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Today’s Photo Friday was captured last fall when I went out to Toadstool Geologic Park in western Nebraska. Being as isolated as it is, it is a prime location for stargazing. Of course, a night without a moon helps!
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/4, 2 exposure blend (1 taken just after sunset, 1 taken about 45 minutes after)
Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 25mm, f/8, 1/320 sec., Singh-Ray Polarizing Filter
Last Friday was the last day of my exhibition at the Governor’s residence in Lincoln, Nebraska. I loaded up the car and took the opportunity to capture the capitol building across the street. Although, I live about 40 miles from the building, I have only captured a couple photos of the structure. Beautifully designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and adorned with designs by Lee Lawrie (known previously for his work on 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York and the LA Library), the building is rich with symbolism.
As a secondary reason for photographing the capitol building, I wanted to test the autofocus on my 17-40 f/4l lens which I had just received back from repair the previous day. After testing the lens on both my 5D Mark II, and my 50D, I was happy to see that the autofocus was snappy and accurate. Another pleased experience with Canon support (4 for 4 so far, Canon). Here are some results from my session with the Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln.
This nearly 20 foot high statue was designed by Lee Lawrie who is known for works such as Atlas in Rockefeller Plaza and the Chapel at West Point. “The Sower” points northwesterly, the direction that would ecompoass the greatest amount of land in Nebraska. The dome, upon which “The Sower” stands, changes color depending on the weather. Here it is a golden color a result of the beautiful and warm day on which this image was captured.
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/400 sec.
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/7.1, 1/1000 sec.
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 22mm, f/9, 1/160 sec.
Besides being Friday, of course, today’s Photo Friday is a special one because it represents my 300th blog post! I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon so to quote Buzz Lightyear, ”To infinity and beyond!”
Today’s post was taken the same evening as “Ominous Overhead“, a spectacular storm and subsequent sunset that had everyone in the city talking. I managed to make it to the country, and watched the incredible lightning. You could pretty much just point a camera, click the shutter for 20 seconds and get a spectacular show, it was that crazy. This image is a single shot taken in rural Sarpy County in eastern Nebraska. Another cool Midwestern storm!
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/9, 13 sec.
Rural Sarpy County, Nebraska
In my May 12th post, “Everybody Loves Keywording Photographs” I mentioned that keywording photographs is usually a tedious albeit necessary exercise to help categorize photographs and allow others to find them via your website or search engines on the Internet. During the past two months I have revamped my website with the focus on expanding my already existing keywords and made some notes. Today, I’m going to give some tips on what you should do to maximize the your the keywords associated with your photography. For this exercise, I will be using the image above, “Mist and Melancholy” to help illustrate what keywords should be associated with this image.
While answering each of the 11 questions below, we need to keep four things in mind. Primarily, we will want to be as specific as possible. If something has a proper name, it should be used. Secondly, we will want to explore as many synonyms as possible within each question. Thirdly, if the plural of the subject differs significantly in spelling we will want to make note of that as well. Lastly, spell check everything! A mispelled word will rarely help in searches.
Keep in mind that if your keywords are too vague or inaccurate people will not think that your keywording is reliable and will be frustrated when they do not find the image they need. Additionally, we want to use only the terms the majority of individuals would use when searching. It is possible to go too far in keywording and have obscure words which few people would actually use. Using such terms reduces the effectiveness of the words that you have chosen to describe the photograph.
The questions come after the jump - be sure to click on “Read the rest of the entry”!
A Non-”Corn” Nebraska Landscape
Alain Briot, a successful photographer, especially in the print medium recently wrote an article regarding pricing fine art photography. Within the article he proposes the following:
I agree with Mr. Briot’s assertions, with the addition of the following:
The majority of people that can tell good photography from very good photography are photographers themselves and photographers rarely purchase other photographer’s work. From my experience with art shows I can tell you that about 85% of my conversations are with fellow photographers and revolve around how I got the shot or where I was at the time. An astounding 80% of those conversations are discussions surrounding equipment. Majority Result? No sale.
Following my extension of Alain Briot’s logic then the majority of individuals who would appreciate the efforts and beauty of great art is would never buy great art. In order to help your customer’s make their decision in your favor, you need to educate them. This is true whether speaking about a print, a stock item, or assignment work.
For example, I photograph a diversity of landscapes and nature surrounding the American Great Plains. I travel hundreds of miles to ensure that what I get is unique, but distinctly “Great Plains”. The majority of these images were captured in Nebraska. Through my website and various other channels, I am contacted by companies who wish to use photography captured within the state of Nebraska for their marketing. Often, an immediate assumption made by individuals outside of Nebraska, that the state is pretty synonymous with “corn” or “crops”. As a result, they ask me what stock images I have of corn. The number? I have 1 image of corn taken in Nebraska. It is at this point that I usually try to help the agencies or purchaser understand that while corn is an important aspect of Nebraska, it is not the only aspect. Indeed, close to a million people in the state of Nebraska never even see a corn stalk for the majority of the year. That’s the majority of the populous of Nebraska. On first blush, “corn” seems to be the winner, but upon deeper inspection there maybe a stronger, less cliched possibility.
In order to educate your market, you need to be fully knowledgeable on your images. That means, if you captured an image of an animal, you need to know what kind of animal it was. If you are capturing a landscape, you need to know where you captured it - Park name, city, county. If you are capturing a plant, you should know the name of the plant. Additionally, you need to know when it was taken - ie Month, year, time of the day, etc. If it was during an event, you should know the details of the event. All this means taking good notes and creating an encyclopedia of information. People like to know the stories and information behind the images and so the more information you can provide, the stronger the educational experience and the more likely a sale.
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/13, 5 sec., 2-stop Hard Singh-Ray Filter
Jack Sinn WMA, Nebraska
Since I’ve had a few weekly series of photographs, I haven’t had a “Photo Friday” in a while. On Wednesday we received an incredible storm followed by an even more incredible sunset. While I was unable to be out during much of either I did hop in the car for a jaunt out of the city. Here, the clouds were still picking up the red hue of the sun even after the sun had set 45 minutes prior.
Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm @ 21mm, f/9, 15 seconds
Rural Sarpy County, Nebraska