Like pretty much with everything I do, I am going to be honest with everyone. Mentoring was a lot of work. A lot more work than I was prepared for.

I really liked meeting new photographers, helping them grow their business and watching them become more successful. But the root of everything I do is photography – my business, my love for all of this. So if I were to be one of those photographers that stopped shooting because I was too busy teaching, I would be denying myself the one thing that keeps me passionate about this industry: taking photographs. We couldn’t maintain the pace of 4 new photographers every month, because we had our own clients and businesses to run.

So that’s one reason why this blog died down. The other is that it’s hard to work with one of your best friends. Danna and I are such close friends, we think so much alike. But we also are women that run our own businesses and are not exactly used to working with a partner with equal input. It was difficult for both of us to work with someone else, and we did have a lot of different ideas. What I like best about us though, is that we actually sat down and figured out together that this particular way of doing things wasn’t going to work. We both agreed that our friendship was too important to risk.

So that brings us to now. We’re teaching together locally, just some basic camera classes for moms. We still enjoy mentoring, and you can contact us separately if you’re interested in learning more about private mentoring with either of us. We are also still just as close friends as we were before (whew!). I’d still like to have this blog around – mostly because we STILL get comments and emails about the 25 Biggest Mistakes post. And I still love talking photography. I still love sharing ideas about new products, websites, etc. So I’d like to still post here. I’d like Danna to still post here because she has a zillion great ideas and oftentimes we get a great yin/yang thing going. But we just can’t do the mentoring at the pace we were doing, the way we were doing it.

Feel free to pop us an email if you want to chat about photography, have questions or ideas, or anything really.
Email Brandy
Email Danna

and you can always visit our blogs:
www.freshsugarblog.com
www.bowesphotography.ca/blog

Hope you enjoy your new MCP Finish It Photoshop Actions. Be sure to come back and post a link to share what you are doing with them :-)

Jodi, we’ll be contacting you soon!

I think wedding photographers have been participating in the Photographer Olympics for some time now. If you walk through the print competition at WPPI, you see that wedding photography has become such an artform, such an amazing skill – that it almost feels like a photo of a smiling bride and groom just doesn’t cut it anymore. The brides are cooler, the dresses are trashier, the locations more and more gritty and intense. They are incredible images, and truly inspiring to see. However, these brides and grooms (or models) are adults , and can speak freely with their photographers about what they like, dislike, want to do, have objections to.

The newest event – Newborns in Odd Places – is something else entirely though. We’ve been seeing countless babies being put in VERY unsafe situations and frankly, it’s scaring the hell out of us. There seems so be a bit of a one-upmanship going on in baby photography these days, where it’s all about who can get the coolest shot. There are a lot of fantastic newborn photographers working right now, and I admire their passion to be innovative, and their talent with babies. I also realize that above all, these are businesses – and must run profitably, and put the studio and the photographer in the best light. So it may not behoove them to fully explain how each shot is done – especially if they are teaching workshops where they spill their secrets. However, I think it is amazing of them when they explain when a newborn shot is a composite (two photos brought together to make one image) so that there are not countless other newborn photographers putting babies at harms way in order to duplicate a fantastic shot they see on Flickr.

For example, there is a pose that is popular right now where the baby looks like a sack of potatoes. The originators of this shot do it as a composite. They DO NOT have a baby wrapped tightly in a blanket and then sitting up on a wooden floor unassisted. They hold the baby from one side, snap the photo. Hold the baby from the other side, snap the photo. Blend the two in Photoshop and erase out any hands. Voila. I have however, seen other photographers try this and it was obvious that the image was no composite. Now to be fair – I had no idea that it was a composite at first. In fact, my eyes have been opened now to find that a lot of amazing newborn images that I have long admired are also in fact composites.

Now is it the responsibility of the originating photographer to tell everyone it is a composite? Of course not. They created art – and there was a reason why those hands were edited out in the first place. But it IS the responsibility of the dozens of photographers trying to duplicate the shot to step back and think about what they are doing. Is it safe? Is there even the slightest chance this baby will be harmed? These babies are often less than 2 weeks old, with undeveloped neck muscles and giant soft spots on their heads. Is there anyone on earth that wants to put that baby in a situation where it might come crashing into the floor?

Hanging babies, placing babies on precarious ledges (my image of my daughter Charlotte on a bookcase is a popular one with clients) are all opportunities for an amazing photograph yes, but also an opportunity for a baby to be seriously injured. Personally, I don’t do any hanging newborn shots and whenever I place a baby on a shelf that baby needs to be swaddled tightly so that it doesn’t move a muscle and I keep a parent right there to spot. I don’t do a ton of crazy things with babies because I find those images usually don’t sell – my clients just want simple images of their new baby.

