Scott's Photo Blog

Episode #14: How to Make Your Spring Pictures Sing

On today's show, Michael and I talk about how to take great spring pictures. Whether it's capturing the right light, putting the focus on your subject, or taking advantage of spring backgrounds to beautify your portraits, we have you covered.

We also talk about Olympus's calling an end to the megapixel wars (hooray!), the new book by Joe McNally "The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes" and Canon's recent upgrade of an existing digital camera to shoot RAW - pretty cool, Canon.

Michael also raves about the iPhone software "Focalware," which calculates the position of the sun and moon from rise to set anywhere in the world, at anytime of the year by utilizing your location and date information.

SmugMug is our favorite site for sharing and - should you chose to accept this assignment - selling your photos. SmugMug has two fantastic offers just for our listeners:

• 50% off your SmugMug service at any level (enter code "Flickr" at checkout). This is a fantastic discount and you should take advantage of it in time to share your holiday photos!
• A free camera strap to any listener of Digital Photography Life: This one is just crazy. A high-quality camera strap that replaces the neck-slicing piece of canvas that your camera's manufacturer condescended to include with your DSLR. Get your freebie here.

Remember, when the bill collectors call, we don't pick up the phone, but you can find us everywhere, including:

• Digital Photography Life on Twitter
• Digital Photography Life Email
• Digital Photography Life listener group on Flickr
• Digital Photography Life on Facebook
• Digital Photography Life on SmugMug 
• Michael on Facebook
• Scott on Facebook
• Scott on MySpace

For those of you who have been supportive of my OTHER life, as a mystery writer, I hope you'll be glad to know that my first novel, First You Fall, received a prestigious Lambda Literary Award Nomination for "Best Men's Mystery of the Year."

 

You can find the show on Personal Life Media or on iTunes.

Thanks as always to SmugMug and Lensbaby for their support of this free resource. And thanks to you  for listening!

Scott

 

Show Notes for Digital Photography Life #13: How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less

Are you hesitant to approach strangers on the street to ask them to take their picture? Do you need to immediately connect with potential clients? Would you like to improve your ability to make your models feel comfortable in your studio?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, you'll really enjoy our guest, Nicholas Boothman, author of "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less." 

According to Amazon.com:

 "The average person's attention span lasts about 30 seconds. That means first and immediate impressions count, and big. In this modern-day update of Dale Carnegie's classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, former fashion photographer Nicholas Boothman instructs you in how to mold those 30 seconds to your greatest advantage and connect with others at business and social functions.

Boothman, now a lecturer and licensed master practitioner of neurolinguistic programming (the art and science of how the brain affects human connections), says that the key to making others like you quickly lies in establishing a rapport: you have to find out what you have in common or, if you seemingly have nothing in common, purposely try to become like the other person for a short time. He then goes on to offer simple techniques for getting a rapport going: adopt a positive attitude; make sure your words, tone, and gestures are all saying the same thing; synchronize your attitude and body movements to those of another person's (which makes the person feel comfortable with you--although he or she may not know why); and ask lots of open-ended questions. Boothman also describes how to figure out a stranger's favored sense for receiving information about the world--some rely on visual cues, others on auditory or kinesthetic (touch) input--and use it to your best advantage.

If discovering how to connect with others is the secret to business and life success, as Boothman contends, then employing the strategies in this book will make you instantly likeable and give you a leg up on the competition."

Boothman's suggestions are very helpful, and I think you'll really enjoy hearing his thoughts. Not only will his techniques improve your rapport with your photographic subjects, but they'll be helpful in other areas of your life, too. 

We also welcome Lensbaby as a new sponsor of Digital Photography Life. They have a great deal for our listeners - a free  0.6x wide angle/macro conversion lens with the purchase of a Lensbaby Composer from any retailer. Check out this great offer at http://personallifemedia.com/pages/lensbaby.

SmugMug is our favorite site for sharing and - should you chose to accept this assignment - selling your photos. SmugMug has two fantastic offers just for our listeners:

• 50% off your SmugMug service at any level (enter code "Flickr" at checkout). This is a fantastic discount and you should take advantage of it in time to share your holiday photos
• A free camera strap to any listener of Digital Photography Life: This one is just crazy. A high-quality camera strap that replaces the neck-slicing piece of canvas that your camera's manufacturer condescended to include with your DSLR. Get your freebie here. 

Remember, when it's time to do the chores, we're no where to be seen, but on the web you can find us everywhere, including:

• Digital Photography Life on Twitter
• Digital Photography Life Email
• Digital Photography Life listener group on Flickr
• Digital Photography Life on Facebook
• Digital Photography Life on SmugMug 
• Michael on Facebook
• Scott on Facebook
• Scott on MySpace
• Scott's first novel, the sexy, funny novel First You Fall. 

Thanks for listening - we'll talk again soon!