Zenfolio Blog

It is that time of the year again and the rush is on.

Between now and December 24^th more print orders will be placed than in the three months leading up to it. I would like to share some pointers and tips to make your holiday season as stress-free and productive as possible.

The Labs are Super Busy, Let's Help Them by Being Prompt

Daily lab order volumes double if not triple during the holidays. Zenfolio partner labs have the best turnaround times in the industry while delivering consistent print quality and they are working extra hard on keeping this reputation during the holidays.

For example, the Mpix lab would often get the order printed, packaged, and shipped the same day it is placed. This means is that any request for changes needs to be sent within minutes of placing an order or it may not be possible to catch it in time.

By being prompt with your communications you will greatly improve the probability of catching orders in time to make any changes and corrections.

Approve Orders Quickly to Avoid Delays

If you have order Approval enabled in your price list (and we highly recommend you do that), you will have a chance to review orders placed and make changes before approving them for printing. While this gives you a way to make sure the order looks good, this also delays sending the order to the lab.

Remember: until you approve the order, it is not submitted for printing. Try to approve all orders as quickly as you can to avoid delays and meet buyer expectations for delivery times.

Upload Low Resolutions Files to Save Time

The order approval feature in your price list allows you to upload low resolution photos saving you time on uploading and retouching. This is particularly useful if you have a large event or have many files to present to a client.

After the order is placed, you will have a chance to upload new retouched files ready to be printed at high resolution. Then you can Approve the order and it will be sent for printing.

Mpix Holiday Delivery Cut-off Schedule

Please use the following chart as a reference for Mpix holiday delivery cut-off dates. Orders must be placed on and approved before the cut-off date to be delivered in time for the holiday.

Whenever in Doubt, Choose FedEx

During this super busy time of the year, we recommend using FedEx for shipping as much as possible. In our experience, FedEx has a better track record of delivering on time during busy holidays. The slightly higher cost of shipping pays off if you consider the disappointment of not receiving your package in time for the special day.

Mpix charges a flat fee for FedEx Next Business Day delivery of only $11.25, and it does not matter how big or how heavy your package is.

fotoflōt Christmas Shipping Cut-off Dates

fotoflōt has scheduled additional production run the week before Christmas to ensure timely arrival for all USPS Priority Mail packages. Orders that are placed by late night Wednesday, December 16^th will print on Thursday and will ship on Friday, December 18^th. These orders should arrive before Christmas.

They will also have the regular Monday/Tuesday production run so that orders placed by late night Sunday, December 20^th will ship on Tuesday, December 22^nd. These orders may not arrive in time for Christmas but will be delivered shortly after.

Enhance Your Holiday Mailings with Personalized Postage Stamps

Here is a tip that will help you keep your holiday mailings looking sharp and professional. If you are planning on mailing holiday greeting cards or sending thank you cards to your clients, personalize them with custom postage stamps from PictureItPostage.

You can place your studio logo, a family portrait, or any other image on a U.S. Postage Stamp in any denomination. The stamps are oversized and print in high quality with attention to details. You have to see a sheet of custom stamps for yourself to appreciate the impact they can make.

You will find stamps available for ordering from any of your images under Add to Cart | Specialty.

Have a great holiday season!

Mpix has a special promotion running from Wednesday, Oct 28th through Friday, Oct 30th: ALL prints are 15% off!
 
This includes all print sizes: mini-wallets through 24x36"; and makes it the perfect time to try out those E-Surface, Metallic and True B&W papers.

We are on our way to New York to exhibit at the PhotoPlus Expo taking place this week. If you have not been to PhotoPlus Expo, it is the best photography-focused trade show on the East Coast held once a year.

We will be demonstrating everything that Zenfolio has to offer and answering questions at the Mpix booth #836. We will also be handing out show-special discounts. If you are in the NY area or thinking of going to the show, stop by and say hello.