But before I get too preachy, I will admit that earlier in my career I took some shots of babies that the parents wanted, but made me feel very uncomfortable doing. (Yes, I had a baby in a tree. YIKES!) Now that I am more experienced, I have no problems telling parents when I feel the shot is unsafe. If as a photographer you are doing a newborn shot where there is a chance for the baby to be injured, think about doing a composite and erasing the supporting hands out in Photoshop. If this is more than your PS skills allow for, then perhaps the shot is not the wisest one to create. Fantastic photography is all about taking personal risks, challenging yourself to be better. Taking risks with a baby’s safety is just not worth any fantastic image you could possibly get. Sometimes the safest place for a baby to be (the parents’ arms) is the most beautiful image you could create.

I think the most important thing to realize as a newborn photographer is that you are hired to create images of a beloved baby, images that are sweet and give the parents a record of its newness and pure innocence. If you are a new photographer, start your career by taking simple shots of these little babies. Newborn photography can actually be very difficult and takes time, patience and experience to get the posing down correctly. Walk before you run, spend hours training for your event and get the newborn basics down before attempting any shot seen during the Photographer Olympics.

Without further ado, the first place winner of an Instax camera is St. Louis children’s photographer Lauri Baker! These are pretty much THE coolest aerial photographs I’ve ever seen, and to imagine that they were taken by an iPhone just blows my mind.

Second place and a $25 Photojojo gift card went to Medicine Hat photographer Melissa Hurlbut from melissaannphotography.com for her beautiful Polaroid images. We really loved the soft sweetness that these images had.

And finally, the winner of an iTunes gift card is Sydney, Australia photographer Jackie Cooper from Jackie Cooper Photography! We loved the colors and the creativeness of these images.

Thanks so much to ALL that participated, there were so many stunning images – it was really a very close contest. We are super psyched about our next challenge and we know you will be too. We want to reiterate though that the purpose of these challenges is to challenge ourselves to be more creative photographers – not to win a prize. We had a few entries this time that were older photos not specifically taken for this challenge. So next time, we’re not having a prize – but we WILL be posting the coolest photos submitted. It’s gonna be fun, trust us.

“the storyboard maker has saved me so many hours in design! I use it for creating blog posts, storyboards and my very favorite is to create amazingly simply and stunning album designs! This is one script that I would die without having!”

Well, Deanna if you thought the original was good you HAVE to try the new version – Compositor! It is undeniably one of the coolest photoshop scripts I have ever used! The first thing I noticed that is different is that I am able to choose my images from anywhere on my computer rather than having to open them all first. Next, after choosing the size I wanted my final product to be I had the option to preview different suggested layouts instead of just re running the script until one came up that I liked. I am not even joking when I say I nearly clapped my hands and jumped up and down like a little kid…lol

I asked Patti Miller, who was lucky enough to get to test it out first what she thought of the new version:

I primarily use the compositor (as it is now known) for album design. Prior to the storyboard maker v 1.0 it was quite a daunting and time consuming task. Now with the compositor, what I thought was a great tool, is quite near perfect.

The last super cool thing, which is my favourite. The compositor allows you a preview of all the different layout arrangements that are possible. You can scroll through them all and then you get to choose which one you’d like it to create. It’s great for me as I try to have different arrangements on each spread. This is such a time saving feature, being able to preview the layouts, which allows me to create gorgeous albums in no time, and lets me get back to other fun stuff faster!

Here is a video showing how it works:

***requires Adobe® Photoshop® version CS3 or higher

Now, drumroll please……………… Malin of Moiria – Tool For the Creative has so very generously offered us 2, yes, TWO Compositors to give away to two of our awesome two photogs readers. How do you win? Very simple leave a comment here and then become a fan of the Moirai Facebook page….(and while your at it become a fan of the two photogs facebook page too :-D )
You have until Feb 10th to enter :-)
This is my very first Compositor creation. It literally took me less than 2 minutes to make, and only that long because I was torn over which images to include. This is a selection of images from my Etain’s first year. I am definitely getting this printed big for her room.

Benefits of networking with other photographers:

Understanding – someone who is in the industry likely understands where you are coming from and what you are going through.

Experience – if they are more experienced than you, have been in business longer they likely have faced most of the challenges you are or will be facing, some insight on how to face these challenges successfully is a huge advantage.

Objective Opinions - we have all had them, our big ideas that turn into big flops. Having someone to talk over these ideas is incredibly useful, they can give you an objective opinion about it, help you see the pros and cons from another point of view.

Referrals – it is always nice to have someone who you respect and whose work you admire to refer clients too, I have a couple of different people I refer clients to that I cannot fit in or who seem to be looking for a different style or specialty than mine. Most photographers are happy to return the favor and when they can will likely refer some clients your way as well.

Traded Sessions – we are constantly photographing other peoples families and often we take thousands upon thousands of images of our own children but most often we as the photographer are left out of the images. I love swapping sessions with my photographer friends. I have had the absolute pleasure of photographing many other photographers families as well as having my own family photographed. It has allowed me to have some images of myself  with my family that I would not be able to take myself….pretty great trade in my books!

Opportunities -to shoot with others. I have done some shooting with other photographers in my network, most often a style of shooting that I would not have otherwise done. It was for fun but working with other photographers from time to time for fun or otherwise can be a really great way to stretch yourself creatively. We all have our own little tips and tricks and it always amazes me at all the different ways there are to approach a situation. Different points of views, different ways everyone sees light, and some of the things people will go through to get a shot, always a great learning experience.

