Check out this great collection of “Street Photography” of strangers by Dariusz Majgier, by clicking here. I love this idea! He is a professional photographer (main site here) who does this as a side project (non-commercial) He asks for permission, then does a five second long photo session. As he told me, this is more than just portraits, it shows street fashion, trends, and current styles. Check it out, kind of addictive to scroll through. I’d love to do this.

Enjoy!

Mary

Found this great graphic put together by a series of interviews from Smartpress (http://blog.smartpress.com/) about advice and info about professional photography, trends, equipment and advice. Check it out at their website in full size here.

I will definitely update this if my poor service is remedied, but here is my experience which would cause me to give all my blog readers and everyone else the advice to AVOID UNITED CAMERA & BINOCULAR REPAIR AT ALL COSTS!!!
As all of my readers know, I’m a professional photographer, so getting my camera fixed quickly and correctly is important to me, and also important to the bottom line of my business. So, when my main camera had a problem with the card reader in late June (one of the pins came out with the CF card, got the dreaded CHA error) I did some research and found that Nikon repairs were taking 2-5 weeks. I searched for a company that looked reputable, called United Camera Repair (their website is here) and the woman on the phone said that most DSLR cameras are fixed within 24 hours of receiving them. Their website, as you can see in the screen shot above, even touts “Speed: Most repairs completed in 48 hours”

Sounds great, right?

So, I paid the extra $50 bucks to have my baby overnighted to them and for over night shipping back too. I sent it to United Camera on 6/30/11, they received it the morning of Friday July 1st. (signed delivery by Kelly) So, it is now the morning of Friday July 8th, one whole week later, and they still (STILL!!!) have not touched my camera. It still says “Status:  In line to be assigned to a technician” despite my calling multiple times and promises that it would be looked at that day.

When I call, there is one very crabby customer service person, who, now that I’ve prepaid for my “service” says that it takes 10-14 business days to have a repair even started. Entirely different thing than what they tell you before they have your camera and your money. I’m still waiting to hear back from Don at United Camera Repair  this morning to let me know why they still haven’t worked on my camera after he promised me multiple times it would be worked on both Wednesday and Thursday (yesterday).
Ironically, their tagline is “A better repair experience” What a joke, I have never had such a bad experience with a company; from the customer service people who tell outright lies, their bait & switch tactics, etc. – it is just ridiculous. I would AVOID UNITED CAMERA REPAIR for certain.

~Mary

What’s not to love about Lemon Fresh Designs Photography? Couldn’t tell you… but I can tell you what I *DO* love! The lovely bright and airy quality of every image, whether taken outdoors in freezing cold Canadian winter, or many pages back in lovely fall colors, the way that she captures the beauty of each client, without resorting to overprocessing or extreme effects, the obviously apparent fun that Mary Clarke has with her career and so much more. Great info for clients on layouts/choosing sizes, and more as well.

Mary works out of Toronto and Muskoka, covering weddings and portrait work, with some commercial stuff thrown in for good measure.  Find Mary’s blog here and her site here.

Enjoy!

-Mary

best,

Mary

Paul Bartholomew is an accomplished  architectural and still life photographer, working out of the Philadelphia area, as well as in New York and New Jersey with occasional other travel. His blog (here)  and website (here) are brimming with sumptuous images of food, interior design spaces, buildings and outdoor spaces: all flawlessly lighted and captured with masterful detail. I know you will all enjoy the visual feast of images Paul’s work provides. Enjoy!

best,

Mary

I think my readers will heartily enjoy both Aileen’s photographic work and her words~ and how it is all wrapped up together just so for her blog. Aileen has strong, captivating talent in both her film work + her digital work, and though I hadn’t seen or heard of the acronym FIND (Film Is Not Dead, link here) before, but love to see another resurgence in great film work!  But, back to Aileen- she updates her blog frequently (something we should all do, especially yours truly!!)  she works out of the Northern Virginina, DC Metro area, doing portraits and a few weddings per year. Her blog is here and her main site is here. Enjoy!

best,

Mary

Wedding Photography Spoof Video from Matt E on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

best,
Mary

And as a welcome back for my loyal readers, here is a freebie just for you. I created this texture you can add to any photo to give a grungy vignette. Drop it on the top layer over your photo, then free transform it to fit your photo, and change opacity and erase out important bits that you need to be able to see from under the texture. Have fun! Please do not share with anyone, you are welcome to refer or link to this post if anyone would like this free texture. Thanks!

Here is the texture used on top of a photo, then I will add the texture link  below it in just a minute. Right click on it and save to your hard-drive.

best,

Mary

Click this link to open the full size texture in another window where you can save it…