TRADE SHOW HOURS:

Thursday, October 22
9am - 10am
Preview for Gold Expo Pass/Conference
Attendee Badge Holders only
10am - 5 pm
Exhibit Hall Open

Friday, October 23
9am - 10am
Preview for Gold Expo Pass/Conference
Attendee Badge Holders only
10am - 5pm
Exhibit Hall Open

Saturday, October 24
10am - 4pm
Exhibit Hall Open

Many of you have heard of or from Kevin Thompson as one of the most active users on our forums. Kevin ventured into starting his own business nine years ago and has agreed to share his story with our readers. Today, Kevin runs a full-coverage all-inclusive wedding photography business.

My Journey into Business

I grew up in Rockford, IL, a town known for manufacturing. Some of the largest companies had been founded and thrived here, but Rockfordians know we were mostly small machine shops, started by some enterprising young man who put a machine in his garage, turned out quality work and grew his business. Today, we face the same challenges in a marketplace with greater competition, and few consumer dollars.

I started web design nine years ago after watching a company take advantage of a friend’s ignorance when designing his company’s site. Not wanting this to happen to others, I found a customer, borrowed a computer, and produced my first website.

I offered website design and computer maintenance through Thompson Web & Computer Services until 2008, working my business as a sideline to my full-time job.  But computer maintenance was always a very frustrating part of the business.  When a business’s computer goes down, they need it fixed now!  Working a full-time job meant that I was seldom available ‘now’.  I had a few situations where I found myself sitting in the bathroom at work texting customers trying to solve a quick problem. (I can see business owners right now reading this thinking they are going to modify their ‘cell phones at work’ policies). Not being able to properly service customers, and feeling I was cheating my employer, I backed away from the computer maintenance, and only offered after-hours services.

My oldest daughter married in 2007. Two days before the wedding, the photographer canceled, saying she had to babysit her grandkids. We found another photographer at the last minute but she was unorganized and the traditional photos had to be taken at the reception. The photographer didn’t have a background kit so she shot against a blank tile wall.

My daughter was unhappy with her photos and wanted me to shoot her and her husband in the park.  I had purchased my first DSLR after her wedding and agreed to give it a try. We went down to the local rose garden and I tried to setup some shots from my ‘extensive knowledge of wedding photography’.  That means I spent a couple days on the internet searching for ‘wedding photos’.  Seriously, what do we guys really know about weddings?  Unless a guy gets into this business of weddings, he doesn’t care. Sit and look at wedding pictures?  No, we look at Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition. Isn’t that why we bought our first camera?  Because somewhere in our head, we believed we’d shoot some supermodel-looking girl on a beach while she looks at us like we are the only man in her world.

Armed with my new knowledge of wedding photos, we did the shots: my daughter in her dress and  my son-in-law in a suit that almost fit, and they were very happy!  I created a portfolio to show off my new skills and beautiful daughter, and discovered others liked them too.  A friend said she had two daughters getting married in 2008, and they were on a tight budget.  I tried to convince her I didn’t have the experience to shoot a wedding, but she insisted.

I shot the first wedding early in 2008, and the couple, parents and family loved them. I took the money paid to me and invested it into additional equipment before the wedding. Since I didn’t have any left, and had this equipment, I decided I could ‘schedule’ photography like I do web design, changed my business name and focus, and Thompson Digital Image was born.

I met another photographer, and worked for her on a couple weddings.  I wasn’t paid for these, but it allowed me to gain experience and build my portfolio.  I ended up shooting six weddings my first year, all found through word of mouth.  I didn’t have anything scheduled for 2009, and knew bookings were planned well in advance, so I had to get my name out.  I paid a radio station about $250.00 and got thirty, fifteen second spots of “This hour sponsored by …”.  Not one phone call, not one friend saying “I heard your ad on the radio”.  I paid $100.00 to get my business in vinyl letters on my car.  No calls from that, but one thing it has done; I am afraid to leave thousands of dollars of equipment locked a car that says ‘Photography’ on it.  I think I’ll get a scraper and solve that problem. I didn’t have extra money to spend on a lot of advertising, so I decided to come up with something new.

