Some Learning places on the web

I wanted to pass on some places I like to go on the web for learning. Much like when we all get together and learn at Leo’s or Eric’s Studio’s one thing or another, there are a lot of photographers out there, putting themselves on the web and teaching you what they know. I’ve picked up a lot of useful information and perhaps you might too.
NOTE: Now there are all kinds of information on photography as well as photoshop but when it comes to online learning with photoshop, it helps to have an extra computer or laptop nearby your main computer that has photoshop on it. And when you look up this information, put it on the laptop so you can use your main computer to do what they are teaching you.

One of my favorite sources is www.Youtube.com
If you type in “confessions of a photographer” you’ll get an interesting guy who talks about all kinds of things he shoots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqMI72jsXRQ
Type in: you suck at photoshop and you get a guy teaching you photoshop tricks but with a humor that I find amusing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_X5uR7VC4M
Now from this point, you can view all their other episodes and learn a lot, but now you know where it is, and you can type in “Photoshop Tips” “Photography Tips” and see what comes up. The same goes for learning whatever else you like. I personally like watching SEO videos.
TIP: if you don’t have a feel youtube channel, why not get one. You can upload you video slideshows there and keyword them, it helps really nicely with high school seniors because they love youtube!

Podcasts are a great way to get some in depth information with little effort. I don’t know about some of you but I hate the radio with its junk commercials, I own an IPOD and these things can hold a lot of music and my podcasts. My favorite to listen to is “The Digital Story Show” http://www.thedigitalstory.com/podcast/
They talk about all kinds of things, from cameras, to programs, to tips, and lens. Now there are other sites out there that have pod casts that are interesting, but they aren’t always as easy to find. What I thought about doing is just creating a link list to all this online educational sources. One time I was looking for new Podcasts and I came across a guy in Japan interviewing a photographer in California, and I learned about this link. http://www.thebschool.com/ which I haven’t fully explored but they discussed free education on their blog, with video and posts. Check it out.

That’s about all I can think of right this second, I hope it gets you started and gets you informed. If you are looking for more information, contact me by email and I’ll get you some more links and tips.

Laters,
Will – willvickers@hotmail.com

Feb 2009 Meeting

We had a great meeting over at Leo's studio, I like to think it was fun and productive. Thank you to all that attended, and to Leo for the use of his studio as well as Jim for class we had that night.
As we often times have very little time to tackle everything we’d like to discuss, I thought I’d save my 2 cents for after the fact. And with me doing the website, I’d like to think that it might share some points or tips on what we all could be doing on the web.

Keep in mind all these tips are free to implement. So don’t be afraid to try them out and see where they lead you. Let’s start with Facebook, some of you are on there I know, out of about 23 I found that 6 have facebook profiles. That’s good, but for a free networking service, why not have 100% on there. http://www.facebook.com/ – and with the PPA magazine putting it right on the front cover, I mean come on that’s PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS OF AMERICA saying “you should be on facebook”. Here’s the article if you care to read it. http://www.ppmag.com/current_issue/pdfs/0902/0209facebook_web.pdf

Twitter - http://twitter.com/

MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/ (not my favorite, but maybe it could work for you)

Create a blog - http://www.blogspot.com/ - its free and great for search engines

Create a Youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/ - it’s a great place to put your slideshows for people to check out your work. And if you use the Animoto ( http://www.animoto.com/ ) slideshow software/ yearly subscription it has a “Youtube” upload button right there.

http://www.photographysites.com/
http://www.weddingwire.com/
http://www.wedj.com/
http://www.partypop.com/

http://www.google.com/ – you should add your business listing to Google Maps or create a business listing with google.

Well that’s a good handful of things to get your started. If you find this useful, let me know, as I’ll keep updating this information to you all. And keep in mind all this is free, free marketing, free advertising, and free networking.

I hate to point this little fact out to you but Times are moving forward, we can’t stop change from happening and it’s happening all around us. The trick is to change with the times! Back in the day, yellow pages might have been the way to go, but those books are becoming a thing of the past, and clients now are looking you up online, on the internet. And if they can’t find you, you might as well be invisible. Don’t be the last one learning this new stuff, don’t get left behind. Just telling it like it is.
Nuff said.

Mini Senior Shoot Workshop

We got together on Monday for a mini Senior Workshop which was a pretty fun surprise. Paula had 4 seniors she was photographing and it worked out that many of us, who didn’t have regular day jobs were able to attend. Among some of the attendees were Leo, Denis, Lisa, Maria, and myself of course. I like to think in the future we will have many more little fun, educational shoots together. As this group is more of a family type group, it was nice to go grab lunch shortly after the shoot. By that time we were all pretty hungry.

The four seniors were a blast to photograph! Usually you have mostly woman into all the photographing, modeling, and posing. We were fortunate to have the 4 guys cracking up, modeling, and smiling. It was a very chilly morning that morning but with moving around a lot and staying in the sun, we worked through the bitter cold. I thought it was crazy how the guys were changing cloths outside in that weather. Never once did they complain they were cold, we just needed to get them to smile from time to time, to get those good shots Mom would like.
Definitely keep an eye out for that next email, “Hey grab your camera gear, we are heading out to shoot!”.
Thanks Paula for inviting us.

November Meeting

Had a great time up at Eric Young's Studio for a November Meeting. I personally learned alot about Lighting that I never knew before and learning about posing a family was super valuable. I know I'm looking forward to our next meeting that involves the learning of new techniques and new lessons.