10 ways to break photographer’s block

10 ways to break photographer’s block :: Photocritic photography blog

As a writer, I know the feeling all too well – with a sense of dread and a deep sense of apathy, I stare at the blinking cursor and the completely blank TextMate document. I have ten thousand thoughts and feelings and stories that are chomping at the bit to get told, but it’s just so difficult to get started… And the exact same thing can happen to me when I’m taking photos.

So… What can you do to get out there and beat photographer’s block? What can you do when your camera’s batteries are charged, your memory card is fresh, the weather is fabulous, and the light is reflecting tantalizingly off your expensive glass lenses, but your inspiration is just kicking it on a rocking chair on the porch with a cold ice tea, like a metaphor stretched to well beyond the sensible breaking point?

Fear ye not, my photo siblings… Here’s my Top 10 tips to breaking the photographers’ block (or: Ideas for an uninspired photographer)

Some music sites

Noleen Kutash , one of our members, sent in this information about music sites.

None of the free music down load sites I use in the U.S. work in S.A. like my favorite one http://www.Kazaa.com I did a general South African “google” search and found similar sites however they are not free but legal. I have not tested any of them due to my slow internet service and my lack of time seeing that I am departing on Sunday for a trip through South Africa. I suggest you visit the website and then decide for yourself which of these would suit your needs best. Rhapsody I believe cost .99c U.S. but may have a larger collection to choose from. Go Music I believe is 70c S.A. but I am not sure if there selection is all that inclusive.

http://mp3.rhapsody.com/

http://www.gomusic.ru/

I also included few free “software programs” here for your perusal. I used them in the U.S. and found them very helpful with the music files I downloaded of the internet.

Free Rip is a free site that comes in very handy it allows you to make any and all music files compatible with the requirements of the software program you are using.

For Example: Your software requires a WAV file format but the song you like is in a MP3 file format. All you do is download Free Rip place it on your desk top and drag the file into Free Rip and it will convert your MP3 file into WAV or vise versa and the best part… it’s free.

http://www.freerip.com/

Then for the very creative daredevil’s go to http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/

Here you can get studio quality “sound effects”, for a minimal fee, or regular sound effects completely free… so they say. I did not test if the studio sound effects part of this site will work in S.A. but I did test the free one and it worked.

Good Luck and have fun….

HPS Outing to Gansbaai 20 – 22 March ’09

Paddy has organised an outing to Gansbaai from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd March, 2009. Four self-catering units, offering accommodation for two people per unit, are available at R180 per person per night.  Each unit has a bathroom and kitchen facilities, with bedding and towels provided.

Situated above the harbour, the venue is centrally situated so that it will be easy to branch off in all directions viz. De Kelders, Cape Nature, the harbour etc.  Please contact Paddy directly – 021 8762136 – preferably by Sunday evening  (1st March) – as she needs to pay a deposit.  This is a great opportunity to get some focussed photography done (!) as well making images for our AV-project ‘Living from the Sea’. Hope to see you there!

Transform :: A short film for ScottKelby.com

Zack Arias – Atlanta based editorial music photographer » Transform :: A short film for ScottKelby.com

I was recently asked to do a guest blog post on Scott Kelby’s site. I had free reign to talk about anything I wanted to talk about. I took it as an opportunity to get off my arse and make something that was new and fresh for me. I decided I would do a video. I decided to do this for my wife, Meg, because she is always inspiring me to go beyond the normal stuff I create. She’s always pushing me. Sometimes it sucks because she knows just what buttons to push in me to make me think about things a bit deeper. So I took all of her button pushing and went out and made something of it.

New photo paper in stock at Picture Works

JJ van Heerden sent through this announcement about a new paper they have in stock.

We have just finished our setting up and experimenting on a new paper from Fuji. It is a Crystal Archive paper (i.e. 60 years fade-proof guarantee) with a sparkling metallic finish. It really makes an image pop. Photographs seem to get a 3D quality, metallic sheens are reproduced faithfully with golden light and reflections gaining a bronzed quality. I will bring some samples to the next meeting. I have never been this excited about printing before.

At the moment we can only print 203×254mm or 203×305mm, but we will switch to 254×305mm and 254×381mm as soon as the wider paper arrives. Prices are as follows:

  • 203×254mm: R21.95
  • 203×305mm: R25.95
  • 254×305mm: R34.95
  • 254×381mm: R39.95

Members of HPS get their normal 15% printing discount on these prices.