Someone emailed this to me, and I thought it was quite appropriate, given the big focus on Santa and gift-giving at this time of the year, with many people forgetting the true meaning of Christmas.

I believe this poem was originally penned by Rev James Spellman of Ohio (ref).

Having recently written about getting your kids started in photography, I decided to sit down with my 10 year old son Ashley, and my 8 year old daughter Michelle, and get some feedback from them about their thoughts on photography.
Here are the results.


Q. How long have you been taking photos?

10yo: Err...I don't know...from when I was about six or seven.

8yo: About two and a half years or something, when I was about six.


Q. How did you learn how to take photos?

10yo: My dad told me how to, and I just tried.

8yo: Dad taught me. He taught me how to hold the camera still, how to focus, and how to press the button.


Q. How complex was the first camera that you used?

10yo: I just needed to get used to it, and then it was pretty easy. Then other similar cameras are pretty easy to use.

8yo: It was pretty simple.

With technology continually advancing, digital cameras are becoming cheaper, with manufacturers packing more powerful electronics into smaller and cheaper cameras. I think it's fair to say that most households in western society would own one or more digital cameras.

Digital photography is great for children, because the ongoing costs are very low, compared to the costs of buying and processing film. When using a digital camera, children also get instant feedback, as they're able to see the photo they've just take on the LCD screen on the back of the camera.

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia

I introduced my children to photography at a fairly young age, and in this post, I want to share some ideas and suggestions for getting your children into photography.

I recently received an email from a photo researcher, on behalf of her client, a book publishing company, requesting use of one of my photos ("Numbat" - shown below) for inclusion in a college textbook.

The email included some details on how the image would be used (1/4 page), the size of the print run (40,000 copies), and the distribution of the book (US and Canada), and requested details of my reproduction rights for the photo, indicating that if they were approved, I could then submit an invoice.

As I've had similar requests in the past, I responded with details of the reproduction rights, as well as a price for the use of the requested photo.

The conditions I specified, including the price, were considered acceptable, the photo researcher then requested an invoice, payment was arranged, and I provided a high-resolution copy of the photo.

I suspect the photo researcher found my photo in my photo gallery while searching the internet for suitable photos.



Selling photos in this way can be as easy as described above. You just need to publish your photos on the web, either on any of the many photo-sharing websites, a social networking site, or in your own photo gallery on your website. Tagged each image with appropriate keywords, and an appropriate description, to ensure search engines will know the context of the photo, and can direct appropriate visitors to your photos.

It's important to point out that you need to make sure your contact details are easy to find, else a prospective buyer will not be able to contact you to purchase a photo!

The post is a follow-up to this review that I published yesterday.


I have to admit that the brief review of the Compassion, Courage and Friendship from RedBubble.com that I posted yesterday was written in a hurry, as I wanted to get it published yesterday. I did not get much of a chance to look through the book, but quickly took some photos, jotted down my first impressions, and posted it.
Since then, I have let some work colleagues look through the book, and have also had some more time to look through it myself, so I thought I'd post some additional thoughts on it.

As mentioned yesterday, the quality of the book is great, with very good colour reproduction on glossy pages. All text is very legible, and the choice of fonts works well, and the cover of the book is a creative creation based on four art items from RedBubble members.

The editor has done a great job of trying to keep pages with similar themes together. In most cases, the content (photo, drawing or writing) of the left hand side bears some relation to the content on the right hand side, and definitely helps to provide some cohesion when reading through the book.

Most of the photos included in the book are fantastic, with the following ones being my favourites:

• Brothers by Katrina Lenarczyk / Zash Photography
• Jodhpur, India by Karen Cook
• The Proud Mother by Margriet Meintjes
• Generations by Shane Smart

2 of my favourite photos in the book

I recently received a pre-release copy of a book titled Compassion, Courage and Friendship from RedBubble.com, an Australian-based company that provides print-on-demand services.

I've previously posted a review of a canvas print from RedBubble.com, and was very happy with the quality of the print.

This book is no different, with the presentation and print quality being very good.

The book consists of a variety of photos, drawings and writings submitted by RedBubble members. A number of judges chosen by RedBubble staff had the task of narrowing down the submitted material, to determine which items would be included in the book, The resulting book contains 71 submitted items from RedBubble members.

With each page containing a single item (photo, drawing or piece of writing), the layout is clean and simple, and the choice of fonts does not detract from the subject material.

The reproduction of the photos and drawings is very good, with the colours being represented correctly, and the photos have lost none of their sharpness. (I compared some of the photos in the book with the large versions on the RedBubble website, using a colour-calibrated monitor.)

front cover

photo

On Saturday, I attended a workshop called "Photographing Real People", conducted by Greg Perry, at the London Photographic Studio in Rockingham.

I was one of 8 students, and Greg spent a few hours talking us through various ways to pose individuals, couples, and groups, and how to interact with the subjects while you're taking photos of them. He threw in plenty of useful tips, tricks and techniques, ranging from lighting suggestions, clothing guidelines for subjects, through to some information on post-processing.

We also had the opportunity to put a lot of it into practice immediately, by taking some shots of three models in a studio environment, with Greg providing assistance and commentary.

While the opportunity to shoot the models was certainly useful, I believe the value was in the large amounts of practical information shared by Greg during the afternoon.
At a cost of $77 for 3 hours, I reckon it was very good value.

Here's some of my photos from yesterday afternoon:

Geoff

Amy

David and Amy

David

London Photographic Studio advertise workshops on their website, and the "Photographing Real People" workshop was also advertised on flickr and redbubble.