Hey Everyone! Hope you had a great week! As Photographers we should take photographs for ourselves first.  Taking what we like what we (not others ) think is the best shot. Wether it be portraits or street photography.  We should be the first customer. But after we edit and finally say its done. Then what?  Sharing your photography with others is a great way to show what you have done to others and maybe inspire someone else to get off the couch and see what you’ve seen. But how do you do it? There are many ways like Social Media. It’s called social for a reason because it can be personal.  Which I think is fb-art great! You want people to see your work.  Even if your not selling it.  I don’t try to sell anything anymore.  It was too much of a hassle to me I would much rather be the amateur photographer than try to make money out of it. I’m too old for all of that stuff. If I were in my twenties then maybe but that window has long past been closed. But I do like to share my photography. Here are some of the ways I do it.

Facebook- Yea I know nobody likes facebook anymore its all Snap Chat , Tic Tock or what ever the newest thing is. But Facebook works for me.  My Family and Friends are on Facebook so when I post they can see it. My camera club has theif Facebook page so I can share there and get tips and critiques to make my photography better.  You’re reading this probably on Facebook. So Face book is a great place to share.

flickr Instagram, Flickr, 500PX. Photography related websites. I know I started on Flickr and have quit and restarted a couple of times and Instagram has gone Video for some reason and I have over 1300 photo’s there. But these are great places to see great photography and to share your photography.

Vero, I have just started using Vero a fairly new social media platform. So far I like it. It really makes my photo's look good. It has separate sections for video and other types of media but it does have a section just for photographs.  You can follow different photographers and like and comment just like you did in instagram and you can use Hashtags. So far I like it we'll have to see how it does in the long run.

Website- When I first started MaxStansellPhotography.com I did it the hard way I had a friend that had some server space and I created the website from scratch doing all of the coding myself.  And what a pain it was! But now its so easy and for just 5 bucks a month you can have a professionally looking web site that is easy to manage and drag and drop to add photo’s.  I have mine on Zenfolio but there are many more that will work great and are fairly inexpensive if your just showing off your photo’s.  I did go to “Go Daddy.com” and got my own URL “Max Stansell Photography”. All I had to to was type in the name and no one else had it so I made it mine for about 10 or so dollars a year. Creating your own website is easy and cheap and a great way to show off your work.

Business Cards? Yea Business Cards.  This is a great way to get people to look at your website. If you meet someone just give them a card so they can look your website up.  It doesn’t have to be fancy and business cards are cheap.  You can get hundreds for 25 bucks and they look great. You could have just a white one with your name and a QR code on it that takes people to your website. With just a plain white card you have a place to put email or any other information you need to when talking to someone. I always have some in my camera bags with me and in my wallet.

So as you can see there are lots of ways to Share your photographs. Please keep Printing them so you have something to pass down not just a hard drive full of images. But then Share online you are probably a better photographer than you think and you will hear praises of how good you are. Then they will say you must have a good camera! LOL So until next week Get Outside and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is doing great this week. If you can remember when I took my trip to Utah I was using A RavPower File hub to backup my SD cards and everything was fine except the Dating on the Files. Well I figured out what I did wrong! Yes it was user error , the nut behind the wheel. Here is a quick overview of the file hub if you don't remember.

The RAV Power File Hub wireless travel Router. There are Four things you can do with this device. (1st) its is a backup battery source.(not a large one at 6700mah battery) (2nd )it can act as a wireless router from a wired ethernet cable or (3rd) it can be hooked up to wireless intent say at a hotel and be a secure WIFI with another layer of security. You don't have to subscribe to some sort of VPN service. With this device you can do many things but the main thing I want to do with it is (4th) backup my SD cards.  To use you simply Plug in your SD card and your SSD drive hold in the transfer button for 5 seconds and the device will copy everything off of your SD card to your External Drive into a Time Stamped File.  You can then access your files via WIFI and edit them on your device.  This is pretty cool .  The very cool part is that its only 60 bucks.  There are fancier devices that can do this but they can cost up to 800 dollars for a 1TB drive one that they don't even make anymore.   The draw backs are that transfer times of data are not as fast as a laptop.  But it's not terrible. Maybe only a minute or two longer from SD to SSD.  But you can choose what hard drive you want to go to by hooking up any drive you have to it. So it's versatile . The size of this device is small at 4.4 X 3 X .9 inches weighing only 7 ounces.