I was at the local shopping mall with my wife, not being excited about wandering around bath and body type stores, so I said I’d meet up with her later and went off in search of power tools or something with a ball; you know, guy stuff.  I walked past a jewelry store where a young couple was looking at wedding bands.  I observed them for a few minutes, gathered up nerve, walked up to them and handed them my business card.  We talked for a few minutes, and they were excited to see my photos online and would call me.  I spent a few hours sitting on a nearby bench, watching people pass by, waiting for another couple to come look at rings.  I was able to hand out a couple cards that day, and have continued this practice every opportunity I get.

I also turned to my experience in web marketing.  I started searching for photographers in the Rockford area.  I found some personal sites, but many top ten listings were various wedding vendors, most offering a free listing option.  I signed up for those, which immediately put me within top-ten range of anyone searching in the Rockford area.  I also found one service, Decidio.com, which offered a free listing / quote request service.  If you receive a request from a customer that you wish to contact, you pay $2.00 for their contact information.

Of course there were also the standard practices of promoting my own website, submitting my URL to the search engines available, getting myself listed on others’ sites and listing their sites on mine.  The latter is a practice known as ‘reciprocal linking’ which will boost your rankings in search engines.

In everything I’ve attempted and contacts I’ve made with people, one thing that has stood out in growing my business; offering exceptional service. I recently shot a wedding where the bride signed a contract with someone else.  The photographer agreed to include engagement pictures and they scheduled the shoot. The couple got to the park, waited and called for 2 hours, but never reached the photographer.  A few weeks before the wedding the photographer finally contacted the bride, who explained she wanted her down payment return. He refused stating the engagement session hadn’t been included in the contract.  The bride didn’t have additional funds for another down-payment. Since I wouldn’t be booking anything else for that weekend, I agreed to shoot her wedding for the balance owed the original photographer.

The bride has told everyone how wonderfully I treated her. She loves the photos, and I have gotten several contacts for weddings next year from this situation. Excellent service at a time when it was needed most, producing excellent word-of-mouth referrals.  Priceless.  Also important: the other photographer is also getting much word-of-mouth from this bride, but not the kind anyone would want.

I learned much along the way, am still learning daily, and still trying new things. I am a fan of Bob Parsons of godaddy.com who has some great suggestions on his blog regarding business. Check out Bob’s 16 Rules for Success. Remember to give back to your community and pour yourself into others.  I volunteer my time to groups or associations that will help my community grow and improve, and it reminds me of how we are all connected, and how we all can help each other, keeping things in perspective. I also try to share what I’ve learned, teaching others and learning from them at the same time.  By no means do I consider myself an expert, but this is one person’s experience and I hope there are some jewels here that someone is able to mine for themselves.

Kevin Thompson

http://www.thompsondigitalimage.com/

This post comes to you from one of our own users, Wendy Alas. Wendy is a documentary photographer based in Chicago, IL and a Visual Journalism/Photojournalism graduate from the prestigious Brooks Institute of Photography. She first discovered her passion self-portraiture in high school and has agreed to share her experience and love for the art form.

In-Between Days

Someone once told me that self-portraits are mostly for other people to see you for you, and others often say self-portraiture is a form of self-expression; to me it’s both and much more. I’ve been taking self-portraits for about ten years now. I began in my very first black and white photography class in High School when I was sixteen. I was part of a club called Gallery 37 in Chicago and was able to take an SLR camera home loaded with Tri-X Pan 35mm film. I didn’t have a tripod at the time so I improvised by using a table and holding the camera still by placing books around it. This is a method that I don’t recommend anyone to do! At that time, after only living in the U.S. for two years, I really had no idea where I belonged. I was often seen as a bookworm for spending my lunch breaks in the library or in the dark room developing black and white photographs. After taking my very first self-portrait I realized that I wasn’t the plain girl I often felt perceived as, but that I can actually be a good subject to make pleasant photographs. I did it for my own entertainment, and at the time I didn’t understand the effect it had on me. It actually gave me a boost of confidence, knowing that I could take my own pictures and that in fact, I looked good. I decided to pursue photojournalism in college, since self-portraiture has only been a hobby to me. Today I make a living as a documentary photographer, and even through my personal art of self-portraiture, I make it a goal to still take story-telling images.
While all my self-portraits may not represent me at my best, I have confidence that they portray emotion, even more emotion than I imagine to appear within the setting. Self-portraiture really is a way to express what I feel, whether it's sadness, happiness, love, romance, passion, bravery, etc. Through these photographs, I’ve also come to realize certain aspects of my persona: a withdrawn young woman, but with a need for attention? Or simply, love. It is mainly a way to reconnect with myself, and to scratch a restless itch that sometimes consumes me, but perhaps is also a way to tell the world… look at me, I am human, I am real. It’s a chance to project something that you may not see in person, for instance, an exotic alluring persona, a restless woman, a fearless and free spirit yearning to fly away from reality or ready to dive into this complex world as with no reservations. This makes me confident.

