I still have the material to do the lost city video, which I'll hang onto in case things get boring. I'll do the 'how to make limeade' video next. I know this isn't my usual photography, but... oh well. It's my site.
This is the promised simple syrup video. Unlike the previous expedition videos, there isn't any actual photography; its all video. I'm at a loss as to whether or not I should add this to the expedition videos page in the Artistic section. Still, the video is higher quality than the previous ones. Better conversion software, I think.
I still have the material to do the lost city video, which I'll hang onto in case things get boring. I'll do the 'how to make limeade' video next. I know this isn't my usual photography, but... oh well. It's my site.
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Today, we will be discussing a concoction known as simple syrup. What is this mysterious substance and what does it have to do with photography, you might ask?
Simple syrup is a 2:1 mixture of sugar and water that has many uses but the most notable of these is as an ingredient in my favorite drink: limeade. Also, there will be a video that should turn up eventually. Other than that, it has not a thing to do with photography. As mentioned above, simple syrup is a liquid consisting of two parts sugar to one part water. How does the water hold twice it's volume in sugar, you ask? Magic! To make simple syrup, you need two cups of sugar, one cup water (or any 2:1 ratio of measurements) a measuring cup, stirring spoon, pan, a container to hold the mixture and, of course, a stove. First, measure two cups of sugar and mix them with the one cup water (or whatever measurements you chose) in the pan. The sugar won't dissolve immediately, but don't worry about that. It will. Then put the pan on the stove and bring it to a boil. You'll notice that as the mixture heats up, more and more of the sugar dissolves. By the time the mixture has reached a rapid boil, it should be completely clear, with no sugar granules remaining in the bottom of the pan. Congratulations, you've made just simple syrup! Carefully pour the syrup into the container. I use a glass jar, but you can use anything that will accomodate 3 cups of liquid. Now, simply allow the mixture to cool and use it immediately or store it in the refrigerator for later use. As the liquid cools, if you chose to use a glass container like I do, you will notice that it remains perfectly clear with perhaps a very slight yellow tint. Simple syrup has many applications as a sweetener in beverages and can even be thickened, flavored with maple extract and used as pancake syrup. As I said, however, my favorite application is in limeades, where its used in about a 1:8 ratio. For instance, in a 2 quart container you'd want to use about a cup of syrup and the other 7 cups are made up of crushed ice, lime peels and either sparkling water or sprite. My preference is sparkling water, since the sprite is already sweetened. You can play around with this ratio if you want to suit your taste. And that's what simple syrup is, how its made and how its used. Stay tuned for the video, comming (possibly) soon. This concludes another episode of CDP's recipe corner! Well, maybe not. Recent operations have been delayed due to hardware difficulties- specifically, the laptop I used for editing and site maintenance fried its processor. Everything has been reinstalled, copied from backups, redone, ect, and we're back up.
The last ODSS show of the season was a couple weeks ago, and the target date to have the processed pictures up and available is 02 December. Also, in celebration of Christmas this year, everyone who has previously ordered prints will get 10% off their next print order during the month of December. The ODSS show pictures are now being processed. Its behind schedule, but better late than never.
There are several events coming up that CDP will be associated with. We have a Halloween party on the 27th and a wedding on November second. This time, the pictures are being uploaded to the ODSS fan page as they're processed instead of all at once. The catalog won't be showing up until they're all finished and so far processing is one-fourth complete. The Halloween party isn't a contract shoot, its artistic and video opportunity, so it will be low priority compared to other pending projects. The wedding will be CDP's first wedding, and in honor of this CDP will be waiving the normal charge and officially introducing the photo packages we mentioned a while back. This means that the pricing guides will need to be updated, but they will not become invalid since the prices for single prints will remain unchanged at this time. Well, that's all for today. I'm missing the eCommerce lecture in my small business management class. So Weebly has a new interface that is allegedly *easier*. I'm not so sure, but perhaps when I'm used to it I'll see a difference.