Screenshot The problem that I was having when I was on the road is that every timed stamped folder had the same date. I didn't notice until a few days in and I panicked a little but all my files were there and I just had to rename the folder. Well I said I would get back to you when I figured it out. I have another trip planned in a few weeks and I wanted to get this figured out before I left. And I did. The time and date stamp comes from the File Hub. You can set this manually or have the internet do it for you by syncing the time and the date each time File hub hooks up. Well this is where I messed up. I wasn't hooking this device to the internet or manually setting the date each day. For each hotel we were in during our trip I just needed to connect to the WiFi and it would automatically set the time and date.  Which I did not do. My iPad has Cellular coverage and I was using that for my internet so I didn't need my file hub to be connected to the hotel Wifi for anything . Or so I thought. So now there is an extra step to make sure that the file hub is connected to the internet before I transfer the files and a new folder each day will be made and all of the files from the SD card will be put in that folder. I did a test the last three days to make sure it worked and it did I just needed to make sure it was hooked to the Wifi before I started transferring files. If you want more info on the way I view and transfer files while on the road I'll refer you to this blog  Traveling without a Computer . So until next week get out and do some traveling! Get out and Shoot!
 

Hey Everyone! Hope you're doing great this week. In a couple of weeks I have a trip planned that will take me in an urban street photography climate. I don't do a lot of street photography but always enjoy it when I do.  Being a gear head for this trip I wanted to challenge myself. Don't buy any photography gear! That's a big challenge! I'm testing out a street photography kit that I will take with me trying to keep my set up light and nimble and inconspicuous.  That's going to be tough. So I know that on this trip there will be some night scapes and some things that will require a tripod.  A tripod is a very cumbersome piece of equipment especially if you're taking it on a plane. Light and nimble I want to be so I won't be taking a tripod.  But I will be taking a camera support with me to take some long exposures. I'll be taking a Platypod Ultra in place of my tripod.  This will save weight and be small and inconspicuous.  I have had a Platypod Ultra for quite a while and  haven't used it very much. I think it was on sale and I got it.  This will be the perfect photowalk camera support.  If you don't know what a Platypod is its a plate that you can hook a ba,llhead to and put your camera on. Its large enough that your camera won't tip over with a  reasonable size lens on it.  It comes in two sizes the Ultra which I have and the Max which is built for large DSLR's.  This plate is small enough to fit in your back pocket.  It comes with feet that you can attach that have a pointy end for added support in rough terrains and a rubber end for sitting on tables or surfaces that you don't want to scratch.  Or you can just use it without the feet.  It also comes with a strap that you can wrap around a pole or small tree and secure it. It is very versatile.  So here's a few reasons to use a Platypod.

1. Inconspicuous- The Platypod has a very small foot print compared to a tripod.  Many places don't allow a tripod like museums, some National Park trails, historic places. But a Platypod is not a tripod and most of the guards don't pay it any mind and let  you use it. I'm thinking of a situation where you have people shoulder to shoulder looking at something behind a rope. You could sit your Platypod on the ground at your feet with a wide angel lens and with your phone trigger your camera to get the whole scene. Pretty sneaky and neat.

2. Small and Lightweight- Like I said before this will fit in your back pocket and depending on the size of your ball head it can be a very small package. Easily put in a pouch of your backpack or camera bag.  It comes with a carabiner that you can use to hook to your bag or belt loop. This will not be a problem getting through security at an airport.

3. Perspective- This little camera support can give you many point of views that you can't get with a tripod. First of all it can get very low to the ground giving you that great perspective.  And you just have to set it down.  You don't have to struggle adjusting legs trying to get it lower. You can put it in nooks and crannies that a tripod just won't reach or can get too because of the large foot print that a tripod has.  Think of the possibilities the rail of a staircase, the rail of a bridge.  When I took photo's for New Years at Mount Mitchell NC this would have worked great. I ended up setting my camera on a support and this would have been more secure and gave me sharper photo's.

Now will this Platypod take the place of my tripod for everything? Of course not .  I love my tripod and love using it but this is great for Urban environments where being nimble and inconspicuous is important. In  upcoming weeks I'll talk more about the trip and what I am doing to get prepared for it.  So until next time Get Outside and Shoot!