Commitment

“Commitment is doing the things you said you would do, long after the mood you said it in, has left you.”

Sometime in my past I picked that line up. Every now and then I have to remind me of it, and everytime it strikes me how true it is. Commitment is a word often used. Misused too. Its so easy to say: “I am comitted!” and mean it in the moment. But commitment is not about moments. Its about the long haul. Staying in the game. Sustainability. Hanging in there. Following through. The word is taken too light in many occasions. Think about it when giving, or receiving, a commitment.

Shot some teenagers..

… with my camera this weekend!

This weekend I had a very pleasant shoot with two new models. New to me that is. We spend a good deal of time together saturday and heres a few shots I got from it. They are definitely going to my iStock portfolio!
The background was a Arctic White 2.72m x 11m Colorama Paper Background. I also shot some with a Dark grey one.

The girl, Sarah, was standing in front of the softbox, a bit to the left of it, seen from the camera, and a very sof bounced light from the other side.
Benjamin had the softbox above him. Nothing else.
Both images was shot with my 85mm f/1.4. You can find it on Amazon here.

Let me know what you think about them but keep in mind I haven’t retouched them yet.

Now exclusive!

Today I applied for iStocks Exclusivity program… And got accepted. I’m a happy bunny.

If you want to see my work, or maybe even start uploading yourself, you can click this button:

Website -> Blog

So I made a choice. I need a new website, which I’m already working on, but it lead me to kill my portfolio site at www.elgaardfoto.dk and get it to point to this blog. So don’t be surprised if you, in the near future, will see another site when visiting me here.

Now that you’re here. What do you think about this as my new banner? Yeah, its a bit small, but press it!

I’m using a wordpress theme. Do you recommend some must-have plugins or widgets?

From my last shoot

These last two weekends I have shot my kids. It was their first model jobs and I was a bit nervous to how they’d respond to it. It could be waste of time and it could be worth every second. They loved it and frankly so did I.  When I think about it actually, it could never be a waste of time.. Time spend with the kids can’t really be. But; They turned out to be able to work hard, put up with long boring instructions from me and STILL have fun. I’m currently working on getting the files ready for upload on iStock.

Here’s a few of the shots. Let me know how you feel about them? I have used bounced flashlight on the ceiling on first two, as the light on these winter mornings aren’t that strong in the classroom I was shooting in. The last is only daylight. All shot with my D3X a 85mm or a 50mm.

<—  85mm –  f/2.2  - 1/160s

<—  50 mm – f/2.2 – 1/80s

<— 85mm  - f/1.8 – 1/125s

Manfrotto Swivel w/ umbrella adaptor

Got me two of these Manfrotto Swivels before the weekend, for my kiddies group shoot, from which I’ll soon show a few images. I rarely buy other brands than Manfrotto as these are well built, study, fits on all tripods and this one even holds your umbrella. I have two of these 101 cm’s umbrella to shoot through or use as a soft bouncer.
Here’s a link to the adaptor at Amazon: Manfrotto 026 Lite Tite Swivel + Umbrella Adaptor, and if you add this: Manfrotto Flash Shoe, 1/4 your speedlight goes on top!

Can you recommend other brands than Manfrotto? Any experience?

New stuff from Nikon

Theres, beside the Coolpix updates last week, some news from Nikon. They have announced these two lenses:

16-35mm f/4G ED VR (Which I think will take over the 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5)
24mm f/1.4G ED (Used to be a f/2.8)

I also read on nikonrumors.com about theres chances of a 50mm f/1.2. They already made this lens way back, but this time is WITH AF. But look at THIS. Suddenly the future looks bright.. I often thought about getting the older 50mm f/1.2, but never got around to it. So if you have one??

D700 new firmware out!

Are you the happy owner of a Nikon D700? I just got an email from Nikon Support telling me theres a new firmware out it. The new version is 1.02.

The link to Nikon’s danish support site is HERE.
The english is HERE.

EDIT: Theres also new firmware updates for these models: D300s, D3s and D3X. So I also need to update my D3X.

