Magnificent shots of our winged friends, Todd and Gary! Absolutely beautiful! I would have loved to have seen you swingin' that 500 around without the tripod, Gary.....no doubt a sight to behold....hehe.
Oh yeah....and thanx too, Gary for the fishin' shot. Man!......I've never seen such large live bait!!!.....
Sure hope we can put together a good group outing in October!
In the meantime.....Last Sunday evening, my daughter and I made our way out to Stone Mountain in hopes of maybe catching a sunset....By the time we were at the mountain's base, heavy clouds had pretty well socked in all around....But, we decided to make the climb, anyway. Our climb was rewarded....as, just before sunset the clouds lifted....only in the west......And, the result was this surrealistic fiery bath for our fair city:
Fantastic shot from Stone Mountain, you did really good on that one. I've ordered a couple of books by 'Arnold' to help with the 500......you know the ones.........'100 ways to pump it up' and 'The 500, not for Weenie men'.
I look forward to seeing you and some new members in our October meeting. Also Callaway Gardens should be starting to come into some great colors here in the next few weeks.......just an idea.
I was doing a bit of brain storming today, rare thing for myself. I thought of trying a weekend trip(fri,sat,sun) to say the Smokey Mountain National Park. The wildlife should be great, deer should have polished racks and be chasing does.
Weekends I'm not booked: Oct 28,29,30 and Nov 4,5,6
It looks like we have a date set for our trip to the Smokey's.
November 4(Fri), 5(Sat), 6(Sun). From those in Atlanta that have contacted me via PM, we would be leaving Thursday evening, shoot full days Friday and Saturday, then return on Sunday.
The list of photog's confirmed:
Atlanta - Greg (smilindoc)
Atlanta - John (jfricks)
Atlanta - Gary (RollCast)
Knoxville - Chris (cwtaylor)
Atlanta - Tracey (tlong) & Family
Atlanta - Robert (whereismykit)
Now this will be the hard part......room accommodations, with it being Leaf Season. I'll be trying to nail down the number of rooms needed this Saturday(10/8) with the first location being Townsend TN. Townsend is by far the least crowded of all the park entrance points. It is also only 20 minutes from Cades Cove and has reasonable access times to other points of interest.
If you are going to attend and would like to stay in the same facility, please pm or email me by Friday(10/7). I will start a New thread titled "Smokey Mtn. Outing", once I have accommodations, this will give the Tennessee members a chance to join.
Cheers
Gary
Edited by RollCast on Oct 06, 2005 at 04:49 PM GMT
Edited by RollCast on Oct 07, 2005 at 12:45 PM GMT
Edited by RollCast on Oct 10, 2005 at 09:59 PM GMT
Not sure of the room rates, I'll be in search of accommodations this weekend. Once I have secured the rooms.........we can make travel plans. If someone has an SUV or van and would like to be our driver, I think the rest of the group could(those riding) cover the fuel cost.
Hey everyone! I thought it was about time I made myself known on here. My name is Britany and I am Greg (smilindoc's) daughter. I owe a lot of my love for photography to my dad because he's always been an avid lover of it all my life...you know we had to wait on him to take the pefect picture every five minutes when we'd take a hike or vacation somewhere hehe. He also took tons of pictures of my softball games when I played in high school, and if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have any pictures to remember those wonderful days! I got into photography seriously about 2 years ago when I took a photography class at GA Perimeter College just so I could learn how to use my camera. Unfortunately we weren't taught anything about the camera, just subject matter and darkroom stuff. I immediately found I had an eye for photography and a true love for it. I thought I wanted to be an athletic trainer so I did a semester at Ga College and State University in Milledgeville, but I hated it mainly because I wasn't taking pictures all the time. I decided to follow my heart and pursue photography. I just started photography school at Gwinnett Technical College. I'm so excited to finally be learning something useful in school haha. So that is a little about me.
My dad talked me into joining FM because he enjoys sharing photography with all of you. Photography is such an open topic, that I look forward to learning more about it from all of you. Well, I just wanted to introduce myself and get my name out there to you guys! Have a good one!!
I trust school is going good for you and now you have a place to show your work. Photography is such a rewarding profession, though very demanding at times. I'm looking forward to seeing some images from you.
Thanks for the welcome guys! Its funny how life is sometimes...Just the other day I was so sure about going to school for photography....but now I'm having major second thoughts. I've been working as a wedding photographer's assistant the past few months and she is more than willing to teach me anything I need to know (and she knows more than weddings...she went to school ), and I feel very compelled to avoid the awful critiques in school and the time demanding assignments and just go straight for a hands on learning experience, being thrown in to the tigers ya know. It would totally be more cost efficient to learn from her and it wouldn't be near as stressful since I'm working full time. Since school has started, I would go to class everyday at 8am and then when I got out, I would go straight to work until 10pm. I'm just really confused on what to do...so any advice or input would be more than welcome! I haven't changed my mind about photography...I still want to do that for the rest of my life...its just the learning process that has changed!
