When I bought my first DSLR just over a year ago I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know what aperture, shutter speed and ISO were, let along how they worked in conjunction with each other. Now a year later I personally think that I have a 1000% better understanding of how they each work and their relationship, but without a doubt I am still very new and still learning.

Over the past year I have found myself frustrated with ISO more than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I think its great, bumping the ISO to offset shutter and aperture settings, but the aspect of high noise has gotten to me at certain times over the past year.

I have only shot with film once or twice and never paid much attention to the ISO settings of the film, and when I got into digital photography I was very naive to think that since its digital and so advanced that everything would be perfect. Boy did I quickly learn that nothing was perfect, especially ISO.

Using my first DSLR (Canon XS) I generally shot around ISO 200 as it was low noise. If I needed to I would go up to ISO 400 but I hated to as the noise was (for me) unbearable, needless to say I only ever went to ISO 800 when in desperate need and never above.

When I upgraded my camera (Canon T1i) I found that it was better at handling ISO and noise than my previous model but I still wasn’t happy. The appearance that high ISO noise gives to images has always been distracting to myself, regardless of camera, film or digital. I was just annoyed with the way the images looked and I couldn’t personally stand what ISO 800 & 1600 looked like on my camera.

I’ve contemplated the switch to Nikon as their cameras handle noise far better than Canons, but I talked myself out of that. I also tried convincing myself that buying a Canon 5D Mk 2 would solve all of my noise problems, but was it really worth $3500 CDN ?

Recently I came to the realization that there isn’t anything I can really do about noise in the long run. If you want to shoot a black cat, in a black room with no lights your image is going to be noisy, regardless of camera. Thats the truth.

Lately I’ve decided to not think about noise and just make images. I’ve set my camera to auto ISO (which thankfully never chooses to go above 1600, which is nice because 3200 is a joke) and started to concentrate on the other aspects of photography. Noise is Noise and buying different gear might solve the issue to some degree but there is always going to be times when it isn’t going to be enough.

The last few events that I have shot have been filled with grain from shooting at ISO 1600, but I’m ok with it because it allowed me to capture some great images. Truth be told, people look at the images and think they are great, they look beyond the noise (or don’t realize its there at all) and accept the images for what they are.

The other day I commented on my Personal Photography Spaces. Primarily I addressed this space, www.kevinvanlierop.com , my use of the photo sharing site Flickr and briefly I touched on www.justafewshots.com , although this will be addressed in greater detail later in this post.

That post was to illustrate that divisions are possible for someone’s personal and professional works. That having non-perfect images and a random assortment of projects on a personal portfolio site has benefits and for myself personally I believe it is an important process to go through in order for my photography to grow.

With that said I wanted to write a companion post that deals with Professional Photography Spaces and a couple of projects that I have on the go that I hope will help to illustrate these spaces.

First a tiny bit of background.

I’ve been creating photos for just over a year now, but I’ve been taking pictures for a much longer time. ¹ I’ve never went out seeking to make money off of my photography, sure I’ve entered photo contests and sold the odd photo here and there upon request, but I never have pursued the idea of making any formal type of income off of my photography.

Over the past few months I have struggled to find work. I’ve set my standards higher than in the past but within reasonable limits. I have been selective about jobs that I seek out and as a result I haven’t made much progress and with that said I now need to find a source of income. While I am still looking for full time meaningful employment I decided to find some other revenue streams.

Enter Photography.

Given my current situation I have now decided to pursue earning some type of income through photography.

Professional Photography

Although I have been completing a fair amount of client work over the past few months the type of work I have been doing has not be consistent in style, subject or quantity and as such when placed side by side the work seems a bit disjoined. Because of this I have chosen not to display the work online through my site. To see some of my images being used check out the websites of my clients.

I have chosen to limit my professional online work to two locations, www.justafewshots.com , and www.mugshotlounge.com .

Just A Few Shots

I launched Just A Few Shots the other week as a way to promote and sell individual photographic prints. I’ve had a fair number of requests for photographic prints over the past year and generally fulfil them on a case by case basis. By launching this site I am essentially doing the same thing only opening the door to a wide audience. Although I certainly am not going to upload all of the shots I have ever taken, individuals can request certain shots off of my Flickr account if they want.

In addition to trying to obtain some revenue through photographic prints the site functions as a photo blog of only my best work. In the past I have struggled to display my finest work in a way that did it justice and I believe that by having a space where I can not only display the work but sell it will help me to be proud of this work.

I have covered Just A Few Shots in a previous post so more info about it can be found HERE.

MugShot Lounge

I am currently in the process of launching the MugShot Lounge, a non-traditional photo booth for functions and events.

I don’t want to say too much about the booth right now as when it launches I will have a full post but I need to mention the professional side of it.

With this business (ad)venture I have decided to keep this client work to one type of photography and keep it all online in one collective place. Displaying the work in this way will give things a more professional appearance and will help to sell the experiences and services I am offering. This is an opportunity for me to develop a consistent style and run with it to provide something that people can find value in and in return create addition value (revenue) for myself.

