Freelance writing or Photography, which will be your chosen career path. If you love to write it is a cinch to take the accompanying photographs, and if photography is your passion why not write about the things that you are photographing.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, therefore if you are writing an article it goes without saying that some photographs of the subject will add value to your article, and lets face it, you are not going to do any freelance writing for free. So the better the article the more money you make.
It isn’t too difficult to take clear, focused and colorful photographs, anyone can do this. The difficulty is taking photographs of pertinent subjects that relate to the articles you are writing, and then getting paid. Every magazine editor wants photos, but are they willing to pay for them.
A handshake deal will always cause you problems, either you or your client will remember something differently. Trust is a good thing, so trust in your contract or written agreement, not in yours or your clients memory or honesty.
Location, subject, theme, time span and especially dollars, all this should be set out in writing before you go buying your own ticket for the travel. Sending off an email advising the editor of your fees and conditions won’t do the job, you have to get an email from the client agreeing to your conditions, or offering his own conditions.
You will need to know how many photos he is willing to pay for. What photos he wants, and what the subjects are to be. How much per photo are you going to get paid, and who holds the copyright.
Business people get paid for what they do, so if you are going to travel, write about and photograph your subject you have to get paid for it. Freelance writing and photography can have residual benefits, your articles and photos can be sold over and over again, if you keep the copyright. Don’t give your copyright away, it may be worth something in the future.
When photographing your subject, be sure to take lots of snaps, this may seem to be a waste of time and effort, but believe me, when you get back home and you are choosing the pics that will embellish your article, the better your pic the more you will be paid.
Use a digital camera. With a digital camera you can take as many photographs as you like, you can select the perfect picture when you get home, at your leisure, and discard the rest if you like. But why discard them when you can store them on a disc and keep them for the future.
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HOW TO FIND THE BEST DIGITAL CAMERA
It seems that every month, if not every week, different manufacturers are coming up with the latest digital cameras to entice potential clients. And it’s just not working for us!
After spending sizeable amount of time at the mall figuring out which is the best digital camera for us, we finally have enough money to buy for that eye-popping, 7 mega pixel, 10x digital zoom, potable, candy colored, up to 512MB expandable memory of super hi-speed SD memory card and not to mention very portable, (that will be the envy of almost everyone we know). We march to the mall armed with our life savings and lotsa pride in ourselves, when we pass by a new display – an eight mega pixel, up to 1G expandable memory, with built it mic and stereo surround, video playback capable, with 22 scenic modes kind-of-camera. And we sigh because the producer of this amazing gadget claims that this is the best digital camera yet out in the market. Since we’d like to get the best, we attempt to buy such a camera.” But then again, that doesn’t last too long, after two months or so, there’s another “best digital camera.”
This can be confusing. What makes a digital camera, the best digital camera?
Well, there are certain factors to consider when looking for the “best digital camera” for us
MEGAPIXELS. One of the most important features of digital camera to make it into the best digital camera category is its mega pixel property. The higher the mega pixels the better the actual photograph will come out. A mega pixel is equivalent to one million pixels. The resolution of your image is based upon the mega pixel property of your camera. This means that as you enlarge the picture, you would get more detail and less blurry colors.
LCD SIZE. Having a large, bright LCD makes it easy to frame your subject well. This is also helpful when reviewing your images, some cameras enable touch up and editing features with its LCD. A 1.5-inch display is average, a 2-inch LCD display is good, but the best LCD size would be 2.5 inches or higher.
ZOOM. Digital and optical zoom comes standard on most digital cameras. You should always try to get a higher optical zoom rather than a digital zoom. Digital cameras are usually furnished with optical of between 3x to 10x. The better the optical zoom, the higher it climbs up to the best digital camera category.
CHOOSING A MEMORY CARD. Always make sure that your memory card is the right one for your digital camera. There are different types of memory card like the xD, SD, Flash card and the likes. Be sure you get the right type of card for your camera. of course memory storage is also up there in choosing the best digital cameras. Choose the size of memory that you need, if you’re a photo junkie, you might need more than 32MB. You can get memory cards in sizes up to 8 gigs, and growing every day.
Finding the best digital camera is all about finding one that fits your unique needs. Don’t just buy the latest or the one that claims they are the best digital cameras out in the market. You wouldn’t want to buy a cheap dSLR and use it with your home activities or family outing and have to lug it around?! Or you don’t want to buy the latest point and shoot camera when you’re serious about being a professional photographer. (Of course, you can use this for starters, but if you’re not a novice photographer anymore, you wouldn’t want to get this kind of camera.)
Getting a camera that you actually enjoying using is the best choice. Not the type that you’ll just leave rotting in its box or after a few weeks of usage or so, up there in the attic.
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The topic of sensor size always comes up when shopping for a digital SLR. As you probably know, the sensor in a digital camera is responsible for capturing the image. Digital SLRs are able to get much better picture quality than point and shoots due to their much higher quality image sensors. In general, the bigger the sensor, the better the image quality.
Because a larger sensor also means a greater cost, SLR manufacturers have to compromise. Ideally, a digital SLR sensor would be exactly the same size as a frame of 35mm film. However, the cost of producing a sensor like this is so high that most manufacturers decided to create a smaller sized sensor, one that is a fair amount smaller than a full sized sensor. This creates the so called “crop factor”
This crop factor is usually a number around 1.5. Basically, this means that if you were to look at a full 35mm frame, the crop sensor would only capture a 1.5x crop of the frame. This means that you're basically getting a "closer" view with an equivalent focal length. This means that your wide angle lenses will be less wide, and that your telephoto lenses will have more reach. Also, be sure to note that depth of field for a given focal length will remain the same.
For many photographers, these crop sensors work great. If you’re into sports, wildlife, or any telephoto heavy photography discipline, the extra “reach” you get from the crop sensor really comes in handy at times. You can also get extremely affordable crop frame bodies, such as Nikon’s D40. These cameras are a real boon to amateur photographers.
However, full frame sensors still hold a serious advantage in many real world situations. As I said before, bigger equals better when it comes to image quality. Full frame sensors can deliver a much sharper, smooth image at higher ISOs than a cropped sensor can. If you work in low light conditions, this is a great feature. Full frame bodies offer the broadest range of wide angle lens options for those photographers who utilize them often. New cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark II make it easier to afford these cameras, as well.
Overall, choosing your sensor format shouldn’t be the only factor that you take into account when choosing a new camera, but it should be a major one. The image quality and dim light capabilities of a full frame sensor will blow you mind, if you can handle the price. Otherwise, you might be better off saving your money and getting a cropped sensor camera. Either way, you can still take great pictures.
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