Tag Archives: Canon 350D

Connect

Photographic journey, , , , , , , , ,

Hi everybody,

You may have noticed that over the last few weeks I have not been uploading an awful lot of my own work to this site and the related FaceBook page. And there is a reason for that. Apalled by the self centredness of many pages and accounts in the hunt for likes and follows, … I decided to contribute more to other sites and to share some more of other people’s work. One of these contributions was my contribution to Wild Eye’s weekly behind the frame post, which by the way generated a perfect example as per how not to provide feedback (yet more about that soon).  As I mentioned before, it’s all about giving and taking, a post that created some nice exchange in the recent past, coincidentally (or maybe not) with Marcelle Robbins whom also contributed to last week’s behind the frame post. Which brings me to another aspect, which has been raised many times before: it’s not about the amount of connections you have, yet about the quality of your connections, since those are the connections that give you the boost to keep on going.

Point is of course that all these interactions take time and that you have to weigh your time investment properly. For that reason it is important to have your social media linked. A great way of doing this from your FaceBook account is with Tradablebits. You may have noticed the new Twitter link and the RSS blog feed at the top of my FB page, great stuff and all for free, or at least, there are 4 aps you can install for free, well worth checking out.

I’ve also been creating a Google+ account, have contributed to several G+ themes (FYI today is African Tuesday and the shot in this post was my first contribution to that theme) and created a theme myself: Wild Kenya a visual ode to Kenya, it’s wildlife, landscapes and people and a way of sharing great shots from Kenya. More about Google+ in one of my next blog posts. All going well, the next one going live will be a guest post.

Canon 350D, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/800 ISO 200

And all that being said, in the near future I will keep on uploading stuff here, yet I will also work on trying to get some return on time investment, by adding an online shop to the site, creating a shutterstock account, trying to get some work to the newspapers (you may have noticed my cheetah shots in the Daily Mail), getting some nice business cards, …

And guess what: without it being the goal, giving back to the community by commenting on people’s posts and by sharing their work has actually earned me more likes and follows than I would have ever reached by just focusing on my own work, … think about it!

Warm regards,

Guy

 

The excitement of competition

Photographic journey, Quicky, , , , ,

Hi everybody,

For those of you who follow me on FaceBook and/or Twitter, you may have seen that 2 of my entries made it into the finals of the 2012 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, which this year received over 48,000 images from 98 countries. That means that two very intensive sessions of critical review by the judges have been survived, now remaining 1 final selection round.

When I received their message that they were pleased to tell me that at least one of my images has made it through, my heart rate went up and no way I could get back to my daily chores. The feeling this gives is amazing, pumping adrenaline in much the same way racing a fast car does, or going down a hill on your mountain bike, …

I have no idea how many shots make it to the finals (does somebody know?), yet by mid May the winning images will be known. And as has been said many times before, it is impossible to predict what the judges will go for. Going through the portfolio’s of past years definitely helps (I’m trying to get them all), and when selecting your images don’t go for your personal favorites only. On the contrary, get out of your comfort zone and enter some shots of which you’re not at all sure, for whatever reason, …

And oh yeah, to bring the point home that you don’t need the latest equipment to enter these competitions, my 2 shots that made it to the finals were taken with my old 350D and standard kit lenses!

For now, I leave you with 1 of my personal favorites that did not make it. Liking simplicity in a shot and fully realizing it has become close to impossible to surprise with a lion shot, I looked for an image that would portray a lion, blending into the environment, portraying it’s grandeur by ignoring vehicles passing by. This shot is the result of that search: blending in, turning the back, looking of into the distance, ignoring and frustrating the visitors and photographers who are craving for a nice portrait, … yet what they get is ‘The Royal Cold Shoulder’

Canon 350D, Canon 75-300 @ 150 mm, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 1600

Happy Easter and warm regards,

Guy