Getting Published Etc.

I have to agree, your website doesn't seem like it's really aimed at what your trying to sell. Your portfolio needs to contain atleast some club images and maybe show your ability to work in low light. Plus, they need to be your absolute best, most polished images. Some of them look very good and a lot of them do not. For example, the dog image looks like it has lens blur which would be seen as a serious flaw to an employer. I'd recommend having images that show your most capable work, not necessarily images that you really like.
 
There is many things you can do to get your name out there. Like everyone I started from little things. Then moved on to senior pictures and then I started selling my pictures at restaurants and buildings in chicago. You just have to take baby steps to get your name out there.
As far as the website goes, Dont publish every picture you take, pick out the what you think is your best pictures post them on lets say this forum, or a photo critic website, or somewhere where people can look at your work and tell you what they think of it, so you have some feed back, once that stage is complete post them on your website portfolio. So when people look at it, they can be like Wow this is good work. It all takes time and organization.

I also noticed that you are from chicago, I live about 30 minutes from the city.
 
Some of it has rendered me speechless...and that's hard to do.

OneDay, I just joined TPF myself, so perhaps you’d just like to take my advice with a grain of salt but here goes anyway: You need to look at a *lot* of really great images and be inspired by them. Start here. Then go out and make some of your own. Look at the low light thread on TPF…really study the images…ask how the artist made them…LEARN. Although your web site is clean and lovely, everything that everyone has said before is spot on.

I took a little online course through lynda.com (Scott Bournes – the title was something like The Business of Photography). Bournes has several sites and his images are jaw-dropping. He’s retiring now. RETIRING! So he made a living in photography and now he’s RETIRING. I share this because it should give you some idea of who you should be listening to. Your friends in bars? Probably not. Pick out the folks who are making a living and BE INSPIRED.

Delete all the images you have now. Go out and shoot 10 really great photographs. Bournes and others have suggested that less is more. It's all about quality. Post them somewhere to get critiqued *before you post them on your site*. These 10 will sell you.

I too am a student of photography and I aspire to get better and I believe we have both landed in a good place here at TPF.

Enthusiasm, charm and youth might work in some mediums, but in photography you’re only as good as your last image.
 
I too am a student of photography and I aspire to get better and I believe we have both landed in a good place here at TPF.

Enthusiasm, charm and youth might work in some mediums, but in photography you’re only as good as your last image.

Now now don't go talking to this girl about being a student she already quit school to shoot photographs in clubs forget being a student.
 
So, after about three weeks of posting this originally, I have achieved my goal. I recently attended a Burning Man fund raiser in Chicago called Resonate 3.0, and took photos from about 11pm-5am (the party went from 9pm-6am). I took photos of the things happening there, the music being made, and the people who came to party. I was very happy with the way they turned out, and apparently everyone else did, too. My website has nearly half the total hits it had for March, and it's only the 6th of April. You could say it's been going well. My route of self-education (as opposed to the more formal route of being a student) has served me well, once again.

I just checked my email tonight and received something from a student at a local art university who writes for their paper. She asked for permission to include some of my photos in the school newspaper for an article she's writing about the party. It's not a huge deal, but it is meeting my goal, and a great place to start, from the sound of what most of you say. My question is do I have an o.k. to sell these images, if they include people in them, and I do not have model releases? I know that commercial licensing isn't ok, but I don't know the realm of what that includes: advertising only, or magazines and papers that profit too? Any help rendered is appreciated, as usual. Thank you!:D


By the way, I'm working on my portfolio still. I've kind of decided to take a different approach to my website, as far as the nightlife thing goes. I think I'm going to start a separate page or sector of my website, maybe a different url for ease with people, where all my nightlife work will be stored. from there, there would be links to my other work, contact info, etc. I'm still working on conceptualizing it, so when that comes, so will the new portfolio.
 
Oneday - good for you, stick with it. I think JIP is being rather closed minded, formal education isn't for everyone. Everybody has a differant learning style and some people such as myself learn a huge amount more by just doing something.

Education is fantastic, some of us have the self motivation to learn things for ourselves at our own pace. Most people here go to further education because it is expected, not because they want to. What ends up happening is huge student loans and a job that has nothing to do with what they studied.

I'm not rubbishing the concept. When I was a kid, I didn't know what I wanted to do. In hindsight I wish I left earlier and got more work experiance under my belt.

After leaving school I did work for a few years before finding what my interests were and going to futher education. I did this on my own terms though and while I enjoyed my time there, I could have done it myself. I don't deny that some of the pieces of paper I got made life easier getting some jobs in that field later, but I could have worked hard myself and got the same result.

Now I have had a few jobs and a lot of work experiance and because I went to school and even my courses a fair few years ago now, I don't even mention education to employers. Actually comparing what people from school are up to ten years later can be quite interesting and very often the kids that did well at school are not the ones doing so well later on.

^All the above was just mainly to say - differant strokes for differant folks and there is no right or wrong way to get to your destination.

Let me ask you this JIP - If something is clearly not working for you and you see a much better solution, would you be a fool not to 'quit' what you were doing and try it? You can always get further education later in life. Sorry, it's just something I have experianced before and can relate to.
 
Of course the people who tell you education is not important are a PHD and someone with education but and undefined level. I am simply suggesting that you might lok back some years ahead and wish you had. I really could care less what hppens to you but I know I at 37 wish that I had taken advantage of the limited time that I had to get an education. This is not meant as some kind of insult to you so please do not get defensive I am simply making an observation.
 
Hey I had a neighbour in his late 60's quit being a security gaurd and went to university for four years to train in computers so he could get into computer security - I don't see why there is a limited timeframe on education?

Sure you most probably have more commitments now and can't afford to take a step back, there is always learning by corrispondance, evening classes or hell even teaching yourself something. :)

Sorry, I just find some of your earlier comments seemed like blanket generalisations. I just think if you are not interested in education when you are at school, leaving isn't a big deal. I think stepping away and getting some perspective, life experiance and hell, maybe getting some bucks before you rush into a huge student loan can be a good idea in many cases.
 
This isn't actually good enough. Go here and here to submit your site's url to various search engines. From there, it will take approximately a month for the search engines to process your website and have it start to show up. But sgb is right, search engines look at text aswell. (but they won't look until you submit)

Thanks, friend, I did that after you posted this, and I'm just waiting for results!
 
Caroline, where did you get your website design, it is crisp, I like the opening flower :eek:)

My companion, Kliint did all the graphic and web design for my site. The opening flower is called the Seed of Life, the beginning phase of the Flower of Life. The Seed of life represents all living things, but specifically the human body, because this is how the first eight cells in your body form.

Thanks!
 

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