Linda K

a bit of weight lifting training, and you will be fine!!!! For me its actually more of a shock when I whack the 50mm lens on the camera, as it is so light, it becomes more like "why it this so easy to lift?" Oh that's right, the heavy lens is in the bag!!! Echo Kristins call though - f you are not sure what will work, and are on limited funds, trying one out by renting is a great way to test a potential without dropping a bucket of money first

love the 135L myself, it is one of my most used lenses. Kristin was right though with what she said about what I said - that with lenses, there are the cheaper mass produced ones, that have plastic mounts, and glass that have a within a wider tolerance level of evenness compared to the more expensive lenses, so with those, it can be a lucky dip whether you get a good copy or not. Those are the ones that you generally find are the kit lenses or those that are the 5.6 or thereabouts, and can bit very hit or miss on the quality. The manufactures though generally figure I suppose that the people buying them are buying for cost, and are not as concerned over getting tack sharp images as near to 100% of the time as they can. Does not matter where these are bought from, the factory process in producing them is still the same. I

another rap for Liberty, they are great

Not sure what that has to do with anything, but no that is not my site. & yes I am a professional photographer, operating under Linda Kitson Pawtraits

My point is that the idea that it is cheap to set up as a legitimate business is not true, if you read the point on page 1 of this topic (as below) all of that is obtained for next to nothing - heck just my public liability and equipment insurance is $1000 a year, let alone those other costs, not to mention having backup to my gear, as it is not just having 1 camera, you need a backup in case 1 fails in the middle of a shoot. Would be interesting for a start to see how many people doing this as a hobby were taking out insurance, claiming the income on their tax returns etc Heck, I am more than happy to sit back and let others burn themselves out on getting nothing for their efforts, they will soon see that there is a reason that businesses that have been around for awhile charge a higher price for the same things. Was merely helping offer a bit of help so they do not kill themselves working it out first, nothing to do with trying to keep it as a protected industry or to price fix - it is nothing of the sort, just a bit of wisdom to stop the inevitable for people doing so much work for so little - I know of quite a few friends who nearly had marriage breakdowns before they realised the cheap prices were killing them, and they were doing so much work for less then $2 an hour.

bet your hairdresser has not spent $20000 setting up with equipment though.

was thinking more a 70-200

just remember with these that there s a reason these lenses are so much cheaper - they are mass produced general public type lenses, so glass not as good, and at its longest (300 mm), you have an aperture of 5.6 as the biggest you can go, which means the lens sweet spot might only be F8 - you would need very good light or a very high ISO to get a fast shutter speed here. If you are going to be using it where you can't use a tripod, and need to have a high shutter, it might be worth saving the bikkies to get a lens that can go to 2.8 instead. Not necessarily what you want to hear, but if you are wanting this length, you need to consider the pros and cons of saving on the lenses vs what it can then do

OK, today I can see it, You have some nice images in the gallery. Would note though that the white text is very hard to read against the background, in some areas the words are not visible at all, as the white bleeds into the white of the dog used as the background image As for the pricing, I realise this is an event, and so a different pricing model than a one on one photo session, but really, you are offering a full resolution file for only $5? As far as shoot and burners go, this is cheap even by their standards. I get it is only a hobby for you, but you are going to be seriously burnt out really quickly, and I think you really need to consider how much time doing this is going to take you away from your family and dogs, and if it is worth it for that. At $5 a pop, it would take you a very long time to be able to pay off even a cheap camera body upgrade, which you are going to have to get pretty soon at those rates. Please have a really good think about the pricing, you are doing yourself no favours by giving your work away like this, and it will only make you bitter about doing it.

I believe that the point they are making is that the shoot and burners are damaging the industry to the point that unfortunately Joe Public thinks that they are now being screwed by someone charging $60 for something someone else is charging $8 for, when the $60 person has actually worked out their costs and is charging appropriate, the $8 charger is probably doing this for a bit of fun on the side, is not relying on this to make a living, and in a year or 2 will probably have tired of it and moved on (and in the meantime is in no way covering their costs in fact they are probably bleeding money, but as this is only a hobby, they probably don't realise that. In the meantime, the "overpriced" photographer who has seen their business radically overrun by the shoot and burn brigade has also quit, as there is no way they can compete with that sort of undercutting. I have seen it myself, with people thinking that if they ask for a CD of their images, instead of getting prints, that there is no cost to me & so I should heavily discount it - I have still had to do the same work to do a session and process all the images, and my running costs are no different, and as has been well illustrated above, the actual printing costs is only a minimal part of the process, so they are disappointed if I say no, as they think if a shoot and burner can do it for $200, I am ripping them off charging several 1000. Photography is NOT a service industry, it is far more than that - in just taking the photo, it is more than just pressing a button, there is learning how to read light in any situations and make it work, how to compose an image, learning all your lenses backwards so you know which lens to choose to achieve what shot, knowing what aperture, shutter speed etc to use, and that is just the first bit, the second and sometimes harder one, is learning how to process the images correctly in the digital darkroom (otherwise known as Photoshop, Lightroom etc, and not screwing up the hard work by going overboard here. All of that is an art form. We are not just selling something on a mere piece of paper - there is an art to getting it there. Not to mention all the other aspects as has been touched on - hand holding before the session and providing guidance, during the session, and afterwards, right up to the point of delivery signoff. Sadly the shoot and burners are damaging in 2 points - by undercharging by ridiculous amounts, and in some cases selling work long before they are ready - you should be able to be just as proud of an image you might have in someones home that you took 5 years ago as you would be today, and not cringe at the thought of what you might have charged for, and what someone might have. If someone is not at that point, they should not be selling anything yet. Think of so many industries here where the cheap overseas pricing has so damaged the Australian market, that you no longer see the Australian products around anymore. We are not being over the top about telling people what to do or not do, it is more about ensuring that people don't rip themselves off too and in doing so damage the business - think about how many magazines for instance now offer amateur photographers the chance to send in an image for the cover, and pay (if they do), minimal to the person lucky enough to have their image on the cover, when previously they would have paid 1000's to someone for commercial use of an image for that - these people are being exploited by having unfair compensation to them for commercial use of an image, and they do not even realise it.

