Bluejacket Photo

Contest from Scott Bourne and MAC Group… Prize package worht over $2000, ends on August 15th

http://www.macgroupus.com/LeftMenu/Contests/PhotoEssentialsContestwithPhotofocuscom.aspx?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=bourne-twitter-contest-201005

Are YOU Good Enough To Be A Professional Photographer?.

Useful article… Makes some good points.

It also is beginning to make me wonder if I have what it takes business/social skill/dedication wise to do this full time.  Maybe that’s a step up;  now I’m no longer worried if I’m “good enough”.  I’ve realized that even if I was “good enough” ( which I think I might be), “Good enough” isn’t ever good enough, since you need to constantly improve and expand.

Well…  That was a bust.

Actually, that’s kind of harsh, I suppose.  I mentally crashed a few months ago, and have finally shaken off the latest (but probably not last) depressive episode.  Now I can start doing semi-useful things, such as take photos (or rather “make photos”), stock my online stores, and write in this blog.

I’m about a year and a half behind where I wanted to be at this point, financially, professionally, and personally.  The good news is that I haven’t done anything foolish yet like quitting my day job, so the only thing damaged is my self esteem.  That’s fairly battered already, though, so it really doesn’t matter.

So we’ll pick up where we left off, more or less.

Stay tuned.  Things are either about to get interesting again, or very boring.

A nifty and cheap little gadget to make…

iSteadii 2.0 – Image Stabilizing Unit – More DIY How To Projects

I recently had my biggest sale yet on ETSY.  One of the items bought was a set of 4 note cards.  No problem.

Two of the cards the buyer wanted I didn’t have on hand.  Also no problem.  This is why I have a printer; my Lexmark 810 is up to the task of making cards, and I do say in my store description that special orders are welcome.  Plus, the customer said that she was in no great rush to get the order, as long as it was to her by Father’s Day (easily done;  she lives in town).

Then the fun starts.  I print out the two cards I don’t have, and realize that the two from my supplier are 5″x7″, but my blank cardstock is 5.5″x8.5″.  Cutting down the larger cards might have been the better choice, maybe, but I decided to print out the other two instead.

Then, after wrestling with positioning, etc, I get all four printed, dry them, inspect them and… They look like crap.  It takes me a moment to figure out why;  I printed my bright colorful photos on paper with a matte finish.  This worked just fine for my Christmas cards, but my landscapes, especially my sunset, were drab.

Back to Office Depot.  I grab their glossy (still 5.5×8.5) blank cards, and head home.  Wrestle with the printer (there are -four- places I have to over ride the printer driver to create a decently printed card), and voila’, ’tis done.

I’m not making as much money on this order as I’d hope, but hopefully the experience (and customer good will) will help in the future.

I also need to find some 5×7 card stock (I’m looking on the internet between pararaphs).  This 5.5×8.5 sort of screams “home made”, IMHO, and not necesarilly in a good way.

Here are the cards she ordered:

Well, theoretical readers (and I have Google Analytics, so I know what my traffic is like), this blog is somewhat like a ghost town lately… Why is that? Why should you invest your time in reading something that seems to get updated quarterly?

Well, despite my promises to the contrary, I’ve been slacking. It’s not from a lack of ideas; I have about a half dozen ideas for posts. It’s not for lack of time; I’m not living the life of a pro photographer, always on the go, shooting weddings and sporting events.

The truth is, I’ve been suffering from depression for a while, and I’ve barely been able to muster the will to get up to work in the morning, let alone do anything approaching being creative or productive.

This is an ongoing thing, and I’ve been getting help for it for a while, with only moderate success. I’m going to try some different things, because when the blackness seeps into my life, everything seems too hard to bother with, all my work seems worthless and crappy…

And there’s no way I can be a success (let alone make a living) with an attitude like that.

This is what it feels like sometimes

A photo taken from a point a little south of me that shows the shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Telescope passing in front of the sun.

STS-125 Atlantis and Hubble Solar Transit

The picture was taken by Thierry Legault.  More of his photos are here.  His work is simply amazing.

The interesting thing to me, though, is that this picture was taken using off the shelf equipment (5 inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera).

Photography has come a long way…

Photographer Scott Bourne, who has an excellent website, also twitters (and twitters useful stuff!), and he recently made this announcement:

Scott Bourne Contest Update

Between now and April 30 I’ll give away:

1) A second generation Firewire Drobo – value $500 (US and Canada only).
2) A ScanCafe.com gift certificate for $500 worth of scanning (US only).
3) $1000 worth of RayFlash ring flash adapters (five valued @ $200 each). (Worldwide)
4) Well who knows? I am a giveaway machine.

I’ll be giving away something roughly every two or three days so stay close. I’ll try to make it fun.

The base rules for my contests are:

a. You must be at least 18 years of age.
b. The contests are void where prohibited by law.
c. All taxes are the responsibility of the winner.

To be eligible to win, do any one or all of the following: (If you do all you increase your chances of winning)

1: Place a link on your website or blog to http://www.photofocus.com.
2: Place a link on your website or blog to http://www.mydl.me.
3. Follow me on Twitter.
4. Follow me at http://www.scottbourne.com.
5. Send this Tweet out ONE TIME if (AND ONLY IF) you think my contests are a good idea…

Follow @scottbourne for a chance to win a Drobo, ScanCafe gift certificate or a RayFlash. Details here: http://bit.ly/17i6R8

If you are already following me and/or have links to my sites, you’re already eligible to win.

The full details are here.

Remember my conversations with Ink Publishing?  It seems that they aren’t the only company trying to get something for nothing.  The website “The Photography Biz” wrote  an article a couple of years ago about the value of giving away a photograph in exchange for “a photo credit… Their opinion?  I think the title says it all:

Why photo credit lines aren’t worth the paper they’re written on

Since the advent of digital more and more people are making images. That’s a good thing. The downside is that the explosion of photo sharing sites like Flickr and PBase have created a ready made amateur market for business savvy publishers to exploit.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re not doing anything illegal. They are simply playing on the fact that there are lots of new image producers in the marketplace who don’t have the first clue that their images are worth anything, and they are banking on the fact that “being published” is reward enough on its own.

Read the rest of their piece here…  Highly recommended (as is the website), if only to get the link of Harlan Ellison ranting…

“Some say opportunity knocks only once, That is not true. Opportunity knocks all the time, but you have to be ready for it. If the chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it.”

– Louis L’Amour

Grrr…  Here I am, getting ready for a nice relaxing night at home, when I get a text message.  Apparently there’s a rocket launch tonight.
I don’t know how I missed this… maybe it’s a spy satellite (despite being called “weather observation satellite”).  Oh, I see.  It’s  a DoD payload.  Those don’t get announced until the last minute.

It’s at 9:24 pm, so it’s a true night launch.  It’s an Atlas V, which is the largest rocket the US has, so it should be an impressive sight to see…

I really have no choice, especially after vowing the other day to not let opportunities pass me by…  I can leave my house at 8:00 pm and be there in plenty of time;  a “mere” rocket launched on a week night doesn’t draw the crowds like a early evening shuttle launch does….

Wait, this just in.  It got scrubbed due to fuel valve problems…  All that debate for nothing.  Oh well, what else is new…

Back to editing pictures.