EDITED: Waiting for some new books

EDIT; The books arrived and I have read them. Both had some good info in them, though I still lack a bit. The 600 poses book is nothing but 600 poses and a few lines for notes. Theres some really good inspiration in it, though it struggles a bit with similarities. Jeff Smith’s book explain a lot of techniques and stuff to look out for really well. The images are almost all softed, and some of the smiles seems pretty static, but hey, I bought it for the posing and there is does its job. I’d recommend both books if you have trouble posing your models. Jeff Smiths is suited more for outdoor, where the other one at first seems like a studio-book, but with your imagination, you can easily use the poses outdoor.

I’ve ordered some new books, which I look really forward to get. They are about model posing, and I hope they aid me in my quest for becoming a great stock photographer. Theres much more to stock than posing, but its an area where I still have a lot to learn. I also try to look for concepts and ideas where ever I am. Sucking in inspiration from images, adverstises, tv-commercials, websites. Making notes. Taking screenshots. Ripping out pages from magazines, which sometimes makes me kind of unpopular with my girlfriend, if I get my hands on the mag before she’s done with it.

Anyway, these books are in the mail:
Jeff Smith’s Posing Techniques for Location Portrait Photography

Photomodel-Posing: more than 600 images / posings, tips and tricks

Hurry up, postman…….

2009 in stats!

First of all, I’m going to wish you a very happy new year! May all good come to you in 2010.

I’m going to look a bit back over ‘09 on this post. I’ve had a lot of visitors and I thank you all for your time and interest. I hope you found what you were looking for. If not, try let me know.. I might be able to help you.

Heres my total visitors for the last years:

12254 times was my blog views during this year. I find that amazing. Its an average of 34 visitors per day. The month with the highest average was aug with 54 visits/day. January with 21 visits/day was the lowest. The busiest day was the 28th of october were I had a stunning 152 visitors!

Take a look at the monthly visitor numbers:

Of my 136 posts these were the Top 3 most popular:
1) Model poses – 1515 views
2) DOF – 339 views
3) Exposure – 264 views
I’m sorry, but these post are in danish. I suggest you try translate.google.com. It “might” give you a clue to what I write.

The Top 3 search engine terms:
1) Fototeknik  (Phototechnique) – Used 323 times
2) Model poseringer (Model poses) – Used 316 times
3) Poseringer (Poses) – Used 204 times

The Top 3 referrers: (Thank you! )
1) Iso8000.dk (My danish photoclub) – 486 referrals
2) Vuudhouse.dk (A great danish photographer’s blog) – 345 referrals
3) Skovlundefotoklub.dk (Another danish photoclub) – 97 referrals

The Top 3 most clicked links/files:
1) Elgaardfoto.dk – My own website
2) Iso8000.dk – My photoclub
3) Pose10.jpg

That was my blog.. Something else I’m spending a lot of time on at the moment is, if you are a regular visitor you know this, iStock! Heres not much to tell, but take a look at this:

I think 2010 is going to be very interesting! Don’t you? I hope the new year will give a kick!

Merry christmas

Hey its snowing!

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a merry christmas. May all your wishes come true! And do try, to take some time off and spend it well with you family. While you’re at it, set up your camera with a timer, unless you have it built-in like on the Nikons, and create a great timelapse video! Found one made with the D700.

I created this drawing, sorry for the lack of quality, on my new Wacom Intous 4.. If you don’t already own a tablet, I suggest you try it out. Its a great tool, and doesn’t take long getting used to. Now I’m also a ambidextrous, meaning I use the Wacom with my left and the mouse with my right, which I know not all of you can, but still I think you’d find it very relaxing for your hand and arm, not using a mouse for editing at all times.

By the way, on your right, at the top of the menu, I add a subscription widget. If you want an email whenever this is updated, feel free to signup.

And now for some handwritten ART!!

Merry Christmas!

Portfolio grows

Slowly my portfolio on iStock grows.
I have started uploading images from a new shoot and just got 15 files accepted, which I’m really happy about. But it surely takes time with the 15 files/week upload cap. I hope these new uploads will be well accepted by the buyers. They are not yet showing in my portfolio, but thats just a matter of some search database indexing. Its happens normally pretty fast.

Check out my port HERE.

There’s another post on its way. Well two. I’m currently trying to sort my links for the big international photographers that I follow, and will share them with you, though you probably already know them. Maybe you can help expanding the list? Also I’m going to make a post about what gear I have in my bags.