During my stay in Vermont last week, we stuck the GoPro Hero 2 on our windshield with one of the GoPro suction cup mounts and filmed our drive to the summit of Mount Mansfield on the somewhat hair-raising Mount Mansfield Toll Road. Video sound is a little bit screwed up because of the playback speed being changed, but I hope you all enjoy!
Today was a very exciting day for me and many Apple users as they released their upgrade to the highly successful operating system OS X Lion! Mountain Lion boasts many new features, notably and enhanced iCloud experience, which for us iPhone/iPad users, is a huge plus! Along with that, after about eight hours now of using this new OS, I have to say that it feels a lot more fast than Lion. Everything just seems to flow much nicer. If your on a Mac, and your considering upgrading, don’t wait another second! You’ve heard it from me, this product is amazing! You can upgrade your Mac’s here right now!
Ever been to Mt. Washington Valley? If you haven’t, you have got to go! Besides being the tallest point in the eastern United States (let alone Canada), everything about the valley is spectacular. One of the best ways to see the grandeur of this place is to take the Cog Railway up Mt. Washington’s summit of 6,300 feet. Besides being a gorgeous, but also hell-raising (near the summit at “Jacob’s Ladder, the train reaches a 37.41% grade!) ride to the summit, It’s also an opportunity to see an unprecedented window into history! The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway and is one of only two in the United States! Though all but one of the scheduled trips to the summit each day are operated on Diesel engines made by John Deer, Historically, the cog was a railway made for steam engines. The engine you see here (the image was taken on the summit) is number #9, named Waumbek. It was made in 1908 by Manchester Locomotive Works and was the first horizontal boilered engine to have the cab on the same plane as the boiler. It is also the only steam engine in operation at the cog today.
We finished off our day this evening with absolutely gorgeous light falling on Mt. Washington Valley! The key to this image is in the clouds! An image like this just wouldn’t work with a clear sky but we were blessed today with the perfect combo of sun and cumulus clouds. All it took was Brilliance & Warmth in Color Efex Pro, and the image you see here was done! The image you see here was shot from just outside North Conway, NH.
Here from the base of Mt. Washington! We had spectacular light and amazing photography! Can’t wait to share more with you!
Today was my last day in Vermont shooting in the Green Mountains for three days and all I can say is Vermont just rocks! From the quaint New England towns that just scream Americana to the spectacular hills that are so reminiscent of the Austrian alps, that the Von Trapps (from The Sound of Music) chose this beautiful land to be there new american home after seeking refuge from the Nazi’s during WWII. One particular place where we spend a lot of time was Stowe Mountain Resort, which in the summer, is still a lively destination just minutes from the town of Stowe, where you can ride the gondola to the summit or if you are daring, drive your car up the Auto Toll Road (if you have any experience driving in less than ideal terrain, you should be fine, it’s not as bad as it seems).
The light and the skies juxtaposed against the magnificent valley was an amazing opportunity to create some beautiful images! The images you see here are all very simple finishing. Just ACR 7 with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 Brilliance & Warmth and some graduated filters. Might have a vid up here sometime this week going through this process that I just love for landscapes. One other filter that I have really come to love within CEP4 is the Foliage Enhancer. It is just amazing for pulling out the details and rich colors in foliage, but works spectacularly with fall colors as I learned last season.
From the top of Mt. Mansfield (the mountain that is home to Stowe Mountain Resort), which is the highest point in Vermont at 4,395 feet, you can see a 360 degree view of everywhere from Smugger’s Notch to Lake Champlain and the Adirondack’s. Though the skies weren’t as dynamic as they could be, the feeling of being up there at 4,300 feet in the howling wind was absolutely spectacular! Tomorrow, were heading off to Mt. Washington Valley, and if Mt. Wash can top this, I will be absolutely amazed!
When I speak with people about photography, one of the most common comments that people make to me is that the photography business is dead. What a statement there! Do I sense a little bit of bitterness? I take serious offense from this statement because not only is it completely false, but self-admittedly, I dhave a huge issue with people who make arguments that they cannot defend with facts. In efforts to hopefully educate a few people about some basic business principles, and largely to clear the air on this all too common misconception, over the next couple of paragraphs, I’ll outline to you all the reasons why this is totally false.
Supply & Demand
Personally, I think the majority of these misconceptions stem from a larger belief that the demand for photography has shrunk in recent years. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, if you do your research, the demand for photography has risen significantly since the year 2000. Look around you! There are pictures everywhere! Every-time you turn on the news, tell me you don’t see at least one image that has a credit, © Random Photographer / Getty Images, or AP, or Reuters. Facebook alone has over 200 million images uploaded to it’s site every day (and if you want to get a little perspective on this number, check this out!). The demand for photography has not shrunk, not by any means! Rather, the issue with the photography industry is an over-supply of photographers. Supply & Demand states that you can’t have more demand then there is supply and vice versa. In a nutshell, there are more photographers than prospective clients, and therefore, a serious breakdown in the ability for photographers to make money in this business. For weekend warriors, this isn’t earth-shattering news. The weekend warrior has the freedom to experiment, to play in unstable market’s without fear of it’s negative implications, but for those that rely on photography as their main source of income, this is somewhat “earth-shattering”. For those that need to capitalize on their images, it is absolutely crucial to market their business to be seen amongst the rest!
So how does one make themselves marketable in this industry?
Like many people advise, you should never ask a photographer for information about copyright law, you should ask an intellectual property attorney instead. I am not a marketing expert by any stretch, my field of expertise is in making photographs and licensing them. I can’t possibly give you a fool-proof method right here on how to market your photography business to the skies, but rather, I can share with you some of the techniques that I have learned over time, and that I have found to be valuable. If your interested in learning some of these techniques, I personally invite you to join me for a 1 hour Google+ Hangout on July 13th at 7PMEST that will explore techniques for marketing your photography business, from shoot to sale. Their is only enough space for nine people, and the cost is $50CDN per person. Give us a call at 613.483.1047 Mon-Fri 9-5EST or send us an email to register. We’ll talk about things like Direct Mail Marketing, Source Books, Social Media and the use of services like Ad-Base to touch base with clients. Look forward to seeing you there!