In the summer of 2007 I had marked nearly three years in a relationship that began during my last year of college in California, after receiving my degree I moved back to Chicago and due to the distance, and our fickle plans of being together again, I felt to be growing apart by mundane distractions. I was very confused and sad but at the same time I felt empowered to stand-alone. This is perhaps one of my favorite self-portraits because not only was a beautiful day to shoot outside, but also I am determined and ready to move on. When I see this photograph now, I remind myself of the way I felt then and it really does help! I shot this image outside in my backyard under the shade, I used a Westcott bouncing reflector to fill light on my left, 50mm lens, a tripod, and Sekonic light meter to obtain right exposure.

About a year ago I was involved with a wonderful man, a traveling cameraman. We traveled, we had photographic adventures and there was a connection I had never experienced in my life. I was inspired. At the beginning of the relationship, he was on a documentary adventure in the upper amazons of Peru; I took this photograph to show anticipation, because that’s exactly how I felt. I couldn’t wait for his return. Everything was so new and fresh in our relationship. The window light in my room was perfect, and there is no better time to make self-portraits than after washing your car and while doing laundry. I used a tripod, a Sekonic light meter, shot all manual and used the timer on the camera for the shutter release.

Self-portraiture is actually a bit ironic sometimes, because realistically, most photographers are afraid to step in front of the camera. It takes trust and confidence to feel comfortable being photographed. From personal experience, I have found it so much easier to direct myself than others to pose for me. There’s an unhurried energy to know that there’s nobody behind that lens, looking at you being distracted by your attributes or flaws. I think as women, we tend to care to look attractive, but as a documentary photographer I feel it’s also important to show emotion and tell a story. It is more captivating and really makes your audience wonder what goes through your mind.

Needless to say, there are a lot of technical aspects that go into making these images. It is important to follow rules, but I believe that, occasionally, when you break the rules you come out with better photos. So I recommend you follow your own instinct.

Self-portraiture is an art form and though it can be portrayed as an act of narcissism or delusions of grandeur, it takes creativity, patience, some confidence and practice. I think every photographer should try doing it, and have fun!

Wendy Alas

http://wendyalas.com/

We are reopening submissions for more candidate photos to be featured on our Home page. This time, our theme is All About Light.

We are looking for images that are striking because of their use of light, natural or artificial, witnessed or controlled. We will accept a lot of flexibility in the subject but the light must 'make the shot'.

Submit your photos by replying to the forum thread. The submission deadline is Monday, September 28, 11:59 p.m.

The rules and requirements are listed in this forum post. We are looking forward to seeing many wonderful works by Zenfolio photographers!

Mpix has a special promotion for this weekend: ALL prints are 15% off!

The promotion will run from 9:00AM on Friday, August 28^th until midnight on Monday, August 31^st.  This includes E-Surface, Metallic and True B&W papers and print sizes mini-wallets through 24x36". 

Hi Everyone! My name is Nataly and I’m one of the new additions to the Zenfolio family. While I'm not a professional photographer (I don’t own a DSLR and I mostly use my iPhone camera), I do know a thing or two about marketing (after all, it’s in my job title); so that's what we'll be talking about today.