exactly

tried the link (on a mac), and it would not even open after 5 minutes, so can't comment at all on it

could not agree more - shoot and burners unfortunately have done a lot of damage There is such a lot more to running the business than just snapping a few shots - also the endless upgrades you need to buy (camera gear, new lens, new bodies), and also having stock on hand to show different samples, and changing those around too, not to mention things like templates for those. Knowing exactly what your cost of goods is, and then pricing yourself accordingly will ensure then that you are not one of the 90% of businesses that fail within 5 years, Don't just price it out based on what your competitors are charging and copycat them - they may not have the same costs as you (for instance, they might have a studio, for which they are paying rental costs, and have setups like lights, backdrops etc), whereas your own model may be based on natural light outdoors (therefore no lights, no props), or they might not even have worked out their COG (and therefore what they need to charge to make a profit, and you are just using a bad business model to copy. One don't always have to go into business just because friends say you take nice photos - so much of the business is about stuff other than the photo taking, and there is always a possibility that for some, their family is just saying that to be nice, or does not have any idea what makes the difference between a snapshot and otherwise (just have a look for instance at any mummy forum and have a look at some of the comments on photos that look bad even by Pixie Portrait standards, and how many wow comments they get - family and friends are not always the best judges) Food for thought

such fantastic news, bet you are so relieved, and shame on that first vet for the way he treated you

no, I mean we celebrated our own 10:10:10 here at home with the kids at that time here this morning, but did not know about the worldwide thing, so will happily join in it again _ even though it will not be our 10:10:10, it will actually be someone else's (since we do not run at GMT- to be that would be like us not celebrating the turn of the century until it was that time at GMT, instead of when we had midnight on 31121999

if you do a search on this forum, you will see this question has been asked many times, and with some very good recommendations, however you also need to realise you get what you pay for too - perhaps think about what you want to do with the camera now, and what you want to do, as you many find it is better to spend a little more now to get what you really need rather than what you want now, and loose out on trading up later. Good luck on the search though, there is nothing like taking photographs, and glad you had a great experience!!!

we already celebrated that moment, but happy to do it again!!!

just makes me sick that someone could do this and think it is funny -0 just sickening, and to hear the poor owner on the radio this morning, just heartbreaking, RIP Cachet

same as some are registered with the council so call themselves a registered breeder (or just some of their animals are)

everything crossed for you for your two precious furkids, and praying for a happy outcome. As for why no others have been saved by your vets this year, without knowing their cicrumstances, perhaps it was because they were not taken to a vet until they displayed symptoms, and not in a preemptive strike like you did as soon as you realised there was a chance they had fully ingested all the poison, by which time it sounds like it would be way too late - anyway here's hoping that you will break the drought for your vet and be two success stories for him

I have some older version photoshop ones too - how do you want to have them - ie do you want them posted to them?

not exactly the same as pet shops - the cats were only in there for brief periods, were different ones each day (I know as I have several breeder friends who had different cats in there on different days), and at the end of it they went home again with their owners. If we are promoting breeds, as the cat stand was, far happier they are like this, so that they can't be stolen, and that the actual cat show cats were safely behind a fence and well out of range of people poking at them and taking one.

Just remember that everything in digitals is a sacrifice - the more megapixels then tends to mean that the noise level is not handled quite as well, so you need to determine which you are prepared to sacrifice - noise level at high ISO or megapixels A huge megapixel count like 18 vs 12 is only really going to make a difference if you are wanting to go billboard size with your pictures - for the average man on the street, 12 is more than plenty FWIW I personally believe at the moment Nikon has the upper hand in the battle (and I shoot both Nikon & Canon)

agree - there is also a learning curve - like riding a bicycle or driving a manual car, sometimes it takes a while for it to all come together and be 2nd nature, but after a while, it all starts to click (pun intended!!!) Practice is the key, and also getting to know all your lenses, and all different sorts of lighting conditions - that way you will know straightaway what lens and settings you want when you see something and be able to capture the look you want (like the flamingo above), and not lose the shot fumbling to make changes instead.

have not yet read all the posts, but definitely thinking he gets a better % from that sale than the DSLR - a bridge camera is not better, in fact they can be even more cumbersome to use since many of the controls are buried within the menus on the screen, and not controlled by buttons , and there is still a lag - as well as my 2 babies, the Canon 5DII and the Nikon D700, I have a Lumix which I can control aperture, ISO, shutter speed etc same as the DSR< but it still has that lag & drives me crazy with it, but it is used by me only if we are gong somewhere I don't want to take the weight of the DSLR & lenses, or for my kids to take pictures while I am using the DSLR. Go for the DSLR, you will not regret it, and as for Nikon vs Canon, it is like Ford vs Holden - both are good in their own way, but would stick with either of them & not go for any ft the others, - they have not been in the business so long for nothing.