I have the first series of pictures for the pet photography site component: Goldfish #1 and Goldfish #2. As a pair, they've proven remarkably resilient even without proper water filtration in the aquaponics system having been established. While I was doing fishy photography, I discovered that while the aquarium lighting made them appear sort of a dark neon orange, incandescent lighting from outside the tank made their scales gold. You can see this shine in the unprocessed picture to the left. Blacklight, which I took the opportunity to experiment with, had absolutely no effect. I have several more example shoots to do, since I want a variety of pets represented. I want to do another fish shoot, two dogs, two cats, and at least one bird, one rodent (non-jack russel rodent) and one reptile. I have plenty of snake photography, but none of that can be used since those snakes weren't pets. I would like to do a fish video as well. We'll see. Yesterday's horse show went well. I used improved methodology in deciding when to and not to take a picture, which took the picture total down from a thousand or so to a little over four hundred. It was a small show, though, and this helped keep that total number down as well. In much the same way that each pet shoot will get its own page, I intend to do a page for this show in addition to uploading the catalog. The allegedly yearly halloween party is coming up too in about a month so work on preparation for that will reduce processing and maintenance time but even so viewers can expect to see the show pictures processed and the show catalog uploaded within two weeks and individual pet sites to be appearing over the course of the month. Some updates: picture packages are now offered, although their contents are not on the site or in catalogs or pricing guides yet. These packages offer decreased prices when compared with individual prints and (in some cases) free low-res file copies suitable for uploading in exchange for a large-volume purchase. The packages under consideration at this point are: 1) 6 4X6, 4 5X7, 2 8X10 and 2 11X14 for $125.00 2) 8 2.5X3.5, 8 4X6, 6 5X7, 4 8X10 and 2 11X14 for $275.00 3) 10 2.5X3.5, 8 4X6, 6 5X7, 4 8X10, 2 11X14 and 1 24X30 for $335.00 4) 6 2.5X3.5, 4 4X6, 2 5X7 and 1 8X10 for $75.00 In theory I can do a package on any pre-determined number of prints or create one on the spot, but those are in writing and I've done the math to makehe customer pays less and I'm still able to make enough profit to have the prints printed. Pricing for pet photography sessions are also still under review. As of now, these are the base prices I'm considering. Cats: $75.00 and $20.00 for each additional cat Dogs: $75.00 and $20.00 for each additional dog Fish: $40.00 for up to 5 fish, $10.00 for each additional fish Rodents: $40.00 and $15.00 for each additional rodent Reptiles: $40.00 and $15.00 for each additional reptile These numbers are not official until they appear in a pricing guide or elsewhere on the website but at this point are representative of the way things are heading and what appropriate research on the subject has turned At CatsPaw Digital Photography, every image that is taken, either for a client as custom photography or at a horse show, or on an expedition that ever sees the light of day is run through Photoshop or an equivalent program. In some cases this is simply to re-size the image and add the logo and image number to a catalog copy so that it can be viewed and ordered. In the case of the ODSS photography, the original image is is generally given a Photoshop 'curves', 'brightness/contrast' and/or 'hue/saturation'. This can be followed up with several third party filters and almost always a very faint dark vignette is added. This improves the aesthetic appearance if the image while, in most cases, leaving an image that looks natural. A more dramatic example of Photoshopping can be found on the famous 'Link's Tombstone' image above. The left half is the unedited (other than being re-sized) image and on the right is the final result, complete with the CDP logo and catalog number for public display. The number is not found on copies that are purchased, of course. As you can see, other than 'Link', all of the original text has been removed and replaced with Legend of Zelda-themed imagery. Actually, the majority of it comes from Wind Waker. The image has also been converted from color into black and white, with a slight sepia tone. The vignette is also present, but as you can see subtle enough that you probably missed it if you weren't looking. These two examples are at opposite ends of the spectrum; In the case of the typical show picture, the natural look is what was intended. Link's Tombstone, however, required significant image content to be replaced. which obviously could not be done digitally without image editing software. The example to the left shows the far more subtle (and quicker) Photoshop effects used on an ODSS picture. Note how the colors on the right are more vivid and the upper and lower corners are slightly darker due to the vignette than the center of the image or their opposite corners.
The major difference between the two approaches is not in in fact one of one of extent, but of subtlety. The ODSS picture shows the intent to improve or tweak, but not to change. There can be in fact Photoshop work done that is far more extensive and time-consuming but even less noticeable, so the conflict with which this post is concerned is not one of a naturally appearing image versus a dramatically modified one but of time taken to modify an image from it's initial (natural) state. Link's Tombstone was the most heavily modified image from the Hollywood Cemetery Expedition. There were only a couple dozen images or so that were chosen out of about fifty (I forgot to empty my camera's memory card after the ODSS show) but my processing options were limited not by my imagination, skill or capabilities of my hardware and software but by time. Without a specific custom order (that is, without being paid) I simply did not have enough time to substantially modify every single image. Nevertheless, this comparison hopefully provides a glimpse into the sort of editing services that CatsPaw Digital Photography is able to provide. Given the appropriate source material CatsPaw Digital Photography can perform significant image modification; there just isn't enough time to do it to every picture that does not require it. This is why we don't process pictures of horses with their ears back if there's one available with the ears up and point forward; It isn't that it's beyond CDP's capabilities, its simply that if it doesn't have to be done it isn't practical in terms of time or effort. And speaking of time, there's a custom photography contract prototype that needs to be drawn up and an ODSS catalog to be put together for upload. Now that the ODSS show pictures from May are out of the way, I can catch up on some older projects that had to be tabled, such as the Hollywood Cemetery expedition. I tried to have a little fun with this, as you might have gathered from the "Link" tombstone. I also tried to get into the whole 'creepy cemetery' feel of the thing, and to get around the fact that all of these pictures were taken about mid-day in bright sunlight, I processed the majority of them in black and white, often with filters that darkened or in some cases increased the graininess of the image. There will be an entry on the expeditions page in the artistic photography section before the end of the day. The Lost City expedition can wait until next week. Now for official notifications. All of the pictures for the May ODSS show have been posted on the ODSS fan page in the appropriate gallery. The catalog has not yet been added to the equestrian photography section (and elsewhere around the site as appropriate) but this will happen in the next couple days.
