Photography is a wonderful hobby.  Advances in digital technology have allowed amateurs, willing to take the time to learn the craft, the opportunity to create beautiful images.  Today many amateurs are rivaling professional photographers in producing creative imagery. 

This means to make a living as a professional new media photographer, creating imagery for media and corporate clients on the web and digital display, takes more effort.

New opportunities are being created daily.  Within the last month I’ve received offers from companies large and small to create photojournalistic story telling slide shows for corporate blogs and web sites.  I’m also receiving calls for imagery that will be displayed on high definition screens.

A few days ago I created beautiful food images for a fine hotel in metro Detroit.  This hotel has completely ended print advertising. All of the imagery will be used in house and on the web.

As the world continues the digital transformation and high definition path the need for quality imagery will continue to grow.  Yes, stock photography will always play a large role, but when it comes to representing a company’s people, environment, product and services custom quality photography will become mandatory. 

Hi definition does not offer much room for error.  Bad or average imagery will offer poor results.  The fact is demand for quality imagery will continue to increase. 

Newsprint sucks.  For a long time newsprint was one of the major avenues for photography on a local level.  High quality imagery was important, but the latitude was much greater.   Today newsprint opportunities are disappearing at a rapid rate.  If a new media photographer is going to make a career of their photography than the focus must be on creative quality.

A new media photographer must offer imagery that the average photographer cannot produce.  The two areas of most concern should be lighting and post production.

Lighting is the foundation of photography.  This is not new.  The masters have always understood lighting is the key to great photography.  The new element for today’s photographer is postproduction. 

Every photographer has the opportunity to create lighting that defines their creative style.  Today the new media photographer has the opportunity to expand their photography into an even more unique style through creative post-production.

As the need for creative quality photography increases the need for cutting edge ideas becomes even more important.   Average photography is readily available for generic use on web sites and digital advertising. But the successful new media photographer understands that companies need to stand out from the crowd and unique quality image is an excellent solution.

Rosh

I think the take away is that if you go deeper into the various levels and applications available  you can find the information needed to target your best prospects.

The photographer used facebook as his main media, but the number of social networking opportunities are growing on a daily base for creative people.  

social media + photography business = opportunity 

Rosh

The new media photographer award winner this week is Chase Jarvis

Some people prefer email as their method of communication.  The idea of learning new environments or platforms is just not in the cards.  Fortunately, developers have heard the cry and new programs are coming out all the time to simplify the process for the email preferred crowd.  

RSS feeds are a convenient way to keep up-to-date on news, blogs, podcast and other information you find important.  Many feeds are now offered via email.  This has been an available option for a long time, but not everyone realizes the option is available.

Below is a list of services available via email. If you know of additional (there are many) services worth sharing, please list them in the comments. 

Posterous blog via email

wordpress post to wordpress via email

Emailtwitter  Twitter via email

http://www.twitxr.com Twitter via email

http://www.flexwindow.com/ Update web sites via email

Lifeinlines  Share what is happening in your life through various platforms including email

http://pikchur.com  Send photos via email from your phone to social web sites

http://www.webcargo.net  Not social media, but worth noting.  This service allows you to email large files up to 2GB.

http://www.yousendit.com   Send large files via email (100 mb max)

http://www.faxmicro.com  Fax via email

http://www.efax.com/ fax to email

gmail  Open an email account

John Harrington at photobusinessforum has a good post on the PLUS system.  What is the PLUS system?  Well, it could be a major part of every professional photographers future.  The big guns seem to be adopting it and you need to know more.

Rosh

This is the 1,000,000th photo http://twitpic.com/lfls

I’ve been on Twitter since June 2007, but, after Michigan Podcamp 1 I’m appreciating Twitter even more.

search  This is my favorite.  You can search terms, people and topics within the world of twitter.  It’s a good way to find new friends that have similar interests.  You can also subscribe to the rss feed to your favorite terms (Your name is a good start).  Tweetbeep and Tweetscan may also be used like google alerts for twitter. 

www.tweet-r.com One of the better desktop twitter applications.

Itweet is a great platform for using (one of many).  It has an auto refresh feature and in some cases better functionality than twitter.

Twitpic  Tweet your favorite pictures to your followers.

Picpostr Send photos from email or phone to twitter

Tweetstats  Stats and graphs for twitter users.  

Tweetburner   feedburner for twitter. Track clicks on the links you post on twitter.

Twitturly  Keep track of what is hot on Twitter

Twitterlocal   Find people twittering within your local radius.  One mile and beyond. 

Twitterfeed    Deliver you latest blog posts to twitter automatically 

Twittermail Use Twitter with email

For a large full list of twitter applications go to  http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps

What are your favorites?

A couple thoughts on my Podcamp Michigan talk.  I think I was a little too loose on my comments on using other people images (responding to a question).  I mentioned that if you are asked to take copyrighted images down from your blog or web site and you comply - you should have no problems.  That is not 100% true.  If someone feels you have made money or have benefitted greatly from using their images, you could find yourself in a lawsuit.  Anyone can sue you at any time.  Always respect copyrights.

Overall not bad for a first run through on a new talk.  I can see where I need to polish up.  There are a couple items I should add and a few I should subtract.  Overall I had a great time and enjoyed meeting a lot of fun people.

As of Monday afternoon 11/10/2008 not all the videos are up.  But, I understand they will continue to be upload. If you have another link to share please email me

Rosh

(Chris Brogan is a co-founder of podcamp)

Podcamp Michigan main blog 

Twitter #pcmi08

Hi Definition Video http://www.coefficientmedia.com/podcampmichigan

Audio podcampmichigan Audio

You tube http://www.youtube.com/user/podcampmichigan

Zaldor.com blog http://www.zaldor.com/

Shannon Paul shared her “That guy” slide show on line Shannon Paul

Hajj Flemings Slide show on branding

Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/podcampmichigan/

http://twitpic.com/knax

http://twitpic.com/kna2

Afterglow photo