Linda K

I know that the kittens I have got that have flown have not been too interested in eating at all the day they arrived, but were fine appetite wise by the next day. He looks gorgeous.

depends how tack sharp you want stuff, and what aperture you want to use - if you are doing a landscape say and want to use F15, ISO 100 and the light is not great, you would be doing well to hand hold at the shutter speed you might need to use. A tripod will help greatly with that. A tripod also makes things like HDR shots, making a panoramic shot (by taking multiple shots to join), is also so much easier with a tripod, as it makes the joins so much easier. If you are using a very shallow DOF (say F2), then you could probably get away with it. I just love a tripod for doing that sort of stuff (landscape, macros etc), as it really allows you to set up the shot, and then either wait for the right light / moment, check the frame and make sure there is nothing distracting there, and that everything you want is within the frame, and nothing you don't want in there is, and then tinker slightly with angle etc if needed - it can be a lot more illuminating for all that sort of stuff than just wining it from the hip, as too often you can get caught up in the moment, employ that blindness that comes with taking a shot and blanking out all the things you aren't concentrating on, take the shot, get home and see all these elements in there that a bit of careful thought / framing ect could have avoided - a tripod helps you slow down the process and avoid these. Of course there are a lot of times you can't or don't want one (like chasing around a toddler), but where I can, I love to use one

so sorry to hear of your loss

our farm cat crunches the smaller ones he catches (except for the large intestines), the larger ones (adult sized), he normally eats the head, and leaves the bottom part of the bodies

Ange - great for you wanting to make a break into the business - if you are really serious about it, a great place to go and learn is ilovephotography.com which is a site dedicated to child photography and learning the craft etc. The main suggestion there is before you make the jump to charging, there is nothing wrong with doing a free session to practice and learn the craft, so long as all parties are aware of what is going on - for you the chance to learn, practice getting t know your camera and lenses inside and out, learn how to read light, learn how to pose people etc, so that you can be confident going into any situation (bad light etc), and get consistent good results each and every time, not just fluke the odd good shot but know how to get it any time you want, and also get the post processing work down pat. During that practice time, it would be expected that you would normally be doing a time for disc session (ie you are not charging anything at all, as there is no guarantee what you do will be awesome, and you give maybe 5 or 10 shots of your choice to the family on a disc as a thanks for them giving you their time. If they choose to give you anything else, that is up to them, the point being you have made it clear it is only for practice. Once you have got all of that nailed, then and only then would I suggest charging for what you are doing, and this say being reduced for a limited time - eg work out what you want to charge, and then offer a portfolio building sessions (only for as long as it takes to build out the portfolio in certain areas - eg newborns so you have a nice variety f those type of shots to show off), which I would then offer as a % off the prices - that way people know what you will be charging when you are not portfolio building. This is the stage that I would certainly suggest you have at least insurance, ABN may not be necessary until you are making a certain amount of profit, but check with your accountant. Whilst the amount you decide to charge is up to you, I would certainly suggest at the least work out what is a happy place you would like to earn, how many sessions yo would then need to do to make that, and how much you would then need to earn from each session. I would also suggest you think about what goes into a print too when working out the price - it is not only the cost of paper that you need to think of, which is why those photographers conducting a full on shoot, and giving away the farm by selling the whole session disc for $50 (or as one I saw yesterday had, $200 for a 2 hour shoot, plus all images in print and on CD) are not doing themselves any favours - work out how much time for the shoot, petrol and time afterwards processing etc you have spent, and at these prices, you are basically still doing it all for nothing (or maybe effectively you are paying them to have a shoot) - and haven't even gone into the expenses of running the business, like spares of all the gear, hardrives (and backups of those), to store all the images, etc etc. Certainly not wanting to say damned if you do, damned if you don't, only that I know others who have gone in without having thought of the insurance say for starters, and it has been a very big financial disaster, so only wanting to spare others needing to learn that lesson the hard way. Another hard thing to learn is that you will quite often need to attract new and different clients at each stage of the whole process, which depending on where you live, might not be easy - those who are more than happy to line up and make you do all that work for free are not necessarily going to value the work and be prepared to pay for the same thing, and those that get a discounted price may not willing to pay full price - chances are they will go and find someone else who is learning their craft, as they may not really care that you can take a shot without any blowouts, while the new person they have found has massive areas of blown highlights, but they don;t care one way or another, price is all they care about. And FWIW, this was the model I did, practiced on anything and everything, and everyone I could, read everything I could, did workshops till I knew my camera backwards and forwards (and practiced some more), did some freebie shoots giving up to 10 shots of my choice on a disc, then doing PB shoots starting at 50% off, then 25% off, till I then started charging full price. I did this over a course of several years, once I had decided I wanted to pursue this as more than a hobby. I gave the same love and attention to all the work I did, whether it was the freebie shoots I did, the % off or the full shoots, as I also took the 1st 2 as good chances to also practice my behind the scenes skills (like how quickly I could edit the shoot, and working on getting down the time taken per image once I was comfortable with how to edit a shot to get a certain look) And I still also practice every day. Sorry Krislin to hijack, I think what you do with the calendars is a great idea, and RB sounds like another good idea too for those shots

