I am often asked by those new to the business of photography for information on how to price their work. It’s an issue all new commercial photographers struggle with. However, unless the person answering your question lives in your town, village or hamlet their answer probably isn’t going to be relevant. Hopefully my advice can be used wherever you may live.

There are two key factors I use when developing my price list. One, how much is the gal/guy down the road charging? And, two, how much do I want to make per hour?

So how do I figure that out? (more…)

Each month when I was a little girl, we received the National Geographic magazine. And each month, I acquired another animal to be concerned about or another person’s plight to care about. I had never seen a sea turtle, but I cried when I saw a photograph of one entangled in a net. When I looked at the photographs of whalers hunting off the coast of Japan; the urgent cries of the whales, their thrashing, and the spray of their blood was entirely real for me. I’d never been to Biafra, but the children with those big sad eyes and distended bellies touched me in a way that shaped who I would become. (more…)

It’s impossible these days to turn a page, click a link, or compete without encountering photographs we commonly call HDR. Love it or hate it, it’s everywhere. I noticed photos described as HDR popping up with increasing frequency on the web in 2008. Wikipedia’s first entry on HDR dates 2003. The first photo I could find on flickr.com with the HDR tag appeared in 2005. Both Photoshop and Photomatix appeared on the scene in 2007 with HDR capabilities that made technology accessible to photographers. (more…)

This online version of Digital Photo Magazine has tests and reviews of various cameras and other equipment. Other information is delivered in the form of podcasts and articles about numerous photographic topics. In addition, they offer interactive features such as discussion boards photo contests, and guides to purchasing photo equipment.

When film was popular, most photographers had it easy when it came to getting photos printed. With the exception of photographers who had their own darkroom, we all took our photos to a lab, asked for a specific size, and left the rest to the experts.

And up until this decade, slides were the standard way to provide photos for many competitions as well as inclusion in printed publications such as this one. If we shot negative film, we might be able to submit the prints produced from it. We didn’t send unprocessed negatives; we wouldn’t know what they looked like, and nobody would want to deal with processing someone else’s photos. (more…)