i just have to share!

This post is for photographers and it’s all free.  Who can beat free info about photography?  Any photographers out there who want some guidance I have some realy cool stuff to throw your way!  It’s maybe not the best way, but it’s worked for me so far and it’s what I value.  Click below to read the rest of the story.

I started making a series off assignments to help other photographers get going and have some direction.  I am just going to post them as I think of them.  It’s all very flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants!

Assignment 1:

 is designed to help you create direction for your style.  It is also designed to find out how compatable our styles are with respect to shooting together.  There are no wrong answers so focus on what you love no matter what anyone else thinks!
 
Your mission should you choose to accept it is to create a google reader account to track the blogs of your favorite photographers.  If you make it your homepage, you will see updates for your favorite photographers every time you log onto the internet.  Once it is created, I would love to look at who you found and I will share with you mine, so that we can get ideas from each others selections.  This will help me to get to know you artistically and appreciate your vision for yourself as you incorporate many elements into the style you want to develop.
 
Good sources for finding photographers are:
 
google
mywedding.com
theknot.com
Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
Digital Wedding Forum (DWF)
wpja.com (wedding photojornalism association)
WPPI
 
Here is the link to make a google reader account: http://googlereader
 
The next part of this assignment is to familiarize yourself with my favorate photographers.  When I communicate about photography, I reference my favorites a lot and it is helpful when we converse about the subject to reference the same people.  Melanie and I often say something like, “I was totally inspired by the light is was so whitebox!”  Whitebox is one of my top three favorites!  Along with Jose Villa and Fred Egan.  Whitebox epitimizes what I love in photography about light and color and fun, I love Jose Villas film look and timeless classical images, my favorite kind of fine art.  Fred Egan’s photographs are infused with free spiritedness.  I like to think of myself a combination of the three when it comes to weddings.  I draw from different inspirational sources for families, kids, babies, etc.  I hope that my assistant will not try to shoot like I do, but try to lean toward the inspirations that I draw from, does that make sense?  I am always trying to grow and stretch myself this way! 
 
Here is the link to my favorite photographers: http://delicious.com/misphotographics
To make this part of the assignment quantitative, I would like you to make a folder of your favorites from these websites and email them to my when you have looked through everything.  Tell me who you loved and who stood out to you and why.
Assignment 2:reader.google.com

Read your camera manual and try out everything in it.  Read it twice if you have to.  Figure out what features you will use on a regular basis and which ones you don’t care for.  At least you will know they are there.  Pay special attention to ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, and manual mode, you will probably always be using your knowledge of these. 

Assignment 3:

Buy Lightroom and read the manual.  I feel this program is more inportant than photoshop itself!

 Assigment 4:

Go to Becker School!  This is a free education use it!

There, that ottah keep you busy for a while.  Like I said, it may not be for everyone, but if I could go back to day one and tell myself what to do to progess quickly, that is what I would say to myself.  Actually the Becker School is pretty much cooler than anything I can do for you, so watch everything for a wealth of info.  I am very much in agreement with Becker’s philosophy of helping out and giving back and networking with other photographers.