November 4, 2009

Facebook for Photography by Kat

I usually read a whole bunch of photography and photography business related blogs in my "spare" time, and while doing that tonight I read a post that went like this: "oh hey btw I have a Facebook Fan Page for this photography dealio, thought I should share that." and I went...OH RIGHT!

So on THAT note: Photography by Kat, me, this blog, photokat.ca has a Fan Page on Facebook. Did you miss the link? Here did you miss that link? How about Now?

Join! I know you want to!

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled program...or Phillies/Yankees game.

GO PHILLIES! (Yes, I'm remaining optimistic until the VERY end).

October 28, 2009

The Johnson Family

So I spent sometime tonight creating a template for laying out a bunch of images as one. Not sure if I'm 100% satisfied with the template yet...but I wanted to at least share the Johnson Family (well at least the siblings) pictures.



Yowzers!

It's been a LONG while since I've posted anything to my blog..not that I haven't had ANYTHING to post to the blog, in fact things have been so busy between my day job, photography gigs and then trying to have a personal life in all of this that when it comes to updating the blog...well it just has fallen a bit by the wayside.

Part of my problem is that it's SUCH a pain to add a bunch of new pictures to the blog that I feel lately like I can't be bothered. My #1 wish list item for the Blogger setup is that they would improve the picture settings. I'm also waiting for my website company to add in a blog service that would help with the SEO on my photokat.ca site. It would be nice to have my blog traffic automatically push through my site and vice versa.

In the meantime I've been meaning to create a template in Photoshop so I can quickly comp together several images with Photography by Kat branding ...would make sharing images easier as I can then just upload one picture to the blog ...and could also easily send these to clients to have as an email teaser. There's also good things to be had there with use for future promotional items.

On the business side of things, it's really taken off. I've seen a large number of bookings come in since the start of August, and it makes it overwhelmingly difficult to stay focused at the day job when really what I'd rather be doing is editing or shooting pictures. I have a steady stream of bookings until early December, and I'm considering tossing in a Christmas portrait session blitz for the month of November. ..the question is...am I really that insane? How crazy do I want to be?

Wedding bookings for 2010 are starting to come in, there have been both ups and downs here. It's such an emotional roller coaster thinking you're going to get a booking and then having them book elsewhere...I'm hoping as things get busier that this becomes less of a derailing thing...the having a potential client book elsewhere... and more like a water drop off a duck's back.

As I'm writing this I'm realizing how lucky I am, how far things have come in almost a year...this isn't a state of the blog address...that's slated for early December; and just how much I've grown in my business and photography skills. There have been MANY learning points (you might also call them mistakes, learning points feels a bit gentler) and that's good. Hard Work U might be in Missouri, but I'm definitely enrolled in the distance ed program.

My first ad is slated to come out soon, I think in a month? and I'm hoping that generates a lot more buzz and business there too.

And as I'm writing this I get a phone call from some business development avenues that I'm pursuing. This also means I'm at the start of doing market research and on my way to creating a business plan. When I say there is a lot coming down the pipelines...there's A LOT coming down the pipelines. It also means that priorities that I had a year ago at this exact time are VERY different to the priorities I have now. I feel like the Goldilocks of business growth: some days it feels like things are going too fast, other days it's just right and still others it's just not fast enough.

So with all this buzzing around my brain, here are some blog posts I want to make in the next little bit:
-Pictures from Two Trash the Dress sessions
-Pictures from two family and one baby portrait sessions
-Pictures from a Thanksgiving weekend wedding
-Info and pictures about canvas prints
-Info and pictures about albums and guestbooks
-Info and pictures about metal prints (not metallic prints)
-My new client zone
-Decoding photography terms for the non-photographer
-State of the blog address and wrap up of Year 1 of my goal
-Announcement about Year 2 of my goal

...there are probably a lot more posts that need to/will be made as my brain is just buzzing with stuff. There will again be some more business related posts, as that's a huge part of what this time of year brings for me and what I've been obsessing about lately.

I've also been having this huge urge to run out and drop serious coin on some new gear. I'm drooling over a: D700, 70-200 2.8 VRII, 24-70 2.8, 14-24 2.8, 85 1.8, an Epson P3000, and the new Einstein 640 from Paul C Buff. Yeah...they're all fairly big ticket items and all my money is being diverted into other things, like paying bills and what not. Yeah that was a complete aside, as I was thinking I was wrapping up this long post, but then got distracted by my daily thought of "It'd be nice to have {insert product name here} ...sigh".

Okay really, that's it for now. Head out of clouds. Back down to earth. Time to get real work done.

More soon...

September 17, 2009

Thank you Mr McNally

I've never met the guy but in some ways he's like my photographic Messiah... yeah a little sacreligious I guess.

Was having one of those "HOLY COW I CAN"T TAKE A PICTURE TO SAVE MY LIFE!" moments today and it was if Joe knew it.

Read through his blog post today and came across this gem (which for anyone who follows Joe's weird, wonderful and wild photographic ramblings knows...he's got a lot of em):

"There are times I am so completely bereft of inspiration and ideas I say to myself, “I wonder what a really good photographer would do right now?” I’m not kidding, or being self effacing. There are some jobs I just feel like I’m standing there, the last human in a horror movie, and the zombies are closing in.

So you have to be confident, to be sure. (Or project confidence even while inside your head the insecurity meter has gone to DefCon Five.) But a healthy dose of anxiety and self doubt (”I’m using a 200–maybe I should go wide?”) are also important tools in your bag. Causes you to double check yourself and remember how fragile photographic success is, and while your last frame was Fat City the next one might be a ticket to Pismo Beach. The fact that you rarely have THE answer is a good one to remember. No need to focus on it to the point of paralysis. Just remember it. You are only as good as your last job. The next one may just eat your lunch and your soul."

It helps to know that a successful photographer who's been shooting for 30+ years still gets the same feeling that I have today.

So.

Ready, Set, Confidence, Shoot!

More soon...

September 9, 2009

For Anna & Adeeb







May your lives be full of love and happiness.

Kat

August 24, 2009

Testing Light Tests Friendships



Okay they don't really test friendships...well actually maybe after all the pics I'm posting of him, they might test the friendship, but I got together with my friend Mike to basically fool around with lighting and grip gear and shoot a pile of lighting tests. I had a Profoto 7a pack for the weekend and two heads (lighting heads that is) to play with and pooled that with Mike's Elinchromm Ranger and a whack of Pocketwizards. Did I mention that Mike is a griphead? Dude has more stands, booms, arms, and clamps than anyone I know (he doesn't have a Justin Clamp yet, so I have him beat there!).



So we filled a good chunk of one of the patios at his place with our assorted kits, cameras, lights and gear and just fired away. (I forgot to grab a shot of all the stuff lying out everywhere. It looked like a studio had thrown up on the patio).


Really we're not going for award winning cover shot material in anything, and we're not TOO worried about composition or "getting it right," it's basically just a time to exercise our photoing muscles and see what we come up with, or how to solve a problem.



Then the fun part comes when I take the pictures home and I get to test out different editing looks. Exhibit A: Mike's nice guy edit. Exhibit B: Mike's "Not With My Daughter You Don't" edit


If you're of the photography group who follows/reads this bog, try a deconstruct of this picture below. I'd like to see what everyone comes up with. Sorry no prizes or any added incenvtives, just some fun reverse engineering a shot.




This one took me a bit to figure out setup wise. Wanted to pick up some of the texture and the conture of the bench behind Mike. I'm fairly happy with it.



Of course, after a long session like that, you need some reward...nothing like some dinner, beer, and of course my Starbucks.