Barring sunburn, things blowing over and achy feet, the show last Sunday went well. I don't have an exact count yet, but there are about a thousand pictures I need to go through to make selections for processing. This will probably happen Wednesday, and with any luck I can narrow it down to about a hundred pictures to process for catalogs and about seventy-five for the show album. We had one order at the show, but they're all 4x6 prints so they won't need any resizing, just logo-ing.
A few updates: Effective some time next month, Virginia state sales tax goes up. If you didn't know about this, make a note of it. And speaking of taxes, there's been an under-the-hood change to the way taxes are applied to CDP purchases. For the first time a picture is purchased by a customer, tax is NOT APPLIED. This is because what I am actually charging for is the time and effort of processing taking and processing the image in the first place while reducing the cost of the physical print to zero. If it doesn't prove to be too confusing (it only applies to the first print of a particular picture; after that, the processing and whatnot has been paid for. so normal taxes would then apply) I'll be making this change permanent. It works out this way because what I'm charging for is actually labor, to which tax is not yet applied. I'm sure Obama will get around to fixing that after he finishes golfing, vacationing and confiscating firearms (no, I kid, sales tax is mostly a state thing, not federal. I think I'd actually rather deal with the IRS than the Virginia Department of Taxation). In order to continue this, I have to make it less confusing for the costumer, include the process in my business plan, and keep separate records on which customers have made which purchases. For now, we'll see how it works. Also, a base price for custom horse photography has been established. It isn't anywhere in writing, and I reserve the right to modify it as circumstances may require, but the base price is $100.00 per horse plus (if applicable) travel expenses and (if desired) digital modification fees . Custom pet photography won't be quite as expensive, but will be more complicated to work out fixed prices for. In this case, I'd reserve the right to charge a 'misbehavior fee' in addition to the potential travel and digital modification fees mentioned above. Also under consideration is an 'attacked and/or mauled by the subject' fee. Wedding photography will require a huge amount of research before I come up with a fixed price, but I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred for now, plus any necessary expenses in the way of travel or materials. This is extremely low, but I've never done wedding photography before and the first time would be a learning experience. Also, I lack a lot of the equipment that, say, the Lifetouch people have. After I've done one, I'll re-evaluate the pricing scale. We don't have a fixed scale for general portrait photography yet, erotic photography, event photography, ect. yet either. I'm not proud of this, but then again I haven't been asked to do any of these things yet, either personally or professionally. So all in good time? And just how does the new tax policy apply to custom photography? I'm glad you asked. Custom photography is considered labor, and 'cost of materials' charges are considered reimbursement, and so are not taxed. If there's a photography package -a pre-agreed number of X pictures at Y,Z and A sizes, this is considered to be covered under the base custom photography cost and as such are not taxed. Any prints ordered outside of a pre-agreed package, however, are treated as a normal print order and are subject to CatsPaw Digital Photography's standard pricing and would or would not be taxed as if they were a normal print order. Housekeeping and maintenance.
The title page has been updated to include large links to each of the site sections, due to an unfortunate amount of confusion regarding site navigation. It is hoped that this will make it more obvious that other sections do in fact exist. The pictures from the 28 April ODSS show have been all processed and uploaded to the ODSS site. In addition, a few of the older pictures in the equestrian photography portfolio have been updated with more recent show pictures. What has NOT yet been done is the downloadable catalog. I'm hoping to have it up by the end of the day, but one never knows with these things.
Due to constraints on Weebly.com's uploadable file size, I suspect I will have to split it into two catalogs. There isn't an official count on the total number of files, but there were around 170 images to be processed when I started. Several were eliminated as superfluous and redundant, but that's still at least a hundred and fifty images. That's a lot for one .PDF file. Also not yet done is the show video. Unfortunately, I couldn't shoot video and still shots at the same time. I was able to get a little video, but no more than ten minutes total and far from enough to represent the entire show. Not enough to work with. If I'm going to do this sort of thing, I simply must have an assistant. What all this means is that there won't be a show video for 28 April and there probably won't be one for the May show, either. In other news, it has been suggested that I consider specifically pet photography. I like this idea, especially if it means that I (well, CatsPaw Digital Photogarphy, officially) get to photograph animals. There are cats and dogs, obviously, but people also keep lizards, snakes, birds, various varieties of rodent, hedgehogs, ferrets and other weasel-like creatures, spiders, fish and so-on. Even plants. I like to do that sort of thing anyway, so on the whole I think its a good idea. All I have to do is impli |