A few months ago, I was browsing through my Facebook Newsfeed and saw that one of my friends had commented on a beautiful photo. I clicked on it and saw that it was part of an engagement shoot of a young lady I’ve never met or even heard of. My curiosity was piqued, however, so I couldn’t help but look through the rest of the album. Every photo looked like a postcard. And though none of the photos had been branded with a logo, the work was very evidently professional. Not wanting for the bride-to-be to know that some stranger was snooping through her engagement album, I contacted the friend that had commented on the photos to see who the photographer was. It turned out to be Choco Studio, and now if and when I am in need of an event photographer, they will be the first on my list to contact.

Many of you know that Zenfolio believes in the power of social networking for promoting awareness and driving traffic, as evident on our twitter and facebook pages. And we think photographers can and should utilize these media in order to promote themselves and their work. Many photographers already keep a blog, so it may seem that adding more places to update and keep track of will be tedious and repetitive. But history proves that consumer habits will change and evolve, and all we can do is make sure we have a presence wherever people are.

I think it is a great practice to let clients post low-res photos of their event on Facebook, especially if the low-res images have been branded with the studio logo. This way not just the photo, but the name of the photographer gets quite a bit of exposure through viral marketing – the ultimate word-of-mouth. On their own fan page, Choco Studio has all their work branded. But if they had provided their clients with branded images, all the people that saw and/or commented on the photos would have known their name, rather than relying on the client to mention the photographer in conversation. Imagine how much traffic a good senior portrait shoot would get on a popular teenager’s Facebook page. Imagine how many referrals the photographer would receive if every one of those photos had the studio’s branding.
 
Photographers who don’t do events or portraits needn’t feel left out from the social networking craze. You can leverage these sites to build a buzz about your work, introduce your photographs to new fans, and let existing fans spread the word. Contests are a great way to generate traffic and participation. For example: give your fans or followers a special code to use when visiting you at a fair or trade show to get a free item or discount; or hold a drawing for a prize, and to enter have your followers retweet a certain phrase with a link. These sites are all about building new connections to people.

Often times people tend to forget about networking part of social networking. Even if you don’t get a single sale or book a single event from it, take the time to see what other photographers are doing, talk to them, learn from them and see if you can pass the knowledge along. These connections can be invaluable in reaching your goals.

The biggest objection I hear with Facebook and Twitter is the safety of displaying photos online. Photographers worry about their work being used or reproduced without their knowledge or permission. Unfortunately, that risk is always present regardless of what kind of passwords or restrictions are imposed. Here is my recommendation (controversial as it may be): You should be thankful to people who go the extra mile to promote and display your work. I completely understand the concern of someone ruining the photograph you worked so hard to create, but people will find a way to steal images if they are determined. So rather than hiding your work under a lock and key, add a logo to your photos and enable the new “share this” feature and the “option to save” on your Zenfolio account. I would feel flattered if someone liked my work enough to want to show it, so I’d make it easier and thank them for the free promotion.

Mpix is offering a special discount until August 16th: 15% off all Canvas Gallery Wraps.

If you haven’t yet seen a Canvas Gallery Wrap from Mpix, now is your chance. There is a total of 13 sizes available, so you will definitely find one that fits your walls and your needs.

Offer expires at midnight on Sunday, August 16th.

fotoflōt, a photo display system, was recently added as a Zenfolio fulfillment partner. We thought it would be helpful to tell you a little about how fotoflōt came into being, and to give a few examples of how they’re used.

fotoflōt grew out of the founders’ personal experiences. We’re long-time photo enthusiasts and were seeking better ways to display the great images that are possible with digital photography. We didn’t like framing our prints and having the images hidden behind reflections and glare. We wanted a clean, simple mounting system that would put all the focus on the image.  And we wanted to make it easy to change images to get maximum usage of scarce wall space.

So we invented fotoflōt.  The photographic print is bonded to the front of a thin acrylic panel, so there’s nothing between the viewer and the print. print and acrylic are laser-trimmed, fusing them together and producing a polished edge. The mounting system creates a floating effect, subtly emphasizing the image. And the mounting system is magnetic, letting you change images in seconds and reusing that scarce wall space.

