I know this episode is a little heavier than usual - but I think the material is important. Buying expensive camera gear is, for most of us, pretty stressful. Having recently made a couple of poor purchasing decisions, I decided to take a closer look into the forces that may be influencing how we spend our hard earned money. It turns out that the forces driving our consumption are numerous, powerful, and sometimes unexpected. Understanding how society, manufacturers, retail outlets, and even our own brains exert influence on our judgement may offer a key to avoiding unwise purchasing decisions in the future.  If you want to know who is pushing our buttons, and how they are doing it, you may want to listen to this podcast. I hope you find it useful! All the best... Allan

Shoot the Breeze

The secret to smarter shopping - for photographers (and everyone else)

In this week's Shoot the Breeze we are going to take at look the importance of previsualization, both as a training exercise and also as a routine part of your photography workflow. We talk about each stage in the process of planning your image and walk you through the practical steps necessary to capture the photograph as you see it through your mind's eye. 

The power of previsualization

Sorry for the late drop... In this week's Shoot the Breeze we talk first about catching and photographing snakes. If you decide this is something you would like to try, talk to a local snake hunter or find your area's herpetology club and find someone who can show you the ropes and help keep you safe. Safety first! Don't handle snakes unless you know precisely what you are picking up. Then we talk about selecting a powerful computer workstation for creative work and I ask for your feedback on the pre-built, custom or DIY workstation quandary. There is also a short Apple-rant in there somewhere. Thanks for listening! Please consider subscribing. Check out my video content at Allan Walls Photography, on YouTube. Until next time......

Snakes & computers

If you are struggling to make a living from commercial photography, this episode is for you. This week we take a close look into the commercial photographers' invoice and discuss production costs, professional and creative fees, and the complexities of licensing and usage charges. You will learn how to create a detailed invoice, set your professional fee "day rate", and calculate appropriate licensing charges for your images. We also touch on how to write your own image licenses. Major thanks to Jeff Sedlik for his many writings on the subject of licensing photographs. Equally major thanks to Peter House, a professional photographer based in Canada, who published a series of articles on photography finances through Fstoppers (thanks to them too!) a few years ago. In those papers he addressed many of the financial issues discussed in this podcast. You can find the original articles here. We also announce the birth of a new family member - the Allan Walls Photography YouTube channel - which can be found right here! Head over there right now and you could become SUBSCRIBER #4!!!    

Money matters in commercial photography

This week on Shoot the Breeze I sat down with Dr. Martin Howard, a highly respected fashion and portrait photographer, to talk about his life as a working physician and a professional artist. A great conversation with a great guy. I am certain you will enjoy what he had to say! By the way, this is what the dude looks like... You find Martin's work on Instagram and also on 500px - just hit these links and you will be magically transported to his work - prepare to be wowed! While you are clicking on links... go check out our first YouTube video. Watch it and, when you are done writing a review and subscribing, force all you family and friends to do the same. And somebody should call Peter McKinnon and let him know his empire is in jeopardy (don't tell him I only have one subscriber though)... If you really want to see Martin Howard's work, but you aren't into clicking on links, feast your eyes on these examples - and then go click the links. 

Interview with fashion and portrait photographer, Martin Howard

This week it's all about video! We talk about the video gear you probably already have, planning your Oscar-bound masterpiece, editing in Premier Pro, and why you almost certainly need a new computer. Here is a link to Peter McKinnon's enthusiastic review of the new DJI Osmo 4K action camera. You must check out Destin Sandlin's superb YouTube channel, "Smarter Every Day", for video content that is as good as it gets (not to mention intelligent, well researched, scientifically rigorous, and stylishly presented). And lastly, be sure to visit the Puget System's website to drool over descriptions of your new super-computer. We are getting close to launching the YouTube channel. Brace yourself! Until we meet again.........

Radio Star Killed by Video

Greetings all! Glad you stopped by... This week we take a close look at National Geographic's latest photo-manipulation faux-pas. To see the photograph in question, check out the original article in National Geographic Magazine. And then read the article got me going, on PetaPixel's website. The printer that I ranted on about is the Epson WF7720 - avoid it like the plague. Here is the photograph that was taken with an ND filter to blur the motion of the water... Hope you enjoyed this week's show. If you want more photography stuff, you should check out the website. We'll be back in another week. Until then........

Milky Way Mischief

This week's episode is jam-packed with useful information about cost-effective printing, the courtship behaviors of Caspian terns, flat lay photography, the perfect print portfolio, and the future of product photography in the age of computer generated imagery. To see the images mentioned in the podcast, just click here.  You can fill up on printing wisdom by checking out Jose Rodriguez on YouTube... here. And if you want to learn more about the world of 3D modeling and CGI, here is a link to Victor Fejes' website - this guy is very smart! Hope you enjoy the show and I'll see you again next week!

