Often times when I’m photographing landscapes, the image the camera sees versus the image in my head are quite different. Sometimes that image in my head doesn’t mesh with what the camera capture, because the dynamic range is far too great. The contrast between the highlights and shadows is just too great. Such was the case with this shot I took a week ago of Arch Rock in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

The amazing thing about photography is that you are given complete freedom on how to come up with photos. You will be able to express yourself in it and you can also show your interests through it. But that doesn’t end there. You have to be unique and creative so you can create your own brand in photography. But if you want to try something new or you want to discover new things for your photography, you do not need to worry. There are actually a lot of other things you can do with your photography skills. So, today, we will be giving you a long list of activities that to make the most of your photography skills. This will surely make you love photography more knowing that you can do a so much with it! Read on our list below.

Activities You Can Do with Your Photography Skills

If you are tired of doing the same things over and over again for your photography, here are some things that you can do. Doing the things below will not only harness your photography skills but will also help you earn and extend your network. Check out this list of some activities that will help you to make the most of your photography skills.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most organized person in the world. However, after spending a good portion of a week just poring over my photos to look for just a few snaps to put in a new portfolio, I realized that keeping my files organized was only going to help me in the long run.

As I note in the video, I do about 99% of all my editing in Lightroom only. The only time I ever open photoshop is to do heavy editing, like if I need to open a subject’s blinking eyes or edit complex shapes in an image. My workflow has been whittled down to what is now due to time constraints at my JackThreads job, where narrowing 500 images down to under 100 finished images in less than one hour was something I did daily. It would take me about ten times as long to edit with Bridge and Photoshop.

I want to note that this is the workflow that makes the most sense to me. It is not perfect. It will continue to evolve as I learn more and as the software continues to update. If you have certain elements to your workflow that I didn’t touch on, please feel free to share them in the comment section. The thing that I find the most helpful when I am editing is to, in the words of Bunk, use “soft eyes”. If I am looking too closely at one image, my eyes can get used to a poor white balance or dim highlights. So I always do one final run-through with my finished edits to ensure consistency, before exporting.

For those who are interested in the lighting info for the photos in the video, here ya go-

Let’s start by examining four different kinds of “blurry”:

Camera movement is seen when the camera moves while the picture is taken. Even if the camera movement is imperceptible to you, that doesn’t mean it won’t register in the camera. Not all camera movement is accidental or a mistake. Panning is a form of deliberate camera movement in which you follow a moving subject to keep it in the frame.

Subject movement is when static portions of the image, such as the background, come out sharp while moving portions are blurred. When it’s done for artistic effect the results can actually be quite beautiful.

Focus problems are another common cause for blur. A careful look at the photo below will reveal that the point of perfect focus is actually on the cat’s back. This mean its eyes are technically out of focus.

Diffraction comes in more than one form. First, with the aperture stopped down to an extreme degree (i.e. f22), the rays of light have to bend so far to get through the tiny opening that it degrades the overall sharpness of the photo.

Secondly, cheap lenses may cause diffraction through their poor quality. Holga cameras have developed a cult following for this very reason.

Lastly, fouling on the lens like dirt, oil, salt spray, fog, or condensation can soften your image, too.

By Nigel Merrick

Although paying attention to your on-site search engine optimization is important, and it’s vital to select and use the right keywords for your photography business (see “SEO For Photographers, Part 2: Where To Use Your Keywords“), that only accounts for around 25% of the factors involved in your search engine ranking calculations.

The remaining 75% of the ranking metrics are what we call off-site factors. Because the search engines know we have less chance of manipulating that data, it’s considered more trustworthy, and therefore given more weight in the calculations.

Link building strategies account for about 75% of your SEO and search engine ranking calculations.

What Do We Mean By Off-Site SEO?

The foundation of off-site SEO consists of all the inbound links to your website from other resources across the web. (Tip: Confused about SEO? Read “How does SEO work?”).

For example:

• Links in articles and other content…
• Content shared via social media…
• Social media profile links…
• Author resource boxes on guest posts…
• Mentions of your brand name…
• Comments made by you on other blogs…

All of these, and more, serve to increase the perceived authority and trust of your website domain as well as the individual pages on your website.

We obviously don’t have complete control over every single link that points to our photography website, but it really helps to be as proactive as possible by connecting with good business partners, such as related blogs and business-owners, in order to encourage them to link to you.

To get you started with your off-site SEO, here are five very easy link building strategies that you can put to good use, starting today.

#1: Attracting Links Through Good Content

This is something you should already be doing anyway, as a natural by-product of your blogging activities, but many people seem to overlook it for some reason!

Attract quality links with good content…

The aim is to produce very rich and detailed content on your blog or website that will naturally attract links from other website owners who happen to find it beneficial for their own audience.

Depending on the scope and presentation of the material you create, it may require a great deal of effort to copy, so other people are far more likely to create a simple link to it than to reproduce it on their own website.

Some examples of such content could include:

• Useful ideas and tips for preparing for a family portrait session…
• Getting your pets ready for a photography session…
• Hair and make-up ideas for high-school senior girls…
• Inspirational articles on the high sentimental value of wall portraits…
• Interesting and detailed “how to” articles on photography…

#2: Guest Blogging Opportunities

It should go without saying that your online marketing plan should include posting regularly on your own blog, but there is also much to gain from writing guest posts for other blogs, especially for those who happen to serve the same target market that you do.

Guest blogging builds relationships and links…

Guest articles usually give a credit to the post author and include a direct link back to the author’s website or blog. This is therefore a really good opportunity to obtain a backlink in addition to attracting more website traffic.

Be on the lookout for those blogs written by business owners who serve your ideal clients. You can also search for industry-related blogs, professional organizations, non-profits, and even other professional photographers.

#3: Video SEO

Video has become a much more accessible marketing vehicle in recent years, thanks in part to the increasing bandwidth of the average Internet user. Vimeo, YouTube, and the other major video sharing websites are excellent places to market your photography business and also accumulate some good SEO value.

Video SEO helps drive more traffic…

In addition to creating a link from your video channel profile, you should also include a backlink to your blog or website as the first thing in the video description.

If you are a Vimeo Pro or Vimeo Plus user, you can also show a link after the video has finished playing, which is a really useful marketing tool. At the end of the day, the SEO value of your videos also rests on the keywords in the title of the video, the number of “likes”, views, and embeds etc.

#4: Creating Joint Ventures With Other Local Business Owners

Joint ventures and partnerships with other local business owners are fantastic marketing opportunities. Whenever you do join up with someone for a common cause or promotion, each party should take the time to promote and document it via their blog or website.

Joint ventures can be of great mutual benefit…

As part of that promotion, it will be natural to share appropriate backlinks to the websites of each of the other partners, preferably using appropriate keywords as part of the anchor text in the links.

#5: Links From Human-Curated Directory Listings

It should already be understood that the vast majority of directory websites and “link farms” need to be avoided at all costs, however human-curated website directories can accumulate a good level of domain authority and trust with the major search engines, because all of their listings and submissions must be approved by a real human being before they’re listed.

Human-managed directories can be useful for SEO…

For example:

• Technorati…
• Alltop…
• Your local chamber of commerce…
• Professional photography organizations and other bodies…
• The local Better Business Bureau…
• Other human-managed lists…