The following (mostly personal) examples are only a small sample of the many ways that thousands of fotoflōts have been used. Maybe they’ll stimulate you to come up with some new ways to use them.

Wall arrangements. fotoflōts are frequently used for arrangements of multiple images. Tom’s daughter and her husband had hundreds of images from their travels around the world and wanted to use some of them to decorate their home. They decided to display their favorites along the stairway, and the images are visible from both the lower and upper floors.  The fotoflōts provide a great topic of discussion with visitors.

Collages

fotoflōts are also popular for collages.
Virtually every available size has been used for a collage at one time or another.
Tom created this 10”x15” collage as a wedding gift for a friend.

Panoramics

fotoflōt is well-suited for panoramics, providing aspect ratios from 2:1 up to 6:1.  The wide range of standard sizes make it possible to use panoramics much more widely (so to speak) than is usually the case.

The photographs in this 7.5”x22.5” panoramic are of Tom’s daughter and new son-in-law. A professional photographer took the photos, and Tom created the panoramic (with appropriate permissions).

Desk stands

A number of fotoflōt sizes, from 7.5”x10” to 7.5”x30”, are available with a desk stand.  They make good gifts, and can be used alone or as a complement to images mounted on the wall. Tom created this 7.5”x15” desk stand fotoflōt to capture the memory of his other daughter and son-in-law on a wonderful family trip to Montreal.

Magnetic mounting system

The magnetic mounting system provides flexibility that can be used in a number of ways.  This example comes from a customer who said, “Artwork that goes on the wall and sits in one place forever tends to get boring. I’m always on the lookout for the possibility of ‘active’ art that can be changed in some way to keep it interesting.”

Our customer has created a family portrait gallery up her staircase and moves fotoflōts around to place a visiting son or daughter in the position of honor. For example, daughter A isn’t coming tonight so she gets taken out of “first place” at the bottom of the stairs and gets moved halfway up the stairway. Daughter B is visiting tonight, so she goes onto that prime spot.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments, and please let us know about any interesting fotoflōt applications that you discover.

Tom McAuliffe
Jürgen Reinold

Mpix is offering a special deal this weekend on 8x10 prints: 50% off all 8"x10" prints on all paper types.

Regular E-Surface Color paper prints are only $0.99 while Metallic and True Black & White paper prints are $1.24. No special code is needed, new price is automatically reflected during the checkout.

Offer expires at midnight on Sunday, July 19th.

You may already know about the Zenfolio Referral Program. Traditionally, for every new user you refer, you’d receive a $5 credit to your account that could be used toward renewing or upgrading your account, purchasing prints or photo products and even gift subscriptions, while the new user receives a $5 discount off their subscription. Today we make the deal even sweeter!

Starting now and until August 15th we are going to double your referral credit. You get $10 for every person that uses your referral code when opening a paid account!

Don’t miss this opportunity. The last time we did a promotion like this, some users boasted upwards of 50 referrals. The new user has to sign up for an account by mid-August in order for you to receive the double credit. On August 15th the referral credit reverts back to $5 per user.

So don’t be shy, post away on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blog, etc. And while you are at it, join the growing Zenfolio community:

     and     

Just please don’t flood public forums with your codes. Some forums do not allow this practice and might ban you.

Get out there and spread the word!

The countdown begins now.

The post below comes to you from David Hobby. We are very thankful to have him share his expertise with our readers. David, has had a 20-year career as a photojournalist, and is the author of a very popular blog called Strobist with 170,000 readers from around the world. Without any further adieu:

Get That Thing Off of Your Camera

As photographers, we learn to see light. We notice light when it is interesting. And we always try to make photos in interesting light. And neat light almost always looks so good because it strikes the subject from somewhere other than from the direction of the camera.

Seriously, can you imagine how boring the world would look if we always walked around viewing everything with the sun directly behind us? And yet, so many photographers - especially beginners - tend to keep their flashes attached to their cameras. This effectively rules out creating interesting, directional light.

When you light from "on-camera," your flash is very good at revealing detail, but it is very bad at revealing form. Essentially, you are using light about as creatively as a Xerox machine does. On-camera light is great for making an accurate record, but very poor at creating an interesting image of your subject.

