Archive for the ‘The Blog’ Category

Good Morning

I would like to tell you that while I was in Mexico I was taking photographs 100% of the time. But truth is I could be found on occasion enjoying my killer view of the Gulf of Mexico with my Kindle and a strong cup of coffee.  I’m really starting to fall in love with my Kindle.  The device is crazy slick.  I’m not sure why I waited so long to get one, but I really enjoyed reading all my newspapers, books and even my own blog while abroad.   I even created a protective photo skin for it using Uniqueskin.com… so you know it’s true love.  The really nice thing about an e-reader is it’s small and portable.  It was very convenient having some of my favorite e-books available for reference without having to haul around my bulky laptop.  It’s always nice to have access to such titles as   “The essential guide to Portrait Photography,”by DPS “Understanding Post Processing” by Mitchell Kanashkevich, “Digital Photography Book” by Scott Kelby, plus all of David duChemin’s e-books with just the click of a button.   Tomorrow I’m hoping to have a few photos of some crazy little spider monkeys that I photographed on a Mayan Reserve so stayed tuned.

Side note: If you have a Kindle and you’re interested in reading my blog then click HERE (Amazon charges .99 a month for delivery and if I could I would make it free but Amazon drives the bus on this one.  I have no control over the rate or I would make it free.)

Yellowstone Buffalo (1/160 sec at f/9.0, 700mm at ISO 400)

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years. I just returned from Michigan where I spent the last few days teaching my daughter to ski, splitting wood with a friend and having my butt handed over to me in a mean game of Wii bowling . Yep, it was a perfect New Year’s weekend. Now the holidays are over and I’m getting back on track.

A little Shameless self-promoting:
First off, if you own a Kindle you can now receive my blog via Amazon’s Whispernet. That’s the good news. The bad news is Amazon charges .99 a month for the service. I have no control over the Amazon delivery price, but if you’re as addicted to your Kindle as I am then the convenience might be worth it. Click HERE to subscribe.

Don’t miss another blog:
As a friendly reminder you can subscribe to my blog via email or an RSS feed. Just click HERE TO SUBSCRIBE

Connect with me:
I really enjoy connecting with all of my readers and fellow photographers. I realize not everyone uses the same social networks so I try to keep as many accounts open as possible to allow me to connect with each of you. So here’s to hooking up:

Facebook Fan Page: Click HERE

Twitter: Click HERE

LinkedIn: Click HERE

Flickr: Click HERE

Mentorships:
I’m currently in the process of wrapping up a few mentorships and accepting new students so if you’re interested in a three month mentorship program then click HERE to learn more

Wow, I feel better. I just crossed four things of my to do list. Thanks for bearing with me through the process. Tomorrow, I promise not to be so selfish and give you a few solid tips..;)

Hamlin Lake, Kajsa Stolberg

I’m a list kind of guy.  There’s something to be said about crossing things off a list.  I can’t explain it, but it’s probably part of my twisted perception about achieving goals..;)  I’ve become so bad about creating lists that people are starting to tease me that I have a list for my list.   One item I’ve had on my list for quite some time is to find an assistant to help keep me organized with some of the larger projects.  Well, I got lucky and found myself a bright willing “sucker”…I mean “participant” to help keep me on task.

I’ve asked my new internship “winner”,  Kajsa (pronounced: ka-i-sa)  to say a few words:

I am very excited to be working with John and learning from his talent and experience.  I got hooked on photography after a class in college had me exploring off campus and working in the darkroom.  During my final year, I found the satisfaction of sharing my work when I completed a photographic study of an Amish family near my hometown in Michigan.  From that project, I learned how to observe different lifestyles and turn my observations into an artistic installation.  I have spent the last five years traveling around the world and I always carry my camera wherever I go.  I am now in Michigan after living two years in a small town in Japan.  If I’m not doing something related to photography or living out of a backpack, you can usually find me experimenting in the kitchen, riding my bike, or watching a good movie.

My intention is to have Kajsa start blogging on Saturdays, so keep an eye out for her.  And please make “Kajsa” feel at home and wish her the best of luck!

Side note:

If you have an iPhone make sure to download the Photoshop.com Mobile photography application.  Everyone knows I love Chase Jarvis’s Best Camera application, but I’m going to tell you Photoshop’s application is very nice and very FREE!  Check it out. I know you’re going to love it.

Oh wait, there’s more!   For those of you looking to get a solid book to read about running a Photography Business, I suggest picking up a copy of “Best Business Practices for Photographers“, by John Harrington.  There’s just a ton of good information in this book.

Lastly,  remember to upload your black and whites to our photo contest….We’re getting some great entries and I want to see more!