Romantic Terns and Killer Robots

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Shoot the Breeze! This week we hate on the dude that tried to scam us, get deep into canine excrement, clear up a metering question, reflect on the meaning of photography, and talk about designing brochures in Photoshop CC. Hit this link to check out the images for this week's show (it'll take you over to our blog). Until next time.....

The photography scam

Greetings all... Today's show notes will be brief. That was not my plan. I had written a short book in this space, with about a dozen photographs to illustrate my podcast ramblings, but when I saved it, the whole thing vanished. I had spent about 2 hours writing up the notes, and it took another hour to re-write them. Once again, they were sucked into the ether, never to return, when I hit the save button. I am so frustrated with this process that I am going to walk away from it and publish this awesome podcast without the notes and pictures. I am 99% certain that I have done everything correctly but, if I find that I have made an error, I will add the notes and pictures later. In the meantime, it is time to start looking for alternative, reliable hosting environments for the show. Here is the link to Sam Harris' podcast (episode 153) that I mentioned at the start of the show. Mandatory listening! Sorry about the pictures - I'll get it all sorted for next week's episode. 

Treasure hunting for photographers

This week on Shoot the Breeze, strap in and brace yourself for another hour of me talking to myself about photography (and black holes). After a close encounter with a mirrorless camera earlier in the week, I try to get my head around the tidal wave of mirrorless technology that threatens to make my D850 obsolete by next Tuesday. I also sing the praises of the FujiFilm X-T3 mirrorless camera, explain why Lightroom presets are a waste of time and money, tip my hat to the geniuses that photographed a black hole, and tell you everything you need to know to photograph the moon. For more information about the Event Horizon Telescope and the stunning black hole photograph, check out this article from Inverse by the excellent Peter Hess. And for Andy Mumford's spirited review of the Fujifilm X-T3 you need look no further than HERE. Here are some awesome images from the Fujifilm X-T3, shot by the incomparable Martin Howard... If none of that floats your boat, head over to my website and tell me what you want to talk about. Thanks for listening and for being a cool person.  

Going mirrorless?

Greetings and welcome back to STB! I hope you have had a better week than me, at least in terms of blood loss. Enough stuff happened this week that I couldn't resist sharing it with you. We walk through a fairly typical week in the life of a product photographer, but with enough gore to make it interesting for the rest of us. Turns out that I did enough dumb stuff this week to make it an object lesson in how not to make a living from photography. But even if you aren't doing photography for money, you still need to listen to the podcast so that you can learn how to avoid partially amputating your thumbs. I was going to include upsetting pictures of thumb-related carnage but I wasn't clear on whether or not the fine folks over at iTunes would see the humor in it. So here is a picture of a pen, instead. Anyway.... thanks for dropping by (both of you) and please make a point of subscribing so you don't miss a single episode or injury. Super excited about next week's show when we will be joined by acclaimed Mississippi fashion photographer, Dr. Martin Howard, who will explain to us why "Mississippi fashion" is not an oxymoron. Need more stuff? Go over to the website for "all you can eat" photography-based fodder and, while you are over there, leave me a message so that I can drop your name in a future episode. How cool would that be?!

Blood loss and product photography

In episode 3 of Shoot the Breeze we turn our attention to studio lighting and try to demystify the various functions and features of the modern studio strobe. There is a ton of useful information that will be especially valuable for anyone who is currently in the market for new lighting. We also touch on a few classic single-light techniques that should be helpful for beginners and anyone getting started with a new home-studio setup.  We also get into a controversial story about cheating in photography competitions, tell you how to save money on color gels, and more. If you want more photography tips, tutorials, reviews, or rants, head over to Allan Walls Photography and, while you're there, sign up for our newsletter. Thanks for listening in! We'll be back in 7 days with an episode all about product photography. Don't miss it!

Buyers' guide to studio strobes

This week we get into a studio DIY tip, portrait pointers, A Tamron wide-angle lens review, the dangers of offering discounts on your photography services, upsetting people with your camera, the right way to use HDR, the basics of ISO, and a couple of basic composition suggestions. There may be more, but I forgot to write it down. Hope you enjoy the show!

High Dynamic Rubbish

Welcome to Shoot the Breeze!  This is our first episode and we cover quite a bit of ground. First up is an in-depth discussion about the 6 key components of a good photograph: an interesting subject, creative composition, good timing, effective lighting, using color, and editing gently. Here is the photograph referred to in the section on timing a photograph: Later in the show we get into portfolio reviews, ND filters, teaching photography, our must-have 50mm prime lens, and plenty more. Please leave a comment and tell us what you want to discuss in future episodes - this is a conversation, after all! If you would like to submit a photograph for us to review on next week's show, please email the JPEG to contact@allanwallsphotography.com and include "photo review" in the email subject line. If you want to know more about us, check out our website, allanwallsphotography.com.  Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week!

What makes a photograph "good"?

A weekly conversation about photography, with a focus on technique, gear, and the art of creating awesome images

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Shoot the Breeze

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