Whether you are shooting to make money, or shooting to preserve memories of your friends and family, one of the best things you can do for yourself to improve your photography is to learn how to control light by using off-camera flash.

I spent 20 years as a professional photojournalist. And somewhere along the way I learned the value of a small, hot-shoe flash placed somewhere other than on the camera.

Lighting coming from somewhere else creates shadows. And shadows give a three-dimensional quality to your subject. A couple of years ago, I started teaching other photographers how to light, for free, at Strobist.com. To date, over two million photographers have benefitted from the over 1,000 articles posted there on how to use your small flashes more effectively.

Today, I would like to share three, simple, one-flash photos from my family album -- and how they were made -- in the hopes of getting you to think about getting your flash off of your camera, if you haven't already done so.

Hallway Portrait

I photographed my son, Ben, in the hallway of our house using a small flash (a Nikon SB-800) connected to my Nikon D300 with an SC-17 off-camera TTL flash cord. This preserves the TTL metering of my camera and flash, and lets me create more interesting light by changing its position relative to the camera.

I stuck the flash in a small soft box, a LumiQuest Soft Box III, which is very portable, inexpensive and folds flat at about 8x9 inches. Camera in left hand, flash in right hand, everything on full auto.

Shooting through an old plastic lens from a "toy" camera added a nice, soft effect to the image.

Late-Night Reader

I photographed my daughter during one of her late-night Harry Potter binges by taking a moment to place the flash in the opened book itself. This reflected off of the pages, turning the book into a soft light source which also illuminated the canopy around her bed.

I could have used bounce flash, but all of the cool atmosphere would have been gone. Today's cameras and flashes can communicate wirelessly and maintain TTL exposure, too. So even if you are not comfortable with manual flash, that is no excuse for not getting your light in the right spot to make a cool photo.

Parents at Sunset

For the upcoming 50th Anniversary of my parents' first date, I wanted to make a special portrait at the lake home to which they have retired in Florida.

The tiki hut pictured in the photo has no light in it. But that was a natural place to stick a small flash -- along with an orange "CTO" gel to allow the flash to simulate a tungsten light bulb.

I think the light coming from the inside of the hut adds a lot of dimension to the photo. And it also allows me to balance the exposure on my parents to that of the sunset. It also adds a feel of realism to the photo that no on-camera flash could have possibly done.

Now, You Try It

If you have ever wanted to learn how to use your flashes like a pro, there has never been a better time than now. Professionals are publishing websites and keeping blogs designed just to share this knowledge and expand the boundaries of your photography.

And for the most part, it is all free. You can join us at Strobist.com, where anyone, of any age or skill level can learn the basics of off-camera flash in no time.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/02/welcome-to-strobist.html

Mpix is offering a special discount until July 15th: 25% off all Large Prints - 16x20 and larger.

This is the perfect opportunity to get your favorite shots blown up to poster-size prints and ready for framing. You have a choice of professional-grade E-Surface, Metallic, and True Digital Black & White papers. As usual, Mpix will print, package, and ship your order with the highest attention to detail, delighting you with the results.

Offer expires on Wednesday, July 15th. No coupons are needed, new prices will automatically apply in the Shopping Cart.

We are happy to announce that the winners for the 2009 contest have been selected. The winning photos will appear on our homepage very soon, when our next release goes live. There's a lot to learn from these astonishing works! You can view the winning photographers in this colleciton.

The winners are (listed by the number of votes):

1. Prom dresses - Brooke Moxley Photography
2. Purple flower - Cathy Stancil Belle Image
3. Water drops - Eric Phillips Photographs
4. Fjords -  Eric Rowe Photography
5. Vespa Scooters - Eric Shemtov Photography
6. Colorful Mask - Joe Marquez - The Smoking Camera
7. Red daisies - Eric Phillips Photographs
8. Remembrance -tim austin images
9. Japanese Fans - Joe Marquez - The Smoking Camera
10. Kids with paint - Images By Lori

We would like to thank everybody who contributed their works and voted for their favorites.