If you have an iPhone and you enjoy taking photos then I highly recommend Chase Jarvis’s “The Best Camera” application.   The application cost $2.99 and  is available via iTunes.  You can read more about it  HERE .  Also,  here is a short video from Chase that describes the product in true Chase fashion.  Sure, the application has limitations and you’re not going to print an 8×10 from the results, but if you’re looking to have fun and have an easy way to share your photography, then this might be the ticket for you.

Chase is a talented photographer, not to mention quite the visionary. I highly recommend following his blog which can be located by clicking HERE.  And if you have an hour to kill, I suggest watching Chase’s speech that he delivered a few months ago to the  Art Directors Club of Denver.  The hour long presentation is available via podcast on iTunes or the Art Directors Club of Denver blog  located HERE.  Watch it, and get ready to be inspired .

TIME FOR A NEW LOGO

I never really created a logo when I started my website, so after talking to one of my students, I decided it was time to create one.   Taking photos is one thing, but designing a logo? Forget it!  So,  the next question was, how?  I decided to try a logo contest via LogoMyWay.com.   Check out the progress, and If you know a graphic designer make sure to  send them to my contest, located HERE.

Have a great Monday…John

John and Suzi

Snap! That’s right, I’m back. The blog had a few behind the scene technical issues for a few days, but I’m back with my regular post. In the coming weeks my plan is to move my blog to another server to simplify my world a little. For those of you that follow me on Facebook or RSS feed, no worries, but for those of you who subscribe via email we might have to make a onetime change in the near future. Stay tuned. Tomorrow I plan on blogging a little bit about my sister’s wedding that I photographed last weekend. I’m not a wedding photographer, or crasher, but I must admit I had fun with this group. Today’s photo is of my sister and me playing with our walkie/talkies at our cabin in Michigan. Now I don’t know about you folks, but I have literally thousands of prints that I needed to get scanned. I started out scanning these myself. What a pain! That was until I read an article in one of my tech magazines about scanmyphotos.com. So I’m going to save you some time: if you’re like me and need to get a ton of prints in a digital format, so that you can share them with your friends, post them online or just simply manage them better, then I recommend sending them out to be scanned professionally. It cost me approximately $50.00 to have scanmyphotos.com scan my prints and send them back to me. The service did the job as advertised. I know it can be scary sending out your photos to an unknown party, so I recommend using a service such as FedEx or UPS so you can track your package. Once I received my scanned photos from scanmyphotos.com, I simply imported my scanned images into Lightroom – it was a huge time saver. Yes, it’s all about simplifying my world. So what happened to all those prints you ask? Well, they’re in a shoe box collecting dust in my closet. However, their digital siblings are getting lots of play!

You've got options

It’s time to do a little housekeeping as it relates to my blog.  I’ve made a few enhancements to the blog that I hope everyone will enjoy.  I’ve added two new features on the right-hand column:  first,  a text update feature that will allow me to send flash-updates to those of you who like information fast.  Now, don’t freak… I’m not in the business of selling your phone numbers to outside parties.  This is simply another tool for me to communicate directly with you.  I’ve been told I’m an over communicator, and it is probably true,  but if you’re like me sometimes SMS (text messaging) is one of the best ways to get news quick.  Not to mention, I think this might be a fun way to announce giveaways, contests, contest winners..etc.   Secondly,  I’ve added a poll feature. I plan on creating a new poll every couple of weeks, (give or take a few days) so please make sure  to cast your vote when you stop by the site.

In regards to my post, I’ve added two new features that allow you to print and/or email my post.  The current location of these two add-ons are at the top left-hand corner of my page (my plan is to move them to the bottom in the near future).  In order to share my post with your friends via email, simply click, “Email This Post,” fill out the form, and off it goes to your buddy.  Secondly, I’ve added a handy feature that allows you to print this post for those of you, like myself, that like hard copies.  Simply click, “Print This Post” and you’ll have a nice printer friendly version.

Lastly, remember you can always subscribe to my post by entering your email address on the right hand column and clicking subscribe.  Feedburner (Google owned and operated) then sends you a confirmation email that you MUST click on in order to activate the subscripiton.  If you grow sick of me, or change  your email address, you can simply click unsubscibe via a link that Feedburner provides at the end of everyone post update.  It’s truly a slick service and I think many of you will love it.  And, for you super RSS nerds like me, just click on “RSS Subscribe” and get updates via your favorite RSS reader as soon as they are posted.

As always, remember you can follow me on Twitter, Become a Fan of my Facebook page, and for those of you who would like to share Facebook albums with me I’ve created a new Facebook profile strictly for that purpose.  Here’s is that Facebook profile.  If you want to share some of your photos, simply add me as a friend (I will add anyone as long as they are currently a Fan of my Batdorff Photography Page).

I’m always willing to add new features to my blog, so if anyone has any suggestions or has seen something cool on another site, please let me know.  Remember, I’m here to serve…;)