Your Quick and Dirty Start-Up Plan
Dear Reader,
We’ve been getting a lot of emails lately from folks who think they have to travel before they can start to sell their photos.
So let me set the record straight: You don't have to board an airplane and head across an ocean before you start sharpening your photography skills. You don’t even need fancy equipment.
Here’s the quick and dirty way to get you started...
Start this weekend. Take a half-hour walk through your backyard or your local town. Look up. Look down. Take pictures of everything.
Afterwards, take five minutes to go through your pictures on your computer. Then, flip through travel magazines and stock photo sites like iStockphoto.com. How do yours compare?
If you’re like most people who are just starting out, my guess is you’ll have one of these problems:
** 1. Your pictures are overexposed. Too much light washes out a lot of the color in your image. You’ll find instructions for fixing this in your images in our archives, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/overexposed
** 2. Your pictures are underexposed. Not enough light makes your picture dark with deep black shadows. You’ll find tips for fixing this in our archives, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/underexposed
** 3. You didn’t get close enough. Or, you got in too close and you chopped off pieces of your subject unintentionally. Read more on cropping your photos here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/chop
These are the problems we see most often in photos taken on the first day of our live photo workshops. And they’re problems that are easy to fix.
In our small workshops like the photo expeditions we have coming up in Paris and Ecuador, instructors like Rich Wagner and Shelly Perry take the time to go through your images and help point them out.
If you can’t make it to a live workshop with us, you can train yourself to notice these things in your own photos. Just use the links above as your guide. Next week I’ll send you a quick and dirty guide to selling them.
This year’s Paris expedition (like last year’s) is different from our usual Paris format. Instead of taking groups of 30 people around the city, we’ve limited the group size to just nine attendees -- so each person gets a lot more time with professional photographer Rich Wagner.
We’re going to take the group, quite literally, all over Paris. And then we’ll put them in a classroom where they’ll learn how to sell their Paris shots to magazines, newspapers, and local art galleries.
You’ll find more details, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/paris09
I hope to see you there!
-- Lori
Lori Allen
Director, AWAI Travel Division
P.S. If you’re planning on coming with us, you’ll want to pack some good walking shoes... we’ve got walking tours planned up to the top of Montmarte... down the Champs-Elysees... across the Luxembourg Gardens... to famous cafes -- Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots... around the Louvre... down the Seine... to the Eiffel Tower by way of Les Invalides... around the Palais Royal... and beyond...
You’ll find pricing and registration details, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/paris09
****************************
The Right Way to Travel is a FREE newsletter from the American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.
(c) 2009 American Writers & Artists Inc.
245 NE 4th Ave., Ste 102
Delray Beach, FL 33483
Phone (561) 278-5557
Fax (561) 278-5929
memberservices@awaionline.com
To LEARN MORE, visit:
http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com
http://www.thephotographerslife.com
We’ve been getting a lot of emails lately from folks who think they have to travel before they can start to sell their photos.
So let me set the record straight: You don't have to board an airplane and head across an ocean before you start sharpening your photography skills. You don’t even need fancy equipment.
Here’s the quick and dirty way to get you started...
Start this weekend. Take a half-hour walk through your backyard or your local town. Look up. Look down. Take pictures of everything.
Afterwards, take five minutes to go through your pictures on your computer. Then, flip through travel magazines and stock photo sites like iStockphoto.com. How do yours compare?
If you’re like most people who are just starting out, my guess is you’ll have one of these problems:
** 1. Your pictures are overexposed. Too much light washes out a lot of the color in your image. You’ll find instructions for fixing this in your images in our archives, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/overexposed
** 2. Your pictures are underexposed. Not enough light makes your picture dark with deep black shadows. You’ll find tips for fixing this in our archives, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/underexposed
** 3. You didn’t get close enough. Or, you got in too close and you chopped off pieces of your subject unintentionally. Read more on cropping your photos here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/chop
These are the problems we see most often in photos taken on the first day of our live photo workshops. And they’re problems that are easy to fix.
In our small workshops like the photo expeditions we have coming up in Paris and Ecuador, instructors like Rich Wagner and Shelly Perry take the time to go through your images and help point them out.
If you can’t make it to a live workshop with us, you can train yourself to notice these things in your own photos. Just use the links above as your guide. Next week I’ll send you a quick and dirty guide to selling them.
This year’s Paris expedition (like last year’s) is different from our usual Paris format. Instead of taking groups of 30 people around the city, we’ve limited the group size to just nine attendees -- so each person gets a lot more time with professional photographer Rich Wagner.
We’re going to take the group, quite literally, all over Paris. And then we’ll put them in a classroom where they’ll learn how to sell their Paris shots to magazines, newspapers, and local art galleries.
You’ll find more details, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/paris09
I hope to see you there!
-- Lori
Lori Allen
Director, AWAI Travel Division
P.S. If you’re planning on coming with us, you’ll want to pack some good walking shoes... we’ve got walking tours planned up to the top of Montmarte... down the Champs-Elysees... across the Luxembourg Gardens... to famous cafes -- Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots... around the Louvre... down the Seine... to the Eiffel Tower by way of Les Invalides... around the Palais Royal... and beyond...
You’ll find pricing and registration details, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/paris09
****************************
The Right Way to Travel is a FREE newsletter from the American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.
(c) 2009 American Writers & Artists Inc.
245 NE 4th Ave., Ste 102
Delray Beach, FL 33483
Phone (561) 278-5557
Fax (561) 278-5929
memberservices@awaionline.com
To LEARN MORE, visit:
http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com
http://www.thephotographerslife.com