There is nothing at all wrong with sticking strictly to taking photos as a hobby if that is what you want to do, family and friends are not always the best people to advise you on whether you should be doing it as a business, as they do not necessarily know what makes the basis of a good image, what is good exposure etc. You don't have to be in business to take photos of what you want (ie your own kids, your own dog, scenery etc), but IMO it is wrong to take money from people for a session and act as if you are a business if you are not - for one you have an insurance issue, and could be badly burnt if you ran into a situation where you needed public liability cover if things went wrong and you did not have it (fancy losing your home instead?) I think one of the main problems is that cameras are an easily accessible item, and camera manufacturers now seem to be doing everything they can to ensure no one needs to learn anything about how to take a photo, they will design a camera to take care of that - think the models that now have the face recognition, and now the canon tru-capture, to take away the pains of learning how to focus and expose properly. SIGH It just seems to cheapen all of what many of us have taken many pains to learn so that it is all 2nd nature (nailing focus, reading the light, post processing etc), and make it seem like it is not really any effort at all, just let your camera decide it all instead, it can fix everything (I would make the point the that looking at the images on the tru capture site - lots of lobster people there (too red in the skin, and colour casts galore, but the man on the street probably wouldn't even worry about that) If you want to take images, I would still do it, and certainly if you took a shot while doing so of someone elses I would offer them the shot but would not charge for doing this (unless there was an official shooter, and any images should only be taken by them, then it would be courtesy not to do so and I would not be offering an at all) Going and specifically doing a shoot - that to me would be a different story though, and could as I have said, open to a bad problem if things go wrong during the shoot. King of like saying - don't go to a hairdresser and get a hair cut, come to me, I will give you one, as I am not sure what I am doing, so will give away my trial and error results.

cornstarch or soap here - works when you cut the cats claws too short

2 definitely, 1 is a bit close crop to the main subject

some great shots there, you have captured the expressions and personality really well. What I would do (and a minor point), is turn the on board flash OFF - it looks like it has gone off in a few, and dulled the gorgeous black coat and lost the details, as the flash is doing its job in trying to turn things midgrey (it does not know you want your black to be black). What a gorgeous subject though

exactly, the green gradient means the camera was close to the ground, and that is grass close to the ens, but out of focus (too close to the lens for it to be picked up as other than the colour.

yep, thoroughly sick of our next door neighbours dog in our property, tipping our bin over, pooping everywhere, and last night he took my farm boots which were on the door mat as they were muddy - great I now have 1 boot and the other is god knows where, and the neighbours just laugh it off and refuse to contain their dog in any way at all.

At this stage I haven't fully kitted out my Nikon how I want it, but I did offload a few of the Canon lenses I have that I just wasn't using enough to justify keeping them - on the Canon I mainly use the 50 1.4, the 85 1.8, and my faves the 70-200 & 135, for the Nikon I only have the 50 1.4 & the 85 1.4 (as I mostly just use that for the noise values, I haven't yet bought anything longer). I should probably bite the bullet and ditch the Canon & all the stuff, but haven't been able to make that final push yet

can't help you out with the Collingwood problem (go cats!!!!!), but you are not alone with a Nikon, me I don't have a firm affection one way or another now, having always been a Canon girl, I now have a foot in each camp, as each has its own strength and weaknesses, so I use whichever suits what I need to do (having said that, I do think currently Nikon has the upper hand on noise over Canon)

not to mention this comment too, which suggests he doesn't often bothering to recall, wonder if all the people he goes up to are equally thrilled, not everyone wants that sort of attention in the park.. Does not excuse at all the guys actions in any way, but I do think the owner also needs to consider other park users, and whether they all are meant to know his dog is friendly

much prefer the full frame, I am getting the pictures the way the lenses are intended, and also no get info crammed in on the sensor, and the low light abilities (I have both 5DII & D700), are useful for where I shoot indoors - I can shoot at 3200 & 6400 with more than acceptable quality at that ISO, however you do need to make sure you nail the exposure at that ISO, or the noise will still creep in. The only crop sensor I had was a 10D, and that crap above ISO 400

dunstan, dougall, douglas, dennis, darcy, daniel,

was it an off leash area where they were? If not, then the owner would be in trouble, but even if not, I don't appreciate dogs running up at me, no problems with them running around and enjoying themselves though, (mind you I would never stab them, but I might yell at their owner), but would expect the owner to have control by voice if they want to have them off the lead. Just sounds like a great big mess all round

so happy for my friend Kristen Cook, who did so very well, hope she puts these into the nationals, she was in the portrait and family categories and the shots were just divine

thanks for the link, don't think I will get any editing done today at all now!!!!!

happy to do it too

he is such a character, just love him

like everything, it is a matter of taste, and like most actions, is also best used in moderation. As Katie has said, the same one does not work on all shots, and generally you need to ask yourself before applying something like this, as to what it is bringing to the shot in telling the story of the photo - if it is just being applied willy nilly for the hell of it, then why bother - on the other hand, I have seen some great beach or sunset type shots, given a nice airy feel by a light filter, enhancing the golden light already present in the shot, not trying to add something that was not already there. A lot like doing black and white conversions, and then making some random spot in the photo colour - unless it is done with intent, and not just because you can, it rarely looks good. IMO I have genuinely only seen about 3 or 4 shots that actually really looked good with this applied - ones where the whole person for instance is B & W and the eyes are colour just look freaky wrong. Editing should be about adding to the shot, not about trying to correct mistakes made in camera - JMHO though

so sad to hear of your loss, RIP brave norty tortie lady

just lovely to watch the reunion

sounds to me like maybe dad knew it would need to be returned, and if he is not living there, he is now not the bad guy, mum is for making he dog go back, he was the good guy for buying it - may not be the case & I hope I am not right, but certainly sounds like some custody game playing here, have seen this in my own family with an uncle when his marriage broke up, and also closer to home with my ex BIL