sure they'd like to do it!

Drilling holes has turned out to be harder than I thought as wall dodgy, and fittings very heavy. Now waiting for help completing hanging of background system etc. Should get this next weekend.

Back After the Holidays

Clients: 1
Times I picked up a camera: 5

Well, I haven't been concentrating on my business for all this time. However, I have looked after the children during their Easter holidays, and booked our holiday, so not a complete wash-out either. Back to the matter in hand.

Things I need to do:

Hang the background system

How high should I hang this? Will the drill bit be big enough for the screws I've bought?

Hang the light boom

Where should I hang this?

Hang the shelves

Will I electrocute myself drilling into this wall?

I'll let you know how it went.

Theatre Photography is Cool!

In last week:
Number of clients: 0
Number of bookings: 1
Number of times I've picked up the camera: 3


Hi there,

I took my first set of theatre photographs over the weekend. The light levels were lower than I had expected so I had to set an ISO of 1600 (the max on my Canon 5D). Still didn't have enough time on exposure so set to underexpose by 2 stops. Light was very irregular. Most of them came out. Here are a couple

I'm going to try and do more of it. I'll ask at the theatre on Friday.

I'm still not picking up the camera anywhere near enough. I'll take it with me to the park later.

My main job at the moment is to do the drilling in the studio (my Dad unscrewed the plug sockets and you can see that the wires were going down. Hurrah. I'm also preparing CD's and prints for actors I photographed. you never know. Would be great to get some referrals, and maybe they would like head-shots done sometime...

Hurrah!

Well, it's the end of a whole day of tearing my hair out, but I finally calibrated my printer (an Epson R2400). Yipee. The problem was that ColorSync on my Mac was interfering with the setting of the profile. I finally found a way of getting around it through a video on YouTube at this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tw9qPRLuNw
I have to say that the service from X-rite was atrocious. They didn't answer any of my calls, and sent totally unhelpful emails in response to my queries. I wouldn't recommend the color munki for that reason.

The next question is, what should I do tomorrow? Should I hire a cable detector for £20+VAT which may not work and try and locate cables, or should I wait and see if my Dad who's coming on Monday can work it out. I reckon I'll do that. It's worth a go. Looks like tomorrow may be a day for having a cup of tea with my friend!

Printer Calibration Nightmare!

I did everything it said, but Color Munki has made my prints come out really dark. Will have to start again, but not sure where I'm going wrong. There's trouble shooting advice on the website but it doesn't help, and no apparent number to call them on. I've sent an email. Let's see whether they respond..!