There is something to be said for "on the job training", nothing can take its place. By the same token, you would not build a home without First having a good foundation.
School is much more than learning the basics, it teaches you how to find the answers. So I'd say do both........get the foundation you need to build the career you want. I know where you are coming from......been there, done that, bought the tee shirt and ate the snow cone. Every single time I'm on a shoot, I'm using techniques that happen automatically, the same ones that were repeat to death while in school. This is what makes a 'professional' , regardless of the trade, being able to know what to do and when to do it.
The creative process is something you have or you don't.......it's your style. But without the fundamentals you can not apply your style with consistent results. Remember that photography is very competitive, you are only as good as your last shoot. Being able to produce the goods day in day out is of the utmost importance. In my opinion being able to sell yourself to a client is the true art. It's business, plain and simple.......the more confidence you have in your skills the better you'll come across. Customers can sense this, they'll hear it in your voice and the way you present yourself.
Thanks Gary...although its not what I want to hear exactly!!! I'll keep it in mind...its just I hate school in general and if I can make it without school, then I would much rather go that route!!!
Ok y'all talked me into paying for a subscription so I can share some of my work....this is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken!!! It was taken in Nashville, TN of some random girl at a park. I used my Canon Rebel Ti to capture the moment! It was printed full frame, so what you see is exactly what I took....I was in her face!!!
Now this picture got me the cover of the Ga Perimeter College Literary magazine. Every year, the college puts out this magazine full of students literature but they ask for photographs and pictures of artwork to to submitted to accompany the literature. One lucky student's work is chosen for the cover. I submitted 5 photographs, 4 were chosen to be in the magazine (more than anyone else) and one of those 4 was the cover picture!!!!! I'm proud of this one!!! It was taken at Centennial Olympic Park, again with my Rebel Ti.
Great news.......I have secured the accommodations!! We will be staying at the Valley View Lodge in Townsend Tenn., the rooms are for Thursday(3rd), Friday(4th) and Saturday(5th) nights. Their website is http://www.valleyviewlodge.com/ . For now the reservations are in my name, we can change that at the time of check in, this should be easier than doing it by phone.
I hope I have PM'd everyone with the room rates.
Tracey - 1 double room(2 queens)
Greg - 1 double room(2 queens)
John, Robert and myself - 2 rooms with two separate bedrooms(1king/1queen) per room.....so a total of 4 private bedrooms in two units
So we have one extra bedroom available for another person if needed(Aaron is out of town, but may join). If it isn't need I'll change one of the two bedroom accommodations to a single room.
For future news about the trip, I'll be starting a new thread "Smokey Mountain Outing". This should make it easier to follow, allow local Tenn. FM members to join and give everyone a chance to add ideas for local shooing locations.
Cheers
Gary
Edited by RollCast on Oct 09, 2005 at 08:55 PM GMT
Edited by RollCast on Oct 10, 2005 at 10:00 PM GMT
Hi Britany, (Britknee - I like that). Welcome to FM from me also. I think you will enjoy the forum and the people here and look forward to seeing more pictures from you along your way to becoming a great photographer.
Gary offers some excellent advise on your going to school. Basics are very important and I'm sure there are many things you would learn from school that you would not learn otherwise. Good photographers are not necessarily good teachers but the same is true in the reverse. Your desire to learn is whats important. Take in everything that you can while there and try to keep your job as an assistant. It may be that your interest will take you somewhere other than weddings but in the meantime you can help her out and get some great experience while going to school.
Marketing and business skills are also important and I don't know to what degree, if any, these are covered by your school.
Photography has changed quite a bit over the past few years and will continue to do so. Years ago no computer skills were necessary, today they are critical. Changes in Cameras, Computer hardware and software are just about certain on a yearly basis now. Learning will become a necessity even after you have finished school.
Good luck, study hard and let us know if we can be of any help to you in the future.
), and I feel very compelled to avoid the awful critiques in school and the time demanding assignments and just go straight for a hands on learning experience, being thrown in to the tigers ya know. It would totally be more cost efficient to learn from her and it wouldn't be near as stressful since I'm working full time. Since school has started, I would go to class everyday at 8am and then when I got out, I would go straight to work until 10pm. I'm just really confused on what to do...so any advice or input would be more than welcome! I haven't changed my mind about photography...I still want to do that for the rest of my life...its just the learning process that has changed! 