I’m excited about this opportunity to start something new and run with it.

Although no all that in-depth as I have addressed www.justafewshots.com before and will be looking at www.mugshotlounge.com in the future, I thought it was important to outline where I believe my professional work should be developed and displayed in comparison to my personal work.

The next article I hope to write tackles Wedding Photography, but don’t get the wrong idea, it’s going to take things in a new direction.

1. There is a distinction between these two statements but that’s a discussion for another day.

Personal Photography

1. This should be the case although I would argue that many photographers do not only include their best work but include work that should not be seen by others, EVER.

Over the past couple of months I have had a number of request for prints of various photographs I have created. With each request (and smile on my face) I have gone about printing and shipping prints to a variety of places across Canada, most right here in London.

I have decided to take all of these request to the next step and publish some of the most requested images to an online store.

I have launched Just A Few Shots to highlight some of the photography that I am most proud of. Using it as essentially a photo blog for my best work, Just A Few Shots will give visitors and opportunity to purchase images that other people have requested.

Using the Fotomoto.com service, visitors can purchase a variety of sizes of prints and have them shipped right to their home. I have decided to use this service to save me the time, money and resources of having to print and ship the images on my own. I fully believe that if someone else can do a better (and more affordable) job it’s probably best to let them do it.

I have chosen to limit the number of larger prints available to 50 for each size to help give them a little more value and provide some addition meaning to the photographs. For the smaller sizes they are available in unlimited quantities.

Creating Just A Few Shots helps me to address an issue I outlined the other day regarding Flickr. By having a space like Just A Few Shots I can highlight my images that deserve the most attention and still have Flickr as a place to share a wider assortment of images.

I hope to be adding 3-4 new images to Just A Few Shots each week to be available for purchase, however, if there is a print of mine that you want a copy of just Contact me and I will add it right away so you can purchase it.

SPECIAL: Because Just A Few Shots has just come online I want to offer the first 50 people to order a print a discount as a way to say thank you. When ordering use the coupon code 76C95B and you will receive 15% off your entire order.

Having just returned from a week long vacation and not taking nearly as many photos as I thought I would have, I figured that it might be best to comment on travel, photography, and how I approach the nexus of the two.

Typically the way I have travelled up until now is very different to what I just experienced. Up until now I travelled alone, refused to drive and refused to have anything pre-planned. I always found the most meaningful travels of mine to be the ones that were spontaneous, organic and developed on their own.

Along with my previous travels my photographic approach has been very similar. Although while traveling in the past I never had the same passion for photography as I do now I still took a large number of photographs and found fun in it. Because I chose never to drive I always found myself able to observe and capture my surroundings very easily. In addition to this, because I never had a set schedule, touristy things I ‘had’ to do or anyone travelling with me that I needed to accommodate I was always free to photograph whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to, never hampered by a schedule or any other constraints.

This trip however was very different.

Having to drive from place to place on a daily basis meant that I had less time to take photographs and was unable to do so while behind the wheel. In addition, we had scheduled things to do each day, most touristy things, that did not lend themselves well to photography. Much of what we found ourselves doing involved outdoor activities that required the use of all of our limbs (climbing, walking, theme parks) and as a result I typically didn’t have any hands free most of the time for photography. On top of this, given the weather (humidity) and my inability in function because of it, I was in no condition to be photographing anything as I just couldn’t focus.¹

With all of that said, when I photograph anything, not only when I travel, I like photography to be the main thing that I am doing. I like to be able to focus on capturing moments and not having to be conscious of other things such as hiking, the people I am with or having to use my hands for other things. While I have captured many great images while not out strictly photographing the world I find that I am far more productive, in touch with my surroundings and much more of a competent photographer when I am focused.

For me travel and photography are two things that go great together but in order for them to work and be as productive and creative as I would like I personally find that I need to make sure that they two are don’t more or less in sync with one another and without the distractions of other things.

Please don’t get me wrong, I photograph the world around me all of the time when I am not out to specifically photograph things, however, I feel that when I have a specific goal to photograph (specifically while on vacation) I find much more beauty in the world as I am taking the necessary time to look for it.

So when it comes down to it when I travel I need to have one of two things in mind: travelling with a purpose (other than photography) or travelling with essentially no purpose allowing me to explore which in turn helps me to create better photos. I prefer the later but in the end travel is travel and it’s great any way it comes.

1. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the trip greatly, it’s just that I didn’t take as many photos as I thought I would.

1. For contract, I have been uploading photos to Facebook as well, but more of an after thought. I am not very active on Facebook nor do I wish to be. I generally upload sets of images to Facebook to share event photography with people who do not have a life outside of Facebook.
2. In addition I also use it as a photo backup for all of my best images

1. Now, as of the date I re-posted this article, I would consider myself a photographer and I would say that I know what I’m doing, but that’s besides the point I am trying to make.
2. I argue on a consistent basis that Picasa is far superior to iPhoto in almost every aspect.