Encouragement - we all have our days where we feel discouraged or worried about this or that. Sometimes we just feel off creatively and need a bit of a pep talk. Another photographer knows what that feels like, and understands your concerns and frustrations with the industry.

Sharing The Goods - an example of this would be 3 years ago Brandy went to WPPI and I could not go. She made a point to go to the trade-show and bring back a huge bag full of samples and brochures, postcards, business cards, booklets you name it, if it was there she brought it. A couple of us spent a long evening visiting and pouring over all the information. Through that act of sharing I personally found several new products and vendors that I wanted to start using and some of them I still use.

FUN – most photographers are very fun people in my experience. I guarantee you will have some fun if you find some like minded photographers to hang out with :-) and hey you may even make some really good friends too.

You may be wondering how to go about getting in touch with other photographers. There are a lot of ways you could broaden your network of photographers. Join a local professional association and attend the meetings. For a more personal gathering plan a dinner and invite a couple photographers you know as well as a couple you don’t already know, you never know they may be wanting to meet other photographers too and appreciate the offer. On a bigger scale organize a get together yourself and use such social networking tools as facebook and twitter to help get the word out. When I organized the big one last year I made a facebook event page for it and invited the photographers I knew and encouraged them to invite the photographers they knew.

Some etiquette for contacting other photographers.

Should you decide to seek out some other photographers, be it local or not for advice and possibly the chance to network with them on a more personal level you MUST BE GENUINE, don’t send an email that you have copied and pasted and sent to several other photographers. If you are looking for advice look to a photographer(s) that you admire and send them a nice email letting them know why you like their work and why you are contacting them. Keep in mind they are likely quite busy and may or may not respond. There are photographers who will not.  You need to realize that they are not obligated to answer your questions. BUT if they do, make sure you thank them for taking the time out of their own busy schedules to respond, I assure you if you do not thank them they will not be so inclined to answer your questions again in the future.

Be tactful, there are some things you should not ask, specific information about another photographers business such as sales, clients and products they offer will likely be off limits. Put some thought into your email, you will likely be ignored if you come across as pushy or entitled.

Don’t bombard them with loads of questions about things you can easily find out yourself. There is so much free information on the web. It is easy to find with a little time. If photography is truly your passion take initiative and start educating yourself. That being said, if you are one of the more experienced photographers and someone asks you a question take a moment to remember what it was like when you were in their shoes. If you don’t have time to answer questions maybe a book suggestion or a link to a helpful resource online would be just as appreciated.

TWO PHOTOGS GET TOGETHER

We would like to help some of those locally who have not had a chance to network with other local photographers as of yet. Two Photogs is hosting a get together on the evening of Feb 22, 2010 for local photographers (those wanting to travel are welcome too) you can find information on our event page on the facebook event page. RSVP by Feb 15! We hope to see you there!  psssst…..it’s also my birthday that week …hint hint..  :-P

I’ve been doing a lot of mentioning of my new cameras. My new Fuji Instax gave me loads of fun on New Year’s Eve, when it was just fun to snap some photos and see what I got 90 seconds later. You would be amazed at how much I love each and every imperfect image. Most of the photos I took would have been sent to the trash bin if I had shot them on my D3. But there’s something just so awesome, so real about seeing that little instant print. It reminded me of my parent’s old photo albums full of dorky polaroids from the 70′s. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some photos in an album for our own kids to look at someday?

I got my Instax from the amazing website Photojojo which I have mentioned before because they have THE coolest stuff. Because they are the best, they are offering Two Photog readers a 5% discount on anything they order until the end of the month! Just enter code: PJ2PHOTOGS at checkout! So if you were wanting to jump on board for our latest Inspiration Challenge – now you can pick up a fun new toy to play with!

If the Instax doesn’t float your boat, try a Zumi – it’s also a blast! These were some videos I grabbed when we went sledding over the holidays. So fun and so old school!

I thought I’d share with you some of my iPhone photos with this post. All photos were taken using the Hipstamatic app, which is my absolute new favorite app. None of the images have been retouched, they are all straight off my iPhone. Watch out though, it becomes an addiction – one of the most fun apps on my phone!

I’m just now back from my two weeks in Turks and Caicos and we have SOOOOO much to post here about! I’m really excited to share some photos and an awesome discount from Photojojo tomorrow!
Talk to you soon!

For those of you who are not familiar with WPPI it was originally formed in 1978 as Wedding Photographers International (WPI). The association provided members with  benefits like  news-letter, international print competitions, and, beginning in 1981, an annual convention that included seminars by leaders in the industry, a trade-show that has become famous as well as print competitions. January 1st, 1995 it officially became Wedding and Portrait Photographers International. This year will be the 30th year for the trade-show and convention. Last year there were over 12,ooo attendees and 365 exhibitors!

Head on over to the WPPI site to get more information on member benefits and how to join.

Be sure to keep an eye on our blog, we have a HUGE WPPI post coming up, and some info on a little Two Photogs get together during wppi.